Fantasy Homeland

Its coming along pretty well really...not just the map here; but characters are made as well!

First the map (still at 1 mile to the Hex):

Homeland WIP 1.1

Quite a few changes:

Added the "County of Wythe" to the southern part of the map. The County is a sparsely settled frontier domain with little in the way of great castles or any sort of thing. In fact, they likely get their finest metal goods from Dwarf Clan Birnir to their north. The County of Wythe is part of the Petty Kingdom of Vhir...a backwoods "Kingdom" of semi-organized highland freeholders under the authority of a council of "Counts" (equal to great Clan Chiefs) who select one of their number as King for Life. The humans in the area of this map not part of that Kingdom are actually closely kin to them, but because they are isolated by the Walker Mountain Chain, they have opted to stay apart and not be part of the Kingdom of Vhir.

The Elf-King Rhannoch is the High Elf who rules the land of his name...and has for hundreds of years. I estimate that on this map he is the most powerful Magic-User and not likely one to mess with!

Clan Birnir has a range of lands that they hunt that has been outlined; but they really exist primarily within their underground holdings guarding the ancient Dwarf Road that goes directly through the mountain. To the south of their holdings are grassy hills that they keep flocks of sheep to use for food and wool.

Clan Arnar is much the same to the north. They keep sheep as well, but engage in a great deal more hunting and foraging as Rocky Gap to the south doesn't supply them with as much in the way of farm goods as Walker's Hold in the south supplies to their cousins. Everything from venison to rabbit finds its way into their pots with wild onions, mushrooms and more.

I'll be making another post soon that goes into a great deal more detail about the area!

Hexing it out...

Well, I was pretty excited about this today...so I got a rough draft of the hex map finished:

Scale = 1 mile per Hex

There are still several things I want to do with the map; but this was a good first go I think. I'm still thinking on how I want to represent trails; but there is already a single road. I didn't place a name on it yet; but it is the Old Dwarf Road built ages ago before humans were first coming to the area as settlers.

The Dwarves originally built the road to go from their kingdom centered north of this map into southern lands for trade...but that Kingdom fell hundreds of years ago leaving only scattered holds such as North Gate and South Gate.

The tee-pee villages are Sylvan Elf "camps" in their usual locations...but these move often and those on the map only represent where the Sylvan Elves usually winter.

The Camps of Ceres and Hollybrook are human dominated camps. Hollybrook is a Druid led place; while Ceres is a logging camp from a southern realm not shown on this map. Ceres, while only a few miles from Walker's Hold, is pretty much on its own defensively; but fortunately for them the lone humanoid camp nearby is hounded by both forays from the High Elves of Grapefields and the ranging patrols of the humans within Bastian.

Speaking of humanoid camps, they are represented by the Campfires. The campfire in the Ogreback Mountains represents a tribe of ogres of course. I haven't decided on their name yet though. The other campfires are also up for future consideration...though the one at the headwaters of Dismal Creek are probably going to be wolf-riding goblins I'm pretty sure.

Well, that's enough for now...I'll have another update tomorrow most likely after I finish off the labels for the map.

Where we come from...

So I lived for several years as a teenager in a place called Bland County. I graduated High School from a place called Rocky Gap High. It was a beautiful place to be as a teenager...and it makes for an awesome background landscape for a Dungeons and Dragons game!

Here is a quick map of the area showing creeks that run through it with the mountains and place names of major settlements (I can't call any of them towns...because they aren't that big really).

Some of the names on this map lend themselves DIRECTLY to a D&D game: Bastian, Rocky Gap, Hollybrook, Wolf Creek and more.

The BIG thing about Bland County is that it is the ONLY United States county that is entered AND exited on the Interstate by going through long tunnels beneath mountains! Both of these lend themselves wonderfully to Dwarven Fortresses!

So I cleared a few things off this map and zoomed in a bit to create:

Now, all I need to do is add some settlements!

I'm going to be keeping a few:

Rocky Gap is going to be a trading village. It will have humans, dwarves, elves and even halflings and gnomes. It will be sitting where the real Rocky Gap is: at the meeting of the Clear Fork Creek and Wolf Creek and where Laurel Creek and Dry Fork Creek come together and merge into the greater Wolf Creek. It will be near to the North Gate (a dwarven town/mine where the East River Mountain Tunnel sits). The gnomes here say that once long ago they were ruled by the Prince of Clan Arnar (see below) but now are independent.

Bastian is going to be a human fort/tower. Built by humans and dwarves as a defense against bands of orcs raiding out of the northern forested hills/mountains to protect the trade route across the pass between Round Mountain and "Ogreback" mountain where ogres live (previously Hogback Mountain). It will sit at the base of Round Mountain where Hunting Camp Creek flows by before heading north and joining Wolf Creek.

I never liked the name Bland (heard lots of jokes on that one from a rural county with zero red lights in the whole county!); so I'm going to go with Walker's Hold.

Walker's Hold is going to be a human dominated settlement with extensive farming and pasture land around that was originally settled by frontier settlers pushing into the area against the native sylvan elf tribes. Things have settled a great deal in the past couple hundred years (most elves moved across Round Mountain into Grapefield to live with the High Elves there) and so the land is mostly quiet. Walker's Hold has a humble (but sprawling) fort that allows security against raiding orcs and the rare ogre that wanders down into the lowlands in the winter. It sits where Big Walker Creek is fed by a tiny tributary from Round Mountain. Walker's Hold is surrounded by several Halfling burrows as well and the small folk here claim they were once ruled by the Prince of Clan Birnir (see below).

North & South Gate are both reclusive dwarf holds. The two clans do NOT like each other at all. The dwarves of North Gate trade willingly in Rocky Gap and the dwarves of South Gate trade willingly with the folk of Walker's Hold; but should a dwarf from either clan meet the other, there may very well be bloodshed (though death is not usual as the two will fight with fisticuffs). North Gate is ruled by the Arnar Clan (Arnar is Icelandic for Eagles) and the South Gate is ruled by the Birnir Clan (Birnir is Icelandic for Bears). The Arnar do indeed ally themselves with Giant Eagles and the Birnir have great mountain bears that they associate with. Each of these clans claim they are the "Rightful Ruler of the Dwarf Kingdom" that once filled the hills and mountains around, but they split long ago when two twin brothers could not settle on who should rule. Each Clan is now ruled by a Prince and not a King.

Grapefield is a valley at the headwaters of Wolf Creek where the High Elves hold sway. They are the declared "protectors" of free ranging Sylvan Elves. Grapefield is not a single settlement, but a series of "Tree Towers" that stand on the edges of the valley where wolf creek runs through. In the fields between these many tree towers will be where the elves grow their grapes for the fabled Elven Wine so prized by other races for its intoxicating power. The High Elves of Grapefield have their own "King" and brook no intrusion without invitation into their valley. I picture it much like this image:

That is where I'm at right now. I'll be making a detailed Hex map (using Hexographer) pretty soon though!

View from Big Walker Lookout

Edwards' Home Campaign Prologue

It's time to have a brand new campaign at home...made from scratch!

I'm going to be creating a made from scratch Advanced Dungeons and Dragons campaign setting for my family to have fun in...I hope you'll join in to see how it all turns out!

I'm going to be starting with a map that is 1 mile to the hex that will enable me to create a local area for 1st level characters to get started in. Along with that I will be making a rough draft map of "The World" that a magic-user, cleric or illusionist might have at the start of the game.

It's going to be broad strokes at first, but I think this is going to be fun for all as the players (my kids and wife) will get to shape the world as much as I do. Their character backgrounds will cause numerous things to be created:

If they play an elf, where are the elves from?

If they are of Upper Middle Class, what family do they come from?

Literally the world will be started by me creating a small town for them with basics built in and the rest will be determined (I hope) by their own ideas and how I react to them.

Wish us luck!