Big Map of Kalimdor

I have many projects I am working on or thinking about simultaneously. I do try to focus on the ones I'm actually playing or have a good chance of playing in the near future, but sometimes I work on other things. For instance I'd like to play a campaign in the Warcraft Universe, where the Warcraft series of games including the RTS Warcraft III and the MMORPG World of Warcraft are set. So I have been working on a map of Kalimdor, one of the continents in the series.

This map is large scale, with 30 mile hexes. Thus I am using twelve sheets of hex graph paper. One of the things I have noticed is that since the MMO has regions that should logically be much smaller in relation to the continent as they are presented as being, I have had to make decisions as to where these should be in relation to one another. For instance the zone called "the Thousand Needles" is supposed to be close to several zones, which are thousands of miles apart on my map. I had to make a decision as to where I wanted to put it, near on of the three zones, or somewhere in the middle. Ultimately I decided to put it near Feralas, a zone of jungle, as the explanation of it's existence presented in one of the RPG books that made the most sense to me, required it to be near that zone.

Ultimately, the fact that there is a lot of space between established regions is actually a bit of a blessing. There is a lot of space to put stuff that might not fit in one of the other regions. Furthermore players of the games will not know everything there is to know about Kalimdor. There will still be a lot of secrets. Though for some of the larger regions they still won't know everything. So over all I'm feeling good about my efforts. Just a few kinks to work out.

New Campaign: Lord Zack's Greyhawk: the Return of Elemental Evil

I am trying to get a campaign going. It will be set in Greyhawk, but a modified version of the setting. For one thing many of the non human races will be fey in origin, the Dwarves, Elves and Gnomes were all originally fey, but eventually became more man-like. Halflings on the other hand are still considered demihumans, and there are additional demihuman races like troglodytes, no longer lizard-like, but instead a race of subterranean demihumans, and merfolk, which are obviously marine demihumans. I'm also rearranging the goblin races, hobgoblins are a smaller variety, rather than a larger one and the larger variety are called orcs, rather than having orcs and goblins be separate varieties. Goblins do vary by environment, as there are the more agile lowland orcs, and the stronger mountain orcs, as well as deep orcs. There are also crossbreeds of course, I'm thinking of making kobolds a crossbreed of gnome and goblin. Gnolls are in fact descended from orcs "blessed" by the demon lord Yeenoghu to resemble the canines that many goblins favor. Trolls also have changed as in my campaign they come in many varieties including ogres, and one resembling the traditional D&D troll. "Hill giants" for instance are a variety of troll. Goblins and trolls seemingly are related to certain varieties of evil fey, like the boggards and fomors respectively for instance. I am also using a version of Blackmoor closer to Dave Arneson's which also in a different place.

Now as for the campaign it's going to mostly be a sandbox, but there will also be a sort of plot, or at very least a theme. That being the Cult of Elemental Evil. Thus I will be using modules like the Village of Homlett/Temple of Elemental Evil, and the Giants/Drow series. These modules will not necessarily be as written. I'm considering heavily modify the Temple of Elemental Evil to address some complaints I've heard about it, for instance. I'm also using B2, and probably modifying the Caves of Chaos. I won't be using Queen of the Demonweb Pits.

the Shattered Empire

Well it's been slow going, but it seems some time in the next week my game with my old group, minus a few people, and with a few new people will begin.

I have decided to start a new campaign instead of continuing my old one. I have set up a sandbox, though I'm still making a few adjustments to the map. They will be starting in the town of Delphens, which has a corrupt government and is dominated by rogues and thieves. Nearby, there are a couple of ruins from the old empire, that had been conquered by a human slave of the elves. There is also a mound that is inhabited by evil fey and a cult of elves to the north. Farther to the east is a ruin of a truly ancient culture that possessed great arcane and technological knowledge.

I tried to run the first session last Friday, but I had problems with MapTool.