Category: Roleplaying Games

One of the longest running campaigns I’ve ever run was a Gamma World game based on the original first edition rules. In building the world, I used not only elements from the setting sketched out in the book, but elements from other game settings like The Morrow Project and Aftermath along with ideas from film and fiction. The most direct lift was the territory controlled by the Eleveners, a direct lift from Hiero’s Journey by Sterling E. Lanier and its sequel, though the actual details of their society included elements from Miller’s A Canticle for Liebowitz and was a combination of Healers and Restorationists as presented as Cryptic Alliances in the setting. Lifewise, the Brotherhood of the Unclean became simply The Unclean as the dark side to the Restorationists with a healthy dose of other antagonists thrown in including, most predominantly, Radioactivists.

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The maps of Middle Earth have always held a special place with me, whether it’s been the original maps by J.R.R. Tolkien himself, the version by Pauline Baynes from the calendar that I owned once upon a time, or the detailed maps by Karen Wynn Fonstad that appeared in her Atlas of Middle Earth. The idea of a world with depth and history is always appealing and I must have explored every corner of the world, not only following the path of the Fellowship, but also the places mentioned in the stories or shown on the maps that were peripheral to the saga.

Of particular note was the lost kingdom of Arnor and the remains of its capital city, Annúminas, on the southern shore of Nenuial, also known as Lake Evendim. This is, without a doubt, my single most favorite place in Middle Earth. As the ruins of a once-great city, it barely merits a footnote in the story apart from being a special place to the Rangers of the North, the descendents of the northern Dúnedain.

Which brings us to Pete Fenlon and his work over a decade and a half working at Iron Crown Enterprises working on their Middle Earth roleplaying game and the numerous supplements detailing parts of the world, expanding on the works of Tolkien, and creating new adventures. Many of us were inspired by his work and have so many great memories of each and every map. The Pete Fenlon style has influenced not just gamers like myself, but other map designers, as well.
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One of the most difficult things with maps, particularly in those for roleplaying games, is capturing three-dimensional spaces. Since the early days of computer games like Colossal Cave Adventure and various dungeon delves, the result is the flattening of complex structures onto two-dimensional planes.

My experiences as an early gamer were rather insular and even TSR’s Dwellers of the Forbidden City (I1) passed me by at the time, much like many of the works out of the UK including the Pellinore game setting. As a result, I think my first exposure to isometric maps were the ones from the Dragonlance adventures and those blew my mind.

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