What do you guys think of my campaign map?
I wanted to trick my players into playing an East Asian inspired campaign without realising it was East Asian themed. It's full of butchered Anglicised Chinese, ancient China history jokes or references and the map was made from the POV of an Immortal bureaucrat with a very low opinion of anything they can't control. Most of the names are just true names because I love true names on maps. Program used was Hextml which was pretty easy to use
https://hextml.playest.net/There is a fantasy Korea analogue farther West. I had to place fantasy Japan analogue closer because one of my players loves Tokyo Drift references too much. Everything technically belongs to one empire, which was long ago united by the Yellow Serpent Emperor. The Yellow Serpent disappeared and left his descendants in charge of running the Empire; the current Emperor is a stunted dragonling who is being fed poison to stop him from growing up, ensuring he can be managed / controlled easily by the various factions vying for control. Many people believe the Shah Mountain is in fact the Yellow Serpent taking a long nap, but either this isn't true, or no one's figured out how to wake up the mountain.
The weather is carefully controlled by the government from their Six Towers of Elemental Regulation in the SE Capital. Unlicensed weather is swiftly punished. The Palace of Eternal Everlasting Joy is where the Emperor Dragonling lives, alongside whichever faction is in charge at the time (weather bureaucrats, charming eunuchs, military, nobles, probably the adventuring party if they play their cards right). Government house is where all the factions pretend to not stab each other in the back. Each layer of the capital contains millions of people, with the most important being in the centre and least important in the outer rings.
The really long dragon wall separates all under heaven from the barbarian wasteland of degenerate grass and seditious rainwater. It is a brilliant fortification which protects against teleportation and even dragon attacks (being built by a dragon and all). The farther south you go, the wilder the lands become and the more you start encountering massive beasts. The grass and rainwater in the far south is considered an enemy of the state, because unlike north of the wall, in the south the grass and rainwater do not obey the law or tradition, and WILL encourage you to break most laws and rules. Being sent beyond the wall is often considered a demotion in the military, a punishment for civilians and a reward for people who are tired of the rules. This places like Badtown are fairly chill places to live, where you can live freely if you are willing to tolerate the occasional wilderland attack.
The Cliffs of Amber and the Jade Mountains are made of their respective materials. However, mining the rock from these mountains without a permit from the government is a capital offence. The Warlords of Jiyang June and Merchant Princesses of Shangrune WILL enforce their legal monopoly violently. The names of these cities are just incredible bastardisations of the Chinese for army general and merchant.
Winelake and Meatforest is a lake of wine and meatforest created by the late Emperor Mayeo Young, whose name means useless. A reference to the excess of King Zhou, who actually in real life did make a meat forest and wine lake. Inhabitants are mixed in regards to having their lake turned into a winelake; most hate seeing their livelihood go away. The orc theatre actors and opera performers of orcbants however, enjoy it greatly.
In the far north the jungles of savages / cannibals is incredibly difficult terrain to traverse, with many nomadic tribes, towns and villages scattered amongst the wild things and jungle dryads. Most of them are all pretty swell people, however having a nasty reputation helps keep the foreigners away.
The Shanding Riverlands are an idyllic and peaceful place of artisanship, scholarship and bigdongs. East of the Tiyen Sha tower is the roof of the world. If my players have ended up there something has gone terribly wrong. Everything else on the map is pretty self-explanatory. Also the scale I'm using is that 1 tile here is 60 miles, so this is legit a continent-spanning overworld map. I'm already making smaller scale maps for where they'll start, and they'll use this map to tell me where they want to go. As this is pre-rebellion, civil war and plague, there are tens of millions of races running around in an even mix in most towns. The notable exceptions are of course elfwood, orcbants and dwarf pirate island.
Capital Offences of Tiyen Sha:
THE THREE AXIOMS1. Always respect the Emperor
2. Always respect your parents
3. Always respect your neighbours
CAPITAL OFFENCES1. Unregulated dying is punishable by death.
2. Unregulated mining is punishable by death.
3. Unregulated weather is punishable by death.
MONETARY REGULATION1. Refusal to accept debased coin is punishable by death.
2. Refusal to accept paper money is punishable by death.
3. Refusal to pay taxes is punishable by death.
[There are a few more less severe rules and laws, mostly about worker rights protections, building regulation standards, how much wine one is permitted to add to a lake before it is legally no longer water e.t.c.)
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Topic: Re: Dungeons & Dragons / PNP games thread: COBRA!!! (Read 844321 times)