Furthest, Crown jewel of Lunar Tarsh is a thing of beauty, but..........

[Agentorange]

Seriously it's great - the maps are lovely,  there's years worth of gameplaying info ,a wealth of background and who isn't going to love a sewer dwelling Elasmosaur called Cessie ?

But......If I'd have known I was going to have to buy an electron microscope to read some of the site names I might have thought twice 😁

I'm not joking. the Hyalors fields section ( p30 ) i am literally using a magnifying glass to make out some of the names. So maybe for a future edition these names could be increased in size just a tad ?

[Jens]

Zooming in on the PDFs works well, especially on the Map Pack, but I suppose that doesn't help if you only bought the hardcover.

[Austin]

1 hour ago, Agentorange said:

I'm not joking. the Hyalors fields section ( p30 ) i am literally using a magnifying glass to make out some of the names. So maybe for a future edition these names could be increased in size just a tad ?

I believe this is because the maps were made with intent for poster resolution (kinda like how the Argan Argar Atlas looks wonky but the maps in the Guide to Glorantha read fine).

https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/Furthest-Crown-Jewel-of-Lunar-Tarsh-a-Gloranthan-city-Map-by-Sbrayarts/150652747.G7H47

[Nick Brooke]

@Crel is correct: the poster maps of Furthest and Tarsh came first, and the book followed after because -- as @blackyinkin is well aware -- maps don't sell. So, unsurprisingly, we would recommend GMs invest in the Poster Maps from Simon Bray's Redbubble store before running a campaign set in Furthest or Lunar Tarsh.

If that's not an option (because you play on a VTT?), the digital edition comes bundled with a 300 DPI high-resolution PDF map pack that you can download and zoom in on to your heart's content, or print out at home (perhaps tiled?) at absurd sizes. If you're after a poster print, do note that versions available from RedBubble will be better quality: the original map they're created from is crazy big, over half a gigabyte and 7,156 x 10,120 pixels! The Furthest Map Pack contains the maps of Furthest and its Sewers, Tarsh and its Districts & Clans, the New Market, and the sample city block, and weighs in at 54 MB (the book itself is 83 MB).

Tech specs: the digital edition is produced at the standard digital resolution, 144 DPI; the print edition is 300 DPI throughout, inc. back cover map (one page, always premium quality) and the two-page spreads inside the book (which could be printed in standard or premium colour, depending which version you bought). Premium colour print is, unsurprisingly, crisper than (cheap) standard colour, but standard colour is perfectly serviceable.

There isn't likely to be a future edition (or large format / easy reading reprint), so I suggest you keep your magnifying glass handy, buy a poster map, or pick up the digital edition as a companion. The POD editions of some Chaosium RuneQuest Classics have the same "issue" in spades (the poster maps from the boxed sets have been reduced to fit onto US Letter pages; you can buy separate poster prints from RedBubble if you want more legible, attractive versions). So I think we're in good company.

[PhilHibbs]

And if a poster isn't big enough...

[Joerg]

3 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

And if a poster isn't big enough...

Putting the Death Line onto your bed might have some consequences, though....

Edited March 13 by Nick Brooke

[Agentorange]

10 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

@Crel is correct: the poster maps of Furthest and Tarsh came first, and the book followed after because -- as @blackyinkin is well aware -- maps don't sell. So, unsurprisingly, we would recommend GMs invest in the Poster Maps from Simon Bray's Redbubble store before running a campaign set in Furthest or Lunar Tarsh.

If that's not an option (because you play on a VTT?), the digital edition comes bundled with a 300 DPI high-resolution PDF map pack that you can download and zoom in on to your heart's content, or print out at home (perhaps tiled?) at absurd sizes. If you're after a poster print, do note that versions available from RedBubble will be better quality: the original map they're created from is crazy big, over half a gigabyte and 7,156 x 10,120 pixels! The Furthest Map Pack contains the maps of Furthest and its Sewers, Tarsh and its Districts & Clans, the New Market, and the sample city block, and weighs in at 54 MB (the book itself is 83 MB).

Tech specs: the digital edition is produced at the standard digital resolution, 144 DPI; the print edition is 300 DPI throughout, inc. back cover map (one page, always premium quality) and the two-page spreads inside the book (which could be printed in standard or premium colour, depending which version you bought). Premium colour print is, unsurprisingly, crisper than (cheap) standard colour, but standard colour is perfectly serviceable.

There isn't likely to be a future edition (or large format / easy reading reprint), so I suggest you keep your magnifying glass handy, buy a poster map, or pick up the digital edition as a companion. The POD editions of some Chaosium RuneQuest Classics have the same "issue" in spades (the poster maps from the boxed sets have been reduced to fit onto US Letter pages; you can buy separate poster prints from RedBubble if you want more legible, attractive versions). So I think we're in good company.

Luckily I bought the PDF/POD combo so everything should be fine. I do keep looking at the Redbubble map. it's only a matter of time until I give in and buy it........👍

I'm also rather taken with the:  Inora the Ice Queen fights Chaos T shirt as well.

Edited March 13 by Agentorange

[Austin]

19 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

over half a gigabyte and 7,156 x 10,120 pixels!

Goddamn.

[Nick Brooke]

1 hour ago, Crel said:

Goddamn.

Artists, man.

[Nick Brooke]

So in case anyone’s interested, I made the individual map sections by adding a dozen or so opaque white masking layers on top of the original map in Photoshop, naming each for a quarter of the city (or whatever), and having only one of them set to be visible (at less than 100% opacity, so the map below shows through) at any time.

Each section was then made by “erasing” the white bits from part of a layer, letting selected bits of the map underneath show through. At the edge of the mask, limited use of transparency meant the map edges “faded away” onto the page. When each layer was done, I cranked its opacity back up to 100%.

It was pretty obvious, worked well, and meant Simon could make late changes to the underlying map without me needing to redraw all of the extracts every time (because the shapes of the masks stayed the same: it’s just some of the details showing through them that might change).

Edited March 14 by Nick Brooke
Extra detail re: opacity of white layers

[Nick Brooke]

Example:

[Austin]

11 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

So in case anyone’s interested, I made the individual map sections by adding a dozen or so opaque white masking layers on top of the original map in Photoshop, naming each for a quarter of the city (or whatever), and having only one of them set to be visible at any time. Each section was then made by “erasing” the white bits from part of a layer, letting selected bits of the map underneath show through. At the edge of the mask, limited use of transparency meant the map edges “faded away” onto the page. It was pretty obvious, worked well, and meant Simon could make late changes to the underlying map without me needing to redraw all of the extracts every time (because the shapes of the masks stayed the same: it’s just some of the details showing through them that might change).

That's an extremely useful tip. Thank you!

[Nick Brooke]

I’ll share my Boldhome map tips after Chaosium Con…

[PhilHibbs]

11 hours ago, g33k said:

I see several pieces of Gloranthan cheesecake on Redbubble... but where's the beefcake?

What we have is realistic art evocative of the practices of ancient cultures.

8 hours ago, Agentorange said:

yeah, gratuitous female nudity is a common theme in Gloranthan/Runequest art.

I disagree that any of it is gratuitous, that's what makes modern RuneQuest art stand out from the tropey fantasies for me. There's no Boris Vallejo here.

[Nick Brooke]

We’re heading way off the reservation, lads: please start a new thread if you want to gawp at boobies.

[g33k]

4 hours ago, Nick Brooke said:

We’re heading way off the reservation, lads: please start a new thread if you want to gawp at boobies.

Back onto the Furthest book:  does it have any other artworks (besides maps) going onto (or already on) Redbubble?

Edited March 15 by g33k

[Nick Brooke]

Let’s ask @blackyinkin, eh? It’s his store…

[Agentorange]

8 hours ago, PhilHibbs said:

What we have is realistic art evocative of the practices of ancient cultures.

I disagree that any of it is gratuitous, that's what makes modern RuneQuest art stand out from the tropey fantasies for me. There's no Boris Vallejo here.

Well, we will have to agree to  disagree on that 😁  but as Nick said we've wandered a bit far afield,   that said it is my field ( as it were ) because i started the thread and am happy for thread creep to occur

All I'm going to say on the subject of gratuitous is look at the description of the elementals in the bestiary ....and look at how they're illustrated.

But I've come to a decision. next months geek money is allocated for Vol 4 of pavis + Nochet players guide

And the month after that is........Furthest poster map from Redbubble, and probably the Mythology volume from Chaosium which I haven't bought yet. I must say it really does feel as though we're living in a golden age of Gloranthan/Runequest material at the moment

Edited March 15 by Agentorange

[blackyinkin]

On 3/15/2024 at 5:06 PM, g33k said:

Back onto the Furthest book:  does it have any other artworks (besides maps) going onto (or already on) Redbubble?

What kind of art do you want? It already contains a number of plates from the Hill of Gold HeroQuest, lunar deities, ducks, Mostali, Aldryami and some of Mike O’Connors art. If there’s anything from Furthest that Mike or I drew I’m happy to upload it. I have a large back catalogue of art, which if you’ve seen a piece somewhere and want a T-shirt I’ll most likely be able to use it unless there is a prohibition. On the same level if there’s something you’d like to see on a tshirt or bed linen and it might be fun for me to do then I’m might be convinced to create it.