Karameikos 4 miles per hex

[Rindis]

I cycle though hobbies constantly. I took up Mystara mapping a couple years ago, and just recently came back to largely finish off something I started then.

Traditionally, each scale up/down in Mystara maps are by a factor of three, which leads to annoying measurements when going down from 8 mi/hex, so I decided to take a look at going by half down to 4 (and if I ever had the energy and desire, down to 2 and 1 for regional maps).

It was a bigger project than I strictly counted on.

My primary reference was of course Thorfinn's reworked GAZ1 map, the 2.7 mile map around Threshold, and a 2.4 mile map of the NE region (which I can't find in my main files right now). Therefore those two areas are much better detailed so far. The original is a CorelDraw file, and the symbols are again taken from Thorfinn's wonderful reference materials.

http://www.rindis.com/Games/Mystara/Kar ... 96AC-4.png

[Big Mac]

Traditionally, each scale up/down in Mystara maps are by a factor of three, which leads to annoying measurements when going down from 8 mi/hex, so I decided to take a look at going by half down to 4 (and if I ever had the energy and desire, down to 2 and 1 for regional maps).

I don't know enough about Mystara to know all the maps but this thing about scaling up and scaling down hex maps is interesting.

Do they do the same for any other TSR campaign settings or is this strictly a Mystara thing?

What did you discover from the process of breaking with the convention and making a map at a non-standard number of miles per hex?

What do you think are the best features of the map at this scale? What does it "sell" better than other scales can sell?

How long do you think it would take to map all of the Mystara maps at this resolution?

Is there anywhere, where the terrain is so spread out that 4 miles per hex might be considered a waste?

[Rindis]

Purely a Mystara thing so far as I know (I don't know the later 2e settings). Greyhawk had one big hex map, Forgotten Realms does without hexes (but does go for the 3-1 thing with 30 mi/in and 90 mi/in being common). Mystara started with 24-mile hexes and then went down to 8-mile for the Gazetteers. And then there are 72-mile large scale maps (Dawn of the Emperors, et al). There's plenty of odd-scale maps as well, but those were used fairly systematically across the line.

As for the rest... well, to a certain extent, the main thing at the moment is a path to more detailed maps that don't trap you in fractions as you go down (2 2/3 mi/hex). And going with halving, you get to 2 mi/hex, and then Robin's 1 mi/hex project (which I just became aware of). I have noticed that the details in the smaller scale maps do start becoming noticeable at this scale (the Huttakka valley starts becoming visible at this scale). This map needs more detail than it currently has. I've done very little to flesh out a lot of areas, but further revisions are always possible.

To a certain extent, this started as project to get more experience with Corel Draw, and also get back to the fun of filling out those hexmaps. After how long this took... I'd say it'd take entirely too long to get even the main X1/GAZ area done at this scale.

(Oh, places where 4 mi/hex is a waste: Definitely the Great Waste. )

[Rindis]

I was thinking a bit yesterday, and remembered a few thoughts I did have while laying out the map, particularly while laying out the roads.

Most notably, the road between Specularum and Radlebb is a straight 8-hex run in the 8 mile map. This is somewhat reasonable at this scale, but while going down to 4 miles/hex I was wondering if I wanted to put the two a hexrow off of each other and/or show some deviation in the path. As you can see, I decided against that, and currently figure that that road was one of the few major projects of the area while under Thyatian control. It's basically a perfectly straight, largely flat, classic Roman road, laid out to help tie the western half of Traladara province to the provincial capital; this is probably about the only major road of this type in the country, all the others being adapted from old Traladara roads and trails.

[jmoy]

Just my practice is that the smaller you go in size, the more there would be some hexes with hills or large clearings/prairie type that could slightly alter the path of the road. It would be easier to go around a small group of hills than over and the same with going through a large lightly forested area than straight through heavy trees.