Back in early September, we had https://www.patreon.com/posts/marches-70385405">a post go up for patreons only (it's now publicly available).
Excerpt:
Excerpt:
A significant part of how this venture came to be is intertwined with the development of this map. There were countless times when I hit an impasse with questions like, “how long would it take a party to get from Radanch to the Eastern Sulci?”; or, “how much will Radasol [the local sun] heat this region throughout the day?”; or, “how steep is this canyon wall/mountain range/perilous drop?” The saying goes, “the map is not the territory,” but in this case it essentially is.
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Underneath all of this work is a desire to allegorically explore themes of balance, justice, and ecological impact. Adding more content and detail further illustrates this delicate tapestry of survival. What happens when literally any of it is disrupted? What happens to the ecosystems in the Sheltered Palm if the Co. discovers rare metallic ore in The Brothers Above and sets up a mining operation? Even more innocently, what if the Co. wants to “help” the people of Radanaar by introducing new infrastructure? What if the people of the Eastern Sulci no longer depend on Radanch in mutual synergism? How will their cultures and societies be affected?
Radanaar is an artfully stacked tower of small-wooden-blocks, assembled for the sole purpose of letting you pull the blocks out, one by one—and watch the players try to put them back, or carve new ones. What new shapes emerge in the rubble, when it inevitably collapses? What will you do with The Rain Thieves?
Perhaps coincidentally, this post is now publicly available mere days after the final map design was submitted for use in The Rain Thieves. While I'm not fully sold on the coloration (the reds still feel "off" to me), I am loving the lay of the land.
Attached are the triptych of original maps, and then three screenshots of the current map, vectorized and with added details.