Good day Greyfriends! It's a slow week, but I am heartened by the uptick I've been seeing of Greyhawk community interest online. Whether its because of the token announcement of a
Mordenkainen book I don't know, but hopefully the likes of
Anna Meyer,
Return to Greyhawk,
Greyhawk Grognard, Greyhawk Reborn and
various Facebook groups can keep pushing
Wizard's buttons. For my own part, you know I have more projects than I can handle, so let's create some more. Here is some ideas for various Greyhawk themed maps I'd love to see or create myself:
Updated Resource Map. The small map in the 1980/1983 Greyhawk Guide showing regional resources of the
Flanaess is one of my favorites. The LGG updated each nation's resources with new entries like livestock and ship building. A new map with this info is high on my list of DM utility maps.
Battle Maps. This one is also a long term dream of mine. We've all seen the Flanaess map that shows the migrations, but it would be just as interesting and informative to see the direction of various battles and wars. Just hearing about the
Battle of Emridy Meadows, the
Short War or the
Hateful Wars is nice, but where do these forces originate and what direction do they advance or retreat? A simple themed map with arrows can teach players about the conflict faster than a long, boring treatise on the subject.
Ancient Flanaess Maps. Another handy map for history lessons on the fly. What did
Eastern Oerik look like 500 years ago? 1000? and so on. I've meddled in making one before but the research of canon often shuts me down. A good example, someone once made an amazing series of maps showing the evolving size of the
Great Kingdom of Aerdy. (map to the left) I need to find the link to this map. Also what DM wouldn't like to know what the Flanaess looked like when elves and dwarves held sway? Or ancient
Flannae civilizations? There would even be geographical differences, like larger forests or cities that are now ruins. The applications for such maps are unlimited.
Update: Got a link to those historical maps
here courtesy of
Greyhawk Grognard (thanks Joseph).
Magic Aura Map. This one is extreme so bear with me. It would be daunting to research but fun to see all the magical sites (such as
Tovag Baragu and other permanent gates) and ley lines (sites of druids, lost lands, wizards towers, etc) and lingering auras (
Dry Steppes,
Sea of Dust) present in the Flanaess, all charted on the map somehow in levels of intensity. The utility is that wizards would know which areas to go or avoid in a general arcane knowledge sense.
Monster Hunting Maps. How about a reference map for common D&D monsters for PCs use in game? You could have areas marked where dragons or giants are found and what type. Heck you could even get create and tag owlbears, ogres or otyughs. Anything! Hand that out to hack n slash players and let them pick a destination.
Population Density Map. This one I've done before with a color coded population density map of the Great Kingdom based on data from
Ivid the Undying; unfortunately it was hand drawn and crude (see to the left). I'd love to see one of the entire Flanaess someday. This type of map is more informative and esoteric, something only a hardcore Greyhawk DM's could care about. However, such a map would be easy to show to players to tell them, yes you are traveling to a populated area or no you are heading into wilderness, without need of a history or politics lesson.
That's all I got for now. Anyone else have some crazy ideas for a Greyhawk themed map?
Hail Greyhawk fans! Been busy as of late so let's turn our view out and see what is going on in the RPG world related to Greyhawk...
