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Hiking the Schluchtensteig (German)

Posted on August 15, 2021 by Ralf2

Schluchtensteig Tag 0 – Anreise Ludwigsburg nach Stühlingen

Fotoalbum des Anreisetages: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5rAigdubcRvUg3SS8

Also, es geht endlich wieder los, auf eine mehrtägige Wanderung, auf die ich euch ein bisschen mitnehmen möchte. Dieses mal ist es der Schluchtensteig, eine 6-tägige Tour durch den Süden des Schwarzwalds. Eigentlich sollte ich ja auf dem Hebridean Way im äußersten Nordwesten der britischen Inseln unterwegs sein und mir den Atlantikwind um die Ohren wehen lassen, aber eine uns allen bekannte Pandemie hat das verhindert. Aber aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben, und die Hebriden werde ich hoffentlich nächstes Jahr nachholen.

Statt mit dem Eurostar durch den Chunnel zu düsen, bin ich also mit Stef nach Ludwigsburg gefahren und statt meinen alten Ringkrieg-Mitspieler Andrew in York zu treffen, sehe ich endlich die Dänemark-Fahrer Frank, Frank und Heiko wieder. Nach einem gemeinsamen Abendessen beim Italiener, einem netten Abend mit viel Quatschen und einer erholsamen Nacht, soll es dann heute mit der Bahn nach Stühlingen gehen, dem Start der Wanderung. Der Zug von Ludwigsburg geht aber erst um 12:30 so dass Stef, Frank und ich nach dem Frühstück noch Schloss Monrepos anzuschauen, eines der kleineren Lustschlösser der Württemberger Herzöge. Wir wandern um den See und laufen ein Stück des Planetenweges, bevor es Zeit wird, mich zum Bahnhof zu bringen.

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Papercraft: Colonial Outpost

Posted on June 11, 2021 by RalfReply

Over the past few months I’ve been building up a little collection of papercraft models, designing them in Dioramas 3, and building them for my own science fiction games. As it is now large enough to make quite an interesting and useful collection I thought I’d share them here for general use.

Download the pdf papercraft collection Colonial Outpost. Permission is granted to copy, print and assemble these for others to use.

Here I will provide pdf files of the models only. If you are interested in the Campaign Cartographer source files, head over to this thread in the ProFantasy forum. I recommend printing the files to cardstock paper. They are small enough to hold up without additional strengthening. At 100% scale they fit 28-32mm models nicely, but you can simply scale them down if you are playing with smaller (15mm or 6mm) models. I don’t have any assembly instructions, but I hope the photos included in the zip file will make it clear enough. You can see me building the communications tower in time lapse here.

Walking out of Quarantine

Posted on February 21, 2021 by Ralf2

This post is a look at the hobby side of Maps & More (the “More” part), specifically my love of hiking.

I’m standing on a bridge across the river Lahn in unseasonably warm February sunshine. Ahead of me are the next two sections of the Lahn hiking trail (Lahnwanderweg), about 30km through the river valley and the hills around it. Normally that is not a big deal for me, but today is different, as so many things currently are.

14 days ago I suddenly lost my sense of smell, which turned the slight cold symptoms I had into something much more menacing. 11 days ago I received a call from my doctor that I was Covid-positive and that I was confined to my apartment for the next 10 days. 2 days ago the public health office called for a short interview and concluded that my quarantine could end as planned. Yesterday I did a short but brisk walk and felt fine.

But a lingering doubt remains. While I only had mild symptoms, they were spread out over the two weeks and my sense of smell has not fully returned. How will it affect my overall fitness? There are more than enough reports of lingering side effects.

So today is a test. There are several points on the walk where I can quit, and make my way back to my car here in Buchenau, but the plan is to make it all the way to Marburg and take the train from there. We’ll see how it goes.

The morning mist that obscured most of the hour-long drive to my starting point has largely cleared, but it is still far from the 14°C we are supposed to get today. I’m wrapped into several layers of clothing, but it is warm enough I don’t have to bother about gloves or a hat. The red LW sign of the trail points me out of the village and up into the hills above the Lahn, getting my blood pumping properly.

Past B&Bs and holiday apartments I slip into the woods and on the crest above I get my first beautiful view over Buchenau below.

Parts of the path are still covered in snow and sometimes ice, but I make good time up unto the first hill of the day: Hohenfels. Here the remains of two small medieval castles are hidden among the trees. Only a few tumbling stones, rough embankments and some cellar holes are visible, but the site is well described through signs and explanations. I can easily imagine their strategic importance above the trade roads along the Lahn.

Being at such high spot means of course I have to go down again, sacrificing precious altitude I have gained already. I know I do have a bit more climbing ahead of me today, but I can be quite a miser if it comes to altitude.

The next hill is the Rimberg, the highest point of today’s walk, crowned by a tower with supposedly magnificent views. But before I can verify that, I have to get there. I do feel good, get a spring in my step, and prepare to fall into the rhythm of the walk … whoosh, suddenly my feet go flying on the wet and slippery grass. Miraculously I manage to catch myself with only one hand on the ground. Alright, take it slowly!

In the shadow of the Roßberg and the Rimberg the ice and snow on the path gets heavier and I slow even further as I navigate the treacherous ground underfoot. The last incline towards the viewing tower atop the Rimberg is especially difficult and I’m wondering whether the full 30km will be feasible under these conditions.

But the wonderful views from the Rimberg distract me from these doubts and I have time to rest on the platform. Nobody else is around and the sky is as clear as it can be on such a warm winter’s day (meaning not very).

To the east I can clearly see Caldern, the next village on my itinerary, and the Lahn valley stretching away.

As I watch, two buzzards rise from the trees and begin circling, slowly making their way east into the valley. I take a deep breath, put away my flask of hot tea, shoulder my pack and follow them, just so much more awkwardly along the ground.

At first the trail is still difficult with ice and snow, but it gets better as I get lower into the valley and near Caldern. With the two buzzards still circling overhead I reach the small village with its prominent church tower welcoming me.

Here I can decide whether I want to continue or already catch a train back. What do my legs say? Well, they complain a bit about the awkward and slippery paths. What if it continues that way? But the next stretch is down here in the valley and the highest point for today is already behind me. So be quiet, you legs, onward we go.

I cross the Lahn behind Caldern and turn onto a tarmac bike path across the fields. On other days I might have complained about this stretch as “boring”, but today it is a welcome opportunity to straighten my wobbly legs after balancing across the ice.

I shift into “automatic” mode and a good hour later I reach Sterzhausen, the next opportunity for quitting for today. I realize I’m a bit tired now, after a little more than half the route, but not so much that I can’t imagine finishing it.

The choice is now between calling it a day and returning half-satisfied or going on and returning really knackered. Is that even a choice on a day hike? Of course I must go on!

So I climb up again, to cut across the hills and avoid the large loop that the Lahn does around Cölbe. Here near Marbug and its suburbs a few more people are on the paths, dog-walkers, cyclists, joggers and afternoon walkers, but its still less than I expected on such a sunny Saturday. As I crest the hill I get to see Cölbe and touch on the outskirts of Wehrda, but then divert into the forest again to approach Marburg from the wooded hills in the west.

While the height of these last hills is less than the Rimberg early this morning, the ups and downs are quite steep and I’m now feeling my legs. I curse myself a little bit for my ambitious hiking plans, the the feeling vanishes as quickly as it came when I spot the twin spires of the St. Elisabeth Church in the evening light ahead, and the castle silhouetted against the sky on the ridge to my right.

I manage to slowly trundle into the bustling university town of Marburg (one of the oldest in Germany) with the setting sun, pretty much on time for the train back Buchenau.

Putting on the mask after a day of breathing the fresh air is a bit annoying, but nothing I can’t handle for the half hour journey on public transport. I gladly sink into the train seat, feeling tired but accomplished after 30km and seven and a half hours walking.

I’m very happy and feeling lucky that I was able to do this so shortly after my Covid-19 illness, but I’m also acutely aware that not everyone out there is as lucky. My hear goes out to all those more strongly affected. I hope you all recover as well as I was able and you soon get to do your favorite activities again!

More images from the walk can be found here.

Map Commission: Irth

Posted on December 2, 2019 by Ralf3

Here is another map commission I did recently: The southern continent of the world of Irth. It’s the setting for a private tabletop role-playing game and had only a few specifications. It was to be a continent on the southern hemisphere of a world, roughly similar in size to Australia, with a land-bridge to a polar continent.

I fired up Fractal Terrains 3, fiddled the settings and cycled through random worlds until I found something that roughly matched the requirements. I then went in and edited the world to add the land bridge and smooth out some wrinkles.

My customer was very happy with the initial layout and wanted to keep the whole world for future development. No problem with that and so I went ahead and took the desired continent out of FT3 into Campaign Cartographer 3+. I used the Mike Schley overland style to flesh it out somewhat, but the general brief was to only show the nation of Ryld and leave the rest relatively blank to be fleshed out by the owner. The ocean labels are basically just placeholders for future “real” names.

As a little extra I included the FT3 world in the map in the final version of the map to show the location of the continent in relation to the rest of the world.

Map Commission: Studio Draconis

Posted on November 7, 2019 by RalfReply

Creating maps for computer games usually pose their own challenges, especially if they must serve tactical or strategic gameplay purposes. In this commission for the game Zodiac Legion by Studio Draconis, the brief was to create about a hundred distinct regions that fan out in four major areas from a central hub.

Regions needed be clearly associated with a terrain as well, and the terrain types were to be fairly evenly spread across the map.

While those conditions make it hard to create a “realistic” looking map in actual geographical terms, the checkerboard effect of terrains still makes for a pleasing variety on the map.

For this map I used the Herwin Wielink overland style in Campaign Cartographer 3+. The shown result is completely done within CC3+, no Photoshop post production involved.

Map Commission: High Magic & Low Cunning

Posted on July 21, 2016 by RalfReply

Cave map for the first epic-tier battle against the Orc Lord’s minions [Copyright 2016: Pelgrane Press].

One of my largest commission in recent years was a series of maps for Pelgrane Press’ 13th Age role-playing game. Their Battle Scenes line provides ready-to-play encounters tied to the iconic powers of the Dragon Empire setting, and for the first issue “High Magic & Low Cunning” I created maps for the Orc Lord, Prince of Thieves and High Druid encounters.

You can grab sneak previews of “Rafting Razoredge Gorge”, the three adventurer-tier Orc Lord encounters and maps from these places on the web:

1. The introduction and Battle 1: Catch of the Day are available from Pelgrane Press directly.
2. Battle 2: Zip-Lines and Wardrums can be download from Six Feats Under.
3. EnWorld has Battle 3: Razordedge Orc Camp

The maps are included in black and white in the book and as hi-res pdfs with the download, but they are also available separately in gorgeous color print in the “Map Folio” for High Magic & Low Cunning.

Where does this stone door in the hillside lead? One thing is certain: It is connected to the Prince of Shadows [Copyright 2016: Pelgrane Press].

And now Pelgrane is working on the second installment in the series: The Crown Commands. I am providing maps for the Lich King series of encounters.

Map Commission: Realms of Alamaze

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Ralf1

Recently I’ve revisited a very old commission of mine, one of my very first in fact. Back then I produced several maps for a series of PbEM games by Rich McDowell, author of Alamaze. Rick needed a map for a newer game/scenario done, and I was happy to break out Mike Schley’s overland style for CC3+ to give the game board a new treatment.

Click the map image for a larger version of the PbeM game map for Road to Alamaze – Centauria. You can find more information on the game here.

The square grid of the game board necessitates a block-ish design and it’s fun to still try to give it a natural feeling. For example the original draft did not include any rivers (as they have no game effect), but the landscape feels much more real with some included. I’m very happy with how the map turned out, and hope the players will have many hours of PbeM fun with it.

Battlemap: Temple of the Sea

Posted on July 12, 2015 by Ralf2

Here is another battle map from our 13th Age game: The Temple of the Sea.

Our heroes traced a series of out of control temple guardians back to the new temple of Poseidon at the docks in Drakkenhall. With the sea rolling in and out of the temple, up to their bellies in the surf (or higher in the case of the gnome), they faced the temple’s high priestess, a sahuagin necromancer and his 4 zombie servants, plus the animated statue of Poseidon in an epic showdown.

Click on the map to load the full-size version of the image, ready for A1 printing at 150dpi.

Battlemap: Cistern/Sewer Hall

Posted on July 10, 2015 by RalfReply

Here is a battle map I created for our current 13th Age fantasy campaign: A large cistern or sewer hall, with wooden walkways leading across the water. It’s about A1 size and should print fine with about 80cm by 60cm poster printing.

Click on the map to load the full-size version of the image.

The “Brocken”

Posted on May 13, 2015 by RalfReply

Here’s a little tidbit from our current rpg campaign (Gumshoe – Ashen Stars).

After an unfortunate series of events around the Acheron Translight Snarl our crew’s trusty Runner-class ship, the “Jolly Jumper” is no more. While narrowly escaping from the D’Jellar anomaly a pilot error resulted in a fatally flawed exit vector from the snarled translight corridor. The lasers barely managed to escape in the ship’s shuttle and had to watch their beloved home break up into a billion pieces.

But as the saying goes, “true lasers are never long without a ship” and an opportunity presented itself, involving a Bleed-wide warrant, a high-level Combine operative, an anti-piracy operation, a staged prison escape and a conveniently-parked Hauler-class starship.

So the laser crew finds itself in the possession of the “Brocken”. A bit worn, the paint scratched in many places, it is still a translight-worthy laser vessel which holds the promise of a better future.

Haulers are the less-than-glamorous, slow and sturdy workhorses of the Bleed nowadays. Designed to carry a maximum of cargo, they provide the surviving worlds of the Bleed with much-needed resources that are not locally available. The image shows the main deck with its six massive cargo bays, the cut-down engine room and the richly furnished “boardroom” which is used to conduct business meetings. The full deck plans for this ship-class are found in the “Accretion Disc” companion for Ashen Stars and were drawn by yours truly with the Cosmographer 3 add-on to CC3.

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