I really like the new map of Theah. I also like the idea of having the map made for Queen Elaine and how it is subtly different than the color map. I see it as a map to give out to the players if they do something in-game to acquire a map of Theah.
As a GM, I am pretty free flowing with things, however, there are things that I like to have accurate. So I have measured out all of the roads and sea routes on the color map and added annotation for each showing how many miles each segment is.
I am a CAD tech at an engineering and architecture firm, so over several lunch hours, I converted the .pdf to a .tiff image, inserted it into AutoCAD, scaled it up and traced all of the roads and sea routes. In AutoCAD you can list a polyline (many lines joined to make a segmented line) and get it's entire length, so I wrote a program for AutoCAD (LISP routine) to click on the polyline and place text with the length. After doing all of that, I just pdf'd the AutoCAD drawing so that I can pull it up on my laptop while running my game. My players are currently travelling from Charouse to Ussura. They just got to Muguet on the north coast of Montaigne, so they have a ways to go.
I have also made a Google Sheet for calculating travel times. You enter in how many miles you are traveling and it tells you how many days it will take. After doing some research, I have put into the Sheet the maximum miles one can travel per day and the average speed per mode of travel.
I have entries for:
- Horseback
- Maximum 35 miles per day (plus 5 miles if they take a several hour rest half way through).
- Walking
- Maximum 20 miles per day (plus 5 miles if they take a several hour rest half way through).
- Horseback/Walking combined (I give them an extra 5 miles at the end of the day if they want to walk the horses)
- Maximum 40 miles per day (plus 5 miles if they take a several hour rest half way through).
- Ship
- No maximum, ships keep on going provided the crew is large enough to have shifts throughout the day/night.
If anyone would like my Travel Times Google Sheet and could tell me how to make it public and share it, I will post a link to it.
As for the map, I will share that as well, as long as I hear from John Wick Publications that it is alright to do so. I love 7th Sea and do not want to step on any toes whatsoever. I am hoping that someone with JWP can comment on here or send me a personal message letting me know if it is alright. I am going to GenCon next week, so if I don't hear from JWP before then, I will talk to them about it there.
Jake Pitcher
I'd love the travel times Google sheet and the map should you send it out!
I am curious though about travel times...
Using Horseback all day is 35 miles, Walking is 20 but if you do both you can get further? I assume the Horseback is at a walk with appropriate rests, so I'm not sure how you get further combining than just horseback with appropriate rests?
Here is the link to the Google Sheet
I forgot to mention earlier, I have each entry duplicated to the right. This is for when the players are being chased or are chasing someone over long distances. One party may be using long rests while the other might not be, or one party may have a faster ship than the other.
As for the horseback combined with walking, after traveling the maximum distance on horseback, I let my players go an additional 5 miles by walking alongside the horses. My thought process is that without the weight and strain of the rider the horse can go a little bit further.
As for resting, I've built that in with a drop-down. So if they want to go the maximum distance on horseback with no resting, they can go 35 miles. However, if they take a 3-4 hour break in the middle of the journey that day, they can go 40 miles.
I also have travel time for ships. There is a drop-down for ship speed (Slow Ship, Average Ship, & Fast Ship; 3 mph, 4 mph, & 5 mph respectively). It does not have maximum miles per day built into it, assuming that the ship will have an adequate crew for multiple shifts. If I ever come across the situation where they don't have a large enough crew aboard the ship, I'll address it then.
I hope that helps explain things a bit.
Jake Pitcher
TAJ-07: Technopriest And Justicar Of 7thSea2e
If posting the map isn't acceptable, maybe you could instead post a table listing approximate travel times between the major cities. Or even more ambitious, a drop-down menu that allows you to select any known two cities and see the distance between them.
True Iskander,
That is a great idea. If JWP will not allow me to share it, then I will look into creating a table such as that. It will take a little bit of time typing out all of the cities, but could be a great resource.
Thanks for the great idea.
Jake Pitcher
@JakePitcher, thank you for the time invested in creating accurate mileage for the 7th Sea Map of Theah.
TIFF images are raw unscaled, so if your new image is very large, just send me a Private Message and we will work some options, maybe Dropbox or even FTP to a subset of the site only.
Or maybe you can still try Forum uploads, check the [Text Format] below every response box adn select, "Forum Html", which will give you a menu bar with a photo icon near the table and link chain icons.
TAJ-07: Technopriest And Justicar Of 7thSea2e
Cthulhu Netobvious,
You're welcome, I am happy to share my stuff. I certainly gotten a wealth of tools, ideas, and suggestions from the web, so I am happy that I can contribute and make things easier for others.
The TIFF image that I used in AutoCAD is 24mb in size, however the pdf I created from AutoCAD is only 1mb in size, so not really that large. The bad part is that the resolution in the map pdf (that was sent out to us kickstarters, as well as the map in the rulebook that was labeled as high res) is not that great. Then when printing from AutoCAD to pdf it loses a little bit more resolution. It is still useable, the smaller city names are just a little bit less legible.
If I get permission from JWP I will post/upload it right away.
Jake Pitcher
Heh. I've done the same thing in AutoCAD for the old theah map. Was very useful for travel times. Also for producing new maps as borders got changed.
I also used it to make the templates for my 7th sea quilt. Needed a different printout for each province. Just google 7th sea quilt if you want to see the result.
James Anderson,
I looked up the quilt, that is AWESOME!!
As for your using AutoCAD for the old Theah map, did you do anything special for printing it to pdf from AutoCAD? When I do it, it loses a little of it's resolution.
If JWP is okay with sharing my map, I'll try to talk to them at GenCon about it and see if I can get a better resolution image of the map.
Jake Pitcher
I have a full version of CutePDF that I've set as a printer for cad to use. Prints out as a nice clean pdf, because yeah, trying to print it out as a graphic file is terrible. But I had traced the entire map into polylines, not just the roads, then deleted the source pdf's. I'll see if I can dig up the CAD file.
I've got the export pdf. I ended up with 10 export styles of each country and an overall map, so it's exactly 100 pages, and about 45 megs. I can give you a copy at Gencon if we meet up.
Dear Fellow Map Enthusiats,
I'm not sure if this has been talked about else where but on the Colored Map of Theah at the beginning of the 2nd ed. There is a city dot in Eisen, on the Southern Boarder of The Walder, on the road between Stutzung and Heilgrund. The problem is that the city dot doesn't have a name next to it.
So I don't know if it's on purpose, if there's secrets behind it, or what? If any one has some helpful information, I will be very greatful.
Thank you