leg1on
Level 3 Conjurer
Posts: 88
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Post by leg1on on Apr 3, 2014 19:56:18 GMT -6
Hi All,
Yeah, so is there one?
Off the cuff, do you have an ideal size -- let's say in square miles -- for a sandbox campaign? At least at the start?
Thanks,
Legion
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Post by blackbarn on Apr 3, 2014 20:25:52 GMT -6
I'd say figure how far per day the characters can likely travel, then decide how quickly you'd like them to reach the edge of your campaign area from the place they start at. Base the size of the map on that.
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Post by geoffrey on Apr 3, 2014 22:18:54 GMT -6
I recommend about 35,000 square miles to start. This is what I did in both Carcosa and Isle of the Unknown. This is roughly the square mileage of any one of the Wilderlands maps. This is roughly one-fourth the size of the Blackmoor map. Note that Dave Arneson conducted his Blackmoor campaign for about 40 years on that one map. Thus a map one-fourth that size is more than sufficient for a beginning campaign.
I suggest you find a copy of the blank, numbered hex maps that Judges Guild used for their Wilderlands maps. They are floating around the internet, and I'm sure someone could point you to one. Then print-out one of its quadrants on a sheet of 8.5" by 11" paper. Let each hex be 10 miles across. Then get to work. Your map will cover an area equal to that covered by a Wilderlands map, or the Carcosa map, or the Isle of the Unknown map. If you are so inclined, you could later print the other three quadrants and continue your map on those, resulting in a campaign map as big as Blackmoor (which, again, lasted Dave Arneson 40 years).
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Post by waysoftheearth on Apr 3, 2014 23:16:33 GMT -6
Let each hex be 10 miles across. Given that movement rates are almost always factors of 3", you might also consider a 6 or 12 mile hex. FWIW, the Outdoor Survival board uses 3 mile hexes and the total map covers 13,200 square miles.
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leg1on
Level 3 Conjurer
Posts: 88
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Post by leg1on on Apr 4, 2014 14:03:15 GMT -6
Thanks guys.
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Post by Alex Schroeder on Apr 16, 2014 7:05:55 GMT -6
As for myself, when I'm doing detailed plained I usually start one hex, all the surrounding hexes, the rule that the party can travel one hex per session, and an adventure per hex. Greywulf once called it the Microlite Campaign. I usually have some sort of larger region map such as Wilderlands of High Fantasy or Points of Light or whatever, but often I don't have a lot of ideas for the surrounding area. Stuff gets added in play.
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Post by Finarvyn on Apr 17, 2014 19:55:50 GMT -6
I usually have some sort of larger region map such as Wilderlands of High Fantasy or Points of Light or whatever, but often I don't have a lot of ideas for the surrounding area. Stuff gets added in play.In general I try to avoid getting tied down to things like actual distance. What I do is to start off with a map -- one of the "Points of Light" maps is a great size, or a single Wilderlands map instead of the whole campaign world -- and populate it with enough fun things that the characters can be kept busy. Sprinkle in a couple of villages, several castles with dungeons, and so on, and you're fine. As a rule of thumb I like to assume that "the dungeon" is a half day to a full day away from "the village" and that "the city" is several days away from "the village." That sort of defines my scale without me having to get too hung up on exact distances.
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