https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Ok2tzw3aug6cOH8lhqJXK6iDB-QuSNrBqgMtdk6Gd-0/edit?usp=sharing
Showing posts with label Maps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maps. Show all posts
April 9, 2017
Minaria Map with Hex Numbers
This should help simplify my campaign notes. Might be useful to anyone else running a game in Minaria. I placed the 990 hex coordinates in an effort to minimize their impact on the artwork and labels.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Ok2tzw3aug6cOH8lhqJXK6iDB-QuSNrBqgMtdk6Gd-0/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1Ok2tzw3aug6cOH8lhqJXK6iDB-QuSNrBqgMtdk6Gd-0/edit?usp=sharing
October 21, 2014
Ancients and Aliens - Getting around the Map
Sumer 3000BC (-ish)
I couldn't find a good detailed map of Sumer for this time period, so I made my own. Some of these cities might be temporally dislocated by a paltry 500 or 1000 years, but at least the physical distances are pretty much dead on. Ask your local sumerologist to be sure. If you have a better map, please point me to it. Seriously.
This isn't a map I would take on a time traveling mission, but it's probably good enough for a game about aliens nuking elves from orbit.
The Persian Gulf reached far further North in 3000 BC than it does today, as seen on my map here. Today it's shore would be found south of this map's edge. The forests and swamps are all my own fiction; but the hills, mountains, and rivers are pretty accurate for the time period (I believe). The landscape changes a bit every spring when the Tigris floods it's banks and spills water into it's surrounding hexes. Notably a huge area south of Der becomes a vast swamp, and the hexes east of Sippar become swampy as water pours into the Euphrates. This can cause some flooding along the Euphrates as well, turning some hexes downstream into marshland. By summer the flooding is mostly resolved, but I reserve the right to put swampy hexes wherever I see fit.
The Cities and their Patron Deity
The Heartland
Kesh - Ninhursag (The Great Mother, Fertility, Birth~wife of Enki)
Nippur - Enlil (Lord of the Air, Storms~Enforcer/Heir of Anu)
Isin - Ninisinna (Lady of Healing, Herbs, and the care of animals)
Shuruppak - Ninlil (Lady of the Air, the gentle spirit~wife of Enlil)
The South
Uruk - Inanna (Goddess of Sex, Love, and War~sister of Ereshkigal)
Larsa - Utu & Sharida (God of the Sun, Judgement, Watcher of Oaths & Goddess of the Dawn)
Ur - Nanna (God of the Moon, Diviner of Fates~father of Utu)
Eridu - Enki (Trickster God of Water and Magic~brother of Enlil)
The East
Bad-Tibura - once Dumuzi (hedonist God of the Harvest) now Lulal (~son of Dumuzi and Inanna)
Zabalam - Ninshubur (Queen of the East~minister/lover of Inanna)
Umma - Sharra (Singer, manicurist, hairdresser, warrior~son of Inanna)
Girsu - Ninurta (Goddess of Bravery and Battle, Lordstress of the Amazons)
Lagash - Nanshe (Goddess of Prophecy, Fishing, and Social Equality~daughter of Enki)
The North
Urum - ?No Patron Deity?
Kutha - Nergal (God of Wasting Death, Disease, Starvation, Exhaustion)
Niru - ?No Patron Deity?
Kish - ?No Patron Deity?
The Far North
Sippar - Utu & Sharida (Sun God & Goddess of the Dawn, Flagellation, Punishment, and Penance)
Tubtub - Imdugud (The Breathing Beast, the Thief of Fate)
Eshnunna - Ninazu (The Benevolent Healer of the Underworld, Thrall of Ereshkigal)
Der - Ningishzidda (The Lizard King~son of Ninazu)
The Far East
Suza - Insheshinak (The Undying God, The Waker, The Sleepless Need)
Chogha Mish - Kirirsha (Lady of the Golden Dawn, Squirmer of the Wrym)
Distant Lands (off the map)
Martu (In the Northwest, ancient Syria)
Gutium (Land of the brutal Wildlings of the Zagros Mountians)
Dilmun (The Floating Island, sails to Meluhha and back again each year)
Meluhha (Indus valley region of ancient India)
Magan (Somewhere to the South and West, reached by sailing around the Arabian Peninsula)
Overland Movement
I scaled the map to a Sumerian unit of measurement. Each hex = 1 da-na = 2 hours. Sumerians divided the day into 12 da-na, and measured long distances by how many da-na it took to walk somewhere. I think that's neat and all, but using da-na during the game is probably more trouble than it's worth; so....
6-ish mile hexes. It takes about 2 hours to walk across a hex while carrying standard gear and supplies.
On easy terrain: grasslands and roads
Walk: 4 hex/day = regularly stopping to rest, the party is battle ready and in good spirits
March: 5 hex/day = NPC morale check and weariness penalty at last two hexes
Run: 6 hex/day = NPC morale check and weariness penalty at last three hexes
Run like the Wind: 8 hex/day = Totally unencumbered, weariness penalty every hex after the first
Weariness Penalty (cumulative but temporary): -1 Con, and -1 to most die rolls (not saves)
Every 4 hours of rest will remove 1 from the cumulative weariness penalty.
Rough terrain reduces your speed, and running for hours isn't really viable there (except on trails).
Walk 3 hex/day or March 4 hex/day: Shrubland, Forests, and Hills
Walk 1 hex/day or March 2 hexes/day: Marshes, Heavy Forests, and Mountains
Boats
Coracle (Quffu) - a man-sized leather bowl with a wooden frame. Typically paddled down the river, then carried back home on the road using shoulder straps.
Reed Boat (Kalakku) - Lots of shapes and sizes, from a reed canoe up to something resembling a viking longship complete with sail and weird animal head prow
Wooden Boats - You'll see the occasional wooden raft or dugout canoe, but they aren't common. The Euphrates and Tigris have swift currents, especially in the spring. Reed boats are cheaper, lighter, and much easier to bring upriver.
Rowing: 5 hex/day downriver, 3 hex/day open water, 1 hex/day upriver or through marsh
Rafts: subtract 1 hex/day
Reed boats using 6 oars and a sail add 1 hex/day
I couldn't find a good detailed map of Sumer for this time period, so I made my own. Some of these cities might be temporally dislocated by a paltry 500 or 1000 years, but at least the physical distances are pretty much dead on. Ask your local sumerologist to be sure. If you have a better map, please point me to it. Seriously.
This isn't a map I would take on a time traveling mission, but it's probably good enough for a game about aliens nuking elves from orbit.
The Persian Gulf reached far further North in 3000 BC than it does today, as seen on my map here. Today it's shore would be found south of this map's edge. The forests and swamps are all my own fiction; but the hills, mountains, and rivers are pretty accurate for the time period (I believe). The landscape changes a bit every spring when the Tigris floods it's banks and spills water into it's surrounding hexes. Notably a huge area south of Der becomes a vast swamp, and the hexes east of Sippar become swampy as water pours into the Euphrates. This can cause some flooding along the Euphrates as well, turning some hexes downstream into marshland. By summer the flooding is mostly resolved, but I reserve the right to put swampy hexes wherever I see fit.
The Cities and their Patron Deity
The Heartland
Kesh - Ninhursag (The Great Mother, Fertility, Birth~wife of Enki)
Nippur - Enlil (Lord of the Air, Storms~Enforcer/Heir of Anu)
Isin - Ninisinna (Lady of Healing, Herbs, and the care of animals)
Shuruppak - Ninlil (Lady of the Air, the gentle spirit~wife of Enlil)
The South
Uruk - Inanna (Goddess of Sex, Love, and War~sister of Ereshkigal)
Larsa - Utu & Sharida (God of the Sun, Judgement, Watcher of Oaths & Goddess of the Dawn)
Ur - Nanna (God of the Moon, Diviner of Fates~father of Utu)
Eridu - Enki (Trickster God of Water and Magic~brother of Enlil)
The East
Bad-Tibura - once Dumuzi (hedonist God of the Harvest) now Lulal (~son of Dumuzi and Inanna)
Zabalam - Ninshubur (Queen of the East~minister/lover of Inanna)
Umma - Sharra (Singer, manicurist, hairdresser, warrior~son of Inanna)
Girsu - Ninurta (Goddess of Bravery and Battle, Lordstress of the Amazons)
Lagash - Nanshe (Goddess of Prophecy, Fishing, and Social Equality~daughter of Enki)
The North
Urum - ?No Patron Deity?
Kutha - Nergal (God of Wasting Death, Disease, Starvation, Exhaustion)
Niru - ?No Patron Deity?
Kish - ?No Patron Deity?
The Far North
Sippar - Utu & Sharida (Sun God & Goddess of the Dawn, Flagellation, Punishment, and Penance)
Tubtub - Imdugud (The Breathing Beast, the Thief of Fate)
Eshnunna - Ninazu (The Benevolent Healer of the Underworld, Thrall of Ereshkigal)
Der - Ningishzidda (The Lizard King~son of Ninazu)
The Far East
Suza - Insheshinak (The Undying God, The Waker, The Sleepless Need)
Chogha Mish - Kirirsha (Lady of the Golden Dawn, Squirmer of the Wrym)
Distant Lands (off the map)
Martu (In the Northwest, ancient Syria)
Gutium (Land of the brutal Wildlings of the Zagros Mountians)
Dilmun (The Floating Island, sails to Meluhha and back again each year)
Meluhha (Indus valley region of ancient India)
Magan (Somewhere to the South and West, reached by sailing around the Arabian Peninsula)
Overland Movement
I scaled the map to a Sumerian unit of measurement. Each hex = 1 da-na = 2 hours. Sumerians divided the day into 12 da-na, and measured long distances by how many da-na it took to walk somewhere. I think that's neat and all, but using da-na during the game is probably more trouble than it's worth; so....
6-ish mile hexes. It takes about 2 hours to walk across a hex while carrying standard gear and supplies.
On easy terrain: grasslands and roads
Walk: 4 hex/day = regularly stopping to rest, the party is battle ready and in good spirits
March: 5 hex/day = NPC morale check and weariness penalty at last two hexes
Run: 6 hex/day = NPC morale check and weariness penalty at last three hexes
Run like the Wind: 8 hex/day = Totally unencumbered, weariness penalty every hex after the first
Weariness Penalty (cumulative but temporary): -1 Con, and -1 to most die rolls (not saves)
Every 4 hours of rest will remove 1 from the cumulative weariness penalty.
Rough terrain reduces your speed, and running for hours isn't really viable there (except on trails).
Walk 3 hex/day or March 4 hex/day: Shrubland, Forests, and Hills
Walk 1 hex/day or March 2 hexes/day: Marshes, Heavy Forests, and Mountains
Boats
Coracle (Quffu) - a man-sized leather bowl with a wooden frame. Typically paddled down the river, then carried back home on the road using shoulder straps.
Reed Boat (Kalakku) - Lots of shapes and sizes, from a reed canoe up to something resembling a viking longship complete with sail and weird animal head prow
Wooden Boats - You'll see the occasional wooden raft or dugout canoe, but they aren't common. The Euphrates and Tigris have swift currents, especially in the spring. Reed boats are cheaper, lighter, and much easier to bring upriver.
Rowing: 5 hex/day downriver, 3 hex/day open water, 1 hex/day upriver or through marsh
Rafts: subtract 1 hex/day
Reed boats using 6 oars and a sail add 1 hex/day
August 14, 2012
Archeology makes me sad sometimes...
The archeological sites in the Middle East that interest me at the moment are mostly in the form of Tells. Over many centuries new buildings were put on top of the remains of older structures. These became large hills, mounds of mud-brick and sediment that accumulated as cities built up over time.
Some of these Tells are the cities of ancient Sumer, which became some of the cities of Akkadian Empire, which became a few of the cities of the Babylonian Empire. Some of them were abandoned along the way. Over the span of thousands of years, rivers and trade routes would change course; and so sometimes change the fate of cities.
That's not the sad part.
Some of these sites that were dug before the mid 1900s were not done systematically. Without proper documentation the artifacts can loose context, and valuable information may have been lost forever.
Is this statuette from a temple or a home? What else was found nearby? We might never know.
In addition to that, these sites are all in Iraq. You've probably heard that the political climate over there has been a little tense now and then. As a result, digs have been started, halted, and started again. There is a LOT left to uncover, and therefore a LOT more that the human race will eventually be able to learn about Sumerian culture. I hope that I live long enough to learn about it all.
That's not the sad part either.
Sometimes, the archeologists will start digging but then have to leave because of some turmoil or another. Then once the site is exposed and abandoned, looters will come and dig for things to sell on the black market. I don't mean like some punk kid and his buddies. I'm talking about a large scale pillaging force.
I get it, you know. Times were tough and full of craziness. They're just trying to do what was best for themselves and their families. I try not to judge, really. I don't live there, so I don't know what it's like.
but I do know that this is the sad part...
Umma above has been rather thoroughly looted.
Bad-Tibira isn't a total loss... yet.
That is Zabalam up above, we know that because of clues found at other sites. It has never been officially excavated, at all, ever. What you see there is all the work of looters. Impressive really, in a soul crushing sort of way.
Hopefully any looted tablets and artifacts will make their way through private collections and eventually end up in museums. Of course, there often won't be any way to tell which artifacts came from which cities, so good luck with that Sumerianologists. I wonder how many irreplaceable treasures of history were broken by shovels, dropped, or stepped on. *sigh*
Alright, I'm done being sad.
Learning about Sumerian culture and mythology is really a tangled snarl of contradictions and conjectures. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. These cities evolved over a huge span of time, their names and gods sometimes changed, old myths were sometimes recast with new characters, and certain beliefs held in one city might be different than the city down the river even though they both existed at the same time. It's a lot to take in and try to puzzle out.
It's all super confusing, but also super fascinating. Here are some helpful websites if you are interested in reading about Sumer without any of the ancient alien theories.
Iraq's most significant ancient sites and monuments
The Nippur Expedition, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Sumerian Deities
Sumerian Mythology by Samuel Noah Kramer
The Temple of Sumer
This map is interesting. The dotted lines show the future paths of rivers. The Persian Gulf is today receded so far to the south that it would be off the map, but in 3000BC it covered the area roughly as shown above. The dotted red line is the current Iraq/Iran border. A few of the cities are out of place, and shouldn't be there. Babylon and Borsippa haven't been built yet, that probably comes after the Euphrates changes course 500 or so years later. Also, Baghdad has apparently traveled back in time a few millennium just to appear on the map here. Maybe those are just on there for reference? Regardless, it really is one of the best maps I've found of Sumer circa 3000BC.
Some of these Tells are the cities of ancient Sumer, which became some of the cities of Akkadian Empire, which became a few of the cities of the Babylonian Empire. Some of them were abandoned along the way. Over the span of thousands of years, rivers and trade routes would change course; and so sometimes change the fate of cities.
That's not the sad part.
Some of these sites that were dug before the mid 1900s were not done systematically. Without proper documentation the artifacts can loose context, and valuable information may have been lost forever.
Is this statuette from a temple or a home? What else was found nearby? We might never know.
In addition to that, these sites are all in Iraq. You've probably heard that the political climate over there has been a little tense now and then. As a result, digs have been started, halted, and started again. There is a LOT left to uncover, and therefore a LOT more that the human race will eventually be able to learn about Sumerian culture. I hope that I live long enough to learn about it all.
 |
| Was Ninurta the original Heracles? |
 |
| Who is this handsome fellow? |
That's not the sad part either.
Sometimes, the archeologists will start digging but then have to leave because of some turmoil or another. Then once the site is exposed and abandoned, looters will come and dig for things to sell on the black market. I don't mean like some punk kid and his buddies. I'm talking about a large scale pillaging force.
On May 21, 2003, Col. John Kessel and Professor Macguire Gibson of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago toured various sites in Southern Iraq by helicopter. After visiting Uruk, Professor Gibson "flew north to Isin, (modern Ishan al-Bahriyat) where I had already heard from a German visitor that it was being badly destroyed. Her report was correct. At least 200 to 300 men were at work on all parts of the site, and the damage was clearly of long duration. We landed and the men came up waving. They were surprised that the US troops would think that it was wrong for them to be doing the looting. They lied by saying that they had been working only a few days, only since the German woman has been there and told them to do so. We told them that it was forbidden, and the army men fired over their heads to speed up their exit. A boy with a tractor and cart, the only vehicle on this site, wanted us to pay him his taxi fee, since we had chased off his fares. The next day, the German woman returned to Isin with a German camera crew, to find hundreds of men at work again. Clearly, an occasional visit by a helicopter is not going to save the sites. Only the imposition of authority in the entire country, as well as the reconstitution of the State Board of Antiquities with its full complement of guards, backed by Coalition power, can preserve what is left of these major Sumerian sites." Scholar Simon Jenkins, in a subsequent report, noted "the remains of the 2,000 BC cities of Isin and Shurnpak appear to have vanished: pictures show them replaced by a desert of badger holes created by an army of some 300 looters."
I get it, you know. Times were tough and full of craziness. They're just trying to do what was best for themselves and their families. I try not to judge, really. I don't live there, so I don't know what it's like.
but I do know that this is the sad part...
Bad-Tibira isn't a total loss... yet.
That is Zabalam up above, we know that because of clues found at other sites. It has never been officially excavated, at all, ever. What you see there is all the work of looters. Impressive really, in a soul crushing sort of way.
Hopefully any looted tablets and artifacts will make their way through private collections and eventually end up in museums. Of course, there often won't be any way to tell which artifacts came from which cities, so good luck with that Sumerianologists. I wonder how many irreplaceable treasures of history were broken by shovels, dropped, or stepped on. *sigh*
Alright, I'm done being sad.
Learning about Sumerian culture and mythology is really a tangled snarl of contradictions and conjectures. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. These cities evolved over a huge span of time, their names and gods sometimes changed, old myths were sometimes recast with new characters, and certain beliefs held in one city might be different than the city down the river even though they both existed at the same time. It's a lot to take in and try to puzzle out.
It's all super confusing, but also super fascinating. Here are some helpful websites if you are interested in reading about Sumer without any of the ancient alien theories.
Iraq's most significant ancient sites and monuments
The Nippur Expedition, Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago
Sumerian Deities
Sumerian Mythology by Samuel Noah Kramer
The Temple of Sumer
August 8, 2011
Dance my Pixels, Dance!
If you haven't heard yet, Lord Gwydion is busy creating the Zhongyang Dalu setting for the Flying Swordsmen RPG. I think it's going to be awesome. You can go check out the What a horrible night to have a curse blog to get more details.
Recently he posted a scan of the lovely Zhongyang Dalu map. I love me some maps. Especially some hand drawn maps. Anyhow, his sketch pad is too big for his scanner so he had to splice together two images and as a result there is a minor seam visible. He mentioned looking for a print shop later to get it scanned in one piece.
Now, my artistic skills are rather limited, but I am handy with a pixel editor. So, I took it upon myself to try to hide the seam. I also tried to help define some of the coastline and letters where the seam made them blurry. If I couldn't blend the color differences well enough for my own taste, I just pushed one color over to the closest coastline or political boundary (see Yu and De).
Take a look.
Happy Un-Birthday Lord Gwydion. I hope you like it. It's not perfect by any means, but hey, it's free.
I cleaned up a little fuzziness on some Chinese characters. You should probably double check the first character of Bufang Bag, and the last character of Mei Hwa Mountians to make sure I didn't accidentally change their meaning. Let me know if you want me to rework anything. I could probably get the color transitions smoother in Yu and De if you prefer. Let me know if you would like any other changes made. I could thicken/brighten the red political lines, or remove the green where the red lines meet the rivers, change the name of a city, make something stand out a little more or a little less, or whatever.
I like doing this stuff, so don't be shy about requesting anything. You can hit me up at saint_nik AT yahoo DOT com, or just leave a comment here.
Previously, I also edited another of your images. I loved seeing this at the bottom of your blog. I only tweaked the dragon's claws and the warriors foot a tad. It was quick and easy. I just thought I'd share.
Recently he posted a scan of the lovely Zhongyang Dalu map. I love me some maps. Especially some hand drawn maps. Anyhow, his sketch pad is too big for his scanner so he had to splice together two images and as a result there is a minor seam visible. He mentioned looking for a print shop later to get it scanned in one piece.
Now, my artistic skills are rather limited, but I am handy with a pixel editor. So, I took it upon myself to try to hide the seam. I also tried to help define some of the coastline and letters where the seam made them blurry. If I couldn't blend the color differences well enough for my own taste, I just pushed one color over to the closest coastline or political boundary (see Yu and De).
Take a look.
Happy Un-Birthday Lord Gwydion. I hope you like it. It's not perfect by any means, but hey, it's free.
I cleaned up a little fuzziness on some Chinese characters. You should probably double check the first character of Bufang Bag, and the last character of Mei Hwa Mountians to make sure I didn't accidentally change their meaning. Let me know if you want me to rework anything. I could probably get the color transitions smoother in Yu and De if you prefer. Let me know if you would like any other changes made. I could thicken/brighten the red political lines, or remove the green where the red lines meet the rivers, change the name of a city, make something stand out a little more or a little less, or whatever.
I like doing this stuff, so don't be shy about requesting anything. You can hit me up at saint_nik AT yahoo DOT com, or just leave a comment here.
Previously, I also edited another of your images. I loved seeing this at the bottom of your blog. I only tweaked the dragon's claws and the warriors foot a tad. It was quick and easy. I just thought I'd share.
June 13, 2011
Populate this Dungeon!
I found this map over at Lost Papers of Tsojcanth that is supercool. Tsojcanth for the WIN!!! I am overcome by your aura of awesome. "We're not worthy, we're not worthy".
I did notice some slight room for improvement though. I decided to take the time to smooth out the seams, and polish it up a little, then I keyed most of the rooms. I made 2 versions of 2 maps. The white background is for easy printing; the brown background is for easy editing.
Grab it and turn it into a cool crawl for your group... if you dare! Be sure to go tell Tsojcanth about your creation. :-D
Here are the first copies, I keyed the rooms for your convenience. I don't know why the name of Tsojcanth's post is "69: Random Unsubstantiated Hypothesis", but I thought it was a good excuse to limit the number of keyed rooms to 69. The rooms are numbered 1-40, A-Z, and rooms FF, ZZ, and 88.
If you don't like the way I numbered the rooms on the first set, then you can grab this version with just the seams smoothed out. Then number the rooms however you like.
I did notice some slight room for improvement though. I decided to take the time to smooth out the seams, and polish it up a little, then I keyed most of the rooms. I made 2 versions of 2 maps. The white background is for easy printing; the brown background is for easy editing.
Grab it and turn it into a cool crawl for your group... if you dare! Be sure to go tell Tsojcanth about your creation. :-D
Here are the first copies, I keyed the rooms for your convenience. I don't know why the name of Tsojcanth's post is "69: Random Unsubstantiated Hypothesis", but I thought it was a good excuse to limit the number of keyed rooms to 69. The rooms are numbered 1-40, A-Z, and rooms FF, ZZ, and 88.
 |
| Click to Embiggen! Keyed |
 |
| Click to Embiggen! Keyed |
If you don't like the way I numbered the rooms on the first set, then you can grab this version with just the seams smoothed out. Then number the rooms however you like.
 |
| Click to Embiggen! No-key |
 |
| Click to Embiggen! No-key |
June 10, 2011
Maps of Real Castle Keeps
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Next is Haddon Hall, Derbyshire. Not really a castle, it is actually a medieval country manor house that I find quite interesting. I like that the plans show how the sections were built over time.
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And last but not least is the keep of Warkworth Castle, Northumberland.
1. Vestibule (leading from entrance in basement)
2. Hall.
3. Chapel.
4. Great Chamber.
5. Kitchens.
6. Pantry and buttery.
Most of the unmarked rooms are smaller bedrooms. The square room in the center of the floorplan is actually a shaft that provides a little air and light to some of the interior rooms. I believe that the tower seen in the exterior picture of the keep is the top of the shaft.
2. Hall.
3. Chapel.
4. Great Chamber.
5. Kitchens.
6. Pantry and buttery.
Most of the unmarked rooms are smaller bedrooms. The square room in the center of the floorplan is actually a shaft that provides a little air and light to some of the interior rooms. I believe that the tower seen in the exterior picture of the keep is the top of the shaft.
Intermission (with maps!)
Designing a tumbling dungeon is an interesting mental exercise. I have the bones of it worked out in my head, but fully describing how it works is difficult. I need the help of pictures. My whole blog needs the help of pictures.
So, I went off looking for public domain images and wandered the links longer than any sane man should. Wikipedia has a convenient list of such resources here. Bloggerstop was kind enough to post this handy list as well. If any other bloggers out there can suggest other sources, I'd be glad to hear them.
I'll probably end up drawing some pictures of my own in order to show the tumbling dungeon clearly. Until then, here are some maps I found over at FromOldBooks.org. Thank you Mr. Liam Quin.
Here we have the plans of a sixteenth-century mansion, Buckhurst House in Sussex. It would be found near Withyham today, but the house is much older than the village. Withyham is not included in the Domesday Book, although the manor of Buckhurst is, as ‘’Biochest’’ (probably from the Saxon ‘’boc hyrst’’ or beech wood). There have been two houses at Buckhurst for many centuries: the older Buckhurst House, now no more, and the present day ‘’Buckhurst Park’’. The numbers on the plan are unexplained, but I think it's pretty obvious that some contemporary DM must have gone back in time and started up a game.
This is from the book “Laws and History of the New Forest” (1811). It is, I think, one of the most lovely maps I've ever seen. You can see the edge of Salisbury Plain in the West, and Christchurch Bay in the South. I especially like the all the little details, such as the Hurst Castle Lighthouse marked at the southern edge of the map.
So, I went off looking for public domain images and wandered the links longer than any sane man should. Wikipedia has a convenient list of such resources here. Bloggerstop was kind enough to post this handy list as well. If any other bloggers out there can suggest other sources, I'd be glad to hear them.
I'll probably end up drawing some pictures of my own in order to show the tumbling dungeon clearly. Until then, here are some maps I found over at FromOldBooks.org. Thank you Mr. Liam Quin.
Here we have the plans of a sixteenth-century mansion, Buckhurst House in Sussex. It would be found near Withyham today, but the house is much older than the village. Withyham is not included in the Domesday Book, although the manor of Buckhurst is, as ‘’Biochest’’ (probably from the Saxon ‘’boc hyrst’’ or beech wood). There have been two houses at Buckhurst for many centuries: the older Buckhurst House, now no more, and the present day ‘’Buckhurst Park’’. The numbers on the plan are unexplained, but I think it's pretty obvious that some contemporary DM must have gone back in time and started up a game.
 |
| Click to Embiggen... twice |
This is from the book “Laws and History of the New Forest” (1811). It is, I think, one of the most lovely maps I've ever seen. You can see the edge of Salisbury Plain in the West, and Christchurch Bay in the South. I especially like the all the little details, such as the Hurst Castle Lighthouse marked at the southern edge of the map.
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