I'm getting ready to run my first TSoY campaign next week and decided to make a map in preparation for that.
I'm sharing it here in the event that anyone wants to comment on / use it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33381637@N04/4955097722/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/33381637@N04/4955097722/)
Aghk! Totally posted this in the wrong thread.
Eero, can you delete this and my previous comment?
If not, sorry for double-fail-posting.
I split this from a discussion on another map of Near (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic=29259.0). Also check out the original Near map collection thread (http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forge/index.php?topic=27980.0) for comparisons. Seems we are establishing a tradition of thread necromancy on this topic ;)
Regarding the map, I love it! Seems that you're going with Khale in a central position (a popular variant) and a separate Zaru homeland. You also have Inselburg and Goren, both of which are less commonly mapped into Near, and Oran(ia), which is usually not explicitly marked. I like the Sea of Fire; I usually draw the Southern Sea as a gulf with the Spine reaching all the way to the southern continent, while this map gives more of an impression of Vulfland as a wholly separate from Near - I wonder what is across that Sea, and whether there's volcanic activity or something, considering the name. All in all, a beautiful work.
One thing I might do is to make the borders between the nations/cultures more indistinct. Most of these cultures are far from ordered and agriculturalized enough to really have national borders and permanent terrain; most of them don't in fact have any sort of national structure. In this regard a drawn border on a map is somewhat arbitrary. The way I play it, the cultural borders are indistinct and come in degrees, so that the players do not have an artificial security blanket telling them what they can or can't encounter in the game.
Are you planning to print this on a color printer for use in play? I'm wondering because I usually make do with less textured black and white maps for actual play so as to be able to draw on the map with impunity to mark down all sorts of campaign-specific detail.
Thanks for breaking this out and for the feedback. I was trying to post it in the Near Map Collection thread but somehow failed miserably.
Oh well.
I may go ahead and create a copy without borders and see how that looks... It'll probably be next week, but I'll see how it looks. Your argument for a map without borders is pretty compelling. I'll post it in this thread.
I am planning on printing this in color for play and I'll probably draw on it as we're playing, but then I'll go back into Photoshop and add cities, towns, travel lines, etc. after each meeting to act as a visual adventure tracker... That's the plan anyway, we'll see how it goes.
Here's a link to the same map without borders.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/33381637@N04/4971298326/ (http://www.flickr.com/photos/33381637@N04/4971298326/)
Not sure what I think of a map without borders, but it might make more sense in this case.