What is this you might ask, it is a a page spread from the of the best atlas publishers in the world and I think we should learn from them!

With a bit of work we can make this atlas become the best ever made for a fantasy world.  By using the whole spread we can use side margin to list all the places (and maybe other features as well) and add a grid to find them. This is something I will need help with, analyse each map and list all the places and coordinates in an Excel spreadsheet. A byproduct will be a list with all the settlements in Greyhawk. The size of the greid have to be determined, and lets try and make it something useful like 50 miles or so. 

I'll have an example page ready in a few days, so we can work out the details and see how big the map will actually be. When we have the map size of a spread we can split up the continent properly, but it will be in the 95-100 pages range I'm pretty sure. With that many pages we can cover every part fairly properly, and set a new standard for fantasy atlases.

Thank you again for helping me realize this!!! 🙂 

Normally I'm the kind of person who tries to plan my projects and try to make big decisions early to make sure I don't make major mistakes. In this case I'm starting to realize I might be heading off in the wrong direction.

The idea of a landscape layout of the Atlas seemed cool and functional, but before I made a firm commitment I decided to look at the dozen or so atlases I have. This made me realize that the smart way to design an atlas is to make use of both pages by having each map cover a whole spread,  that way you get more continuous map coverage.

With this insight and Sinam's good comment on the last post I started to design a page layout based on portrait spreads, and trying to make them cover logical areas. With a 96 page layout we can get what I think is a much more useful Atlas.

So now comes the big question a 75  or 96 page atlas? Both alternatives will need a number of extra pages for credits, legend, overview maps, covers etc. So we are looking at around 80 or 100 pages. Pages are a cost and hassle to print, but a more useful end product can be a huge boon too.

What are your opinions on this?
I'm asking this first and if there are people on both sides on this issue, we need a poll to get the answer. But let's discuss first.   

Here is a first take on the Atlas page layout, what do you think?

I tried to keep as many pages as possible horizontal, but in a few locations that isn't really practical. Tried to keep the order logical which is hard at times, but hopefully this is might work.

Here it is - a first revision of of the 576 CY map. Here is the list of changes:

- Yellowreach - added - from White Plume Mountain

 - The Grey Run river - Added - from the Gord Books

- Dun Mounds - added - from casl Entertainment and Lord Gosumba

- Perrenland NE - province removed and border adjustments

- Avon Fyn and Olve Water rivers - corrected

- Town of Marich replaces Sterich Road and Javan Ferry

- Moved the border south of Camp Adalorn.

- Kron Hills belonged to Verbobonc at the time - corrected

- Ruined City of Fleeth - added

- Border between Greyhawk and the Duchy of Urnst was moved east in an agreement between the two states signed in 584CY (From the Ashes Campaign Book p7)

- Hindewode changed to Quaalwood

Please tell me if there are any mistakes and other things to change, I want a really good map as a base for the Atlas.

You can grab it here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/tpw8x37u22cnusa/Flanaess%20Full%20Map%20576%20CY%20-%202020%20REV1_RC1.jpg?dl=0

Thank you again for all the help, and here is a new page layout. Tried to improve on the Thillonrian peninsula without increasing the page count too much. Also added a page for the Rift Canyon area that was split up on four pages.

A couple of ocean only pages I adjusted so they now better cover coastlines or islands of interest instead. This way both the Saltmarsh area and the Olmand Islands got a good coverage.

There are a number of things I on the map I want to correct or add, so I plan to take a week or two to make a revision. This way it will be a much more accurate version of the map for the Atlas 2020 - Revision 1. What do you guys think is it worth delaying it a couple of weeks to get a better map?

Things to corect are the Kron Hills area belonged to Nulb back in 576 CY, Alhaster was not Red Hand and Perrenland hadn't expanded as much into the east among other things.

Time to take a look at my first proposal for how to divide up the Flanaess for a 11x17  landscape layout Atlas. Each page has an effective map area of 16x10 inches, which is the green squares. I've added in half an inch overlap on all sides, which is the inner pink squares on the layout image.

I'm also thinking about having a few portrait pages and here is a test of how a portrait page layout would look.

I've added a extra 0.25 inch margin for binding on one side in addition to the 0.25 inch bleed on all sides.

Below is a landscape pages with the added binding margin for left and right

For the real pages I'll try and either adjust large labels that are only partially on the page or remove them and use a bordern note instead. For example ocean and country names, if there are room I'll move them fully onto each page, otherwise I'll remove them and make a side note.

So is this a workable way to divide the Flanaess?

Thank you all for all the great input, really helpful and here is a new version that I hope is a huge improvement.

I have now spent time to work on the styling as well, since I have a hard time looking at things half done.

The map is now surrounded by a half inch border that that can take care of all the frills, keeping the map area free from other stuff. The example also includes 0.25 inch bleed.

The border is home to mini map that I hope is not too small, scale, a little north arrow, page directions, credits, page number and major labels from the map that are missing from the map. 

Fiddling around with the layout of the atlas pages. I've decided to try an 11x17 landscape format this time and I'm trying to minimize the  page "frills" like the scale.

Here I'm trying small arrows along the edges telling you want page the map continues to. I've also skipped the minimap. A minimap takes up a lot of page real estate and most of us are familiar enough with the setting so the need is not that great. What do you guys think?

Time for the first of my Gary Con - 50 Years of D&D  bonanza, two heraldry compendiums and a bunch of more shields, 60 new ones all in all. They cover historic Flan and Oeridian crests, or more correctly my version of what they could look like.

I'm running short on time packing and getting as much as possible done before I jump on my flight in a few hours when this post goes live, so I will come back to what are behind the design of these but I hope you like them as much as I do!

Here are the Oeridians with a lot of familiar names from Greyhawk lore...

The shields used in the Compendiums are what the shields looked like in their prime. In the zip file aged versions are included as well when appropriate. 

Here are the download links:

https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/Heraldry/Flan%20Heraldry%20-1.jpg 

https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/Heraldry/Oeridian%20Heraldry%20-1.jpg 

Zip file with all the shields (647MB)

https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/Heraldry/Heraldry%20March%202024.zip 

Time for some housekeeping, here comes a very disparate selection of heraldry I have created for my own campaign, and some that have made it on the the Flanaess map that I forgot to add add to my heraldry folder: http://bit.ly/GHheraldryfolder 

First out is the heraldry symbol I saw on the image on the cover of the boxed set, and I reused the banner of the knight to be the old shield of the city of Highport.

Next is Badwall, which is my own design. My thinking behind this is to keep it simple and geometric like many of the other settlements and especially Fax.

And another one from the Boxed Set cover image that I made into the symbol of Cantona, another of the Wild Coast town.

Next up is another one of my own design that was inspired by the map of the ancient Elven Realms described and mapped by Mike Bridges, the elven realm in Vesve Forest - Taaranalle that still exists in my campaign. The design is also inspired by the Lendore heraldry from the Living Greyhawk campaign. 

Next is from my Rel Deven Campaign and is the heraldry for the Marchland of Chathold detailed in Ivid the Undying.

Below is heraldry from my upcoming Shield Lands 598 CY campaign for Axeport that in my campaign is now a seat of a new barony. 

You can't play a campaign in the former Shield Lands in 598 CY without including Iuz, so here comes some of the Iuz related shields I created. First out  is the humanoids of the Gensal Hordes.

Next is the infamous Black Death.

and the Shadowclaw.

and the Boneshadow..

and one of my favorites, General Sindol...

and the old Phalanx...

And here is one of my own design that is on the 576 CY map but I forgot to add to the heraldry folder until now, the viceroyalty of Ferrond. 

Last but not least is another of my favorites inspired by the cover image of Ivid the Undying. I interpreted it as the symbol  used by the Ivid Overkings. 

A bit unorganized and most of it is straight from my own campaign but I hope this heraldry can be useful for you as well.

Stay Safe and thank you all for your support, it literally keep me online and the lights going here! 🙂