{.right} Halberds and Helmets Podcast The mini settings I like to generate where the environment or the map generates inspiration for conflict: the river valleys generate political entities, the swamps and mountain peaks religious entities, add secret societies, a long war somewhere else...
Links:
OSR: Don't You Know There's A War On?
Vallesia superior, ac inferior, Wallis, le Valais
I feel a bit weird plugging my house rules but here we are and so it goes:
#Halberds and Helmets Podcast #Sandbox
(Please contact me if you want to remove your comment.)
⁂
Getting a friendly email about the podcast always brings a smile to my face! 🙂
– Alex Schroeder 2019-09-18 12:41 UTC
---
So glad you are back with more episodes! This one is pure gold, as are many others in your feed. Now I know what the setting will look like when my open table graduates from dungeons to wilderness. Unless I go with something pre-canned but I find myself struggling with the “when will I have time to read all this and how will I be able to remember everything?” issue for anything much beyond a one-page dungeon. 😝
– Björn Buckwalter 2019-10-01 12:04 UTC
---
Yes, exactly! The only one that comes close is the *Wilderlands of High Fantasy* or something like Rob Conley’s Southland and his other mini-settings in the series *Points of Light* and similar products.
– Alex Schroeder 2019-10-01 12:17 UTC
---
It seems the time is coming near to start a new campaign! Do you have any recommendations for maps suited to the kind of alpine sandbox you outline in this episode?
I’ve reloaded the random alpine maps a number of times but don’t feel they give me suitable results. In particular I’m missing the (networks of) long valleys I would like to see (you noted their absence in Growing mountains).
I don’t specifically need/want a hex map, but would settle for one and could probably put one together by hand myself by hand if I have too.
A ”real” map of an actual place could do too. If I go this route I might use a map of (or create a map modeled on) Ariège in the Pyrenees since that is the mountain environment I am a somewhat familiar with and that is rich with history, castles, ruins and caves. Here is a relief map showing the network of valleys and here is a 1907 tourist map showing rivers, roads and settlements.
relief map showing the network of valleys
1907 tourist map showing rivers, roads and settlements
You may have ideas of specific valleys/regions in Switzerland/the Alps that would work well? All of them?? 😀
Being the lazy human being that I am, though, I would obviously prefer an RP-friendly map with just the right amount of evocative details and blank spaces to hand to the players.
– Björn Buckwalter 2020-01-07 18:27 UTC
---
I guess I would pick the Vallais. And I’d use Vallesia superior, ac inferior, Wallis, le Valais, by Gabriel Walser from 1768. There, you can download a 6208×5151 pixel image.
Vallesia superior, ac inferior, Wallis, le Valais
– Alex Schroeder 2020-01-07 20:47 UTC
---
That is a great map! (With great resolution) 😀 There is a lot going on though… maybe it is too busy with too many settlements and names on it but very inspiring. I like how only the major thoroughfares are marked with smaller roads/trails between connecting villages, bridges, etc, left implied.
It reminds me of the K M Alexander's map ”brushes” (think ”rubber stamps” for use in Photoshop/GIMP) I discovered only yesterday. In fact, now I see that there is the ”Walser” brush set inspired by Gabriel Walser’s map of Canton Lucern!
Looking at more of Walser's maps I really like the one of Kanton Glarus. It is less dense and shows the swampiness along the rivers, and would be easier to use at the table I think. A downside is that it is more limited in terms of deep side-valleys to fill with interesting stuff/peoples.
Thanks for putting me on to this map treasure trove; go Switzerland!
– Björn Buckwalter 2020-01-08 12:09 UTC
---
Thank you for the link to the Photoshop brushes!
Glarus is cool because of the Urnerboden (”the floor of the Urner people”, which they took from Glarus via the Klausenpass).
– Alex Schroeder 2020-01-08 14:08 UTC
