Map Talk

Games Fabula Ultima
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With the MapChange addon in place and the macros working well, let’s talk about maps a bit.

Based on some recommendations from the Roll20 community, I have updated all the pages in the game to use a canvas size of 840 x 630 (which works out to 12 x 9 using Roll20’s grid system) which I think has done well. While some complex maps can feel a cramped, I don’t think I’ve heard any complaints lately about “oh, where is [something]” or “I didn’t see [something]” which is an improvement that I was shooting for. Visibility and clarity are my number one goal and this canvas size is accomplishing that.

That said, there is one page that doesn’t use that size: the World Map.

The World Map isn’t the original we used during Session Zero, as that quickly became a little too cluttered for clarity and the scale we were working on led to other issues, which is why I recreated the map at a scale that I think works better, but in doing so also cropped it down to just Harmony, the Counties, and the surrounding areas. With upcoming changes (namely Bill’s plan to branch Mizzle out into Pilot) I expect travel to be a lot quicker and the group to move further a field, which means a fuller World Map is ideal.

So how do we go about doing that? I’ve thought of a pair of options and there’s likely options that I haven’t thought of, so I’d like to hear what everyone thinks so we can figure out what works best for the group as a whole.

Option One is the easiest to implement, which is “just let the World Map page be big.” This means that you’ll have all the information in one place, but it may be overwhelming. With the ease of being able to reference the page, however, I think this is workable.

Option Two is to subdivide the map. We can have one big picture world map with several regional maps that hone in on a specific area (like Harmony, the County Pennisela, or Rozinande). This will make each map more manageable, but means information will be split into multiple locations. I don’t think this one is a good idea, but other folks may have better ideas than me.

What do you folks think?

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Biggest problem with Option 1 is that big maps can be resource-intensive to load and view and edit. If the present large map (and its expansion) are manageable, then it’s not an issue, but it could be, esp. if folk are flipping in and out to reference stuff, or as use of map pins increases. (That the maps don’t require Dynamic Lighting is a big plus here).

I think Option 2, a set of maps could be workable. One of the nice things about the new map pins is that if they are tied to underlying handout info, it’s easy to cover any overlaps of terrain or scale. A pin for Delmar-on-the-Sea in the World Map can also be duplicated on the Hundred Counties map.

The database guy in me thinks Option 2 and “structured data” makes more sense, but that may be overcomplicating things. I believe the info will be accessible in either model; if that makes it simply easier to maintain a single large world map, then that’s the answer.

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I’m pretty okay either way, since I keep my own version of a lot of this data. Do whatever is best, easiest, and most fun for you.