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Danger Patrol Geomorphs

John's blog has a discussion of Geomorphs for his game Danger Patrol, under construction. John and I have talked quite a bit about the geography of Rocket City, and map drawing is a hobby of mine, so I couldn't resist running out and starting some Rocket City geomorphs right away. So, without further ado, I present a standard for Rocket City Geomorphs. I invite anyone who wants to contribute to do so.

Rocket City Geomorphs


  • Geomorph dimensions = 4 in square
  • Walkways and monorails can link to other tiles in the center of each side.
  • Recommended walkway size is 1/4 wide.
  • All monorails must terminate in a station or a block at the tile edge to preserve geomorphism.
  • Monorail tracks (two-ways) are 1/8 in. wide.
  • Monorail stations should be marked with an "M".


SIDEBAR
Includes a sidebar showing the goemorph in profile

  • Sidebar dimensions = 1 5/8 in. tall x 5/8 in. wide set back 1/8 in from the corner.
  • Main walkway level is 1 in from sidebar top (5/8 inch from sidebar bottom).


Any other suggestions?

I'm going to do some hand drawn tiles just for fun (since computer art is not my forte).

Maybe John or Phil cold provide a brief intro to Rocket City in case some other people want to participate who are unfamiliar with the setting.

Here's my first test geomorph showing two monorail stations, a tower with walkway and a subtower.

-----

EDIT (John): Here's my first stab at a sample sheet, based on Tony's design. It's not even close to done, but you can see where it's headed. I put two connection points on each side of a tile, to allow for more crazy monorail tracks.

Posted by Unknown on Sunday, July 10, 2005 at 1:14 PM |

Wow. I am so happy to see you running with this, Tony. Very cool!

I love the sidebar idea. Verticality is important for Rocket City. I wish there was a way to implement it in a slightly better way, but nothing is coming to mind.

I think 4" squares are a good size (I was planning to do 4 to a page for easy printing). I'd like to see a bigger scale, though. Like, a whole "map" for a chapter of play could be maybe 9 tiles. So each tile would have lots of buildings and stuff in it.

To really preserve geomorphism, there needs to be a provision for monorail tracks on all 4 sides. Otherwise I'm afraid we'll end up with many very short tracks.

I'm going to take a crack at my own sample today. You've really inspired me with this, Tony.

Posted by Blogger John Harper | 1:52 PM  

Now that I'm setting up my layout I realize that 3.75" squares are what we need to get four to a page with standard laser-printer margins.

Posted by Blogger John Harper | 1:56 PM  

And 3.25" allows for six to a page. Hmmmm. I'm kind of liking this size.

Posted by Blogger John Harper | 1:59 PM  

Maybe we need a printable template...

As for monorail, you could solve that procedurally, something like:

Each player has x tiles. You go around the table placing so the metro lines up until the metro is 5 squares long.

Then you go ardound the table placing tiles until the main gaps are full and the play area is at least 3 tiles wide at every point.

Posted by Blogger Unknown | 2:42 PM  

Are monorails seperate tiles/templates?

Knowing metro/trains perhaps you chould suggest yarn and tacks. Put a tack where a station is then loop the yarn around it to the next train and you can tie on a peice to link up (different colored yarn for different train lines!)

But of course that might make it TOO real world and not Pulp Retro Elegant!

Posted by Anonymous Anonymous | 3:10 PM  

Love the yarn idea. Not right for this project, but SO COOL.

I'll have a template PDF ready to post in a little bit, based on Tony's design.

Posted by Blogger John Harper | 4:04 PM  

Standard laser printer margins are a half-inch on each side? Isn't it usually a quarter inch on each side? If it's a quarter inch, that'd allow four 4-inch tiles per sheet.

But six to a page is probably better. The sample sheet looks pretty good, although I do love Tony's artwork and the vertical drawing.

I also agree with John above that if a map is 9 tiles (3x3), then most tiles need to show a few buildings - or else it needs to be clear that all of the towers in Rocket City are massive skyscrapers, hence a small number of buildings but lots of floors in each building. And even then, you'd still want a fairly large area outside for exciting high-speed chases among the towers.

Posted by Blogger Philip | 9:56 PM  

Tony's artwork does indeed rule.

I happen to have a different RPG project going on the sly that demands awesome hand-drawn maps. Actually, geomorphic ones would be perfect for that too.

Heh heh heh. Tony, I need to buy you some pens and paper.

Posted by Blogger John Harper | 11:39 PM  

Uh-oh... well you'd better let me know pretty quick, because I just gathered my sundry art supplies to make danger patrol geomorphs. :)

Posted by Blogger Unknown | 9:14 AM  

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