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Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Not the City State of the Invincible Overlord

Take a look at this city map, and tell me where it came from. If you've been playing D&D for a long time, I bet your answer is going to be either "City State of the Invincible Overlord" or "City State of the World Emperor." WRONG!

But I betcha that those maps were based on something like this, because this is a map of Pompeii's Roman ruins, as excavated. Chris Kutalik (of Hill Cantons) pointed out on Google+ that this map would make for an awesome megadungeon, which is more creative than I was; I was just sitting there thinking, "wow, all those little buildings in CSIO were probably supposed to be internal walls inside insulae" (in other words, the mall space under a big apartment building).

All these years I had a completely incorrect impression of the City State, assuming that the Judges Guild team also realized that the archaeological map showed insulae rather than many small buildings.

Take a look at this site, using the left side to click on the different "Regio" links, and you'll find yourself in the middle of an awesome city resource!

Thanks, Chris!!
PS, I do not know how to link to Chris's actual G+ post, so I linked to his awesome blog.
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5 comments:

  1. TomSeptember 4, 2013 at 9:03 PM

    Check out Mazes and Minotaurs Site adventure module Tomb of the Bull King. http://mazesandminotaurs.free.fr/TOMB.html

    It uses almost an exact map like this and stocks it out as a mega dungeon with an interesting back story. Very easy to adapt to D&D

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    Replies
    1. Chris KutalikSeptember 5, 2013 at 8:52 AM

      That map is taken directly from a site map of Knossos in Crete: http://www.dilos.com/dilosimages/image/crete/knossos_plan.jpg

      Delete
    2. TomSeptember 5, 2013 at 11:17 AM

      well that makes sense since the Tomb of the Bull King is based heavily upon the mythology of that island.

      Delete
  2. TomSeptember 4, 2013 at 9:05 PM

    When I saw this map I didnt think the City State at all I guessed you lifted it from Mazes and Minotaurs but its still a cool map for a setting

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  3. NagoraSeptember 5, 2013 at 1:07 PM

    I always thought the CSIO internal walls were just that but that the residents/landlords could block up the passages or doors in different ways to make separate spaces. So what was there last year was not necessarily what is there this year, even though the walls have not changed.

    Many a happy hour spent trying to find the home of people who didn't want their homes found.

    ReplyDelete