Starmaps

[Quantumsurfer]

I made the following maps for one of my campaign settings. They were involved, but I had a lot of fun creating them. As I was making them, I thought that they might make a nice format to supplement the BrikWars Galaktik metaplot. Maybe. I was unsure about size restrictions and whether anyone would be interested. So I resolved to post them here when I was done with them to find out. The thought that someone had already done this was nagging at the back of my mind the whole time but I figured I'd research more when I was done with mine and before I started anything for BrikWars. Sure enough, Tuefish had made a political overview and posted to the wiki. I knew I'd seen it somewhere before.

In any case, I'm still in the mood to share (larger versions: http://sometimeartisanproject.blogspot.com/2012/09/black-ocean-katana-maps.html, feel completely free to ignore the rest of the blog):



Basic Starmap



Starmap with Political Overlay

[Falk]

This is pretty cool. I'll have to do something like this.

[Predator]

...Woah.

[Colette]

We made a decision a few years back that we wouldn't make a star map of the brikverse. In addition to 3D considerations, establishing a canonical geography might interfere with our ability to wage war on each other (ie other sides of the galaxy). We can have general regions (Scythians in center, Trattorians on edge of an arm) but nobody has been arsed into fixing specific locations yet.

[Ben-Jammin]

We made a decision a few years back that we wouldn't make a star map of the brikverse. In addition to 3D considerations, establishing a canonical geography might interfere with our ability to wage war on each other (ie other sides of the galaxy). We can have general regions (Scythians in center, Trattorians on edge of an arm) but nobody has been arsed into fixing specific locations yet.

This is ossum and I feel the desire to make my own now.

[Colette]

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs50/f/2009/290/c/8/Galixia_Nehellenium_map_by_Tuefish.png

Here's an extremely outdated attempt at a starmap. (It was too big to post)

What would be necessary before this however would be another Empire Census just so we can get exact-ish empire sizes in one easy-to-search place.

[Quantumsurfer]

Thanks.
It's pretty fun to make, lot of creative outlet in one project.

We made a decision a few years back that we wouldn't make a star map of the brikverse. In addition to 3D considerations, establishing a canonical geography might interfere with our ability to wage war on each other (ie other sides of the galaxy). We can have general regions (Scythians in center, Trattorians on edge of an arm) but nobody has been arsed into fixing specific locations yet.

Well, 3d considerations aren't really a problem. I've included general (x,y,z) abstractions in my own maps and it's not as if the vast majority of BrikWars isn't just chock full of abstractions. They're good for a fictional universe. That being said, I take your other point. With the constantly shifting alliances, empire growth and destruction, and new story elements, it would be a pain in the ass to try to keep track of it all and continually update the map. The thought had occurred to me. I had considered, originally, offering a map update for each Rekonstruktion...which would be easy to do. But the problem with that, as you say, is that it would interfere with the ability to fudge the logic of a story (how are you able to bring your whole empire to bear on the Trattorians when the Scythian domain completely blocks your path?). Now, I have found those limitations to be creatively inspiring. Sort of creates a big game of Risk. In the instance above, the attacker would have to treat with the Scythians to gain passage. Or attack them to get them out of the way. Generals begin making larger plans, which can actually be a lot of fun and really does a lot to expand the importance of the story, as well as extending it's long term viability. Of course, the problem with that is that every player needs to be into it. If everyone isn't on board, the whole thing falls apart pretty quickly. And it is, of course, perfectly acceptable to not be into it. Not everything is that serious, BrikWars probably way less so. So I get where you're coming from.

[Quantumsurfer]

Here's an extremely outdated attempt at a starmap.

Yep, that's the one I saw on the Wiki. I like the idea and I'd be willing to help out if the community ever changes its mind.

[Silverdream]

http://fc01.deviantart.com/fs50/f/2009/290/c/8/Galixia_Nehellenium_map_by_Tuefish.png

I'm just going to add that this map is hard to read if you're colourblind.

[Quantumsurfer]

That's funny, those were my thoughts exactly when I was making mine. I thought about letter keying the zones but forgot about it.

[Colette]

Another issue is how big is a single star system in the galaxy? Like my Trattorians have 150 systems, the Scythians have like 400, USA has 500, Assyrians have like 200-250, etc. How would we determine how big they are on the scale of a galaxy?

[Zupponn]

Solution to 3D problems:

Teleportation.




I win.

[Quantumsurfer]

That is an interesting question.

BOK only has about 50-60 systems and you can see how clustered they are. I think...I think I'd handle it by scaling out and creating supplementary maps. Kind of like zooming in. The Core map would present a broad overview, a sort of snapshot of the forum populace, if you will. It would hold a fair bit of room for expansion, for when new players join the forums and create their own planets/systems. Then we take a look at a Star Empire, say, USA (being the biggest in your list), and simplistically divide it down into smaller, more manageable chunks. We'd want each map to contain 100 systems or less, I think. It seems like it would be ok for powerful systems to look more clustered. Theoretically, it would give the viewer the immediate impression that this group is kind of a big deal. I'm no astrophysicist (obviously) so whether this makes astrological sense is beyond me. But it works for the narrative. So anyway, we break USA down into 5 sectors, as opposed to systems, represented on the Core Map. If you look at BOK's political boundaries, this would be roughly equivalent to the Hiveworlds or the Independent Fringesystems (and it really is all about how you frame them...notice the weaker shape around the resource starved rebels). Then the USA gets 5 maps representing the actual systems (planets are assumed and can be discussed in the narrative of the particular faction...since most of them will never, ever be mentioned). ...Hm...This part may not even actually be required. I can just see the maps stacking up...3 for this guy, 5 for that guy, 12 for that asshole over there. But, like the planets, most of them are filler for the narrative. They're like requisition or energy points in a supergalactic RTS. So most of them wouldn't need to be mentioned. I could see sectors in longstanding contention being laid out, key points along an Empire's galactic frontier. I could also see a map of a player's home system (but that strikes me more as a prestige item than anything else...it's cool, but practically almost as superfluous as the other systems).

So, basically, what we're talking about here is taking that big number of systems for each empire, dividing by 100 (or so), and displaying their relation (in Sectors) to one another on the map.

The Trattorians could have two sectors (one big, one about half the size of the first), the Scythians would get 4, USA gets 5, Assyrians would get 3 (two big, one half). The other players would be grouped together in various pocket sectors, with only the big empires claiming such vast swaths of domain. So here's where it gets interesting to me, or where it all completely falls apart. New players to the Galaktik Metaplot would no longer have the option, logically, of naming their system and randomly choosing to be a big, badass empire (unless the community agreed that their army/story was just too cool not to include and called for galaktik expansion of the map). They'd have to fight for it. That unfairness, and the sheer bloody violence of it, strikes me as quintessentially BrikWars. On the other hand, it might turn newbies off. What's more, if the story (told presumably mainly through Forum Battles and Reports from the Field) stops moving forward, it could breed resentment. I've seen that before, on other forums and in RPG organizations. But then back on the first hand, the Forum Battles are the most popular thing here, so I don't know. I hang about but I don't rightfully have enough knowledge to give a real informed opinion on that situation.

[Colette]

Your star map also runs into even more problems because we have the Praetorians, who are based in another galaxy, the Space Nazis (another galaxy), and the Trattorians, who have extra-galactic colonies. Plus that new Chinese dominion and of course the Immortals.

It seems like a lot of work but if someone is willing to do it then sure why not. If worst comes to worst we can always junk it and go back to the old ways.

[Quantumsurfer]

Sure. I recall that but I don't honestly know whether those empires' stories account for extra-galactic conflict that would be central to the Metaplot. Do they? Do they interfere in one another's home dimensions? If so, that would probably require a supplementary Core map, which wouldn't be a problem to whip up if we weren't creating too many Sector Maps. If not, then that info could be contained within the faction's narrative, a factoid. The key would be focus. We would cover the Immortal dominion in this galaxy, for example, and simply note that they are extra-galactic in origin. Same would be true for parallel universe type interactions.