I got bored today and had a look through the various boxed sets and bits and pieces I have floating around the house. I thought that between them I have a semi decent collection of world for 5E. I will post some pictures of the various maps and comments about how easy they are to convert to 5E.
First things first I will start with one of my least favorite things for D&D. I picked up this set for $16 in excellent condition with 3 near mint adventures inside the box.I resent to you the maps from the boxed set of Kara Tur. Some of you by now can guess my opinions on OA type games. I am a sucker for boxed sets though. Converting OA to 5E should be easy with backgrounds as a Samurai is just a fighter who is a noble, rogues can pass as ninjas etc.
This is a large scale map of the topography and politcal nations of Kara Tur. Some of you may have only heard about KT before and it was officially added to the Forgotten Realms a long time ago. Well this is what it looks like.
The maps form this boxed set are not very pretty however.
Japan erm Kozakura is about the best looking of a sad looking bunch.
On the rare occasions I think about running an OA game this boxed set cures that.
This map is from the 1992 Boxed set of Dragonlance for 2nd Edition. The boxed set is not a great one however due to shoddy art and a somewhat incomplete feel to the set. At the time I kind of felt you had to use it in conjunction with the 1st edition Dragonlance Adventures Book. With work it is probably not that bad but meh. Kyrynn has some issue to convert to 5E but it is not rocket science and the Kender were in the playtest materials. I hate Kender.
This map is from the Karameikos Kingdom of Adventure boxed set. It features the Known World AKA Mystara and has maps of Threshold and Mirros the capital of Karameikos. Mystara never really made the transitio to AD&D very well as it was overshadowed by the Realms and was never very popular. A very simple world to convert to 5E though and WoTC has put up the BECMI adventures and gazetters at rpgnow.com.
From the same boxed set the Kingdom of Karameikos
Glantri the Kingdom of Magic was also presented as an AD&D boxed set. This is a map of Glantri city, think Venice with magical street lighting.
And a hex based map of the Kingdom of Glantri.
Now I used to like the Realms a lot and in 2nd ed runs they made a series of product set in the Arcane Age or the time of anciient Netheril. Not sure what it looks like now but this is what Anauroch used to look like a long time ago.
And the sword coast from the same era. This predates Waterdeep and Icewind dale.
Overall some nice looking maps IMHO.
For the generic realms the 3.0 FRCS map, my copy of that book is still attached to the map. This map was also put in Dragon magazine at 4 times the size around 10 years ago. I think iti s a great looking map and looks better than the follow up in certain products that blew the world up. Still mad about that.
Menzoberranzan from the 1992 boxed set, this is actually 4 poster sized maps.
And the house Baenre compound.
One of my favorite setting I think they well reprint in 5E although it would be a pain to convert. Darksun!. This map is from the 1995 revised boxed set and is actually printed on cloth and it is a very vibrant colour. Perhaps my favorite D&D map of all time I imagine it would be expensive to produce. No wonder TSR went belly up.
Some world feauring sentient robots or something or other. It will probably see a reprint. The map came from Dragon magazine and it was not included in the campaign setting book or at least not my copy.
Next to no chance of being reprinted this is a map of Haranshire from The Night Below boxed set megaadventure from 2E. If you have the Lords of Madness book from 3.5 a lot of the fluff on the Aboleth was updated from this adventure. Very tempted to run this adventure using 5 ed or as a bonus 2E session in addition to 5th ed.
And the poster map it came from. Part 1 is a great adventure, part 2 and 3 is more or less a under dark dungeon crawl with 0 Drow in it. But they could not help themselves and added another subrace of elves to AD&D.
Nice collection of maps there, Zard. I didn't know about the Netheril maps. Those look pretty cool. I would be curious to see how they compare to the 4e Realms maps of the Anauroch region, as Netheril came back during the Spellplague, didn't it? And it seems to still be there, as Netheril had agents hunting down the gods' Chosen during the Sundering.
pukunui wrote:
Didn't the revised edition of Dark Sun expand the map around the Tablelands a bit? I have a weird memory of the revised map covering a larger area, but I never actually owned that boxed set as I always found the original one 10x better... so I could be mistaken.
Rastapopoulos wrote:
Ah, found it.
That's the one I remember seeing in the revised set. Don't think I ever saw the cloth one.
I always found that revised set unnecessary, though. It added nothing much useful but instead just basically compiled the story of the official adventures released after the original set. The rest was just a reprint of the rules.
Well there was the Aarakocra as a new playable race if I'm not mistaken, but... well... meh...
The art, however, was much much better in the first boxed set, not only the drawings and paintings but also the art style of the inner pages, fonts, layout, etc. The original Dark Sun setting to me is without the shadow of a doubt the most beautiful product D&D ever released.
Man, I love that cloth map. Definitely the best part of the box set.
Rastapopoulos wrote:
Zardnaar wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Sounds cool. Too bad it's not in my boxed set. 
The only 4e book to come with a fold out map, IIRC, was the Dark Sun Campaign Guide. I still have it, of course. I do miss the boxed sets. I sold all my 1e/2e stuff when I went off to college.
Oh well. The internet has it all these days. Even high res versions of poster maps that can be printed well, if you have access to a large format printer. (I do.) Seeing them 30"x40" after some extensive photoshopping is nice.
pukunui wrote:
I think that's someone's homebrew addition to the DS map. If you look at it closely, there's some bad photoshopping and some misspelled words ("Platau").
My DS box set is from 1991. It has the same map as what's on the cloth but it's on heavy fibrous paper instead and has a b&w hex map version on the flip side. It also has a smaller map surrounded by various images of elf tribes on a separate poster, and a map of Tyr on a third poster.
For FR, I really love my Forgotten Realms Atlas. It's from 1990, so it's early 2e era. In addition to world and regional maps, it's got local maps covering events in various books as well as some cool isometric maps of buildings and lairs and such.
pukunui wrote:
Weird. It doesn't really look all that legit to me here: http://www.digitalwanderer.net/darksun/images/athas_map.jpg
pukunui wrote:
Yeah, I get that. It's just that the upper part looks half-finished. Virtually none of the locations have names. Some of the stuff looks badly photoshopped. "Platau" is misspelled. Etc etc. Ah well.
I've got the first box set listed on that waynesbooks website you linked to. Looks like the cloth map came with the revised box set.
I would share my map of the Realms but alas those maps are on the opposite coast from me and would take a lot of photographs to convert. They were two large maps that combined covered an entire wall of a roughly 10' wide bedroom. It was done in old-school road map style and covered from the Sword Coast all the way to Kara-Tur unbroken, and from the Frozen North down into Chult and other areas, it even showed the deserts where Al-Qadim was placed. The size of the maps allowed a lot of detail to be shown as far as location names and various degrees of roads and encompassed most of the non-Maztica/Al-Qadim (it only hit the edge of the Al-Qadim region) areas of Toril.
If all my old stuff is still intact I'd also have maps of Oerth (Greyhawk), Maztica (destroyed in 4e and apparently not restored after the Sundering), and many other areas.
The original Glantri Gazeteer (not the Boxed Set) was the best fantasy city set and probably the best D&D product bar none that I ever read - I actually bought two of them so the players could have a map to themselves. I ran the Wrath of the Immortals set in Fourth Edition (don't get me wrong I prefer 5th edition - it's great) and based the PC's there. I changed the Alphatians to Tieflings and the Thyatians to Dragonborn and this worked superbly. I made the elves in Glantri Eladrin and the Shaow Elves Drow (of course!) and changed the Gods to ones the PC's recognised though I kept Rad as Rad. The Radiance stuff I made into rituals and this worked brilliantly. I actually ran the campaign all the way from first to 30th level and ascenscion to join the Immortals. Deva's were Immortals that had voluntarily given this up to play an active role in the mortal world but with limited memories of the time before they came down - when one of the PC's reached 30th level again they joined the Old One's rather than re-join the council as the other PC's did. Rakshasa's were Immortals that had been kicked out and could never again become Immortals due to some crime or other.
Year 1000 AC
“My lords and ladies, Immortals and Exalted servants, we face no less than the destruction of the world of Mystara... and our own”
The speaker—tall and elegant, with skin the colour of bronze gleaming in firelight, and flaming eye sockets—took the centre of the Central Dome’s chamber as if it were a stage reserved for his use. His gaze swept the crowd, immortals all, and looked for opponents to quell, doubters to sway and supporters from whom to draw encouragement. He spun and pointed an accusing finger up at the raised judges’ bench, where five Hierarchs sat. “It is your responsibility to pass sentence on Rad, to end his studies before they destroy everything we know. In his greed for knowledge, he will sacrifice anything, from an entire world to the very future of our kind.”
The object of his tirade, standing quietly a few yards away stroking his beard, coughed up a little laugh. “Eh, monsieur, you credit me with far too much influence and far too little sense. Would I endanger the world of my birth, the world where my descendants still live? No. The object I am studying, the artifact which causes you so much consternation, it is no threat to Mystara. It is a source of understanding. It shapes energies in ways which no one has ever seen before. It ignores the known laws of magic and yet achieves magical results. There is nothing like it in any of our records. By studying it, I may discover a whole new kind of magic previously unknown to us—perhaps I may even unlock the secrets of those who came before, the old Ones.”
Pelor glowered, and the fire in his eye sockets burned brighter. “Each time you use this device, this thing, it draws magical energy, the source of our power, from the world. We have no way to replace that lost energy. And the rate of consumption is increasing. In a few centuries, perhaps a few decades, your irresponsible experiments will have robbed the world of Mystara of all magic.”
Rad shrugged the delicate fabric of his crimson robe rustling. “So?”
After a second of stunned silence, Pelor whirled to face the audience. “You see? His own words condemn him. No other place in the multiverse has produced as many candidates for Immortality as Mystara, the very world this madman threatens. Many of you called it home during your mortal lives. Steal away its magic, and you turn it into a wasteland of squabbling warriors. You doom all the wonderful races of magical creatures who cannot survive without it to a slow lingering extinction.”
“Nor is this all,” Pelor said, turning his attention to the five immortals who sat in judgement. “Rad has violated one of the most ancient laws of our kind. By leeching magic from the world, he is directly interfering with the lives of mortals. Unless we stop...”
Rad’s voice interrupted him: “That is a lie.”
Pelor whipped around to glare at him in angry disbelief. The crowd stirred and began to murmur, no Immortal, even one as knowledgeable as Rad, had ever dared to speak like that to a higher-ranking immortal before, especially to a Hierarch as powerful as Pelor.
Before Pelor could answer, Rad continued: “The ‘law,’ good monsieur, states that we are not to take direct action against mortals. Travelling to Mystara and forcing a mortal to do your will, that is direct action. Dropping thunderbolts on a city you despise or sinking an island into the sea, that is direct action. What I do is indirect. I study; I encourage; I inspire. I take no direct action.”
Pelor laughed bitterly “Your ‘inaction’ will change the world more completely than any thunderbolt from an angry Immortal on an erring mortal. I congratulate you on the sheer power of your inaction. I’ve never seen any inactivity so powerful.., or so dangerous.” Ignoring Rad’s mocking bow at the compliment, Pelor turned again to the judges before them. “You have seen, and you have heard. I have proved conclusively that Rad’s research is draining energy from Mystara. Unless he is stopped, his work will eliminate the influence of the Sphere of Energy there, and perhaps elsewhere in the Prime Plane. Not even Rad could contest my findings. Now I demand a vote. I demand by my right as a Hierarch that he be stopped.”
On the bench, Melora, speaker for the Council of Mystara, nodded. “So be it. We shall decide.” She turned to confer in whispers with her fellow judges. Pelor took a moment to relax. He shouldn’t have let Rad get him so angry; he knew he’d won his case. Rad was clever—too clever—but he had only been an immortal for less than two centuries, while Pelor had known the judges for eons; he knew how each would vote.
1. Melora, a Hierarch of Time, was sure to vote his way. As concerned as she was with the preservation of worlds and species, she would never allow harm to come to the exotic races of Mystara.
2. Vecna, a fellow Hierarch of Energy, shared his fears about their Sphere losing influence on Mystara. He too, was a sure Vote.
3. Erathis, a Hierarch of Thought, was another friend who held a deep wisdom. He too would act to protect his charges from the danger Rad’s experiments posed. His vote would go with Pelor.
4. Io, Dragon Hierarch of Matter, was a cipher; Pelor could never tell how he might vote on any issue or which battles he might choose to fight.
5. Nerull, a Hierarch of Entropy, in keeping with his nature would probably vote whichever way would cause the most trouble.
But it didn‘t matter: with Melora, Vecna, and Erathis on his side, Pelor‘s victory was assured. He stood savouring the moment, thinking of how he would discipline Rad once the verdict was announced. Yet when the votes were counted, it was Erathis and Vecna for Pelor, Melora and Io for Rad, with Nerull abstaining.
Pelor stared in surprise at Melora while the crowd buzzed at the unexpected outcome. The sylvan immortal stared back, sympathy but not the slightest trace of remorse on her face. “Growth does not come from stagnation, my friend,” she told the solar Immortal. “This was nothing personal.
‘We have a tie,” Erathis announced; he, too, looked surprised. “As speaker for the Council, it is my right to break the tie. I decide in favour of Pelor. Rad will abandon his studies of the device. This meeting is at an end.”
There were unhappy mutterings from the crowd as Erathis and the others rose to depart, but they stopped when Rad quietly said: “No. I do not accept your ruling”
In the shocked silence which followed, Rad‘s calm voice continued: “I came here to answer the charges against me and to explain the importance of my work for us all. Even had the vote gone against me I would not have abandoned my research. But your council is deadlocked two for my humble self, two for good Monsieur Pelor, with Nerull keeping his own counsel, as is his right. No verdict has been reached, and your own attempt to vote twice is, how you say, below the board? My studies will continue.
It took the outraged Hierarch a moment to find his voice, during which time the background noise slowly grew to a low roar as Immortals in the crowd began arguing among themselves. When she did speak, it was clear from her tone that she was trying hard to keep her temper. “By rights, the Council should not even have had to intervene in this matter. Pelor is the reigning Hierarch of your Sphere; once he ordered you to stop your lunatic scheme; you should have obeyed him without question. I offer you one last chance to obey your superior, to do the right thing, to honour our traditions.”
There was dead silence as they all waited for Rad‘s reply. “I defy your tradition,” he said at last, his quiet voice carrying to every corner of the great chamber. “Traditions are only laws when all accept them. I do not. Our ‘traditions’ are not laws but regulations made up by the Hierarchs to keep all power in their own hands. Pelor is older and stronger than I, but he is not my superior, and I will not obey his orders.
“Have you all forgotten?” cried Rad, turning from Erathis to the crowd. “The Hierarchs command such subservience because they sponsored so many of you to immortality No one can become Immortal without serving an Immortal sponsor— or so we are told. Most of you have never outgrown the habit of deferring to them: that is the hallowed tradition which Madame Erathis evokes.
“But I achieved my immortality without benefit of your ancient traditions. I owe my allegiance to no sponsor. I myself am proof that the old ways can change, thanks to the very studies these Hierarchs wish to suppress. Who is to say that those who went before, the Old Ones are not responsible for guiding me to this new path now opening up before us? I will not, I cannot stop now because one world might lose its flying carpets and crystal balls!
“For the sake of us all, for the sake of the future, I must continue my studies. And I will, to the last of my strength, even if I must defy you all to achieve my goal.”
Pelor clinched his fists and took a threatening step forward. “I should destroy you here and now, before you cause any more damage,” he hissed.
Suddenly two figures stepped out of the crowd up to Rad‘s side: Lolth and Corellon, fellow Empyreals of Energy. “Rad does not stand alone,” Lolth said to the fiery Hierarch. “I too became immortal without a patron; I too, would like to see what his experiments bring.” Corellon merely nodded.
“Traitors!” shouted Pelor. “There may be three of you, but you are merely Empyreals; do you seriously think you can stand against a Hierarch in his fury?”
“You stand not alone,” said Glasya, sliding up to Pelor‘s side. “Say the word, my love, and we will stop this rebellion before it spreads any farther.” Pelor smiled and raised his weapon, but before he could strike a huge figure moved between the antagonists.
“No,” said Melora the Wise, “That is not the way. Rad is right in one thing at least: he and Lolth are the first of a new kind of immortal. I have devoted all the millions of years of my existence to protecting endangered species from harm; I cannot allow you to destroy them. Come, my friends, can we not talk this over before it is too late?”
“It is already too late,” said Pelor, gesturing to the crowd, which had degenerated into small groups shouting and shoving a one another. “Much as it pains me to count you among my enemies, my duty is clear; I must not allow Rad to destroy my Sphere and rob Mystara of its magic. If I cannot fight him here in Pandius, then I will fight him in the mortal world below. “Look to your followers, rebel,” he said, turning to Rad a final time. “An Immortal without mortal followers quickly loses his power. Unless you halt your research now, I will unleash my followers against yours in a war that will wipe your precious Glantri from the map. And I won ‘t stop until all knowledge of you and your ‘Radiance’ has vanished from Mystara.”
For the first time, Rad hesitated. “You condemn hundreds of thousands of mortals to death—many of them your own followers, or innocents who will get caught up in the struggle.”
“No, rebel, it is you who condemn them.” Pelor snapped back. “I do not desire any of their deaths, but if that is the price I must pay to prevent the doom of every magical creature on the planet, then so be it. Give up your work, submit to the Council and myself, and the war need never take place. Refuse and their blood is on your hands.”
Rad shook his head. “I cannot.”
“Then it’s war—and such a war as that world has never seen before. Look to your defences, traitor. Gather what allies you may; nothing will save you from my wrath.” And with that, Pelor and Glasya vanished in a blinding flash.
Rad’s shoulders sagged. “So be it,” he sighed before turning to his supporters. “My friends, we had best take counsel together. If my dream is to survive, I will need all the help I can get.” Then they too vanished.
Melora sat in the rapidly-emptying hall with her face in her hands and said, “What have we done..?”
Years 1000-1,004 AC
In the years immediately following this fateful exchange between Pelor and Rad, all the Immortals involved assemble their allies to prepare themselves for the conflict to come.
Pelor and Glasya are joined by another Hierarch, Vecna, who fears for magic and his own power if Rad’s work continues, and by Asmodeus, who knows that the disappearance of magic would doom his own followers and influence on the Alphatian continent. These four organize themselves into a band called The Ring of Fire. Their goal is to protect magic and the status quo by forcing Rad to end his studies; Pelor and Glasya seek Rad’s personal destruction as well. They encourage their followers—clerics and non-clerics alike— to become unusually active so that they will advance in level and be more powerful for the events to come. They also do their best to gain their followers a role in influencing the governments of these and other nations. Finally, they subtly stir up anti-Glantri sentiments so that Rad’s followers will be isolated when the war finally comes.
Meanwhile, Rad’s cause continues to attract supporters. Soon Rad, Lolth, Corellon, and Melora were joined by Io, and Avandra; together, they form The Fellowship of the Star. While Rad, Lolth, and Corellon work to find ways to use the Radiance defensively, Melora continues to present his case in Pandius and prevents Pelor from gaining any more allies. Avandra roams the Known World in Mortal Identities to spy out Pelor’s plans so Rad will know what to expect. Io, meanwhile, fans anti-Alphatian sentiment among his own followers in Thyatis so that this empire will side with Glantri when hostilities begin.
By the year 1004 AC, the Known World is a powder keg ready to explode—and an angry Pelor is ready to light its fuse.
pukunui wrote:
Zardnaar wrote:
Yes, I stick with the original book/boxed set for campaign settings, no Time of Troubles, Spellplague, Age of Mortals, Prism Pentad, Grand Conjunction, Unhuman War II, Faction War for me, thanks.
Another thing I love about Al-Qadim, a static setting.
Rastapopoulos wrote:
Zardnaar wrote:
Rastapopoulos wrote:
Have any of you run/played in the Freedom, Road to Urik, Arcane Shadows adventure trilogy? It sounds pretty interesting. I think if I were to run Dark Sun for 5e, I might update that adventure path. I'm not going to venture into Dark Sun until we've got some rules for it ~ a 5e campaign guide would be nice, but rules for psionics at the very least are essential.
pukunui wrote:
It's not just the lack of psionics or races. There's also rules for defiling, substandard weapons (and weapon breakage), and so on. Yeah, I could come up with a lot of that stuff myself, but I can't really be bothered. I'm happy to wait. I've only just started running Legacy of the Crystal Shard, which we're playing fortnightly, so that's a good six months or so. I've also got heaps of other stuff I want to run. It may be a year or more before I'd be able to get to Dark Sun anyway.
pukunui wrote:
pukunui wrote:
Atheosis wrote:
Zardnaar wrote:
I really had forgotten how ugly some of those maps were. You even have some of those good old hex maps! Reminds me of the isle of dread and the good old basic maps with towns like Specularum. I haven't thought about those in a long time.
Thanks Zard. Good memories 
.
I have to admit that I gave 4e Dark Sun a miss. While I've got the original 2e box set, I never actually got to use it in play. The closest I got was playing Dark Sun: Shattered Lands on my PC. It was fun but the plot was baffling and I never finished it. I did play a brief 3.5 Dark Sun game not that long ago, but the DM was using Dragon Magazine content that wasn't specifically designed for Dark Sun, so it didn't really feel like a Dark Sun game to me.
I'm still going to wait and see what, if anything, WotC does with Dark Sun for 5e. It could just be something as simple as a Dragon article providing some suggestions on races and psionics and defiling.
Gnarl wrote:
pukunui wrote:
I miss my old Realms and Mystara stuff. I've kinda fallen out of love with the Realms, but some of the box sets were fun.
And the Gold Box computer games. Ah, those were the days... when Paladins needed 17 Charisma and clouds were stinking.
I've played the next generation of D&D games a lot: Menzoberranzan, Stradh's Possession, Stone Prophet... but never played much of the Gold Box ones.
Well, maybe it's time to fire up DOSBox and get them running!
While at it I might pick those Eye of the Beholder too.
pukunui wrote:
Brock_Landers wrote: