How OS and U&WA shaped my implied setting

[Vile Traveller]

I hope it's okay posting this here and not in the simulacrum area - although it comes via BLUEHOLME™ it's basically entirely setting-related.

A few of you might know how I'm using the OS map as a sort of visual glossary to organise and remember relative locations and place names for the Known World in my BLUEHOLME™ adventures. It's not meant to be an actual map, and the eventual geographical layout will probably be quite different, but it's a handy way of keeping all of the assumptions and accidental (or are they?) quirks of the Supplement III encounter tables in one easily-referenced place. A picture speaks a thousand words!

[Admin Pete]

I think this is the best place for this, especially if you give us a few comments on what you have done.  That is one of the easier to read versions of the map that I  have seen. Looking forward to hearing more about what you are doing and seeing a revised map if you want to share that later.

[Vile Traveller]

As far as creating the map, that was relatively simple. I found an online electronic copy of the OS board that I liked, created a couple of icons for cities and castles, and placed them as per the guidelines in U&WA (cities for buildings, castles for ponds). I also added ruins where other versions of the OS map had animals.

Now, because I wanted some ocean - after all, there is an Eric Holmes stories with a seaborne adventure ("The Sorcerer's Tower"), and "The Maze of Peril" and Portown in the Holmes Basic sample dungeon have links to the sea. So I simply added a layer in Photoshop that turned the area east of the eastern-most river into sea. However, I wanted lots of islands, some based on the Holmes short stories, so I cut holes in that ocean layer to leave some of the forests and mountains.

Then came the naming, which so far has several main sources: first and foremost, Holmes's writings. Next, map locations from The Forbidden Mazes of the Jennerak, by xerxes on the OD&D Discussion forums. Finally, a big influence for me, out west I have placed locations from the classic Wizards & Warriors TV show. I'll be adding some Clark Ashton Smith place names, too, mostly from Zothique and Averoigne.

Finally, I modified some areas of woodland, and added minor rivers and roads.

This is an ongoing "notebook" for me, so it will evolve and change as I write adventures. At the moment the most active area is around Camlann Castle because that's where the Necronomicon of Nuromen adventure is located. Once I get past the three FMotJ adventures and finally crack on with the Compleat Rules artwork Indiegogo, I intend to hire a well-known cartographer to produce a real map based on this.

[northtroll]

Vile every time you talk about Blueholme I keep getting more exited. I think that maybe using the map as it stands is a fine idea.

[Vile Traveller]

Feb 14, 2015 17:39:52 GMT -5 northtroll said:

Vile every time you talk about Blueholme I keep getting more exited. I think that maybe using the map as it stands is a fine idea.

Thanks, northtroll - two problems with using the map as-is, 1) the OS board is copyrighted, and 2) I need a map of more awesome-yet-old-school graphic quality, in both colour and black & white. But I imagine the actual layout will be very similar.

[tetramorph]

At what point have you tweeked something so much that it is no longer under copyright.

Just wondering.

[Vile Traveller]

Basically I wouldn't be able to use the original map graphic, which is the base layer for my visual memory map up there. This bit:

[Vile Traveller]

Need to get the area map done for the Necropolis of Nuromen.

[merctime]

Feb 14, 2015 17:39:52 GMT -5 northtroll said:

Vile every time you talk about Blueholme I keep getting more exited. I think that maybe using the map as it stands is a fine idea.

I echo the above whole-heartedly, but for more selfish and less purchased product reasons (No offense meant, though, Vile!!)

See, I'm seriously considering having the map in the OP printed out large on quality cardstock for personal consumption in a home game. Because it is DISGUSTINGLY AWESOME.

That's not to say I'm not interested in blueholme; I am (and even now I recall a post I made today saying I don't want any more rules sets... I realize now this is an error; I desperately want blueholme compleat).

[Vile Traveller]

I'm glad I convinced you, merctime! New clones are always met with justifiable scepticism, and I believe the only way to address it is to let your product speak for itself. I have to say BLUEHOLME™ has exceeded my expectations, and it's always very gratifying to see someone else share the sentiment!

The plan as it stands is to use the OS layout as a base to produce new maps as per the Delvingwood map in my last post. The three Forbidden Mazes of the Jennerak modules will all have similar-scale area maps like this. Once they are done and I finish of the Compleat Rules, I hope the attendant Indiegogo will drive the funds up to the point where I can get a popular and well-known RPG mapper to re-create the whole "Known World" map in both black & white and in colour. The awesomeness of the outcome of that is not in doubt, let me assure you. 

[merctime]

Brother... Blueholme has had me convinced from the moment I downloaded the prentice rules. Seriously.

By the way... do you have any more of the stamped physical copies available???

*Gaspandbaitedbreathwait*