Jan 21, 2012

Maps from Moragne

The Kingdom of Moragne
This map was the first thing I ever created for Moragne. I did it in Hexographer, and working on it was really what taught me the tool. 1 hex = 20 kilometres from edge to opposite edge, since this was before I started using 10km hexes (5km apothegms) consistently. As part of the medieval feel I wanted Moragne to have, I made a conscious effort to avoid obvious declared borders, either internal or external. This map was the first page of the Moragne primer I sent out to my PCs.

I made a numbered version of this map, but I mainly use it for pull-outs of individual provinces, as the numbers are illegible unless you zoom in, as you can see below:

Duchy of Axrew
Axrew is the central Duchy of Moragne. It's fairly flat and dry, with grasslands, deserts, rocky outcroppings and a few forests. As you can see, this map is numbered. The Leprosarium, where Warrens of the Leper Queens takes place is 21:22, that unlabeled village just south of the Moot. I have versions of these for all the regions of Moragne, but only ever keyed the entries for three (Axrew, Lanarth, Moragland).

Now, the actual Moragne campaign didn't take place in the Kingdom of Moragne, which I think was a misstep on my part. Instead, it began about a few hundred kilometres north, where the Northern Marches turn into...

The Moragnian Frontier, aka the Wastelands of St. Arminius
By the time this map came around, I was using 10km hexes, so it's a bit difficult to reconcile the two maps, but basically this is an area about half the size of Moragne, accessible only through Dakonland or through a narrow pass in the mountains. It was being flooded with peasants fleeing the crusades against the Dakons.

My only problem with Hexographer is that in order to load black and white tiles, you have to buy the license, otherwise you can only use colour. Using only colour makes printing maps extremely hard on your pocket, so I decided to try out Autorealm to produce the black and white player handout.

The PCs' Map of the Frontier
As a close comparison will show, this is the south-east quadrant of the colour map above, reproduced in black and white, zoomed in, and with a few minor changes to represent PC & local NPC knowledge. This document in-game was called "the map of Arminius". I had a version with a hex overlay, which I used to track where exactly the PCs were.

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