Another relevant pic for scale on maps

It really is interesting just how small Europe is, but how huge of an influence it has had on the world.

UK/US superimposed map

I just thought this was interesting. Think about how much history has happened in the UK. Now see how big it is compared to the US. I bet more than half of the US states are each bigger than all the British Isles combined.

*click for bigger image*

Warhammer FRP

I played a bunch of WFRP, both 1e and 2e, over the years. I really enjoyed the setting, and the dark tone. No matter how tough you were, you could be killed quite quickly by a lucky skaven or goblin.

When we played, we actually avoided the "find the cultists" mysteries popular among the published adventures. I think the best campaign I was in involved me and my friends acting as mercenaries  around Praag. My first, and funnest, character was a physician's assistant. I think I caused as much damage as I healed, thanks to awful dice. But we had fun.

Recently, over at RPGSite, someone provided a link to a bunch of maps for the Warhammer World. I figured I would share it here for those interested. I really recommend the maps labelled high detail. Wish I had these back when we were playing regularly.

Hex mapping program

I found wildgen while looking for a hex mapping program. The linked page generates random maps similar to those found in old D&D products. On the sidebar, there is also a link to an add-on for GIMP that will let you make your own hex maps. It's very easy to use, and I thought I'd let everyone know about it.

There's also a pretty cool random person generator that uses tarot cards, along with Traveller hex maps, etc. It's really just a great site for gamers.

Published adventures, and how I use them

I very rarely use a published adventure as written. Too many times, my players will do something completely off the wall, or just ignore something that would cause the adventure to collapse before it even gets started. I've made a little list of things that I do that makes even stuff published for completely different systems usable.

1. Maps. These are always useful. I have a collection of photocopied maps in a binder that I can whip out at a moments notice.
2. NPC's. Also always usable. It's a bonus if they're written in the system I'm using.
3. Art. That cool picture of a vampire will be used somewhere.
4. General plot lines. These can provide some great inspiration, even if the particulars in the adventure wouldn't suit.
5. Little details. The room with a neat description and associated monster might get dropped into a completely different scenario, just because I like it. I've done this with a couple adventures that I've literally not used for anything else. It's kind of my "Well, at least I got this one little room out of the book" feeling.

Setting Maps

I'm a big fan of maps. When I get a setting book, the first thing I look at is the map. I don't know why, but maps are just really, really cool. That said, I do have my preferences.

Favorite rpg maps
Harn and Ivinia - Both are from Columbia Games. They are very detailed, and also make sense. Cities have lots of small villages surrounding them, and there are no deserts sitting right next to glaciers.

Forgotten Realms 1e - Yeah, they are pretty blank, and a glacier is sitting right next to plains and in a warm territory. But it's there due to a major magical curse. The wide open areas leave tons of room for me to stick in my own stuff, especially monsters. And the maps are huge, especially when you put them all together. Some of this is nostalgia, though.

MERP maps - All of them. These are works of art.

Earthdawn - Beautiful maps, that don't give away too much information. And the setting is quite different from standard D&D stuff.

Maps I don't really care for
Greyhawk 1e - I don't like the hexes. And most of the country names are downright silly.

Planescape - Love the setting. The maps are unusable in game, though they are pretty.

Wilderlands (Necromancer set) - Small, two-sided, hexes. I love the setting. The maps really needed to be bigger and in color, though that would have made the set ridiculously expensive.

Hex mapping

I kinda missed most of the hex mapping craze during my early gaming career. I wasn't really introduced to it until I picked up the Wilderlands of High Fantasy box set put out by Necromancer Games a few years back. I'm kinda up in the air on my feelings about this style of map when used for a campaign setting.

Pros
1. I love just having a large bunch of encounters keyed to each hex. It is easy to organize, and very easy to look up information on the fly.
2. It gives the game a more sandbox feel, at least to me. Especially when the hexes are not set up where all the low-level adventures are in one corner, and all the high-level adventures are in the other corner. You could find a dragon one hex over from a small goblin cave.
2a. It makes it easier as far as just letting the characters wander wherever they want to, as there will be at least one interesting thing for them to find in any given direction. Now, if they can actually handle the encounter is another story.


Cons
1. Hexes are damn ugly. And they can hide map information if not done just right.
2. It makes it harder for me to picture how each kingdom or area is set up, and how they deal with their neighbors. The pertinent information is often in the various hex entries, which tend to be scattered about by hex number, instead of a separate country/area entry.
3. While it is cool to have big monsters living right next to little ones, an inexperienced or rash adventuring party could easily be killed just by heading east instead of north.