Galsiah said:
Jolly good (though hardly true in general - there are many islands for a start).
That's nitpicking ¬¬
I am sure there's quite a few valleys around, but that does not negates the generalization of the world being a continous entity.
Galsiah said:
Game worlds, however, generally are self-contained. They are self-contained geographically to make it credible for them to have an isolated history/story.
Unless you want both to explain half the world to set the game in one country, and to deny the player any access to that half-world which he should reasonably be able to use, you need a degree of isolation. It needn't be that every world region is self-contained: it's just that the ones that happen to be tend to be the most conducive to self-contained stories.
But the borders of the self-contained story can be thematic, instead of physical. If the game is about the great pyramids, then there is no need of going outside certain parts of egypt - Even in P&P there is a limit to the "freeform exploration" a GM will suffer before just saying "Ok, you left and went on with your life. Make another character."
Most people live through self-contained stories. Most never go beyond two or three cities without even knowing how the country in-between looks like. They are not contained by geographical accidents, and everyone knows there are other places beyond the corner. They just have more interesting, immediate, or critical things to do - The rest of the world is little more than background fluff for them.
Ergo, the emphasis i added to your words: It should be reasonable, yes, but within context. If it is the story of a siege, the keep and surrounding lands are reasonable. If you go beyond that "contextual" border, then you are out of the story. If it is a CoC-like supernatural horror mystery, then the area related to such mystery (the town and surrounding countryside, for an example) are the reasonable area. If you want to abandon insmouth half-way through and go tourist in Boston, then you are either going to die or manage to abandon the story. Make a slide show ending and be done with it.
Also, a border can be political instead of geographical.
On a side, joking note: I was just playing Perimeter. If you have the game, look for the mission were Harback fights the imperial viceship, just after they reach the original worlds and have to go back. The world were they fight, called Sota in my version, reminds me of this discussion. xP
Vault Dweller said:
That's where a number of pre-war towns were located. This area was hit very hard, which is why it's a desert now.
I imagined they were concentrated for a similar reason. On the craters i was just arguing they looked very symetrical on their location. The southernmost cluster looks perfectly aligned ( "O:." ) and the six smaller craters on the central cluster are separated in two groups with the exact same spread, just tilted: "Two perfectly aligned craters with a third one in the middle, towards the top."
If you want them like that for some reason, then great. I am just pointing things that seem weird from where i am standing. It is your game. Ergo, you know better by default.
Vault Dweller said:
Your expertise on the subject is appreciated. However, the artist followed very specific instructions and nothing was left to his imagination.
Well, sorry about that. That line of mine you just answered came along quite in-character, but was not my intention. I may seem to be a bit overly critical about your game, but i am really just try to be helpful and make myself useful.
Thinking about it, all the post came as being aloof and snobish. Again, i am sorry about that.
Vault Dweller said:
Then the artist succeeded. The war destroyed what used to be a normal, fertile land and created this desolation.
I was under the impression it was an "in-character" map, like in "The map the little guy on the screen carry in his bag" - made by some cartographer inside the setting, and not an artistic rendition trying to focus on such contrasts. If it is the latter case, then it is all well: The two styles actually come along as one being very objective and detailed (the areas i mentioned as "focus") and the other being more idealized/abstracted (the ones i mentioned as "Filler") - since i was under that impression mentioned ut supra, i saw the second one as not being coherent.
Also, if you are in a revealing mood - What is that chasm northeast of the central cluster? It looks quite interesting, and huge. Also, is there concept art on that location that you can show?