Friday, July 27, 2018

Did Dr. Holmes ever create a map of his game world?


Did Dr. Holmes ever create a map of his game world?

22 comments:

  1. Of the whole world? Not that I know of. I've seen hand-drawn maps of wilderness areas for particular adventures. The Skull Mountain art was drawn by Tom Wham and AFAIK is not directly connected to anything that Holmes wrote. He had a different cross-section in the manuscript for the Basic rulebook.

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  2. Zach H Any maps of Caladan area or the Lost City?

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  3. I haven't seen anything with Caladan on it. There is a map of the "Great Desert" with the "Lost City of Irem" noted on it. Presumably the same "Desert of Irem" mentioned in Confessions of a Dungeon Master.

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  4. Zach H Is it possible to check out the cross-section from the MS somewhere?

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  5. Mark Tygart Where is what? If you mean the maps, they haven't been published (yet). Allan mentions them in the introduction to Tales of Peril. If you mean CofDM, it is in Tales of Peril. Irem is mentioned near the end when he mentions placing Shelley's Ozymandius statue in a game.

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  6. Gabor Lux Yes, it's in my manuscript series, Part 41. Part 42 also has a partial level 1 dungeon map that was not used. Here is the index: http://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2013/11/at-long-last.html

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  7. The cross-section is a small affair, aligns nicely with the 3-level concept of Basic. Nowhere nearly as evocative as Skull Mountain, but has a few nice details including a second entrance, which may have given Tom Wham the idea for adding "The Pit", since it is aligned somewhat similarly.

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  8. Zach H Much appreciated. No idea how I missed that.

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  9. I believe there is a Holmes quote stating that he never mapped his entire world but I’d have to look up where it was.

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  10. Tony Rowe Yes, I saw that last night when looking at CofaDM, it's just before the mention of Irem

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  11. Thanks, Dustin. Lovecraft mentioned the city in a few stories, could be what inspired Holmes to use it

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  12. Honestly, when I googled it, I was expecting Lovecraft or Smith references. I didn't know it was part of Islamic myth.

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  13. Lovecraft loved to put historical places with fictional ones. Dad probably pulled Ir em from his memory because it sounded exotic. No map of the world was drawn to my knowledge. Feel free to create your own.

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  14. Chris Holmes Might be possible to do something based on the Amazon's brief description of the world in Maze of Peril....

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  15. Do it if it brings you joy. I love to look at maps, but I don't like making them.

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  16. Chris Holmes Well, it would obviously involve a lot of guesswork...tempting.

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  17. Mark Tygart Chris Holmes I’ve been working on such a Holmes World map that incorporates his published stories and adventures but it has been on the back burner for a while.

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  18. Tony Rowe Love to see a preliminary version!

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  19. Mark Tygart I have to add the newly published information found in the Witch Doctor story. Lots of place names of the southern lands in that tale.

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  20. Thanks. I am pretty sure those place names were one of Dad's additions.

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