Wednesday, November 10, 2010

From the Attic; Before there was Hexographer

I never was a big fan of the "Mystara" style of mapping. But in the 80s Mystara was just as popular as Greyhawk if not more. I did one large map using the style. It wasn't anything related to any of my campaigns at the time I drew it just because. I believe I was thinking of 30 or 60 mile hexes here.



The circular sea to the west was meant to be a meteor strike or a big magical explosion. In the northeast is a complex coastline that is meant to be fjords a viking home. One of the large southern islands was supposed to be the X1 Island of Dread. The center area of the southern continent suffers form rainshadow, very arid and has lots of deserts.

If it inspires you feel free to use it for your own game. If you want to clean it up a bit try Hexographer which is one of the best mapping software out there for the Mystara style.

3 comments:

Joe said...

Thanks for the mention!

One cool feature coming up in the next version (1-2 weeks away) is better support and extra "map items" (graphics) to make maps in the 1st edition/boxed set Greyhawk poster maps style.

Havard: said...

Mystara style, I like that term! One of the good things about this style is that it is easy to draw maps by hand, which was particularly useful back in the day when the hex mapping software wasnt as readily available. Thanks for sharing Rob! :)

Baron Greystone said...

I like both Wilderlands and Mystara style maps, and enjoy any tools to make them simpler in the age of home computers.