WIP: Hiero's Journey

Hey all,

This is my current project. My gaming clan is gearing up for a game set in the theme of Hiero's Journey by Sterling Lanier.

I found a bitmap of the map from the book online, imported that in and then chose to use Spectrum Overland style. Quickly discovered I needed different fill styles, because of the size of the map. It is 1500 miles by 1500 miles. From this, I will make various regional maps with all the details.

Of course, I dislike the rivers and am considering options and layout is not yet final. The GM is ok with the rivers, but I'm not heh.

Anyway, any critique advice is quite welcome.

thanks

Cal

[Deleted User]LoopysueMonsenWyvernMedioAleD

Comments

  • Well this is a blast from the past! My copy's a 1976 vintage UK paperback edition, though I'd read it the previous year when a guy at my wargames and D&D group loaned me his copy. Hence I went out and bought my own later! I think the first US edition was earlier though (Wikipedia gives 1973).

    It looks as if you've used the map from the later 1983 second volume, "The Unforsaken Hiero" though, as that has a bit more information than the Hiero's Journey one (Otwah League is Otwah Estates in Journey too, for instance - though the Journey Glossary calls it the Otwah League instead - and there's only one Blue Desert marked, not the two you have, as shown in Unforsaken). D'alwah was also only an area by the coast in Journey, but in Unforsaken, it's both a settlement "Capitol of D'alwah", and an area. Kalina seems to be marked as just another area by the coast in both books, and both also have another near-coastal area above = northeast of D'alwah, Chespek. The ocean offshore might be labelled as Lantik Sea (weirdly, both maps show it as Lantik Ocean, but both Glossaries call it Lantik Sea!) too.

    Great to know you're going to be off adventuring here soon. I know Journey was one of the favourite books for discussion repeatedly with some members of my college D&D Soc back in the early '80s, and I still have a great fondness for it, though it's many years since I last read either volume.

    Calibre
  • Greets

    We've taken all the canon and added a few areas since running this campaign. I started running it and added The Unity, a capital for the Metz Republic, and various more detailed names. Now, another in our group wants to run it, hence this map heh. I originally coded the map into my MUSH, but with CC3+ and FGU, that's too old school now heh.

    Yeah, there is more to add and will do heh.

    Any suggestions on rivers at this distance from a map?

    thanks

    Cal

  • It's maybe a little surprising nobody's done an RPG supplement on this setting; pretty well everything else seems to have been done, after all!

    The rivers don't look too bad to me (remembering too I'm looking at the very sketchy, small, line illustrations in the actual novels as a nonexistent comparison with your work of art here!). You could maybe add a relatively bright Outer Glow Effect to make them stand out a little more, but that will affect the points they meet the seas too, if they're the usual lines on top of the land and sea Sheets in the Sheets stack. You could make the river lines brighter instead, and perhaps add a green Outer Glow to the lines, different to the colour of the land surface, again to help them "shine" a little more.

    Calibre
  • thehawkthehawk Surveyor
    edited February 2021
    Man I enjoyed those. I always wanted to see the story finished.

    It brings me great joy to see someone doing things with the setting!
    Calibre
  • Thanks for feedback, all. Below is a regional taken from the main map...which I'm still working on heh.


    MonsenLoopysue[Deleted User]DakDaltonSpenceledge
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer

    Looks lovely so far.

  • Thanks!

    The premise is: after a nuclear apocalypse, 5000 years pass. The Great Lakes have merged into one, vast Inland Sea and mankind has mutated, possessing psionic powers to various degrees. Some animals have also mutated, a great many of them 'evil' and also possessing psionic powers. A secret cabal of 'evil' mentalists are starting to try and enslave what's left of humanity. Heh.

    The story and our game, center around the Inland Sea.

    Cal

  • Here's a first attempt at Namcush. Needs work, I know. Any advise is most definitely welcome.

    Cal


    MonsenLoopysueDakDaltonSpenceLoreleiledgeAleD
  • Yikes. I see some of my symbols have migrated to my text sheet.

    Hmmm. Never knew that could happen.

    Cal

  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    That's promising to be a lovely map :)

    You can accidentally move symbols to a different sheet. They don't magically snap back to whatever SYMBOLS sheet they were placed on to start with.

    Calibre
  • DaltonSpenceDaltonSpence Mapmaker
    edited February 2021
    I particularly like the dock setup. However the entry to the semi-enclosed area of the NorthReach Pier seems a bit narrow for large ships to navigate easily. Perhaps you could extend the east end pier out a notch to make more room.
  • Thanks, DaltonSpence

    I know, thankee. But the GM has spoken: there is a guild called 'The Ropers' who man the docks and guide in ships that need serious repair other than drydock. So, he dictated the ship be there ?

    Below, I've got the finished continental map.


    LoopysueDakWyvern[Deleted User]
  • 19 days later
  • FINAL

    Everything we need in our game ?

    MonsenWyvern[Deleted User]LoopysueLorelei
  • thehawkthehawk Surveyor
    edited March 2021
    That is beautiful. Makes me want to go dig out the old paperbacks and re-read again. Maybe even with a printed one of these handy on the table.
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