New World Map

[keithcurtis]

Once again, being between assignments, I have had some time to devote to Savage Earth matters. This time, I have completely re-done the campaign map. I started the map long ago as a personal project and never meant for it to be a showpiece. However, looking at some of my later maps, that early thing looked rather wretched in comparison.
So, submitted for your approval, here are links to the

Main Map:http://savageearth.net/Savage-Earth-Master-Map.gif (http://savageearth.net/Savage-Earth-Master-Map.jpg)

The Campaign Area:http://savageearth.net/TMerikia.gif (http://savageearth.net/Merikia.jpg)

And the Page that puts them into context (http://savageearth.net/world.html)

Keith "Savage Cartographer" Curtis

[Curufea]

Very nice!

But - no beaches or cliffs? Or is the scale too large to show them?

[Old Man]

Scale should be pretty obvious...

[Steve Long]

Very nice! Excellent work as always, Keith!

[Curufea]

Scale should be pretty obvious...
I can't tell. Too much looking at maps of islands I guess - detailed coastlines just don't give me a good clue to scale.
How many kilometers is it across?

[teh bunneh]

I can't tell. Too much looking at maps of islands I guess - detailed coastlines just don't give me a good clue to scale.
How many kilometers is it across?

Rotate the first map 90 degrees clockwise and then take a good look at it. :)

[keithcurtis]

Rotate the first map 90 degrees clockwise and then take a good look at it. :)
hee-hee.

Keith "Some of my own players didn't get this for years..." Curtis

[Eosin]

That is what I get for not keeping you busy.

:celebrate

Very nice work Keith.

[Curufea]

The implication is that it's a real world map rotated - I just don't recognise the coastline. What continent is it based on?

[Eosin]

It is North America rotated with a different polar north. See the "Rocky Mountains"....

[Super Squirrel]

Alaska is your more obvious visual hint.

[Basil]

hee-hee.

Keith "Some of my own players didn't get this for years..." Curtis
I hate to disparage people I haven't met, but someone would have to be pretty thick not to get the joke. Certainly, to not get it for years.

[Curufea]

Perhaps the players weren't Americans?

[keithcurtis]

Actually, they were. (Americans)
The campaign map they most often looked at was the second one, though, and that group of islands up there aren't familiar to a lot of people.
You'd be surprised how many people miss the connection. Also, the older map included the north coast of Asia, also terra incognita to casual map users.

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[Curufea]

Yeah, I'm just nick picky because I'm jealous :)

[Super Squirrel]

Phenomenal work as usual... makes my own maps seem so, um, inadequate.
Maps nothing. I mean, they are phenominal, don't get me wrong. But you should be a player in his game. It is games like that that force me to pay for internet access. :)

[Basil]

Actually, they were. (Americans)
The campaign map they most often looked at was the second one, though, and that group of islands up there aren't familiar to a lot of people.
OK, I'll grant you it's not a part of the world/map I look at very often. But come on! ---- "Green Land", "Baffin Island", "Nunavut Jungle", "Boothia", "Banks Island", "Bear Lake", "Slave Lake", etc., etc. And they didn't get it?? Man, no wonder most of the world considers Americans ignorant in geography.


You'd be surprised how many people miss the connection. Also, the older map included the north coast of Asia, also terra incognita to casual map users.
I'd think that'd help.



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lisaB "sdrawkcab"

[keithcurtis]

Apparently, some folks just don't care about that world-building stuff. I discussed this with a couple of players. One of them said that they really only were interested in the world as it related to them. They were interested in character building options, the interaction and role-playing plots. They viewed knowledge of the wider world as irrelevant and never bothered to study the material closely that did not relate to their character.

As a world-builder, I find this approach totally incomprehensible. Valid, I suppose, but incomprehensible.

Keith "Don't get it" Curtis

PS. Here's an animation from the old site design.
http://home.comcast.net/%7eTheGm/SE/globe.gif

[Super Squirrel]

Really? Wow.

I'm personally a person who likes to know "how". Questions like How did the earth tilt? and How did the Demon Kings come to power? are the questions I ask about worlds.

[Greatwyrm]

They viewed knowledge of the wider world as irrelevant and never bothered to study the material closely that did not relate to their character.

As a world-builder, I find this approach totally incomprehensible. Valid, I suppose, but incomprehensible.


I agree, but consider how many people live their real lives in that same way.

[Super Squirrel]

I agree, but consider how many people live their real lives in that same way.
A lot of people live the real life as simply watching TV. What kind of World View is that?

[Greatwyrm]

A lot of people live the real life as simply watching TV. What kind of World View is that?

I guess it depends on how good your cable package is. :)

[Curufea]

Dang - looking at your globe, we're not on it :(

[keithcurtis]

Sure you are. Southern Hemisphere, just after Asia and before equatorial Antarctica. You're a little farther south than normal and Canberra is probably (ant)arctic in climate. Poor Rage is buried under a polar ice cap.

Keith "You are sideways, old east coast pointed south" Curtis

[susandwyer]

Actually, I was one of the players that "didn't get it". I think it's because I absolutely, completely didn't care. Where the campaign is doesn't matter. It is what it is. It is as real as the GM and players make it. Keith likes his maps and I think they're nice to look at but my question has always been, "What's off the page?" Steve had Keith make a map for something (Valdorian?) that said Equator at the bottom. Well, what's past that? Drove me crazy to look at. Didn't get it=didn't care to get it. It is the Savage Earth.

[Enforcer84]

Now I just got to get you to make a map fore Edean...if only I knew what I wanted it to look like :D

Awesome as usual, Keith!

[Fitz]

Apparently, some folks just don't care about that world-building stuff. I discussed this with a couple of players. One of them said that they really only were interested in the world as it related to them. They were interested in character building options, the interaction and role-playing plots. They viewed knowledge of the wider world as irrelevant and never bothered to study the material closely that did not relate to their character. As a world-builder, I find this approach totally incomprehensible. Valid, I suppose, but incomprehensible.

I feel your pain. I've long come to the realization that for the most part, any world-building stuff I do has to be for my own amusement. If stuff is forcibly brought to the players' attention they'll usually say something polite, but they really don't care all that much.

[keithcurtis]

I feel your pain. I've long come to the realization that for the most part, any world-building stuff I do has to be for my own amusement. If stuff is forcibly brought to the players' attention they'll usually say something polite, but they really don't care all that much.
Actually, I have enough players FTF and on-line who do care about that stuff to make it worthwhile. And Susan is an excellent role-player.

Keith "lucky GM" Curtis

[Basil]

Sure you are. Southern Hemisphere, just after Asia and before equatorial Antarctica. You're a little farther south than normal and Canberra is probably (ant)arctic in climate. Poor Rage is buried under a polar ice cap.
Not really. Canberra would be about 44.5º South (assuming the new south pole is at current 180º E/W, 0º N/S).

OTOH, places like Fiji and Vanuatu will definately by antarctic.

[keithcurtis]

The assumption is incorrect, though not by much. And your conclusion is pretty accurate It was not tilted along the Prime meridian. The new south pole is closer to 160°E, 0°N/S. This puts Canberra just under 50°S.
You are correct that this is far from antarctic; I was speaking from memory. By consulting my old climate map, I do see that it borders on a Marine West Coast climate.

Keith "Enjoy the redwoods" Curtis

[Curufea]

Kinda like what Canberra is now :)

[teh bunneh]

Those maps are way cool, Keith. I need to have you make the map for my world. ;)

Bill.

[keithcurtis]

Kinda like what Canberra is now :)
[does research]
So it is! Despite the fact that my wife lived in Wadonga for several years, I cannot shake my impression of Australia as universally dry.

Keith "I blame Terry Pratchett" Curtis

[Curufea]

Well - it 80% is.
Plus we even feel it here - we've had a drought the last 5 years. Luckily this year (in Canberra at least) the rains have been coming back.
Low temperature (in the case of Canberra) rarely equates to rain. It snows maybe once, for 15 minutes, every 8-10 years.

[Basil]

The assumption is incorrect, though not by much. And your conclusion is pretty accurate It was not tilted along the Prime meridian. The new south pole is closer to 160°E, 0°N/S. This puts Canberra just under 50°S.
You are correct that this is far from antarctic; I was speaking from memory. By consulting my old climate map, I do see that it borders on a Marine West Coast climate.

Keith "Enjoy the redwoods" Curtis
Ah, OK.

So the North pole is at 20°W, 0°N/S? Thanks; now I can figure the new-latitude of various places. :)

[ChaosDrgn]

I love how TSR did this one way back when.

[Super Squirrel]

Hmmm.

Adept GPS Services.

[keithcurtis]

I love how TSR did this one way back when.
That's cool. The old Laurasia/Gondwanaland era. I did a few pages for a homemade fantasy comic set in that period, way back in high school. What product was it in?

Keith "Gondwanaland is fun to say out loud." Curtis

[Basil]

I love how TSR did this one way back when. Hmm.... Curious--if you look at the very bottom of that it says "Circumference: 19,448 miles"

Since Earth's circumference is ~40,074 km, the map is of a planet about 21.9% smaller than Earth.

Or TSR goofed up. ;)

[keithcurtis]

Maybe they meant leagues. Or Centons or something. :)
Most likely they forgot the 2 in 2πr.

Here's an interesting pic I posted on the Savage Earth forum last night.
A player and I were fiddling with Google Earth maps. We decided to zoom in and see what the area around Tallon (the campaign city) really looks like now. When I developed the original maps, I used a big ol' atlas for the basics. Nice, but not too detailed.
The truth isn't too far off, but I imagine that the catastrophe that swung the earth around must also have raised the area up a little. It's just plain soggy up there. The satellite image also suffers a bit from severe distortion (Google uses a Mercator projection). It also appears to have been shot from an oblique angle. This is on the Thelon* River (or perhaps the Chesterfield Inlet--I'm not sure where one begins and the other ends), between Baker Lake and Hudson Bay. The locals in SE call it the Theron Inlet.

wide picture (http://savageearth.net/Maps/Savage-Earth-Satellite.jpg)

Keith "I like it better all covered in jungle" Curtis

*Thelon => Tallon, or how the city got its name.

[susandwyer]

[does research]
So it is! Despite the fact that my wife lived in Wadonga for several years, I cannot shake my impression of Australia as universally dry.

Keith "I blame Terry Pratchett" Curtis
Wodonga ya dronga!

:D

[ChaosDrgn]

That's cool. The old Laurasia/Gondwanaland era. I did a few pages for a homemade fantasy comic set in that period, way back in high school. What product was it in?

Champion's of Mystara.

I think it is supposed to be smaller then the Earth. Esp since the poles are "cut off" (the world is like a doughnut, if you keep going north/south you go around the lip and into the hollow section of the world).

[keithcurtis]

Thanks, that makes sense. I love Hollow Earth stories, regardless of the impossibility.

Keith "Invested heavily in the Perry and Innes expedition." Curtis

[keithcurtis]

Cool. Here's your chance folks. Sign up now before you lose your seat!

Hollow Earth Expedition (http://www.ourhollowearth.com/VoyagetoHollowEarth.htm)

Keith "I need a Triceratops head for my den*" Curtis


*It's a big den.

[Basil]

Maybe they meant leagues. Or Centons or something. :)
Most likely they forgot the 2 in 2πr.
That would give a more than 21.9% error. ;)


Here's an interesting pic I posted on the Savage Earth forum last night.
{snip}
Cool. Thanks for sharing. :)