I love Hexographer, and I love Hexographer maps. More than that, though, I love the exercise of map-making.
I would like to say that this is because making maps spurs me to imagine far off places, fills my heart with the romance of travel and adventure, and makes me long to get on a boat and sail to some far-flung location filled with bizarre animals and alien cultures.
It does do those things. But, the truth is, more than that, it makes me feel like a god. Watch, as I raise mountains and fill oceans! Watch, as I send rivers slicing through hitherto barren landscapes! Behold, as I cause mighty jungles to grow with a mere sweep of my pen! See me build entire civilizations with my mind - and then destroy them!!!!
How much of the average RPG gamer comprises wide-eyed, imaginative love of wonder, and how much comprises frustrated megalomania and control freakery? Answers on a postcard...
How did you generate the hex map of Europe? Is that a new tool of Worldographer, or did you have to do it from scratch? (I've tried using Hexographer before, but for some reason had problems running it on my PC.)
ReplyDeleteI claim no credit! It's from their website. For Worldographer.
DeleteMy first real job was at a mapping company that made street maps. I mentioned D&D maps and using USGS topographical maps in Traveler Games during the interview process. Apparently a lot of people couldn't read a map and those minimal qualifications were enough.
ReplyDeleteI'd be curious if among gamers, if there was any relationship between loving maps and becoming a DM.
I think definitely there is.
DeleteI love hex mapping (I still use Arr-Kelann hexmapper from the mid '90s), but I especially love creating virtual worlds in Roll20 and populating them with tiny disk-shaped people. :)
ReplyDeleteAll I ever do on Roll20 is sketch out crappy visuals. Maybe I should do more.
DeleteI love maps. The hex-fetish baffles me sometimes but I suppose I harbor it as well. Hexographer is easy and fun to work with.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid I used to draw series of maps showing migrations of of populations, battles and the march of history in mythical and pseudo-mythical settings. Probably another reason D&D was an easy sale for me.
Yeah, the beauty of hexes is the diagonal movement, I suppose. And classifying terrain.
DeleteWhen I was in art school I realized that the satisfaction of visual arts brings out the megalomania, even Bob Ross would comment of the feeling of power of creating worlds from paint
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. I think probably it also animates novelists too.
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