The Denizens of Denagoth
An Unofficial Game Accessory
“Let cry with rage at this damnable land! Who shall stand forthright while the Shadow Lord grasps for power, while the flames of the Harlot Idris burn away the pure?”
This is the second in a new series of unofficial Gazetteer gaming aids for enthusiasts of the world of Mystara. This work covers the remote Denagothian Plateau, a region cut off from the Known World by the Mengul Mountains.
“The Denizens of Denagoth” provides descriptions of the history, nations, races, and personalities of a land where the most beastly of men and humanoids live and elves fight for their very survival. As the forces of evil jockey for preeminence, the city of Thariss struggles to remain true to a lost kingdom, and the men of the Plains seek to escape notice.
This product also provides guidelines for playing brutes and thouls, and it details the secrets of the Light and Dark Elves – secrets used by the Dark Lady Idris and those who would follow her.
Here is the the word-zipped Gazetteer: Denagoth
Here is the new, updated map of the region - much improved
-OldDawg
I like the runes, but I'd like much more a font for using them.
I like pennants, and I think I'll draw some shield from them.
I think I missed the gray-green hex legend: what kind of terrain are the planes of Avien?
I did not read the gaz, but I'll do it soon!
Very nice work! I like very much the idea of putting useful things round the edges - it's very reminiscent of old maps. If there is one drawback, though, it's that the map might look better/be more useful if it were fully rectangular. Not that I'm complaining, because as you probably know I have yet to do this myself for my reproductions of the Gazetteer maps. ;)
Lastly, the map of Drax Tallen looks a little false as a result of being designed for such a strange shape, which is a shame. It might be better to swap it with the runes and stuff on the right, and reformat the rune table. But that looks problematic too...
Anyway, these are just minor issues. Overall, I'm impressed.
By the way, what programs are you using to do your mapping?
Last year I downloaded Thorf's Illustrator 8.0 mapping file. I originally used the symbols as is, dragging and copying, on larger projects. That got very tedious quickly, so I converted all the symbols I was using as wallpaper patterns by arranging about 4x4 and then using a rectangle to ensure that I control the wrapping edge (also drop a bounding rectangle behind to cover any hex-gaps).
A few of the tiles were problematic (like deserts and hills!) so I had to recreate them before making the patterns.
Now all I l have to do is pen the outline and fill. You may need to move the pattern only, or stretch the pattern only, to line up a hex symbol where you want it.
A few symbols are still the originals: dead tree, volcano.
I don't have Baldur, but Benguiat looks very good - particularly over Helvetica.
I probably could have squeezed a legend on the left below Gereth Minar's map.
In exporting the image, I made PNG, GIF, and JPEG versions. JPEG didn't quite look right. The PNG was faded and an obscene 3.4MB. Hence GIF - "choosy moms choose GIF" :P .
-OldDawg
I like the extras, but if we give them a separate page, they can be laid out much more clearly than the original gazeteer style could offer.
Concerning the document, it's great but I noticed a small error. The timeline is called Wendarian Timeline.
Ditto on the greatness! I'm loving this thing!
I'll post more on it in two weeks
Håvard
The Denizens of Denagoth
Thumbs up, once more. These unofficial gazetteers are one of the most interesting contributions I've seen in the last months.
GP
Just two things: my name is Marco Dalmonte (not Delmonico.. that's prolly a famous enough restaurant in the US that for reasons unknown to me got stuck in your head ;)) and Shawn's family name is Stanley and not Staley :P
Again, nice work and nice map JTR.
Just two things: my name is Marco Dalmonte (not Delmonico.. that's prolly a famous enough restaurant in the US that for reasons unknown to me got stuck in your head ;)) and Shawn's family name is Stanley and not Staley :P
wow I didn't even notice that way.
By the way JTR, is it OK to host these on the Vaults?
I've read the gaz through once so far, and I must say it's very good! The atmosphere it conveys is definitely in line with X11. One question I have at the moment is whether you would consider developing a weapon mastery table for the corded flanged mace-axe, as has been done with other new weapons?
Geoff
Very impressed thus far - another excellent piece of work.
Can you tell me what the thinking behind putting the Geffronell to sleep for a thousand years was? I'm just interested to know the reasoning as it isn't that clear to me from the gaz alone.
Other than that, it's brilliant. I'll pehaps send you a list of minor typos when I've gone through in detail.
Cheers,
LJ.
Second, my sincerest apologies to Marco and Shawn for goofing their last names in the contributors list. I shall lash myself with a corded flanged mace. :embarrass
Third, the Geffronell's 1,000 year slumber was a big MacGuffin to get non-Ilsundal, non-second migration elves into the plateau where: 1) they didn't know how they got there, 2) hadn't built up a solid civilization, 3) weren't killed off by the Great Rain of Fire, and 4) were primed to develop along a non-traditional path. It also helps get the elves across a period of time when the southern plateau wasn't reasonably ready to support life.
-OldDawg
Second, my sincerest apologies to Marco and Shawn for goofing their last names in the contributors list. I shall lash myself with a corded flanged mace. :embarrass
that's OK, you're forgiven if you give me permission to host this and the Wendar one on the Vaults.
and are you JTR, OldDawg and JTrithen?
I definitely would like these gazetteers to be made available via the Vaults.
-OldDawg
I am both JTR and OldDawg, but not JTrithen.
I definitely would like these gazetteers to be made available via the Vaults.
-OldDawg
cool, I just wanted to check with the names because I suspect with the names that there might be some double-ups with people on the Vaults.
And yeah with the Gazetteers that's cool, they'll go up at the next update. I just like to ask people when the product is something that I have to download off their webpage rather than directly from a public forum.