Re: (TFT) Moria Maps??? --> Hex geometry and Scaling factors of 2.64.

[Stan <srydzews@ix.netcom.com>]

rsmith wrote:
> 	What are peoples feelings about adventuring in a
> dwarven palace?  How would you map it?  This is a subject
> of intense interest to me, as I've ALWAYS wanted to do an
> adventure in Moria.


There was an adventure published in Dungeon magazine (now,
now, stop groaning) that took place in a large underground
city.

The way they did it was to have about a dozen pre-defined
hexagonal tile types, each about 2" wide, each showing an
area about a hundred yards across.  They were geomorphic
in the way the hex tiles are in the Avalon Hill boardgame
Magic Realm. (Great game, that.)  Each type of tile had
some standardized information, I believe there were random
encounters and the like suited to each cityhex type.
There was a one-page city map that showed a hex grid about
20 hexes by 30 that represented the city, one hex = one
tile.  Each hex on the big map had an identifier showing
what 'kind' of cityhex it was.  As the players move from
one hex to another, the tiles are laid down to gradually
map the whole place.

In addition there were about 20 unique, detailed
cityhexes scattered across the 20 x 30 grid.

Now of course you can say "well dispense with the standardized
hexes, and just use the unique ones"  all well and good,
but by having this huge area, and making treking from one
unique hex to another a major deal, it really gave the 'flavor'
of a large underground city better than any other way I've
seen.  Since populating such a huge area with completely
unique stuff would be a immensely time-consuming undertaking,
using a mix of standardized and unique tiles seems a good
compromise.

I played in this, didn't GM it, so I'm a little
shaky on the details of the mechanics.  I can look up the
issue number if anyone's interested.

Not to go on at too great a length about hateful AD&D
modules, but there was also a module 'Axe of the Dwarvish
Lords' published about five years ago that details a
large orc-infested formerly-dwarven underground area.
Not nearly as big as a city, but it did have various
orc factions, inter-faction politicking, PC's serving
as bull in china shop and apple-cart-upsetters, etc.
I always thought it would work better converted to a
TFT module than as an AD&D module.
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