[MUD-Dev] Re: BUILDERS: Ferries

[Adam Wiggins]

[Mike Sellers:]
> At 01:05 PM 12/7/97 PST8PDT, Marian Griffith wrote:
> >On Sat 06 Dec, s001gmu at nova.wright.edu wrote:
> >> > One of the challenges I
> >> > have found both interesting and enjoying about working with an entirely
> >> > original theme is that of creating a believable world with an enthraling
> >> > history which draws people in.
> >
> >I belief this is much more important to the game than the actual map.
> >The history  will provide the game with a sense of continuity  and it
> >can guide the area builders in their efforts much more  than a fairly
> >abstract map can do.
> 
> FWIW, various authors including Tolkein, Eddings, and O.S. Card have talked
> about how they started with a map, and built their histories and peoples
> (and eventually stories) on top of it.  I think this makes a lot of sense.
> Eddings also said in a recent article that it took him almost two years to
> do all that for the Belgariad/Mallorean stories, but now he has the process
> down to about six weeks. :-)  

In this context the map becomes more of a visual tool for brainstorming
than an actual piece of geography.  (Indeed, fantasy maps are renowned
for being completely unlike real geography..)  You draw up a rough map,
imagine impressive geographical features (mountain ranges, waterfalls,
large bodies of water, swamps, plains, forests, caves..), and plunk down
your civilizations-in-the-rough.  From there it becomes easy to imagine
the titanic battles that occured as borders got pushed forth and back,
alliances and neutralities that formed due to position (think Switzerland),
locations for important religious or magical structures, and so on...