Thoughts, advice, whatever...
Thanks.
PB
I believe he comes on here from time to time, though I've forgotten his online name.
I'm looking for something like Dunjinny (sp?). I'm thinking about buying it but there isn't much Athasian feel to it.
Any other suggestions?
Talk to this guy
I got the message back... his map is what I thought it was. Thanks anyways.
Hope that helps. I'm planning on putting together a solid map project at some point. The basic idea is to create all of "known" Athas and have that be one image. Then you'll be able to click on a location and zoom in a bit. Once there, you'll be able to click on the villages, cities, and sites of import and zoom in on a map of that location (clicking on Tyr, for example, would zoom you in on Tyr).
Right now, though, my times mostly been eaten up by drawing monsters, applying for grad school, and searching for a better job. It's on the back-burner for the meantime, but if you want to pick up the mantle, have at it.
I'm planning on putting together a solid map project at some point. The basic idea is to create all of "known" Athas and have that be one image. Then you'll be able to click on a location and zoom in a bit. Once there, you'll be able to click on the villages, cities, and sites of import and zoom in on a map of that location (clicking on Tyr, for example, would zoom you in on Tyr).
I know of a couple of people who have done those types of things for their home brewed campaings.... But to have an atlas of Athas....
PB
Heh, not all of Athas, just the known parts and the part I'm planning on pulling out of my butt on the far side of the Silt Sea. I have done the entire world as a 3d skin, but that's just speculative, at this point. The project will be quite involved and might be a few years away.
Well I guess I didn't think you were talking about doing the entire atlas, just the currently known atlas. Still I am very impressed, and... umm.. very interested.... :D Can I help in any way?
.Check out Dark Sun Rising - dunno if it's what you're after but it has the best maps of Athas around
Yeah, I'm there regularly; it's really nice work, but I was thinking more about tile sets and battle maps... with style (the Hero's Quest board doesn't really do it for me anymore
). Thanks anyways!
PB
As I said, I think it would be a project that would benefit the community greatly. The trick would be making it consistent with Diesel's original maps and not using one of the generic map-makers. If you can pull that off, have at it - I'm still a ways off from that goal.
I too am off from that goal. But it doesn't hurt to start talking about what form these maps should have. Should they be in a computer program format where you can sort of "click" on the map to get a zoom in of an area (with an update feature for the future), or a series of "drawn" maps that can be acessed from a database?
1) Draw all of known Athas (even out to Ur Draxa, which would mean making some stuff up out on the NE and SE sides). This would be a rather large map, resolution-wise. This map should be as close to Diesel's original maps as you can get - this might mean hand-drawing it and bringing it to Kinko's to scan or photograph.
2) Resize it so that it's a reasonable size (easily downloadable or won't take a year to pop up on some poor schlub's computer). Make an image map out of it.
3) Cut up the big scan into these sections: Crimson Savannah; Last Sea Region down to the Lava Plains; "Middle Region" (includes Troll Grave Chasm, Thamasku, Eldaarich, Kurns, goes down to the Glowing Desert); Tyr Region; Hinterlands; Southern Region (would include Blue Home, Celik and then all the way over to the Great Salt Flat, and the Deadlands, of course).
Then you'd have the Sea of Silt split into North, Middle, and South. North would include some of those areas that are missing on the original map, so would require collaboration to come up with something that most people would agree with. Middle would have Ur Draxa, South would have the Silt Archipelago and the other missing region on the far side.
The idea would be to use the resolution of the original scan, not redraw everything. These images would also be image maps with the links centered around points of interest (anything with a "golden circle" on the original maps). These links would lead to:
4) An area map. To use Tyr as an example, only the general shape of Tyr would be visible (basically two circles), but it would show the location of the surrounding farmlands, a few scattered noble houses, the Iron Mines, Fort Ianto, you get the idea. Now only a few of these would be links, such as the Iron Mines, the Fort, and Tyr. These links would lead to:
5) Maps of each location. These maps would include a full map of the entire city exactly like Diesel's Tyr (in style - people should look at it and wonder if it was the original map, dig?). There would also be 3-5 sketches to "set the mood," like the small images surrounding the map of Tyr. Below this, I envision having suggested encounters and suggested NPCs. This would be done in a "Planescape style." That is, lay out their name, their alignment, their general class, race, and level, and maybe a quick, three-word description.
I see this as being the ultimate tool for GM running through Athas, but you can see why I haven't jumped into it. I do plan on doing all of this eventually, but like I said: it's at least a year off and would probably take several years to complete.
My time is limited right now, but I guess I can put that on my list of things to do. So as not to re-do the other's work, I'll make sure to PM you when I get any portion of this done.
What's the Eastern side of the Sea of Silt like?
In the original Wanderer's Journal, the Wanderer states that the mountains ring the Sea of Silt, suggesting that the Sea is actually a Sea and not an Ocean (ie. surrounded on all sides by land). That's take number one.
Number two is that the little hints of land sticking in from the NE and SE corners are just portions of another continent.
I like number one, as it meshes with the first DS sourcebook, but what do you all think?
Here's a question for anyone willing to respond:
What's the Eastern side of the Sea of Silt like?
In the original Wanderer's Journal, the Wanderer states that the mountains ring the Sea of Silt, suggesting that the Sea is actually a Sea and not an Ocean (ie. surrounded on all sides by land). That's take number one.
Number two is that the little hints of land sticking in from the NE and SE corners are just portions of another continent.
I like number one, as it meshes with the first DS sourcebook, but what do you all think?
Not sure why you can't do both. Maybe the Eastern continent isn't all that big, etc.
Here's a question for anyone willing to respond:
What's the Eastern side of the Sea of Silt like?
I think the world of Athas looks just like it indicates in the DS logo, a green planet with a dessicated scar(The Tablelands) on the northern hemisphere. Remember, in RAFOADK, the planet was still fertile, even though the sun was already crimson. Borys killed the planet, not the sun. And that planet in the DS logo is mainly green. So I have a theory, not a concrete thing I use in my campaigns, that the Spirit of Athas itself manifested some type of mind-altering power in self-defense, against the ravages of Borys and the SKs, or even in response to Rajaat's original disaster by the Jagged Cliffs, that makes everybody in the tablelands ignore, and not even think about, the world beyond the Tablelands and Hinterlands, and the people outside those lands know what is there, and what happened, and so they just don't go there.
Nyt, sorry I wasn't too clear with that last one: the question is whether the Sea is surrounded by land or has two continents to either side (the sea is a swatch of silt between them).
Actually, that's wrong: the Tablelands are in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the creators. The map's interesting, but not factual.
Right. That's been told on these boards I don't know how many times, heh.
Nyt, sorry I wasn't too clear with that last one: the question is whether the Sea is surrounded by land or has two continents to either side (the sea is a swatch of silt between them).
I think I prefer the continent idea. I would like to have another continent somewhere anyways. Maybe there is land to the east and it's still part of the same continent and then have an actual ocean seperate it from another continent somewhere.
Obviously the ocean would have a twist to it somehow, not making it the total sight of heaven it appears to be, could be all salt water like the Last Sea or worse. But that's whether or not you subscribe to the Tyr continent being the only one defiled to death or not, I still say most of the planet was effected in some way and that humanoids were only able to setup settlements in the pole regions, leaving the other areas too uninhabital for them, but then opening that up to other things that could inhabit the area, weird, mutant things that the Pristine Tower on the Tyr continent is only known to be able to produce. Bringing quite a shock in one where to ever come visit.
I still say most of the planet was effected in some way and that humanoids were only able to setup settlements in the pole regions, leaving the other areas too uninhabital for them, but then opening that up to other things that could inhabit the area, weird, mutant things that the Pristine Tower on the Tyr continent is only known to be able to produce.
Me, too. My supplement that I'm writing (eventually; just an outline now) details the lands on the far side of the Silt Sea. One of the inhabitants is Rajaat's "critter maker," the guy responsible for such joys as the Nightmare Beast and similar creatures most of us agree were created and not natural.
Talking with Brax, it was never clear whether the sea was inland (ala Lake Superior, etc) or was just a dividing line between two continents. I'm sure there's other continents, either way. I think there was a total of four or five, with the one that Tyr's on being the largest. If there was water anywhere, it would probably be over towards the kreen nation. Go fig.
Just forgot for a minute. My mistake.
BEATINGS!! :coolcthul