Then SAGA came out and Ansalon now stretched nearly 4,000 miles east to west.
Then WotC wizened up and brought Dragonlance back to its D&D roots and Ansalon now stretches ...
Can anyone finish my sentence?
P.S. Was anyone else bothered by this scale change? I'm a stickler for maps and it annoyed the heck out of me.
Originally posted by iltharanos
Then WotC wizened up and brought Dragonlance back to its D&D roots and Ansalon now stretches ...
Can anyone finish my sentence?
1,300 miles from east to west, and 1000 miles from North to South.
Personally though, I think it should be bigger.
I hope AoM has one. IFWizards cant do it right perhaps Sovereign can.
How is the map of Ansalon portrayed in the DLCS? Please tell me it's at least on the inside cover ... that wouldn't be half as bad as it being buried in the middle of the book.
Heh, who am I kidding. I'll be happy as long as there's a readable map.
In short, no map of Ansalon yet. I think we're holding out hope that one might be in the DM screen.
Originally posted by iltharanos
Well, at least they settled with a scale ... though Ansalon does seem a bit small for a continent. Even Australia is bigger! Heck, I live in the state of North Carolina which is 500 miles from east to west and around half that distance north to south ... which would make it as large if not larger then Solamnia proper (Solamnia after the War of the Lance and before Skie gobbles up the northwest)!
You're spoiled by living in the USA. Try living in Europe, which was (along with Tolkien's Middle Earth) the model campaign area size for Ansalon when the setting was being created.
Cheers,
Cam
Originally posted by Cam Banks
You're spoiled by living in the USA. Try living in Europe, which was (along with Tolkien's Middle Earth) the model campaign area size for Ansalon when the setting was being created.
That's fine...but you can't say, "Ansalon stretches from the artic tundra near the south pole, all the way to tropical climes in the north near the equator" then have the audacity to claim that there are five continents on this tiny little planet, and NO ONE knows about them?
I mean, come on...if the northern part of Ansalon is near the equator, and the southern part is near the pole...then Krynn is the size of a small moon...and the oceans can NOT be that big....and Taladas and Ansalon would have to be about 250 miles apart. That's less space in that ocean than there is across the Blood Sea.
ARGH! Why doens't this bother anyone else besides me!?!
Really...I'm okay... heh.
SAGA Scale was way better.
Originally posted by Brimstone
ARGH! Why doens't this bother anyone else besides me!?!
Deep breaths, Brim, deep breaths. Repeat after me, "I am not reality's slave."
Cheers,
Cam
Originally posted by talinthas
SAGA Scale was way better.
Agreed...it fixed this problem.
Or...if you don't want that...than at least don't make Ansalong stretch from pole to equator.
Originally posted by Brimstone
Agreed...it fixed this problem.
Or...if you don't want that...than at least don't make Ansalong stretch from pole to equator.
Hmm. How about from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia? That's probably more likely a comparison. I don't think Icewall is at the pole, necessarily - it's 500 miles further south to Chorane, for example. And Nordmaar and the Blood Sea Isles, while somewhat steamy and tropical, aren't as steamy and tropical as Colombia.
Cheers,
Cam
Originally posted by Cam Banks
Deep breaths, Brim, deep breaths. Repeat after me, "I am not reality's slave."
Out with the pink, in with the blue, right? :D
Oh, it's too late...I am totally Reality's b****. LOL! There's nothing I can do. I tried...really I did. I wanted to accept the new scale...but I'm just not going to be able to do it.
And here's why:
The radius of the Moon is 1,080 miles. Which means, the arc length from the south pole to the equator of the Moon is about 1,700 miles.
So...that means that Ansalon is either the same size as the Moon or smaller. Most likely smaller.
Once I realized that...I couldn't suspend disbelief any more. Ansalon has to be expanded...it's the only solution. The planet could be expanded, and Ansalon remain the same...but then you all of Ansalon being essentially the same climate.
The SAGA design team figured this out...why didn't anyone want to stick with it for 3e design? (cause I'm pretty sure I'm in the minority on this one...not alone...but definately in the minority)
Originally posted by Cam Banks
Hmm. How about from the Mediterranean to Scandinavia? That's probably more likely a comparison. I don't think Icewall is at the pole, necessarily - it's 500 miles further south to Chorane, for example. And Nordmaar and the Blood Sea Isles, while somewhat steamy and tropical, aren't as steamy and tropical as Colombia.
If it's 500 miles to Chorane...and maybe 200 miles to the Dragon Isles....there's the 1700 miles.
Which makes Ansalon the size of the moon.
Originally posted by Brimstone
ARGH! Why doens't this bother anyone else besides me!?!
Really...I'm okay... heh.
LOL. Quick fix. See that little thing on the bottom right of your map, called scale? Take some white out, cover up the numbers, then put whatever numbers you like there.
All fixed.Originally posted by Halabis
Well, how far is it from Georgia to Canada? That could conceavably be the distance from Icewall to the top of Ansalon. Krynn could also have a wider tropical belt and arctic circle. =)
Well, I measured it from the middle of Ga at about 1,000 miles. I disregarded the portion of Canada that dips down with the Great Lakes and measured to the average latitude (or is it longitude) that Canada started in.
Like others have said you can increase the size of Ansalon as you like.
Originally posted by Dragontooth
The northern part of Ansalon isn't on the equator of Krynn, The Dragon Isle are very close to the equator. And the Isle are far from the continent of Ansalon. Now Ansalon sits on the world pretty much like Canada. Yes Krynn is smaller then earth. And Taladas is about the size of Asia if not larger.
I'm sorry...but no it doesn't.
Northern Ansalon is tropical and desert. You will never find that in something situated like Canada.
I think I've made my point on the size of Krynn. The DLCS says, "tropical in the north near the equator." The Dragon Isles are probably where the equator is (especially according to the DL Atlas and Otherlands). So...that makes Krynn the size of the moon. Again, I say, making it impossible for the seperate continents to not know about each other (because the amount of ocean seperating them is less than the distance across of the Blood Sea). And making the size of Taladas according to Time of the Dragon impossible. And making it impossible to have 5 continents on the planet of Krynn....
Damn, I need to stay away from this thread, it's going to give me a heart attack.
I just wanted to add my thoughts really quick. The US is over 3000 miles coast to coast and over 1500 miles top to bottom. Ansalon is 1300 by 1000 respectively. So Ansalon is pretty big ...
But not big enough. Brimstone is actually quite right. On Earth, it's roughly 5800 miles from pole to equator. Even if Ansalon stretches a greater distant due to pole ice cap and outlying isles to say 2000 miles, that is still well short of 5800.
Basically, the players have two options. They can say that Krynn is really small (I don't like that idea too much) or they can say the Krynn has a extremely strong jet streams that create jungles and warm weather much further south than geographically (is that the right word?) possible. Think of Europe. Much of Europe is north of the continential US, yet it has a climate similiar to the US. I certainly prefer the second reasoning since it allows science and fantasy to coexist.
Of course, the DM could just double the size of Ansalon (to 2600 by 2000) which doesn't require any extra work just a easy multiplier and makes the world comparable to Earth.
- Asok
Do that - and all is well (however improbable).
Temperate zones among other things doesn't matter to me, because Krynn is still recovering from the cataclysm. Think about it. A huge rock struck the planet, leaving a gaping hole tht's the blood sea. On taladas, you have a gaping volcanic wound that's at least 320 miles in diameter. And after nearly 380 years, that huge wound is still molten. To me, that suggests nasty nuclear winter.
The winter should be so devastating that i'm not surprised a huge southern polar cap might grow across the ocean to Ansalon. Look at the polar ice caps from the ice age on earth. Ice reached as far south as Illinois which is about 48 degrees north of the Equator.
In my opinion, Krynn can be a very big place, and Ansalon is a very small continent. However, I'm one of those guys who likes to make Krynn as earthlike as possible. So, the diversity and variety of wildlife on the Ansalon suggests a huge number of animals have somehow migrated here.
Then again, someone might be creationist, and say that the gods created that diversity, not large number of seperate landmasses. :-)
Course, it could easily be the Hindu version, in which each god group created the seed of a racial family, which then took the next x years to evolve into present states.... ;)
Originally posted by Dragontooth
The northern part of Ansalon isn't on the equator of Krynn, The Dragon Isle are very close to the equator. And the Isle are far from the continent of Ansalon. Now Ansalon sits on the world pretty much like Canada. Yes Krynn is smaller then earth. And Taladas is about the size of Asia if not larger.
Like others have said you can increase the size of Ansalon as you like.
Taladas the size of Asia? In the Time of the Dragon boxed set Taladas is shown at around 1500 miles in length, at most.
I can see the argument that Krynn is roughly earth-sized and that it just has larger equatorial and polar zones ... except for the fact that the Otherlands accessory has a world map of Krynn which shows the Dragon Isles as being just north of the equator.
This same map also shows Taladas to the northeast of Ansalon, which from the scale indicates Taladas is only 650 miles northeast of the Isle of Karthay. The back of the Time of the Dragon boxed set states that Taladas is half-way around the world from Ansalon. Looking at this same world map, I (with my rough math), can only conclude that Krynn is a sphere roughly 2300 miles in diameter.
For those that remember 2nd edition Spelljammer, there was a categorization scale for planets in the Dragonlance solar system.
Krynn was in the category of planets between 1,000 and 4,000 miles in diameter.
Perhaps Krynn has an extremely dense core such that it has earthlike gravity despite its small size? Maybe long ago in Krynn's past a fragment of a neutron star lodged in Krynn's still-forming planetary disk. As I recall, a teaspoon of material from such a star masses at around 10,000 tons (don't quote me on that). If you don't buy any of these arguments, then we can always go with: It's magic! :D
Originally posted by Cam Banks
You're spoiled by living in the USA. Try living in Europe, which was (along with Tolkien's Middle Earth) the model campaign area size for Ansalon when the setting was being created.
Cheers,
Cam
I agree, I probably am spoiled by living in the USA. ;) However, the last time I checked, the USA was a little over 3.6 million square miles in area. Europe is a little over 4 million square miles in area. So if Ansalon's creation was modeled after Europe's dimensions shouldn't it be larger? :D
I don't have the otherland books, and I don't have the Taladas books and stuff either. Its been ages since I seen Taladas, but I kind of picture Taladas as being huge though asia in size. I guess i'm wrong on the actuall size of taladas. But even if both Ansalon, and taladas are about the same size. I don't see them having any problems being on the oppisite side of the world together. Besides that I think Taladas sits more north of the south pole of krynn anyways. NOT saying it sits on the northern hemisphere just more north then what Ansalon sits.
Originally posted by Dragontooth
Ok I got the old Dragonlance Atlas as well. And from the picture that shows part of the world where Ansalon, and the dragon isle it looks from MY prospective that the isle sit just south of the equator line from the picture.
Just looked at the DL Atlas, the isles do look just south of the equator there.
I don't have the otherland books, and I don't have the Taladas books and stuff either. Its been ages since I seen Taladas, but I kind of picture Taladas as being huge though asia in size. I guess i'm wrong on the actuall size of taladas. But even if both Ansalon, and taladas are about the same size. I don't see them having any problems being on the oppisite side of the world together. Besides that I think Taladas sits more north of the south pole of krynn anyways. NOT saying it sits on the northern hemisphere just more north then what Ansalon sits.
Taladas is in the northern hemisphere. :D