News from the French Earthdawn community!
Marzhin created an interactive map of Barsaive that is based on the Atlas of Barsaive by Telarus KSC.
Various locations and point of interest are marked on the map. The register on the left includes all the Cities, Villages, Landmarks and so on of the map and can be searched. GREAT WORK!
You really should have a look at the Earthdawn section of fondationdraco.fr too.
The German Earthdawn publisher Ulisses Spiele posted a preview of the soon-to-come Barsaive map at their Facebook page. The 70x100 cm map will be available at the SPIEL2015. For all the German fans that don't visit the SPIEL in Essen will later have the opportunity to buy it via the Ulisses store.
The Cathay map was offline for a short time when RedBrick “moved”. That’s why the link at the download section was gone too. But thanks to Kathy Schad who gave Drucifer her permission to showcase the map(s) on his Carthography gallery, I can tell you:
Well many of you might know the great Atlas of Barsaive that was made by Telarus some time ago. You think it can’t be made better? Well in fact an enhanced and very useful version was recently made. The new enhanced Atlas of Barsaive contains now sticky notes that provide a short description of individual places, areas and cities shown on the map. The notes also provide book references for the particular city or whatever. So if you ever wondered where you can find information about………for example the “Ashen Hills” when staring at the atlas, you’ll now quickly find the book reference to read more about it. 
Last day in February and to remind you of the upcoming Cathay books (shipping date March 2011, according to Mongoose) I decided to entertain you with a puzzle again. 77 pieces await you! Rotate the pieces by picking them with left click and using the right mouse button. Play it in full screen for better overview. Enjoy!
Lately I was considering to offer you, my readers, the opportunity again to write guest entries for the Earthdawn Blog. I guess the time for guest blogging will come in summer again. I didn’t want to wait that long until I publish the post about Patternspider’s project. He contacted me to introduce his project to the Earthdawn community and I guess you all gonna understand why I simply couldn’t wait until summer to publish the following article. Patternspider was so kind to write a small article wherein he tells us the story of his project about “Making a 3D Map of Barsaive”! I pass the word to Spidy:
I first started playing Earthdawn around 1997, and it quickly became my favorite RPG. I ran a game with a continuous group of characters that lasted for about 3 years. Then, in 2001 Exalted came out, and it became my new game of choice for the next decade. I finally burned out on Exalted last year, and I was looking for a new game to play. A friend mentioned to me that Earthdawn was being re-published in its 3rd Edition, so I quickly checked it out, and my current gaming group made the switch last summer. Overall, I'm really pleased with the changes from 1st Edition, and I'm enjoying getting back into the game.
One of the things that's always been central to FRPGs is maps, and I've always enjoyed creating them, usually on paper or digitally. A few years ago, when we were playing Exalted, one of my players and I painted a map of Creation on a large piece of canvas. When we switched to Earthdawn, we started another for Barsaive, but we were unable to finish it. I got the idea that it would be cool to make a 3 dimensional map. Barsaive is full of huge mountain ranges, so I thought it would work well. This isn't something I'd done before, so I pretty much had to invent my techniques as I went along.
I started with a 32"x20" piece of laminated particle board, which was a left-over cut -out from my kitchen counter top. I used a projector to trace the rivers and major features of the map from the books on the un-laminated side with a marker. I then sculpted the mountain ranges out of modeling clay. I made sure the Throal mountains were the tallest, tried to make the Twilight peaks somewhat sharp and craggy, etc. I didn't want the areas in between the mountains to be completely flat, though, so I next put down more modeling clay in very thin layers to give the terrain some variance. Keeping in mind that the Serpent river follows a pretty unlikely course, I tried to vary the height of the land so that the river would flow through the low areas, and never uphill.
After everything dried out for a few days, I filled in any cracks in the clay with glue, then coated the entire thing in acrylic spray primer. This still looked too "smooth" for my liking, so at someone's suggestion, I sprayed on some glue and sprinkled a layer of fine sand over most of the land areas, again making an effort to keep the rivers' paths clear of sand, so they wouldn't be bumpy (because I used a sharpie initially to trace everything out, the lines were still faintly visible through the primer, making this task easier). This gave the map a more textured look, and smoothed out some of the edges where the clay met the board. I covered this with primer as well. I then hand-painted everything with acrylic paints, using several different brushes. The great thing about this was that I could experiment with different brushes and techniques, and if I didn't like the results, I'd just paint over it. I put down many layers of colors while the paints were still wet, which made the different greens, reds, and blues blend together nicely.
I took some liberties with the Death's Sea area. On the official map, it's brightest at the edges and grows darker toward the center. This seemed backward to me, as I would think the shores of the sea would be cooler than the center, so I reversed the color scheme. I tried to make the shoreline and the surrounding mountainsides look burned and ash covered, which isn't represented on the official map. I also added some snow caps to the tops of the higher mountain peaks, because it seemed appropriate. Finally, I didn't really know what should be behind the legend in the upper right corner, so I decided to make this a large open plain, given that the rest of the map is pretty geographically dense.
The last touch was adding the forests and jungles. I had already painted darker green areas for them on the map, which I then covered in artificial foliage made for model train sets. This gave those areas a nice 3D look and texture. The only thing I've yet to do is spray on a clear matte finish to protect everything. I'm waiting for warmer weather so I can do that outside.
I did make a few errors along the way, such as missing a couple of minor rivers, and putting a mountain in the middle of Cara Fahd (oops!), but on the whole, I'm really happy with it, and so is my group. I keep it on an easel next to the gaming table so it's in full view. I think it helps the world come alive in our imaginations more than a flat printed map does. I took a nice hi-res overhead picture of it and uploaded it to our group's wiki page. As they travel to new places, I've been adding labels and markers to it, to show where they have been.
Now that the Cathay setting has been released, I'm very tempted to do this again :)
So we all hope that the 3D Cathay Map is not far away and you can be sure that a lot of Earthdawn fans appreciate your work, but will remain envious of your map. 
(via Sethariel)
But today my attention was caught immediately when I read at Inkwell Ideas about an Hex map of the RPG community. The interactive map of the RPG community was made by Morro from ENWorld, he used the Hexographer of Inkwell to display the RPG communities based on member figures (One Hex = 1000 members). I say GREAT STUFF!!
Have a look at the INTERACTIVE HEX MAP OF THE RPG COMMUNTIES
Unfortunately the RedBrick forum has not enough members (542 atm) to fill one Hex. Not one Hex!!! Conclusion: Play more Earthdawn!!
The following interview was held between Telarus and Sethariel. Telarus gives an insight into his work of mapmaking and describes the development of the "Atlas of Barsaive".
When I first saw the Atlas of Barsaive I was really amazed by the author's accuracy in placing all of the most important locations in the map, including mountains, lakes, forests, not to mention small towns. Mapmaking in high standard. Meanwhile the Atlas of Barsaive by Telarus became quite popular with the fans. Some of them, like me, started wondering how to create a map of your own or at least modify the Atlas to one's needs. I contacted Telarus. We talked. The idea for this interview came as a result.
Hi Telarus. I am very pleased that you have found some time to answer my questions about the process of mapmaking. What or who inspired you to create your Barsaive map?
The idea came to me in a very abstract way, to begin with. I had the concept for an in-game item, a Threaded Map, that housed an Interactive Atlas of Barsaive. It would top out at a very high thread rank, with lower abilities including simple navigation and distance travelling, higher threads included mapping out the local area after a ritual had been cast. Something a high level Illusionist would craft up in a mad furry to mark the hiding place of the Mask of Oltion, or something like that. Deeds would include riddles and puzzles in the 'software', and traps and geasa (quests with curses/fine-print attached). Something to drive high-level play ("Your sister is the flashing red dot I've placed on your little toy, and I've released six jehuthras..they're the green ones. You're half a mile away, but so are the jehuthras. Good luck.") ....well, you have to assume an item like that is going to get marked, right?
Sounds very interesting. I suppose once we had a similar idea. Have you ever created that Threaded Map?
I have not laid out the actual stats of the Atlas. I currently do not have an active ED game going, so that was put aside for now. I really like the idea of Magical Maps, and would like to see some ideas from the ED community on those, threaded or otherwise. I also use Earthdawn as a reference a lot in my college studies in Video Game Design, so I may whip up a few Threaded or Legendary Maps as an exercise in applying the ED system.
Some possible Map Bang!s include:
(A Bang! is a sudden plot event/twist that the GM has no emotional attachment over, but forces the PCs to make a difficult choice or puts stress on one of the PC's existing conflicts. Having a collection of these Events to throw every now and again can be a good GM technique.)
~ Maps to Kaers that house people related to the PCs.
~ Magical Maps that have a time-limit coded onto them (a changing set of symbols that the PCs can't translate at first).
~ Maps left as clues at crime scenes (these can be normal paper maps, coded maps drawn in blood, or even just random cryptic clues, like colored pebbles left scattered around a wreaked caravan that would only mean something to someone fluid in written Obsidimen.
How did this inspiration turn into the idea of an interactive map you created?
I had recently suffered some strife a few years before (my house burnt down, with most of my books and gaming materal.. I know what a melted bowl of dice looks like.. ugh). Luckily I had archived a digital copy of most of my favorites, and the original FASA materials were included as I had possesed some damaged copies that I could bare to cut up and scan. The maps in the various Earthdawn box-sets have always impressed me, and I'm very happy to see RedBrick standing up to the high bar set by the FASA art direction. But, this was before any of the buzz and press about ED 'Classic' out of New Zealand. So when I found my files, I realized that I had a good way to present this Interactive Atlas idea to my players.
That is why you created the Atlas of Barsaive. What kind of programs did you use?
My first few prototypes were Flash files which had maps that you could easily zoom in and out on, and drag the terrain around with the cursor. At that point I didn't have any of the map drawn and had just worked out a simple interface. Then I collected the Barsaive box set map and the Sky Point/Vivane box set map into Adobe Illustrator (I found that the maps were not to scale with each other, or even aligned with each other) and manipulated them together. At that point it was a matter of rendering the terrain with the vector tools. This actually took the longest, as I preserved some of the original art by carving out the mountain valley shading and relief-lighting. I'm talking about a few months of drawing squiggly lines with a digital pen. During this time I was also experimenting with styles for the forests, the lava in Death's Sea, and the rivers, and the snow on the mountains.
Once that was done, I referenced all the other maps I could find in the material (Blood Wood, Cara Fahd, Serpent River, many others) and began adding location markers and Names (a few more months of intermittent work). Finally, roads and borders (man, orks like to draw borders - I think that's Theran induced trauma) and some other little details would finish it.
When I finally put the map back into Flash, and tried to drag it around, it began to show signs of error. Very slow reponse times at close zoom levels, but it was a working prototype. I believe Sade has an archive copy of that on her website.
Did you have any help from the fans?
I have recieved much feedback from many fans about the map, and they have caught many omissions and small errors that creeped in during the crafting. I'd like to thank everyone for helping to improve this resource.
How long did it take you to make it?
It spent about 2-3 years at a corrupt .fla flash file and an incomplete version of the illustrator file. During this time, RedBrick has given the Earthdawn community much needed dose of energy and new ideas. When I saw the need for a good map resource for the community, I knew that I would have a better release with some more work. I pulled all the vector info out of the corrupt .fla file, and re-worked all of the styling and labels and crafted the PDF version of the Interactive Atlas of Barsaive. This took a few weeks, and it has undergone various updates as the community has helped me maintain it.
What was the most difficult part of the work?
Hand tracing rivers and crags only for so long each day so I could spend time with my girl.
What was the easiest part?
I would say that the few weeks of re-drawing areas near the first release of the PDF. It was soooo close to being ready that the last few weeks were fun to do and flew by.
Do you have any advice for someone making his own fan map?
There are a wealth of gaming mapper resources out on the net. I would recommend learning a robust graphics program (Gimp is a good Open Source alternative. Inkscape is another good Open Source vector illustration tool), and start learning about maps.
Once you have an overview on how maps are presented, and the different styles they come in, investigate some of the digital mapping tools available. You really don't need anything too pricy, and there are tons of tutorials found by googling for "fantasy maps tutorial" or similar search terms. These will be the "Threads" that you weave your map out of.
Next, you have to have the right Pattern.
Don't make a map for map's sake. Ask youself what the purpose of this map will be (possibilities):
- Only to be seen by the GM, and updated..then used to generate a 'player' version with certain thing hidden? That will require certain techniques and file organization. Save a copy of the file, add in the "fog of war". There are some tools that can even calculate light sources for you.
- Hastily-scrawled looking map that show a small area of the docks. That requires others, and investigating textures like parchment and charcoal.
- A battle map would require reasonable tactical areas, thinking about line of sight issues, and attention to scale and where the action should be focused.
- Formal Kaer blueprint with encoded trap markers all over it.
- Many other intents and possibilities.
Then start doodling, draw and rough out a basic version. Save this. Next, start a new file and use your tools and techniques to make a better one. You'll probably go through a few of these cycles before you have something you like and which fulfills the purpose you set out for. Learning is an iterative proccess.
Any future plans concerning your map?
Right now I am learning 3d computer graphics and effects at school. I plan on using my PDF Atlas as the basis for a few different project ideas. From 3d rendered flying pans down the Badlands terrain, to images used in a Wiki-style atlas. I want to stick as close as possible to real world digital elevation model (DEMs) data as a base, and use my PDF atlas to tell me where to carve or lift terrain for rivers, volcanoes or other 'Barsaivian' features.
I also plan outlandish things in my mind, like modeling a large chunk of Bartertown including the Gates of Throal, and using the 3d version of my map to render the background and horizon-level terrain.
Yes, you'll definitely see more material from me at some point.
Thank you Telarus, for the interview and sharing your knowledge with us.
Thanks for the interview too, Sethariel! It's good to see the community taking a hand in crafting the future of Earthdawn.
Paratime Design offers on their page a some nice dungeon maps. So if you are looking for some kaer maps you should have a look at their roleplaying games resource page.
"Telarus" has made an Atlas of Barsaive and finally posted it at the Red Brick Earthdawn Forum. To spread it I contacted him and got his permission to do so. So here's this great fanwork from Telarus:
Some places are missing on this map, but as soon as Telarus publishes an update of his map, I'll let you all know.
I found several posts at the EDPT-forum from a guy called "Digger" from Wales. He has an interesting project: transfer Earthdawn maps into topographical maps. His maps are based on real world maps and he simply refers to the dimensions of the Earthdawn maps to place cities, lakes and rivers. His works are really great and have a different look compared to the original Earthdawn maps. He transferred all the Theran provinces and Barsaive.
Further he's made some computer graphic. I added some of my favourites to the Album.
If you want to know more about Digger's digital works, have a look over HERE.
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| Maps from Digger |
3 Bloodwood maps
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| Bloodwood |
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| Twilightpe |
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| Serpent River |
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| Parlainth + Haven |
All Gamemasters should have some maps in their hands to tell their players where they are and simply to give them an overview of their journey or the land of Barsaive in general. These pictures include some old elven maps found on gallery of EDPT. Also some physical maps and handout maps are included. Some maps have been coloured by SaDE an earthdawn artist i gonna introduce in one of the following posts.
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| Basaive Maps |
Sunday, April 23, 2017
Mordom
, Posted in
