Cartography troubles [Archive] - Wizards Community

Cartography troubles [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 09:51 AM I'm worried that my world map is too small. The starting continent has three country's on it and its only 400 miles across. Isn't that really small.
Da Dinictus
05-24-05, 09:56 AM Think of it as a Medieval version of this world. There're more continents to visit after surviving a seemingly endless stretch of ocean, but so far, none have returned and lived to tell the tale... or just are stuck there.

Kinda like America to Europe back then.
The Shaman
05-24-05, 10:08 AM I'm worried that my world map is too small. The starting continent has three country's on it and its only 400 miles across. Isn't that really small.What you're describing would more precisely be termed an island on most worlds.

If I understand you correctly the island is roughly 160,000 sq. mi. The British Isles (Great Britain, Ireland, and all the other little bits of land thereabouts) are 121,674 sq. mi., for purposes of comparison.
Neerie
05-24-05, 10:09 AM There are small countries to this day, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Beside that, you can always make your current continent only really be part of the actual world. with other landmass very very far away.
Lord of the Underdark
05-24-05, 10:18 AM It is a rather small land mass, but you can always cross the ocean, as previously stated or due to the size you can have lots of border disputes within the three countries.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 10:26 AM Sounds like this is even smaller then britain. It has three distinct biomes. A forest, a plane, and a desert. I know costa rica is pretty small and has a lot more biomes but this still seem's a bit odd for a 16,000 square mile island.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 10:32 AM It sounds like my extended world map is still too small. I made a larger land mass but its only about 5,000 miles long and about 10,000 wide. acording to the last guy thats only 1/4 the size of britain. It sounds like I'm going to have to make things much bigger.
Thoronmir
05-24-05, 10:32 AM Okay, assuming your continent is 400 miles by 400 miles (160,000 square miles), it's roughly the same area as California. In D&D, a man riding a Light Horse can cover 32 miles per day (excluding terrain modifiers), so it would take him about two weeks to ride across your contintent. So, basically, if you placed your major Human settlement in the center of the continent, everything on that land mass would be within one-week's ride of the city. Granted, that's more than ample at lower levels ... until the PCs acquire quicker modes of transportation. Also, you need to consider factors such as how that enclave of Orcs or tribe of Giants have managed to persist so close to large Human settlements (or vice versa).
Thoronmir
05-24-05, 10:35 AM It sounds like my extended world map is still too small. I made a larger land mass but its only about 5,000 miles long and about 10,000 wide. acording to the last guy thats only 1/4 the size of britain. It sounds like I'm going to have to make things much bigger.Check your math ... 5,000 x 10,000 = 50,000,000 (that's 50 million) square miles.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 10:41 AM heh heh oops :embarrass

okay so thats actually 500 times the size of Britain. I think I overestimated though its more like 5,000/5000 so 25,000,000 square miles. Is that small for a contintnet? Cause It cover's european, Arabian and asian cultures already.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 10:49 AM Okay this site says Europe is 2,085,000 square miles aproximately. So the known campain world is about 11 times the size of Europe. Asia's suposed to be 17,212,000 so I guess the greater campain map is big enough if I'm calculating right.
clarkvalentine
05-24-05, 11:00 AM You could adventure across the British Isles for years, which is about that size and only containing four "countries" - England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Just don't make the countries uniform. Clans, factions, races, religions, etc. can all serve to stir up conflict even within the lands nominally governed by the same king.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 02:40 PM Okay, assuming your continent is 400 miles by 400 miles (160,000 square miles), it's roughly the same area as California. In D&D, a man riding a Light Horse can cover 32 miles per day (excluding terrain modifiers), so it would take him about two weeks to ride across your contintent. So, basically, if you placed your major Human settlement in the center of the continent, everything on that land mass would be within one-week's ride of the city. Granted, that's more than ample at lower levels ... until the PCs acquire quicker modes of transportation. Also, you need to consider factors such as how that enclave of Orcs or tribe of Giants have managed to persist so close to large Human settlements (or vice versa).

Well the capital city is in the northern corner, The only orc settlement is in the very southern most regions. They're held at bay by a southern culture's fortified city and a large river. The only giants are in the western't region they're a small population so they probably won't bother nearby humans too much. Also there are mountain ranges that greatly block travel, not to mention a large bay that will obstruct any travel between the eastern and western sides of the land mass.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 02:46 PM You could adventure across the British Isles for years, which is about that size and only containing four "countries" - England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Just don't make the countries uniform. Clans, factions, races, religions, etc. can all serve to stir up conflict even within the lands nominally governed by the same king.

Oh there quite seperate kingdoms. The most powerful country, Dagar, is essensially a late medival period Britain, the neighboring country, Strata, is more Anglo Saxon, The last major country is Barderan a arabic country, I've decided to make it a former extention of a large perisan style empire that was cut off by an orc invasion.
Minor country's include, dwarf mines only one of which isn't a Dagaran Province, An elven country also a province of Dagar and Korg an orc nation.
scott644
05-24-05, 05:03 PM You've got plenty for the start of a campaign. Just make certain to have the occasional port town/city handling trade with "foreign lands across the water." When the PC's have a reason to explore, that's likely where they'll start. This also buys you the time you need to build more over the course of the campaign.
Arrowhen
05-24-05, 05:20 PM I'll take small and detailed over large and vague any day. It sounds like you're doing just fine.
Fixxxer
05-24-05, 06:01 PM As a standard for comparison so you can tell exactly what can be done with a small area, I seem to recall that Middle Earth (the Lor dof the Rings world) was about the same size as Great Britain.
scott644
05-24-05, 06:14 PM As a standard for comparison so you can tell exactly what can be done with a small area, I seem to recall that Middle Earth (the Lor dof the Rings world) was about the same size as Great Britain.

Actually, Middle Earth was built around a conceptually prehistoric model of England, but was physically comparable to a full-size continent. Crossing Mirkwood Forest alone took over a month's hard march afoot, and following the Anduin south from LothLorien to the falls took 1-2 weeks in canoes going downstream. Not comparable in size at all.
Liwmial
05-24-05, 06:21 PM Sounds like your country is slightly larger than Montana, if I read your measurements correctly. So a few things you can do is introduce new continents (by sea travel), introduce new layers (think ... the underdark or menzoberranzan), or intoduce new planes (planescape style portals are always fun, and you can use the same map over and over, with a whole group of new species on each one .... kind of like sliders.)
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 07:16 PM Wait which country are you refurring to. The one on the smaller landmass or the main one. Cause I'm pretty sure the larger one is slightly larger then asia.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 07:19 PM Okay this site says Europe is 2,085,000 square miles aproximately. So the known campain world is about 11 times the size of Europe. Asia's suposed to be 17,212,000 so I guess the greater campain map is big enough if I'm calculating right.

Oh I forgot to factor in the oceans, and my initial dimensions were too big. They cover about half the map so the continents of the known world are about 12,500,000, smaller then asia but still very big.
The Shaman
05-24-05, 07:22 PM You could adventure across the British Isles for years, which is about that size and only containing four "countries" - England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.England before about 900 AD consisted of seven kingdoms, the Heptarchy (consisting of Mercia, Wessex, East Anglia, Kent, Northumbria, Essex and Sussex), under the rule of the Anglo-Saxons, with plenty of land that was occupied by the 'barbarian' Britons outside of the Anglo-Saxon holdings - there were also numerous 'sub-kingdoms' such as the Kingdom of Lindsey.

My personal feeling is that three of four kingdoms on that island is too few.Just don't make the countries uniform. Clans, factions, races, religions, etc. can all serve to stir up conflict even within the lands nominally governed by the same king.Excellent advice.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 07:26 PM England before about 900 AD consisted of seven kingdoms, the Heptarchy (consisting of Mercia, Wessex, East Anglia, Kent, Northumbria, Essex and Sussex), under the rule of the Anglo-Saxons, with plenty of land that was occupied by the 'barbarian' Britons outside of the Anglo-Saxon holdings - there were also numerous 'sub-kingdoms' such as the Kingdom of Lindsey.

My personal feeling is that three of four kingdoms on that island is too few.Excellent advice.

Each Dwarf kingdom can be counted as a seperate kingdom. So thats 5 more kingdoms. There's also a civil war in Dagar so there's another kingdom there. And lets not forget the orcs and elves. So really I've got three large kingdoms and 8 smaller ones.
DaveReaves
05-24-05, 07:33 PM Size of the contries does not matter much. Some of the smallest real countries are great places with lots of people and rich history. Vatican City is .2 square miles. Now for the continent.

Austraila is 4,773,559.91 SQ Miles (Thats 7,682,300 SQ KM if your one of THOSE people... you know who you are :waits: )
Thats Huge, and at 32 miles a day would take years to traverse, and by years I mean the elves MIGHT servive.

Great Britian is only 83,698 SQ Miles (216,777 DQ KM :nonono: ) Still takes a long time to get from one end to the next, but its doable.

When I undertake a project like this I like to look at how far a typical person would be willing to travel, and thats about how far an empire will stretch. I figure humans are willing to travel about a week, so thats how big a human empire is. Elves typicaly dont need to go as many places, and as such its about a two week travel to get from one side of the kingdom to another (including reduced speed for forest travel). Once you have each of your races that controls that much land accounted for, you have a good size for the continent that the players will be starting on.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 08:03 PM Size of the contries does not matter much. Some of the smallest real countries are great places with lots of people and rich history. Vatican City is .2 square miles. Now for the continent.

Austraila is 4,773,559.91 SQ Miles (Thats 7,682,300 SQ KM if your one of THOSE people... you know who you are :waits: )
Thats Huge, and at 32 miles a day would take years to traverse, and by years I mean the elves MIGHT servive.

Great Britian is only 83,698 SQ Miles (216,777 DQ KM :nonono: ) Still takes a long time to get from one end to the next, but its doable.

When I undertake a project like this I like to look at how far a typical person would be willing to travel, and thats about how far an empire will stretch. I figure humans are willing to travel about a week, so thats how big a human empire is. Elves typicaly dont need to go as many places, and as such its about a two week travel to get from one side of the kingdom to another (including reduced speed for forest travel). Once you have each of your races that controls that much land accounted for, you have a good size for the continent that the players will be starting on.

Your math is off. Alexander the great travled way further then the length of australia in only a matter of years. its 32 miles strait not 32 square miles.
DaveReaves
05-24-05, 08:18 PM Your math is off. Alexander the great travled way further then the length of australia in only a matter of years. its 32 miles strait not 32 square miles.
Bah, your right. I'm at work, I blame my boss. Stupid work.

So now to try to do this better...

From Miami FL. to New York city is 1296.95 miles (41 days travel)
From Atlanta GA. to Los Angeles CA is 2181.93 miles (68 days travel)

Something the size of the US would be a daunting task to taverse.
MasterRookie
05-24-05, 08:21 PM yet people do it before college all the time. Yes its likely that most travel from more distant lands will be by boat or teleportation or flying mount, but thats realistic since in real ancient times there was very little known by europeans about distant lands such as China and Japan.
Bloodhawk
05-24-05, 10:19 PM Here is a different approach to your question

Imagine your world as small, smaller than mercury, but instead of the planets in your system being linear spaced ( set distances from an immobile object ) Your system has them in a cluster alignment.

As far as your PC's know the world is small, only a few landmasses, but allow them to find a "gate" or some other device that will allow them to go from one world to another.

Hide or disguise this with your world having 3 or more "moons" that can be seen from the night sky. Use these as planets (insert other countries here) ant threr you go a bad-assed custom world config. that you can design at your leisure.

Good luck

Bloodhawk
MasterRookie
05-25-05, 10:20 AM Here is a different approach to your question

Imagine your world as small, smaller than mercury, but instead of the planets in your system being linear spaced ( set distances from an immobile object ) Your system has them in a cluster alignment.

As far as your PC's know the world is small, only a few landmasses, but allow them to find a "gate" or some other device that will allow them to go from one world to another.

Hide or disguise this with your world having 3 or more "moons" that can be seen from the night sky. Use these as planets (insert other countries here) ant threr you go a bad-assed custom world config. that you can design at your leisure.

Good luck

Bloodhawk

Nah I'm not into the whole other planets other dimensions new age sci fi fantasy consept. My campain world is just a mythical place not another planet just some long lost place here on earth, sort of and atlantis type place.

I think things will work out I have a continent thats about two thirds the size of asia. It should be fine.
The Shaman
05-25-05, 11:39 AM Each Dwarf kingdom can be counted as a seperate kingdom. So thats 5 more kingdoms. There's also a civil war in Dagar so there's another kingdom there. And lets not forget the orcs and elves. So really I've got three large kingdoms and 8 smaller ones.That's good - IMX you want to give yourself opportunities to grow from the outset, so more kingdoms gives you more opportunities for political plots, wars, tributes, and so on.

With respect to distance and time, that travel rate of 32 miles/day assumes easy terrain: there's no way to maintain that pace in mountains, marshes, badlands, and so on. In my games I also increase the likelihood of disease affecting the players and or mounts coming up lame if the adventurers don't take at least a day off once a week, more if travelling through rough terrain.

You can also include effects like weather to change the rate of travel - mountain passes are blocked by snow in the spring until the thaw, storms slow or stop travel altogether, the winds are contrary for sailing, and so on. These tend to affect lower level parties more often, of course, but they still add an interesting twist to getting around.

Together these serve to make a small land seem much bigger than a straight look at the numbers in the DMG might suggest.
MasterRookie
05-25-05, 02:38 PM Yes there's huge mountains and a desert wasteland. Travel between the northern and southern regions is difficult because the mountains are difficult to transverse exept going south to north since there is a river, but goind north to south requires travel either through or around a huge dangerous forrest called Netherwood, not a great prospect, also in the south there are no roads just paths.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 09:51 AM	I'm worried that my world map is too small. The starting continent has three country's on it and its only 400 miles across. Isn't that really small.
Da Dinictus 05-24-05, 09:56 AM	Think of it as a Medieval version of this world. There're more continents to visit after surviving a seemingly endless stretch of ocean, but so far, none have returned and lived to tell the tale... or just are stuck there. Kinda like America to Europe back then.
The Shaman 05-24-05, 10:08 AM	I'm worried that my world map is too small. The starting continent has three country's on it and its only 400 miles across. Isn't that really small.What you're describing would more precisely be termed an island on most worlds. If I understand you correctly the island is roughly 160,000 sq. mi. The British Isles (Great Britain, Ireland, and all the other little bits of land thereabouts) are 121,674 sq. mi., for purposes of comparison.
Neerie 05-24-05, 10:09 AM	There are small countries to this day, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem. Beside that, you can always make your current continent only really be part of the actual world. with other landmass very very far away.
Lord of the Underdark 05-24-05, 10:18 AM	It is a rather small land mass, but you can always cross the ocean, as previously stated or due to the size you can have lots of border disputes within the three countries.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 10:26 AM	Sounds like this is even smaller then britain. It has three distinct biomes. A forest, a plane, and a desert. I know costa rica is pretty small and has a lot more biomes but this still seem's a bit odd for a 16,000 square mile island.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 10:32 AM	It sounds like my extended world map is still too small. I made a larger land mass but its only about 5,000 miles long and about 10,000 wide. acording to the last guy thats only 1/4 the size of britain. It sounds like I'm going to have to make things much bigger.
Thoronmir 05-24-05, 10:32 AM	Okay, assuming your continent is 400 miles by 400 miles (160,000 square miles), it's roughly the same area as California. In D&D, a man riding a Light Horse can cover 32 miles per day (excluding terrain modifiers), so it would take him about two weeks to ride across your contintent. So, basically, if you placed your major Human settlement in the center of the continent, everything on that land mass would be within one-week's ride of the city. Granted, that's more than ample at lower levels ... until the PCs acquire quicker modes of transportation. Also, you need to consider factors such as how that enclave of Orcs or tribe of Giants have managed to persist so close to large Human settlements (or vice versa).
Thoronmir 05-24-05, 10:35 AM	It sounds like my extended world map is still too small. I made a larger land mass but its only about 5,000 miles long and about 10,000 wide. acording to the last guy thats only 1/4 the size of britain. It sounds like I'm going to have to make things much bigger.Check your math ... 5,000 x 10,000 = 50,000,000 (that's 50 million) square miles.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 10:41 AM	heh heh oops :embarrass okay so thats actually 500 times the size of Britain. I think I overestimated though its more like 5,000/5000 so 25,000,000 square miles. Is that small for a contintnet? Cause It cover's european, Arabian and asian cultures already.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 10:49 AM	Okay this site says Europe is 2,085,000 square miles aproximately. So the known campain world is about 11 times the size of Europe. Asia's suposed to be 17,212,000 so I guess the greater campain map is big enough if I'm calculating right.
clarkvalentine 05-24-05, 11:00 AM	You could adventure across the British Isles for years, which is about that size and only containing four "countries" - England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Just don't make the countries uniform. Clans, factions, races, religions, etc. can all serve to stir up conflict even within the lands nominally governed by the same king.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 02:40 PM	Okay, assuming your continent is 400 miles by 400 miles (160,000 square miles), it's roughly the same area as California. In D&D, a man riding a Light Horse can cover 32 miles per day (excluding terrain modifiers), so it would take him about two weeks to ride across your contintent. So, basically, if you placed your major Human settlement in the center of the continent, everything on that land mass would be within one-week's ride of the city. Granted, that's more than ample at lower levels ... until the PCs acquire quicker modes of transportation. Also, you need to consider factors such as how that enclave of Orcs or tribe of Giants have managed to persist so close to large Human settlements (or vice versa). Well the capital city is in the northern corner, The only orc settlement is in the very southern most regions. They're held at bay by a southern culture's fortified city and a large river. The only giants are in the western't region they're a small population so they probably won't bother nearby humans too much. Also there are mountain ranges that greatly block travel, not to mention a large bay that will obstruct any travel between the eastern and western sides of the land mass.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 02:46 PM	You could adventure across the British Isles for years, which is about that size and only containing four "countries" - England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Just don't make the countries uniform. Clans, factions, races, religions, etc. can all serve to stir up conflict even within the lands nominally governed by the same king. Oh there quite seperate kingdoms. The most powerful country, Dagar, is essensially a late medival period Britain, the neighboring country, Strata, is more Anglo Saxon, The last major country is Barderan a arabic country, I've decided to make it a former extention of a large perisan style empire that was cut off by an orc invasion. Minor country's include, dwarf mines only one of which isn't a Dagaran Province, An elven country also a province of Dagar and Korg an orc nation.
scott644 05-24-05, 05:03 PM	You've got plenty for the start of a campaign. Just make certain to have the occasional port town/city handling trade with "foreign lands across the water." When the PC's have a reason to explore, that's likely where they'll start. This also buys you the time you need to build more over the course of the campaign.
Arrowhen 05-24-05, 05:20 PM	I'll take small and detailed over large and vague any day. It sounds like you're doing just fine.
Fixxxer 05-24-05, 06:01 PM	As a standard for comparison so you can tell exactly what can be done with a small area, I seem to recall that Middle Earth (the Lor dof the Rings world) was about the same size as Great Britain.
scott644 05-24-05, 06:14 PM	As a standard for comparison so you can tell exactly what can be done with a small area, I seem to recall that Middle Earth (the Lor dof the Rings world) was about the same size as Great Britain. Actually, Middle Earth was built around a conceptually prehistoric model of England, but was physically comparable to a full-size continent. Crossing Mirkwood Forest alone took over a month's hard march afoot, and following the Anduin south from LothLorien to the falls took 1-2 weeks in canoes going downstream. Not comparable in size at all.
Liwmial 05-24-05, 06:21 PM	Sounds like your country is slightly larger than Montana, if I read your measurements correctly. So a few things you can do is introduce new continents (by sea travel), introduce new layers (think ... the underdark or menzoberranzan), or intoduce new planes (planescape style portals are always fun, and you can use the same map over and over, with a whole group of new species on each one .... kind of like sliders.)
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 07:16 PM	Wait which country are you refurring to. The one on the smaller landmass or the main one. Cause I'm pretty sure the larger one is slightly larger then asia.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 07:19 PM	Okay this site says Europe is 2,085,000 square miles aproximately. So the known campain world is about 11 times the size of Europe. Asia's suposed to be 17,212,000 so I guess the greater campain map is big enough if I'm calculating right. Oh I forgot to factor in the oceans, and my initial dimensions were too big. They cover about half the map so the continents of the known world are about 12,500,000, smaller then asia but still very big.
The Shaman 05-24-05, 07:22 PM	You could adventure across the British Isles for years, which is about that size and only containing four "countries" - England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.England before about 900 AD consisted of seven kingdoms, the Heptarchy (consisting of Mercia, Wessex, East Anglia, Kent, Northumbria, Essex and Sussex), under the rule of the Anglo-Saxons, with plenty of land that was occupied by the 'barbarian' Britons outside of the Anglo-Saxon holdings - there were also numerous 'sub-kingdoms' such as the Kingdom of Lindsey. My personal feeling is that three of four kingdoms on that island is too few.Just don't make the countries uniform. Clans, factions, races, religions, etc. can all serve to stir up conflict even within the lands nominally governed by the same king.Excellent advice.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 07:26 PM	England before about 900 AD consisted of seven kingdoms, the Heptarchy (consisting of Mercia, Wessex, East Anglia, Kent, Northumbria, Essex and Sussex), under the rule of the Anglo-Saxons, with plenty of land that was occupied by the 'barbarian' Britons outside of the Anglo-Saxon holdings - there were also numerous 'sub-kingdoms' such as the Kingdom of Lindsey. My personal feeling is that three of four kingdoms on that island is too few.Excellent advice. Each Dwarf kingdom can be counted as a seperate kingdom. So thats 5 more kingdoms. There's also a civil war in Dagar so there's another kingdom there. And lets not forget the orcs and elves. So really I've got three large kingdoms and 8 smaller ones.
DaveReaves 05-24-05, 07:33 PM	Size of the contries does not matter much. Some of the smallest real countries are great places with lots of people and rich history. Vatican City is .2 square miles. Now for the continent. Austraila is 4,773,559.91 SQ Miles (Thats 7,682,300 SQ KM if your one of THOSE people... you know who you are :waits: ) Thats Huge, and at 32 miles a day would take years to traverse, and by years I mean the elves MIGHT servive. Great Britian is only 83,698 SQ Miles (216,777 DQ KM :nonono: ) Still takes a long time to get from one end to the next, but its doable. When I undertake a project like this I like to look at how far a typical person would be willing to travel, and thats about how far an empire will stretch. I figure humans are willing to travel about a week, so thats how big a human empire is. Elves typicaly dont need to go as many places, and as such its about a two week travel to get from one side of the kingdom to another (including reduced speed for forest travel). Once you have each of your races that controls that much land accounted for, you have a good size for the continent that the players will be starting on.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 08:03 PM	Size of the contries does not matter much. Some of the smallest real countries are great places with lots of people and rich history. Vatican City is .2 square miles. Now for the continent. Austraila is 4,773,559.91 SQ Miles (Thats 7,682,300 SQ KM if your one of THOSE people... you know who you are :waits: ) Thats Huge, and at 32 miles a day would take years to traverse, and by years I mean the elves MIGHT servive. Great Britian is only 83,698 SQ Miles (216,777 DQ KM :nonono: ) Still takes a long time to get from one end to the next, but its doable. When I undertake a project like this I like to look at how far a typical person would be willing to travel, and thats about how far an empire will stretch. I figure humans are willing to travel about a week, so thats how big a human empire is. Elves typicaly dont need to go as many places, and as such its about a two week travel to get from one side of the kingdom to another (including reduced speed for forest travel). Once you have each of your races that controls that much land accounted for, you have a good size for the continent that the players will be starting on. Your math is off. Alexander the great travled way further then the length of australia in only a matter of years. its 32 miles strait not 32 square miles.
DaveReaves 05-24-05, 08:18 PM	Your math is off. Alexander the great travled way further then the length of australia in only a matter of years. its 32 miles strait not 32 square miles. Bah, your right. I'm at work, I blame my boss. Stupid work. So now to try to do this better... From Miami FL. to New York city is 1296.95 miles (41 days travel) From Atlanta GA. to Los Angeles CA is 2181.93 miles (68 days travel) Something the size of the US would be a daunting task to taverse.
MasterRookie 05-24-05, 08:21 PM	yet people do it before college all the time. Yes its likely that most travel from more distant lands will be by boat or teleportation or flying mount, but thats realistic since in real ancient times there was very little known by europeans about distant lands such as China and Japan.
Bloodhawk 05-24-05, 10:19 PM	Here is a different approach to your question Imagine your world as small, smaller than mercury, but instead of the planets in your system being linear spaced ( set distances from an immobile object ) Your system has them in a cluster alignment. As far as your PC's know the world is small, only a few landmasses, but allow them to find a "gate" or some other device that will allow them to go from one world to another. Hide or disguise this with your world having 3 or more "moons" that can be seen from the night sky. Use these as planets (insert other countries here) ant threr you go a bad-assed custom world config. that you can design at your leisure. Good luck Bloodhawk
MasterRookie 05-25-05, 10:20 AM	Here is a different approach to your question Imagine your world as small, smaller than mercury, but instead of the planets in your system being linear spaced ( set distances from an immobile object ) Your system has them in a cluster alignment. As far as your PC's know the world is small, only a few landmasses, but allow them to find a "gate" or some other device that will allow them to go from one world to another. Hide or disguise this with your world having 3 or more "moons" that can be seen from the night sky. Use these as planets (insert other countries here) ant threr you go a bad-assed custom world config. that you can design at your leisure. Good luck Bloodhawk Nah I'm not into the whole other planets other dimensions new age sci fi fantasy consept. My campain world is just a mythical place not another planet just some long lost place here on earth, sort of and atlantis type place. I think things will work out I have a continent thats about two thirds the size of asia. It should be fine.
The Shaman 05-25-05, 11:39 AM	Each Dwarf kingdom can be counted as a seperate kingdom. So thats 5 more kingdoms. There's also a civil war in Dagar so there's another kingdom there. And lets not forget the orcs and elves. So really I've got three large kingdoms and 8 smaller ones.That's good - IMX you want to give yourself opportunities to grow from the outset, so more kingdoms gives you more opportunities for political plots, wars, tributes, and so on. With respect to distance and time, that travel rate of 32 miles/day assumes easy terrain: there's no way to maintain that pace in mountains, marshes, badlands, and so on. In my games I also increase the likelihood of disease affecting the players and or mounts coming up lame if the adventurers don't take at least a day off once a week, more if travelling through rough terrain. You can also include effects like weather to change the rate of travel - mountain passes are blocked by snow in the spring until the thaw, storms slow or stop travel altogether, the winds are contrary for sailing, and so on. These tend to affect lower level parties more often, of course, but they still add an interesting twist to getting around. Together these serve to make a small land seem much bigger than a straight look at the numbers in the DMG might suggest.
MasterRookie 05-25-05, 02:38 PM	Yes there's huge mountains and a desert wasteland. Travel between the northern and southern regions is difficult because the mountains are difficult to transverse exept going south to north since there is a river, but goind north to south requires travel either through or around a huge dangerous forrest called Netherwood, not a great prospect, also in the south there are no roads just paths.