First off, let’s talk a little bit about my background. I
have been playing Dungeons and Dragons for as long as I can remember (about 20
years). One of my earliest memories is waiting for my Dad to come home from
work so I could play my first game of D&D. That first character was an elf
named Zeniff. We had later forgotten I played that character, and my family
insisted I hadn’t played D&D before we moved to our new house; they
insisted my first character was my cleric, Paul. When I was in high school we
found Zeniff’s old character sheet, so I could finally prove I played D&D
at the old house. Anyway, we played using the old BECMI boxed sets in the Known
World, and were pretty isolated from anyone else who played D&D until
middle school and high school.
When I was in middle school I played a few games of
Alternity, Rifts, and World of Darkness with my older sisters’ friends who were
in high school. It was about the same time that I became aware of the 3rd
Edition of D&D and other RPG groups. I DMed my first game when I was a
sophomore in high school. It was also during high school that I began to read RPG
forums (like ENworld) and blogs. By the end of high school, I had made so many
houserules and adaptations from other games in order to ‘fix’ D&D that I decided
to create my own game system. The first complete version was finished by the end
of 2010; currently I’m in the middle of editing, reorganizing and rewriting
large parts of my system. I’ll post more details about it at some point in the
future.
On to the matter at hand, I am currently studying Geography
at the University of California Northridge. I will be graduating at the end of
this semester and am working on my capstone project. My project will consist of building a web map
and analyzing the benefits and drawbacks of such an application, specifically
in regards to fantasy and rpg maps.
Computer
based mapping in the form of GIS software has been around for several years.
Digital map making is nothing new, but for a long time only those with the
right skills and training could make use of GIS software in order to create
digital maps. The end result was often a static map, in paper form, or as a
part of a digital presentation. The basic cartographic design has remained
relatively stable in this transformation of medium. However, the introduction
and widespread use of web maps is having a dramatic effect on the profession.
The ability of a web map to be interactive affects many of the basic
assumptions about creating a good map. Things as simple as zooming in and out
and panning around on a web page influence how a map is perceived and used. With
the web map, the main concern is how the map will be used by the public more
than strictly adhering to any single dogma of how to make a good map.
In the midst
of all this change in the field of cartography, publications dealing with the
fantastic are left behind. The common paperback novel still has the same style
of generic fantasy map that persisted thirty years ago. Maps of fantasy worlds have
been published in RPG books for decades with little change. These maps are also
often released as pdfs, but they were designed to be printed either as poster
or on a page in a book. The cartographers of the RPG industry rarely use or make
hand drawn maps, but they are not using GIS software either. Campaign Cartographer, Adobe Photoshop and
Microsoft Publisher are common software programs used among fantasy
cartographers. The maps produced are often aesthetically pleasing, but of
little use if trying to describe a location.
The goal of
this project is to show how fantasy cartography can make use of modern
technology and how that will benefit those who play RPGs. The webmap I construct will showcase the world of Mystara.
The world of
Mystara is a fantasy setting that was developed for the Dungeons and Dragons
game in the early 80s. It was specifically made to introduce new gamers into a
setting that contained all the elements of Dungeons and Dragons and showcased
how a new Dungeon Master might create a fantasy world. Most of the countries in
the setting were modeled after a real world historical cultural in order to
show new gamers how to use different aspects from history as inspiration for a
fun game. The actual world map was derived from a paleogeographic map of the
earth during the Jurassic period. Ultimately many different versions of this
setting were published over the course of about 15 years in many different game
books. These publications often contradicted each other or redrew the map in
some places. A lot of work has already been done by fans in solving
contradictions and filling in gaps. However, a lot of this work has been
undertaken under some faulty assumptions and are not geographically accurate as
a result.
This project
will focus on the Grand Duchy of Karameikos in the fantasy world of Mystara.
The culture of the area can be described as resembling medieval England shortly
after the Norman conquest in 1066. The country covers an area of approximately
22,260 square miles, an area slightly larger than modern Croatia. The reason
for focusing on this area is to limit the scope of the project, in addition to
the fact that this area has the greatest amount of detail published about it
within the world of Mystara.
As stated
previously, the work of others, though amazing and not to be belittled, has
almost entirely been based on some false geographic assumptions. The first and
probably most important detail ignored is the origin of the world map. The
world of Mystara is clearly stated to take place on earth long ago in one of
the rulebooks (even though it is also stated that the Dungeon Master can change
this fact).
The home world of human player characters as portrayed in the
D&D Basic, Expert, Companion, and
Master sets is . . . simply our real
one, but at a point in the far past. The land masses diagrammed in the Companion
set are a rough depiction of the ancient world of Pangea. The continents have
only begun to drift from their early unified position, following the modern
theories of the shifting tectonic plates. . . We have the elements of fantasy
to this likely early configuration, and the result is the campaign world
described in the boxed sets and adventures. This period of Earth’s history is
therefore known as the Age of Magic. (DM’s guide to Immortals, p. 5)
In addition
to this several times in recent years the creator of the world, Frank Mentzer has
stated that the basis of the world map was a historical map of Pangea.
“Some of the
Suits wanted to create their own in-house campaign world for D&D (i.e. no
royalties for a change) and thus Mystara was born. It started with a worldmap
of Pangaea from Francois Froideval, twiddled by yours truly, and introduced in
brief in the DM's Companion and extended to the entire world in the Master DM's
Book." (Frank Mentzer, 4 Aug 05, http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=106&t=10717&p=216320&hilit=Francois#p216320
)
during BECMI the topic of a Base World did come up, and Tom
Moldvay had included certain details in his set (and Zeb's X-1 module likewise).
I remember discussing the topic with various folks (mostly Gary), and Francois
Marcella Froideval contributed a map of earth dating geologically somewhere
between single-land-mass preprepreprehistory and the current state of
continential drift. (Frank Mentzer, 2 Sep 10, http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=106&t=35588&p=947988&hilit=Francois#p947988
)
Though Francois and I had frequent contact, as we were both
creative friends of Gary, I wasn't familiar with the things he did while he
visited TSR. I don't even know if he was an employee. Early in the period that
I was developing BECMI I had openly invited everyone to contribute or
participate, and Francois retooled the historical map of Pangaea (Earth before
continental drift) as a suggestion for my new world, and I accepted it and took
it from there. (Frank Mentzer, 31 Aug 06, http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=10717&start=1500 )
“We played
with plate tectonics as early as '82 (when Francois pushed it)” (Frank Mentzer,
23 Oct 13, http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=85&t=11264&p=134142&hilit=francois#p134142
)
This idea of
setting D&D as Earth’s Age of Magic was ignored in later publications, so
numerous contradictions grew up between the early publications and later
expansion material.
“One
interesting side effect: since I was doing the entire boxed set line alone, and
since TSR was using committees for most of its designs of that magnitude -- a
procedure with which I simply refuse to comply; I almost always work alone -- I
was not only uninvolved with the Mystara world line but was also never
consulted about anything in it” (Frank Mentzer, 4 Aug 05, http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=106&t=10717&p=216320&hilit=Francois#p216320
)
 |
| Figure 1 |
The modified
map of Pangea was presented in the Masters set as seen in figure 1 without any
geographical reference (latitude or longitude, projection, scale), and any work
that subsequently expanded on it has been guesswork. Taking the statement that
Mystara is earth in the past as a basis, then it follows that earth’s geography
and everything we know about mapping the earth’s surface should be applied to
Mystara as well. If modern paleogeographic maps are examined, it can be seen
that the map of Mystara closely matches that of the late Jurassic period (http://www.scotese.com/late1.htm ),
yet the match is not exact. A map of the same geologic time period must be
found that would have been available to the publishers of Dungeons and Dragons
before the release of the continental and world maps of Mystara. From the
quotes above it can be surmised that work on the world map had begun as early
1982 or 83. This was well in advance of the publication of the Companion set
which was released in 84. A map matching our criteria can be found in a
publication about rainfall patterns in the Mesozoic (Parrish, J. T., Ziegler, A. M. and Scotese, C. R.,. (1982). "Rainfall patterns and the distribution of coals and evaporites in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic."). This map
almost perfectly matches that of the world map of Mystara(compare Figure 2 with
Figure 1). Based on the original paleomap I will be using the Mollweide
projection to map Mystara.
 |
| Figure 2 |
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