maps – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com The best place on earth for nerds. Thu, 09 Apr 2020 16:09:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/cropped-nerds_head_thumb2-100x100.png maps – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com 32 32 All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, under one umbrella. We create short run podcasts for nerds, covering D&D, Marvel, Starfinder, and more! You vote for your favorite shows and they just might get a second season. maps – Nerds on Earth false episodic maps – Nerds on Earth jason.sansbury@nerdsonearth.com podcast All the podcasts from NerdsonEarth.com, the best place on Earth for nerds. maps – Nerds on Earth https://nerdsonearth.com/wp-content/uploads/powerpress/noe-podcast-logo.png https://nerdsonearth.com/blog/ Mereruka: A Look at the Worst D&D Map in History https://nerdsonearth.com/2019/08/mereruka-dnd-map/ Wed, 07 Aug 2019 12:04:44 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=24909

Mereruka's mastaba is a tomb from Ancient Egypt. How does it work as a D&D map?

The post Mereruka: A Look at the Worst D&D Map in History appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

D&D maps can be such a mess. As evidence, take a look at the mess of a map below:

Again, what a mess of a map. I mean, as soon as you enter you are met with a secret room. Or you may enter an entirely different part of the dungeon! Nothing at all looks natural here and modern D&D players want authenticity!

And what’s with all those boring rectangles? I’ve talked before about the changing trends in D&D maps, so I can state with confidence that the rectangl(y) stretch like A4-A7 should get this map maker fired! Besides, everything is boring, as there isn’t a lick of decor in the place. I buy WizKids minis, I want to place my dungeon dressing!

Well, plot twist. I’ve been withholding the truth from you: the above is a 100% real map from history.

Specifically, this 100% historical map is of the Mastaba of Mereruka, one of Egypt’s most powerful officials some 4,000 years ago. So, let’s learn more from the archaeologists of The Sakkarah Expedition who published their work in 1938 via the University of Chicago.

Mereruka: History’s Worst D&D Map

Mereruka wasn’t a pharaoh in ancient Egypt, although he was an important government official. If you grew up going to Sunday School, then you may recall the Biblical story of Joseph, who became an administrator (vizier) over important facets of Egyptian life, such as grain storage.

That vizier role is the exact role that Mereruka occupied, making him the most important figure in Egypt directly after the Pharaoh. Being such an important state noblemen meant that Mereruka had vast wealth and power. Wealth and power in Egypt meant that you were entombed.

A ‘mastaba’ was a type of Egyptian tomb. Contructed out of bricks created from mud taken from the Nile River, a mastaba was rectangular with a flat roof and inward sloping sides. Although pharaohs began to be buried in pyramids, mastabas were common during Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom for the burial of non-royals.

As far as mastabas go, Mereruka’s was a doozy. It is so remarkable that a group of archaeologists called the The Sakkarah Expedition began excavating it in 1938. The Sakkarah Expedition found that the mastaba of Mereruka is among the largest and most elaborate of all the non-royal tombs with 33 rooms or chambers in total.

The 33 chambers are a series of chapels, corridors, and storerooms, and the painted reliefs on the walls of Mereruka’s mastaba form an unrivaled area of decorated wall surface that depicts life and activity in the Pyramid Age.

It was tailor-made to be a D&D dungeon in other words. Chambers A 1-21 is the tomb dedicated to the vizier Mereruka, chambers B 1-6 is the tomb if his wife Sesheshet Wa’tetkhethor, and chambers C 1-5 is the tomb of his son Meriteti.

Rooms A 1,3,4,6, and 8-13 were decorated with the incredible murals. A8 contains a secret door that is hidden behind a statue of Mereruka. Check for traps and roll a perception check to see if that statue begins to animate.

Sesheshet Wa’tetkhethor’s portion of the mastaba is entered through A1. B6 contains a shaft that leads to the burial chamber itself, while the chapel in B5 contains yet another false door.

Some of the most interesting scenes are depicted in the B chambers. Sesheshet watches servants attend to the breeding of cattle in one, another depicts fisherman hauling in a large catch, a third shows a hippo maul a crocodile. I don’t know about you, but I’m a little nervous that third one will animate.

The C chambers have another secret door as well as another rad mural. This one shows Sesheshet Wa’tetkhethor, accompanied by Meriteti, being carried in a lion-decorated palanquin (platform with poles) by female servants and accompanied by attendants, three dogs, and a monkey.

Boxed text from a D&D adventure has never been that evocative. Mereruka’s mastaba is a reminder that truth is often stranger than fiction. So why do we feel the need to get so creative with our D&D storylines when the best inspiration has always been found in history books?

The post Mereruka: A Look at the Worst D&D Map in History appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>
How to Use Real World Locales as Inspiration for Your Very Own RPG Maps https://nerdsonearth.com/2018/04/how-to-use-real-world-locales-as-inspiration-for-your-very-own-rpg-maps/ Thu, 26 Apr 2018 12:00:23 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=11861

Oftentimes the fantasy map you're looking for is right under your nose...

The post How to Use Real World Locales as Inspiration for Your Very Own RPG Maps appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

I probably won’t unearth the Lost Temple of Mussasir in present day Iraq, but I might find the geocache that’s tucked in the corner of the parking lot behind Knollwood Mall.

I probably won’t explore the mountain highlands of Papua New Guinea, but I might consider taking the kids to “that other park” a few blocks away. You know, the one with “the good playground.”

I probably will never search for the source of the Upper Zambezi in a native dugout canoe, but I might get a little time out on Lake Minnetonka on my buddy Bob’s boat this summer.

I probably won’t serve as an emergency battlefield medic for Médecins Sans Frontiéres, but my girls got their Girl Scout first aid badge, which is nice.

I probably won’t run with the bulls at Pamplona, but I might grill some burgers on our new infrared grill that does a really nice job of searing the beef.

Let’s be for real here. You probably won’t be engaging in any National Geographic-level adventures any more than I will. But you might also enjoy roleplaying maps as much as I do and enjoy the imagination that comes with the adventures.

And if you do enjoy RPG maps, I want to share a few little tricks that might inspire you to create your own RPG maps. The kicker is that these tricks will help you make sweet maps that are based on real-life-National-Geographic-worthy locales.

Trick 1: Drop a Pin in It. I’ve written fully about using satellite imagery as inspiration for your RPG maps, so I’ll just quickly sum up here.

I’ll often look up places in Apple Maps and use them as the wireframe for my own maps. I look up places that are meaningful to me, whether it’s a place I lived 20 years ago, a fun vacation I once had, or maybe just a landmark that brings back good memories for me. Then I’ll drop a pin in it and save it in my favorites.

This serves a double duty: A) The satellite imagery provides an incredible starting point for inspiration and B) I have a list of some of my favorite memories! Besides, even though the maps are obfuscated, it’s a nice nod to have an RPG map based upon a locale that’s special to you, even if the others around the table don’t realize it.

Again, read the full article if you are interested in using satellite imagery for RPG maps.

Trick 2: Hit up rest stops. Every time I’m at a rest stop, I flip through their literature rack, as it’s a treasure trove of RPG map inspiration.

Firstly, the free road maps you typically find are handy, as you can get a sense of how real-world geography shapes things logically (or doesn’t: read the Twitter thread below for a chuckle).

But I honestly encourage you to go more indy than standard road maps. The random brochures for Ethel and Willie’s Bedtime B&B or whatever can be gold, as they’ll often have included maps that have a more oft-kilter style than can provide a fun angle for an RPG map.

So take a moment in in those rest stops or roadside travel dives to flip through their travel literature rack. Open up the brochures and peek at the maps inside. If you find something that inspires you, tuck it in your pocket. Also buy the pie in places like that, as it’s almost always wonderful.

These are just a stack of maps I pulled out of travel literature racks. Each of them can provide inspiration for a great RPG map.

Trick 3: Spin it around. Look at something familiar from a whole new angle can give you an image you had never considered before. And I mean this literally.

One of my favorite beginnings to a fantasy map was a real-life map of Mexico that I simply turned at 180 degrees. That new angle provided a whole new look. What’s more is that while it it is typically wholly unrecognizable as a real place, it still has a resonance of a real place that allows it to go down real smooth at the table.

I’ve also flipped Africa on its side and turned New Zealand all the way upside down. A map of a small island just off the coast from Cancun was flipped upside down to provide the foundation for a “Zealandia” set of adventures that several of us Nerds on Earth writers are going to get around to some day.

Lessons learned? Use the geography around you as inspiration for your table, whether it be using satellite imagery or simply pilfering a dank rest stop in Wisconsin. Even if you’ll never get to visit the Forgotten Realms, this will give you the opportunity to experience a pretty incredible location.

The post How to Use Real World Locales as Inspiration for Your Very Own RPG Maps appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>
Where is a Good Cartographer When You Need One? RPG Map Sources https://nerdsonearth.com/2018/03/where-is-a-good-cartographer-when-you-need-one-rpg-map-sources/ Fri, 30 Mar 2018 12:00:44 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=17004

Here are a few ways to round up some quality maps for your RPG system of choice!

The post Where is a Good Cartographer When You Need One? RPG Map Sources appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

Whether you have a fancy table with a built in television, a game on Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, or just a friendly local game around a coffee table, unless your group works strictly in theater of the mind, at some point, as a GM, you will want a map. (While there are many sides on the maps and miniatures versus the theater of the mind approach, for today’s piece, I am going to assume that you have already made up your mind and want to use maps and miniatures.) So, what are some of the ways that you can source a map?

Google Image search. This one seems almost too easy and while it isn’t perfect, it will produce some results if you get the right keywords in your search. In general, I think it is interesting to see what items are out there and maybe help narrow down the search. But, here is the truth: someone spent their time and energy to make that map and you should honor that if you can. Most of the time I use the Google search to find what I want and then figure out how to pay for it.

Published adventures. Our current campaign on Starfinder is done entirely on Roll20. And I have found the best source for maps for my homebrew adventures out in the Drift are from the Paizo published products. The Starfinder Society pieces and the current Dead Suns Adventure Path have maps in them. And as a subscriber, I also get the pdf of said maps as a part of the adventure pdfs. So it is fairly easy to take those maps and make them work for what I need. Sometimes the maps inspire me to take it a certain direction but just as much, I need a certain setting and find what works. Likewise, for fantasy settings, there are tons of maps out there in published works that you can take and use as you see fit!

 

DMSGuild and Drive-Thru RPG. These two sister sites are built on the premise that people can put up things that are somewhat vetted and others can purchase them for a reasonable price. This option is especially good if you want something that is a step above what comes in an Adventurer’s League module. Others have taken those adventure’s and made nice, colorful version of those that can be used in your setting. In my experience, it is generally worth the investment if you have decided to go with miniatures and maps.

Support creators whose work you like. With the advent of the website Patreon, we have a unique circumstance where gifted creators of all kinds can establish a system of support to help them create. For instance, I realized that I was finding the same creator over and over again in my search for maps whose style I liked. That led me to Ross at 2 Minute Table Top! So, I have chosen to support him to the tune of a $1 per map/thing he creates and through Patreon I can cap it to a certain amount per month, in case he decides to go super prolific one month and knock out an absurd amount of maps. By supporting him, because of how he has things set up, I gained access to his back catalog, which is substantial. Here are a few other creators I found that you may want to consider supporting. (Nearly all of them make their back catalog available to you after you become a supporter.)

So, what about you? If you are doing more than just getting out the old Chessex map with the wet erase markers, how are you sourcing your maps? What works well at your table? Who is a creator that you think we should know more about?  Let us know by dropping in on our RPG-centric Facebook group Character Sheets and posting on the wall for that community to see and benefit from!

The post Where is a Good Cartographer When You Need One? RPG Map Sources appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>
How to Use Google Earth Maps as Inspiration for Your D&D Sessions https://nerdsonearth.com/2017/01/inspiration-for-dnd-maps/ Thu, 12 Jan 2017 13:31:17 +0000 https://nerdsonearth.com/?p=4305

One of the best things about D&D are the maps. Here is how to use actual satellite maps as inspiration for your adventures.

The post How to Use Google Earth Maps as Inspiration for Your D&D Sessions appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>

I love maps, particularly if they are of the D&D variety. I can’t tell you how many hours I spent as a kid drawing dungeons on graph paper.

I think about D&D maps even when I’m on vacation. I was in Mexico last Winter and I grabbed a stack of tourist maps from the travel agency office. The guy who ran the booth thought he was getting a customer, but little did he know that I was just pilfering them for map inspiration.

Map inspiration is actually our theme for the next few hundred words. The best source of inspiration you have for great D&D or Pathfinder maps is the real world. Simply think of the places you have visited and search for them in your map program (I’m an Apple guy, but Google maps functions just the same for this).

Some tips:

  1. Make sure you select the ‘Satellite’ option. Getting a flavor for the vegetation around is really helpful. Remember, there be monsters in those forests!
  2. But don’t forget to click to plain street view. That comes in handy when you are drawing village streets.
  3. Use the 3D feature to tilt the perspective. Inspiration can come when you look at something from a different angle.
  4. Turn off labels. They just clutter up your view.

Now I’ll take you to some of the locales where I’ve used aerial satellite maps to inspire my D&D maps.

Using Aerial Satellite Images as Inspiration for D&D Maps

screen-shot-2016-12-01-at-8-15-25-pm

Satellite imagery can really help with shorelines. The above satellite image is of Fort Liberte, Haiti. I have a set of travel images stored as favorites because I sometimes like to reminisce about places I’ve been.

When I last looked at this one I immediately grabbed my graph paper as the shoreline was just to good to pass up. This reminds me of the Inner Sea region of Pathfinder, so I began to imagine all the tiny locales that would be littered around the shoreline.

Haiti D&D Map

Remember, satellite imagery can really zoom in tight. The above photo is still Fort Liberte, Haiti, only it is now zoomed way in and ready to serve as inspiration for a D&D city map. Haiti’s narrow streets and cramped building style really serves to inspire the D&D city map aesthetic.

Just look at that! All you’d need to do is mark the tavern, temple, and wizard’s supply store.

Burundi D&D Map

What could happen if you simply changed one thing about the map? The above satellite photo is of Kibuye, Burundi. It’s a tiny missionary outpost that is in one of the most beautiful valleys you could ever see. But look at that soccer field in the northeast corner.

What if you’d turn that soccer field into a small lake? Suddenly you have yourself a pretty ready to go village, built for it’s strategic location near a water source (don’t forget a small inlet and outlet). Or take it another direction: What if the soccer field was a gladiator pit? Suddenly you have an adventure hook.

Think if there is one thing you can reimagine in a satellite map that will give your D&D adventure some interest and plausibility.

Zambia D&D Map

Don’t be afraid to let the local folklore or habitat inspire you. The above satellite image is Siamajele, Zambia. In terms of ease at which you could quickly sketch a town or village, it’s probably not the most inspiring. But when I traveled there, I asked the locals why so many houses were built up on the hill, away from the only source of fresh water. Their one word answer was “hippos.”

While a hippopotamus may seem like a gentle creature, don’t let them fool you. They may only have four teeth, but they are big teeth. Worse, hippos are very territorial and are known to be aggressive toward people on the shores edge. I wouldn’t build my house nor plant my farm near them either, even if it meant I’d have to walk for water.

But darned if that doesn’t make for great inspiration for a D&D adventure. Quickly sketch a town, except something clearly isn’t right.

  • Maybe all the houses near the docks have been burned down.
  • Maybe there are skulls along one side of the city walls.
  • Maybe a section of town is quarantined for some reason.

Now invent a story for the creature that made it that way and create a narrative for how the townspeople have adjusted. Your heroes now have an adventure!

screen-shot-2016-12-01-at-8-32-44-pm

Don’t think more developed nations don’t have something to offer as map inspiration. The above satellite map is of St. Stephen, New Brunswick. My wife and I had our first date in Canada, so I dropped a pin in it to remember.

I turned off the satellite view as the local vegetation wasn’t offering as much in the way of inspiration. But I was struck at how easily that could be a D&D settlement that was built along a river. Be right back, I need to grab my graph paper!

Angkor Wat, D&D Map

Don’t limit it to places you’ve been. The above satellite photo is of Angkor Wat. I’ve never been to Angkor Wat, although I’ve always dreamed of going. Why shouldn’t I use a place with so much history in a D&D adventure? That’s a rhetorical question, because I of course should use Angkor Was in a D&D adventure, and you should feel free to let real life places inspire your D&D maps as well.

That’s just a brief introduction to how you can use aerial imagery to inspire your D&D or Pathfinder map making. Now add your own creativity to the mix.

If you’ve enjoyed anything you’ve read on Nerds on Earth, please do us a solid and help us boost the signal by sharing it via the social media buttons around the site. Liking us on Facebook is appreciated as well.

Thanks for reading.

The post How to Use Google Earth Maps as Inspiration for Your D&D Sessions appeared first on Nerds on Earth.

]]>