Castleland Stories Discussion and News Thread

[Albatross_Viking]

What is all that months, Captain Burgess and Joosten stuff in Zepps last post to the story? I cant seem to find it all other places in the story ...

A_V

[Sir Zeppelin]

Are you inquiring abut Joosten and Burgess, or the issue Napoleon and I were having over months vs years?

The whole "months" thing was that in an earlier post, Napoleon said that Elwyn had been with the group for five months. In a later post, I said five years. Napoleon and I were just trying to figure out which one we should use, for consistancy. We ended up going with five months. Now, on to another matter...

Although the Jarithian War has been wrapped up and placed on a shelf for display, not all of the work is yet done. I am still lacking some character descriptions; it would be nice to have those because it gives the site a more finished, professional appeal--and, it's nice to have that to reffer too, whether you're reading the story, or helping to write it. There is a list of Characters on this post; as we write descriptions of them, I'll italicize their names. If you have any characters to add to the list, just post their names, and I'll add them (this is just going off of my memory, so I will probably forget a few)

King Alfred
Major Dawson
Robin IX
The Duke of Jarith
George
Elwyn
Cornelius
Baldwin
Lackfert
Svlick
Erian
The King of the Gernamusque (I foeget his name)
Richard (was there a Richard?)

[Albatross_Viking]

Well, both that months thing, and who Captain Burgess and Joosten are (i mean: have they appeared anywhere else, do you have a specific idea for them?).
Also, there is a character description of Svlick, Cornelius and Eiran on page 8 in this thread
A_V

[Sir Zeppelin]

Captian Burgess and Joosten are names I yanked out of nowhere; however, feel free to give them life ! We could go anywhere with those characters: they could be old friends, buisness partners, accomplices, or whatever.

Thanks for pointing out the character descriptions; I'll also make a few more. As I said, that lists doesn't quite cover all of the characters; I'll have to go back and find all of them. If you'd like to help, feel free--but don't think you're obligated.

Happy writing!

[Napoleon]

Sorry I haven't been updating lately, I will try to add to the story as soon as possible. Although, I think someone else should add the next post, as I have writer's block at the moment as to what to add.

[Sir Zeppelin]

That's alright. Napoleon--we all get writer's block at some point or another. Do you remember what I told you way back in December about writer's block?

Alrightie folks! Big news up at the lodge this week...CC3 is going to be ordered tonight, which means that it will probably be within my hands in a few weeks (the time allotted for shipping). What does this mean? It means that by the end of July (and possibly sooner), we could have a real, professional-looking map to go with our story. I'll do all the gritty work (the actual process of making the map), but what I need from you guys is a template for me to go off of (this mostly means you, Napoleon ). There is already a list of countries, and we've kinda-sorta made drafts of what it should look like in the past, but a sketch on paper might work well.

This is how it will probably go:

First, I'll make the landmass; this is just a big green blob that can be shaped however we like it. This blob is the continent of Castleland.

Next, mountians will be added. This will happen after the shape of the landmass and sorrounding islands has been determined. All the while, after I make a set of changes, I'll post the image on this thread, and you guys can tell me how it should be shaped (and otherwise offer suggestions).

Rivers, poltical borders, cities, castles, forests, marshes and swamps, and whatever will follow after that.

Before I make the map for our Castleland world, I will make a smaller, practice map in order to refine my skills with this program. From everything I've heard, it has a steep learning curve. Once I've got everything figured out (I've found a set of tutorial videos that have been extremely helpful), then I'll start making "the big map".

On the program, everything is measured in miles. So, Napoleon (and anyone else with suggestions), if we want a 3 mile wide Potomac River, or a huge set of mountian ranges, then just say so.

Napoleon: how many miles wide and how many miles tall is this continent going to be? I know Castleland has its own system of measurment, but for mapping's purposes, how many miles is it? This will help me plan things out.

We've all been waiting a long time for this; this is going to be awesome!

Oh, and another thing that's cool: I can link certian symbols and areas of the map to a web adress or anything else; so, I can basically make an interactive map. For example: I could link the name of a certian forest to the web adress of a site page that has a description of the forest, who lives there, and so on

This is gonna be great!

[Napoleon]

Yup, when everything is going good, stop writing.

I've been looking forward to the map, and now that we have a definate date, I can't wait.

Hmmmnnn... I've never actually attempted to write down how big Castleland is, but I would probably say 6000-7000 miles across. As to how big it is from north to south, it needs to be probably about 10,000 miles. I know that's huge, but don't worry, the far north can be shown to be primitive duchies, outposts, and constantly moving nomads. Now, there needs to be the Viking River below this landmass. Under that, should be a landmass that's about, say, east to west: 6000-7000 miles across and north-south: 6000-7000. Let me know if that doesn't work. Yes, I realize it's catastrophically huge, but that's the way I always pictured it; huge. I never wanted it to be one of those "copies of Europe." The Viking River should be, oh...this is tough. How wide is the Amazon? Wikipedia says up to 120 miles in width, so let's make the Viking River 200.

I'm really looking forward cities, marshes, and forests, as they sound really neat.

This is going to be beyond great!

[Sir Zeppelin]

Yes, I realize it's catastrophically huge, but that's the way I always pictured it; huge. I never wanted it to be one of those "copies of Europe."

I agree! It will make the world a lot more unique, and cool.

The size you have allotted may be too big; I'll have to check. If it is, we can take the following route (and we might want to take this route even if it isn't too big):

I make the map exactly as you want it, except not quite to that size. I then map out the borders of each kingdom, and make it a link. So, when you click on "Telemar", for instance, it would bring you to another page with a large map of Telemar. The larger world map would only show bigger features, such as mountians, large rivers, big forests, majot cities, and so on. The smaller maps of each country would show villages, castles, small and large forests, major and minor rivers, and so on.

As I said previously, before I start on this project, I'm going to make a smaller, 200 x 100 miles map to practice and refine my skills on, and then I'll make this one. I'll probably be working on it during the evenings, so I'd say late July to early August, if not later, would be an accurate date for when I will have it finished.

Napoleon, a question about the Viking River: Does this river seperate continents? (Like the Med Sea seperates Africa from Europe). In order to make a river of that size, do most other rivers within the kingdom dump into the Viking River? ("All rivers lead to the Viking River, my son"--that would be a cool saying! ). I'll have to make a pretty big mountian for the river's headwaters, and then have a lot of other rivers dump into it.

I hope this map turns into a fun, interesting project, but as we're figuring out what it should look like, I'm also trying to take realism into consideration. (bummer, I know ).

Thanks for all of your help, Napoleon!

[Napoleon]

Your latest idea sounds like fun, and it makes sense.

About the Viking River, yes, it separates the two. I have always called the lower continent "New Castleland." And yes, lots of rivers dump into the Viking River.

Here is a question for you:

CC3'S website: "Whenever you need designs, whether it's roleplaying games or wargames, fantasy, modern or SF, CC3 can help you create them. From entire worlds and countries, to floorplans and furniture, CC3 can do it. You can map out your entire campaign world, place your troops in the field, or chart your galactic empire."

Troops in the field? Can you do battle scenes?

[Sir Zeppelin]

Here is a question for you:

CC3'S website: "Whenever you need designs, whether it's roleplaying games or wargames, fantasy, modern or SF, CC3 can help you create them. From entire worlds and countries, to floorplans and furniture, CC3 can do it. You can map out your entire campaign world, place your troops in the field, or chart your galactic empire."

Troops in the field? Can you do battle scenes?

I don't quite know; I'll read up on it when I get it in the mail. Besides, shouldn't we be using LEGO troops?
It sounds interesting; I'll be sure to read up on it when I get it. However, I think I'll focus on making the maps before I go that far.

EDIT: When you were on the site, did you see some of the maps others have made with the program?

[Napoleon]

Here is a question for you:

CC3'S website: "Whenever you need designs, whether it's roleplaying games or wargames, fantasy, modern or SF, CC3 can help you create them. From entire worlds and countries, to floorplans and furniture, CC3 can do it. You can map out your entire campaign world, place your troops in the field, or chart your galactic empire."

Troops in the field? Can you do battle scenes?

I don't quite know; I'll read up on it when I get it in the mail. Besides, shouldn't we be using LEGO troops?
It sounds interesting; I'll be sure to read up on it when I get it. However, I think I'll focus on making the maps before I go that far.

I actually used to describe the characters as yellow block-people in my really old writings. Somewhere along the line, they became human.

It also said floorplans, so I was thinking: after you master making maps, I wondered if you could possibly illustrate the Jarithian War with that feature. Say, show what the Duke's throne room looked like.

[Robin Hood]

Captian Burgess and Joosten are names I yanked out of nowhere

Completely nowhere? Sorry, my curiosity has been piqued now. I have to know if you happened to get any inspiration for Joosten from....anywhere...

Dan

[Sir Zeppelin]

Captian Burgess and Joosten are names I yanked out of nowhere

Completely nowhere? Sorry, my curiosity has been piqued now. I have to know if you happened to get any inspiration for Joosten from....anywhere...

Dan

Nowhere wasn't descriptive enough; my brain was searching for names, and I yanked two names out of my mind from two different sources. Burgess is the last name of a fellow I know, and, well, your last name jumped into my head too. If you'd like us not to use it, that's fine. If not, then I promise I won't do anything too bad with the character (Actually, it could be an interesting allusion...the guy could go on a quest for moon bagels, or some sort of inside joke ).

I'm actually surprised to see you were following this thread (I feel honored! )...not much goes on here besides foguring out what goes into the story.

Anyways, that's the story behind the character names.

[Robin Hood]

Nowhere wasn't descriptive enough; my brain was searching for names, and I yanked two names out of my mind from two different sources. Burgess is the last name of a fellow I know, and, well, your last name jumped into my head too. If you'd like us not to use it, that's fine. If not, then I promise I won't do anything too bad with the character .

Oh I don't care if you use it. Knock yourself out. I was just curious as to the source.

Cool beans man.

Dan

[Sir Zeppelin]

Update about the map:

So, based on what I know as of right now, this is what we have: http://legotales.webs.com/apps/photos/p ... d=87362078

The Viking River should probably be smaller in that picture. If you'd like, Napoleon, you can copy and paste that picture, edit it, add save it to your files, upload it to the TLF Frontpage Website (there is a spot for pictures on there, too), and then post it on here. Or, you can simply make your own Microsoft Paint Drawing.

Napoleon, how similar to the floor map that you have made does this mpa have to be? Does every curve, squiggle, and line have to be the same? I'd like to at least get the shape of the countries and the landmass spot-on.