WIP Community Atlas - Mortyn-Goya Confluence

Kertis Henderson

This is my first community atlas contribution. I ask for input. What do you think should be added? I tried a few things like fishers, hobbit (or baddie?) holes, and wizard towers. These things did not seem to fit well. I have creator's block!

(Yes, I see the need to clean up the text. That will come.)

What do you think might be in the woods to the west, for example?

For reference, here's the parent map:

Thank you.

Royal Scribe

I just love the Spectrum Overland style. It's so lush. I love the river delta.

What's the scale of this map? At this scale, you may be forced to use the hamlet or village symbols to show your hobbit communities. I can't remember if there are cave symbols that could serve as hobbit holes, though you could draw them in -- but even that would probably be out of scale for this map.

That's said, it's okay to have some things out of scale. If there's a notable wizard's tower, for example, it may take up the space of an entire village on the map, but that's just to allow users of the map to know where it is.

Wyvern

If you're stumped for ideas of what to place and where on a map, I'd suggest trying out some dice rolls on a few random overland design or encounter tables, if you have any. Even if you don't like what they come up with, that might spark ideas you do prefer - or variants on those themes.

As I have the book sitting by me as I type this, have six random throws from the Shadowdark RPG overland generator tables:

• A natural landmark controlled by a malevolent sorcerer.
• A village occupied by a self-titled king.
• Barrow mounds guarded by their current residents.
• An abandoned, ruined, fortified keep.
• A town connected to a large tomb.
• A cave formation that's home to a religious cult.

Make of those what you will!

There are hosts of free-access tables online, often on blogs, although many are for rolling encounters, rather than places. Even so, you can still glean ideas from those. I came up with these three, of perhaps variable utility here, on a quick search just now:

100 Overland Descriptors by Gnome Stew

1d100 Random Events for Overland Traveling from Lore Wise Games

The Collaborative Gamer's System for Creating Fantasy Adventures

The last one has a whole series of tables, many of which won't be of much use here, but some of the later ones are readily adaptable for ideas such as you're asking for.

Good luck!

Kertis Henderson

The map is about 20 miles wide. So, the rivers are to scale for what I was trying to do for large rivers.

Thanks for the advice. I think my writer's block is fading.