**I should state that if you're a player in my campaign you should probably stop reading now, as I'm going to post a bunch of maps here!**
A while ago, one of my players posted on this forum a map I drew as a hand-out for the campaign I was running. The reception was pretty gratifying and so I've finally got around to posting something a bit more detailed which I hope might be of interest.
The name of the campaign is The Lordless Lands and I ran it for a couple of weeks in the summer of 2012 for the London D&D Meetup group. I've gone back to the drawing board since then and am going to start the campaign again in July 2013.
The objectives I set for this campaign were firstly, to do a really detailed sandbox campaign. The second was that I wanted to use, with only a few exception, just creatures from the core Labyrinth Lord rule book. I'll try and post here and let people know how things go.
What follows is a short description of the world, Öerf (a portmanteau of Earth and 'oeuf', the French word for egg) and of the Lordless Lands, an area of Öerf.
Öerf is three times the size of Earth. It began as a cannibal planet created by malevolent gods. Too powerfull to destroy complealy, the planet was banished from its own plane of existence by ancient astral wizards and left to starve and then rot, quarantined from the rest of the universe in its own demiplane, set in orbit around a single dying star. As the planet rotted it developed its ecosystem. A highly advanced civilisation on fungus men became established and eventually came into conflict with the astral wizards who watched over the planet. The fungus men were defeated and forced underground by mercenaries drawn from across the multiverse, and it is the descendants of these mercenaries who now populate the Öerf, warmed by 3 orbiting artificial suns.
The Lordless lands is a no-man's land between two empires, in which lie a few minor city-states, most of which have seen better days. It is essential a demilitarised zone, established hundreds of years ago by a treaty, the full terms of which are a secret know only to a few. The terms of the treaty are kept by a coalition of certain Wizards, Storm Giants, and Gold Dragons. Here's the intro I gave to my players:
Word has spread fast about the taverns and meeting halls of the Crimson Empire and beyond. The Earl of Clannagar seeks out adventurers to protect his citizens from encroaching monsters and the ever more emboldened goblinoid hoards. The Earl has become recently established as the Protector of the town of Halberd's Reach, one of the few bastions of order in the Lordless Lands.
The Lordless Lands. To most, little of it is known other than it is an obscure no-man’s-land between the realms of the Crimson Empire, the Horse Lords of the Great Plains and the Orcish Tribes of the Mountains of Sorrow. It is a refuge of rusticated sorcerers, outlaws and creatures too wild for civilised realms.
To the map keepers of the Crimson Empire it known of it as the Earl-Law. Some in the nobility claim titles to lands there, but beyond the bounds of Imperial Law, few have been foolish enough to stake their various claims.
To the pilgrims of the Cult of the Battle Brothers, it is a sorrowful realm of heretics and the delusional. It is a place from which all that is natural and good did leave long hence when in ancient times that Most Holy of Battle Companies vanquished the diabolical forces of the Great Devil, the thrice accursed Yellow Handed Necromancer. It is detour to be avoided.
To the Horse tribes of the Great Plains it is known as the Lands of the Golden Dragon, a forbidden place fit only for madmen and the southerner dogs of the Crimson Crown.
To the Empire of the Zarfarhn it is an inconvenience. The maintenance of a costal garrison south of the mouth of the river Kohax is a drain on scant recourses. It is one to be tolerated however if the seas in these parts are to be kept free of piracy.
You join the steady stream of assorted ne'er-do-wells boarding the Zarfarhnian trading ships which have promised safe passage by sea to the mouth of the river Kohax and thence to the river port of the Halberd's Reach. You come from many races and lands too numerous to mention seeking adventure, gold and the chance to make a name for yourselves.
The stakes are high and dangers has been promised round every corner. With high adventure come higher risk and in a world as big as this, and with the gullible, reckless and suicidal in such vast supply, who’s to say you’ll be missed?
Here's the hand out map I give to player's. The point of it is to provide only partial information - its essentially a misleading advert to attract adventurers to Halberd's Reach to do the Earl's dirty work. Note there is no scale!:
Here's a sample sheet from the hex atlas I've been drawing. The scale is 3 miles to a hex
Hope this is of interest - any thoughts or comments would be much appreciated!