What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Questions and comments about Other World Mapper.

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drophius
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Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by drophius » Sun Nov 16, 2014 2:24 pm

Hi!
I will use for mapping my own rpg campaign, but I would like in future to try to publish some campaign (I am triyng to create one at the moment), and a good mapping tool is a great help to create a good product.

Hekazu
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Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by Hekazu » Mon Nov 17, 2014 1:08 am

Somehow I get the feeling I am not the first one to say this, but I hope to use it for several fantasy setting maps, for both D&D and play-by-post forum RPGs.

gareth_w
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Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by gareth_w » Mon Nov 17, 2014 1:27 pm

In short ... all of the above!

I'm currently running a pathfinder campaign, and it will be used to generate hand-outs for the players. This will be at world - region - city - town - and dungeon levels!

I also use maps a lot to organise my thoughts, shape the campaign and decide how the wider world is working.

And this is all being written up for publication as a novel. Admittedly that's a (very (long)) way off yet, but who knows?

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Big Mac
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Location: London, UK

Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by Big Mac » Mon Nov 17, 2014 2:30 pm

Kanchou wrote:We want to hear from you! To start with let us know what your plans are for Other World Mapper. Will the maps be for an RPG, a book, a video game? Something else?

Tell us about the maps you plan on making!
Thanks for the welcome.

I am a fan of the Spelljammer Campaign Setting (which for anyone who has not heard of it is D&D in space). Spelljammer has many crystal spheres, each of which contains many planets, but only a small number of planetary maps were ever supplied (and several of those have "broken poles").

So I'm hoping to make multiple global maps with OWM.
David "Big Mac" Shepheard
(A Spelljammer fan hoping to user Other World Mapper to make lots of maps of planets.)
You can see more of me over at The Piazza campaign settings forums

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Magus Zeal
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Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by Magus Zeal » Mon Nov 17, 2014 5:12 pm

Primarily for a homebrew setting I've been running for years, I've got a few maps done via Campaign Cartographer, but the program is extremely difficult to use well or even get most of the noted features to even work well. Never mind the difficulty with getting a world map setup when your starting at the continent level and working out.

kebaker@gmail.com
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Location: Sunny California

Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by kebaker@gmail.com » Mon Nov 17, 2014 7:37 pm

I'm looking at at home games primarily with an eye to using it for modules written for the Open Championships that are held at Gen Con every year.

Pila
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Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by Pila » Tue Nov 18, 2014 1:46 am

I'll also be using it for my d&d campaign. I've been making do with PowerPoint, but I'm really looking forward to see what I can make with this tool.

paulpacheco
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Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by paulpacheco » Tue Nov 18, 2014 3:59 pm

I might use it for some RPG stuff, but my priority would be adding visual detail for my creative writing.

Something I miss from older books is the old style maps that used to be inserted between chapters. To me it adds a mental pause from reading while adding level of detail which the reader may have missed or misconstrued in the previous chapters. Also, a few key points of my novel can be boiled down to stronghold defense/penetration. The antagonist thinks himself a great tactician and although he's not bad he doesn't have the patience to actually be one. There is often a sub-chapter where my protagonist takes the time to assess the situation and breaks down his opponents tactics (often drawing maps). I think to actually have a map that he is referencing would pull the reader into the moment and solidify the surroundings so the following action doesn't have to be bogged down in detail.

For example, my chapter might start like this
As the morning sun rose from the East a cool mountain wind rolled in from the west. The image was majestic; a mountain stood piercing the sky, and at its base was a city of marvel. Built long ago like the ruins of Greece the city did not crumble. For many centuries, through the punishment of nature, in spite of changing politics and the ensuing wars, the city and mountain remained testaments to the past. Now, a once glorious city lay in shambles. In its days of beauty it had walls of marble, pristine glass, and statues of bronze and gold. Its history had been destroyed and its beauty had faded; hospitals were bombed out, schools turned to rubble, and churches lay in ruins. To its North a gleaming river of royal blue ice water reflected plumes of battle. To the West, rising above the clouds, above the war, the country’s pride, a mountain of indescribable size and beauty fed the river to the North. To the East, a valley, once rich with the greens of agriculture, now a crater-filled gauntlet of mines and encampments. To the South was a canyon corridor to the country’s capital; an unimpeded march to victory.
Later on, my hero is with a small group of fighters who discovered the city in ruins. The antagonist had covertly attacked it and left it open to the invading armies in an attempt to rally forces against "good".
Standing on the city’s east wall Paul looked around. An array of emotions clashed with the war-torn area. It had been 3 days since Jonathan’s army ambushed the stronghold. On a dawn much like this one they had pounced. They simultaneously attacked weak defense points from every conceivable direction. Striking hard and fast they took out communications, infrastructure, and personnel. They immobilized tanks without drivers and murdered infantry in their bunks. It was done with such cold precision that it was over in an instant – not even a hint of what happened made its way to the outside world. The brute force of jets and tanks were followed by the precision of soldiers. Marching as one they swept through the city, and like a wall of fire they purged it of all resistance. The invasion was so quick, so cold, that no prisoners were taken and no one was spared. They even took careful consideration to loot or sabotage anything of use before moving to the battle to the west.
And finally, the sub chapter that sets the following action.
Paul remained looking at the map scratching his chin. He grabbed an array of markers and began marking the map. “There and there. There, there, and there.” They stopped talking and watched as Paul marked out several more areas. He paused and his body turned as he talked to them. “The entrances from the North and East are our weak points. The North bridge is an express route to the city center. The east embankment is miles across and wide open to boot. Not only does it give them lots of room to maneuver, but we can’t effectively cover the whole area… These areas marked in yellow are the current defense positions. As Mike reported yesterday only 30 of the 100 batteries are salvageable. We’ll have to move them back in an effort to concentrate and tighten our defenses. The black areas are positions we should avoid – if we’re not careful we’ll be leaving ourselves vulnerable and these areas are prime real estate for trouble. Think of black as dead man’s land. That being said, if we have to retreat, these are the areas we want to lure them into. Note his red line is the battle line; if they advance past it we lose our upper hand and from there the tide of battle can change in a hurry. There won’t be much we can do to slow them down at that point.”

“So, you’re saying we can do this?” Priya was perplexed; Paul wouldn’t risk their lives without a reason, but even as she thought about it, it didn’t seem possible.

Paul turned to them. “It’ll take tons of teamwork, precise timing and coordination, and a hell of a lot of guts, but yeah, we can do it.” He put his arms around the girls. “We can do anything.”

Mike teased. “Corny.”

“Jealous much?” Claire smiled.

Mike was quick to change the topic. “Can we get back to our insanely risky plan?” He pointed to the map. “What’s with the blue areas?” Mike thought about it for a moment. “They almost look like strategic fallback positions, but they’re on the wrong side of the battle line…”

Paul was glad they were taking interest in his plan. “That my friends is the key to our defense.”

Claire’s head tilted in question. “Retreating towards the enemy?”

Mike rolled his eyes. “Sure. Why not? They’d never expect that!” Claire swatted him before he could laugh at his own joke.

Paul separated them before continuing. “Those areas are strategic placements that we will be giving the enemy.” He loved their reaction, in fact he was looking forward to it. They stood still, faces blank, mouths open, and eyes blinking. “That is, we’ll give it to them without them knowing it. We’ll let them think they’re making progress when in reality we’ll be diverting them into these areas.” Their faces were back to normal but still showed signs of confusion. “Fine. Let’s spell it out. These positions look good on paper, but out there they’re easy for us to defend against. A few of those areas are wide open – they have very little or no opportunity for enemy troops to gain cover. The others are cramped passage ways, effectively a bottleneck. You’ll also note that each of these areas are within the optimal range of our defense positions. Speaking of which, all we have to do is move them a few feet relative to their barricades and we’ll gain 5 to 10 percent more cover.”

Priya caught on first. “Oh, so you’re saying that if we lead them to those positions we might actually have an upper hand.”

Paul smiled at her conservative assessment. “I’m saying, if we do this right, there is no reason this couldn’t be a massacre.”

That term was easy for Mike to understand. “Then let’s do it.” He caught Priya’s concerned look. “Not that I like massacres, but they usually mean that the massacre-er has a much better chance of survival over the massacre-ee.”
Sorry if that post was too long, like my novels I like to give a fair amount of detail. Also, sorry for the poor formatting; it's a rough, rough draft.

mrverbal
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Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by mrverbal » Wed Nov 19, 2014 3:21 am

I'll be building a map of a long standing D&D world. Also some dungeons. Also also some cities.

Or at least that is the plan :)

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Big Mac
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Re: What are your plans for Other World Mapper?

Post by Big Mac » Thu Nov 20, 2014 2:41 pm

paulpacheco wrote:I might use it for some RPG stuff, but my priority would be adding visual detail for my creative writing.

Something I miss from older books is the old style maps that used to be inserted between chapters. To me it adds a mental pause from reading while adding level of detail which the reader may have missed or misconstrued in the previous chapters. Also, a few key points of my novel can be boiled down to stronghold defense/penetration. The antagonist thinks himself a great tactician and although he's not bad he doesn't have the patience to actually be one. There is often a sub-chapter where my protagonist takes the time to assess the situation and breaks down his opponents tactics (often drawing maps). I think to actually have a map that he is referencing would pull the reader into the moment and solidify the surroundings so the following action doesn't have to be bogged down in detail.
Very interesting. I'm doing a not too good attempt at NaNoWriMo and my map is a lot of squiggles on some lined paper. (The squiggles are mountains.)
mrverbal wrote:I'll be building a map of a long standing D&D world.
Is that a canon world (like Forgotten Realms) or a homebrew world?
David "Big Mac" Shepheard
(A Spelljammer fan hoping to user Other World Mapper to make lots of maps of planets.)
You can see more of me over at The Piazza campaign settings forums

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