GURPS Banestorm - Hex Map of Ytarria

 I have been meaning to post these maps for awhile now.  The GURPS was always the favorite RPG since it came out in the mid 80s, but sadly I could never find any interested players.  Their fantasy world of Yrth (specifically the continent of Ytarria) was intriguing since it used real-world religions.  

Unfortunately, there were never any good maps of Ytarria ever released.  All of them were very abstract and did not give a good feel on just how big Ytarria actually is.  They all used oversized graphics to represent terrain and major cities, which while visually appealing is just not really usable for GMs running an actual game.  

Nice map.  Useless in play though.

GURPS Fantasy - 2nd edition Ytarria map.  Pretty, but impractical for game play.

Years ago I overlayed the color map below with hexes in Campaign Cartographer at a scale of 24 miles per hex.  It is possible to convert this file to PDF and zoom in and print off the needed areas.  I have done this a few times on 12x18 paper and it works well enough.  I have unlimited access to a full size color laser printer free of charge so I am a bit spoiled.   

However, recently a chap over on Deviant Art created a true hex map of Ytarria (God bless him/her).  I have added some settlements and ruins (taking artistic license on their locations) via Inkscape.  I am sure it would be possible to port this over to any graphic program and add terrain, or, just print it out and use pencil crayons or whatever.  This map is also scaled at 24 miles per hex.

The original hex map is here:

GURPS Banestorm -- Yttaria 24 Mile Hex Grid by SinLeqiUnninniMaps on DeviantArt

GURPS Ytarria

GURPS Ytarria - Its a damn big place!

Here is a map I found with my Google-Fu.  Some creative soul added additional waterways to Ytarria.  I used this as inspiration for my own version.  

GURPS Ytarria - with additional minor rivers added

Blank Ytarria Hex Map

This is the base image of Ytarria that I used for the map.  A hex grid was overlayed to complete it.

Here is the first version of the map I did.  Turned out ok considering I had no clue what I was doing in Inkscape.

Below is a newer version of the map.   Major mountain peaks are noted with white triangles.  When the image is converted to a 11x17 PDF each 1mm equals 12 miles.  PDF-Change Editor has some useful Distance and Area tools which allow you to calculate the travel distance without a hex map.

At the original document size (1771.726mm by 1337.742mm) the scale is 24 miles per 10mm, or 24 miles per hex.  

Keep in mind, at 24 miles per hex it is very difficult to show a great level of detail.  Each hex is over 500 square miles.  This is a lot of area.  Each clear hex would contain many small rivers, lakes, swamps, forests, ect.  The settlements likewise are only sparsely covered.  There would be innumerable small villages and hamlets scattered throughout the map.  Quite frankly, Ytarria is a huge area and the nations themselves are too big for their population and technology levels.  

As an example, the sample wilderness map (drawn on one sheet of hex paper with a scale of 24 miles per hex) in TSRs 1983 D&D Expert Set was a little over 600,000 square miles of land area.  This single map spawned many a campaign in the early days of D&D, with a mish-mash of cultures all crammed together. 

At the time is was presented as sample fantasy campaign map for D&D.  As the years went by it grew into it's own campaign world for the BECMI line, which has arguably the largest amount of material ever published for a campaign setting.  For those interested in the cartography for this wonderful setting please check out this treasure trove of maps for Mystara.  

Thorfinn Tait Cartography – Mapping fantastic worlds with real world accuracy (thorfmaps.com)

All that aside, if we compare the original 1983 map below with Ytarria we will find that Al-Haz has a larger land area than all of the Known World nations combined.  Caithness and the Great Forest could easily fit inside this map, with some room to spare.  

"The Known World", from the TSR Expert Set (BECMI).  24 miles per hex.  As you can see, Ytarria is huge compared to this classic campaign area from 1983.  The nation of al-Haz covers more area than all of these nations combined. 

This map from 1976 (24 miles per hex) was a OD&D homebrew campaign world of two prominent TSR writers.  It was redesigned in 1983 for the D&D Expert Set and eventually gave birth to what would become the World of Mystara.

The World of Mystara. 
Mystara was as originally set in Earth's distant past (this was retconned out later).  The layout was based off a conjectural map of Jurassic Earth, around 130 million BC.  This was not widely known outside of TSR at the time.  The Known World was located on the southeast corner of the continent of Brun (North America).  Cartography by Thorfinn Tait.

Jurassic Earth, circa 130 million BC. 
TSR used this as a basis for the world map released in the 1985 D&D Masters Set.

Anyway....back to Ytarria.

Here is a link to the GURPS Forum which contains the main discussions concerning this mapping project.

Completed Ytarria Hex map with terrain added - Steve Jackson Games Forums (sjgames.com)

12/4 - I have been thinking a lot about population levels and settlement patterns.  There are innumerable sources for this material.  However, I decided to go back to my roots and perused the D&D BECMI Companion Set.  It has some good basic rules for running Dominions and it does go into demographics, however briefly.  

The Companion Set divides hexes into Civilized, Borderland and Wilderness.  The population levels vary according to the classification.  Population is listed in "Families", a family consisting of 5 people.  When raising armies I assume 1 able bodied man is available per family.  Each hex is 24 miles on the map (500 square miles)

• Wilderness: 10-100 families (avg: 275 people, 0.5 people/square mile)
• Borderlands: 200-1200 families (avg: 3500 people, 7 people/square mile)
• Civilized: 500-5000 families (avg: 13,750 people, 27 people/square mile)

The following is a breakdown of what I used to determine what hexes fall into what category.  They are smaller in range than the Companion set.  This was by design since I wanted a more wild and unexplored Ytarria (In BECMI any hex within 6 hexes of a city is Civilized and any hex within 3 hexes are a Civilized hex is Borderlands...this is a bit too much IMO).  

• Metropolis (Megalos and Tredroy): all surrounding hexes within 4 of the city are Civilized.  All hexes within 4 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands.  The zone consists of 37 civilized hexes and 132 borderland hexes.  Roughly 1 million per hex zone.

• Large City: all surrounding hexes within 3 of the city are Civilized.  All hexes within 3 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands.  The zone consists of 37 civilized hexes and 90 borderland hexes.  Roughly 825,000 per zone.

• City: all surrounding hexes within 2 of the city are Civilized.  All hexes within 2 hexes of a civilized hex are Borderlands.  The zone consists of 19 civilized hexes and 42 borderland hexes.  Roughly 400,000 per zone.

• Large Town: all hexes surrounding the city are Civilized.  All hexes within 1 hex of a civilized hex are Borderlands.  The zone consists of 7 civilized hexes and 12 borderland hexes.  Roughly 140,000 per zone.  

• All other hexes: Wilderness.  Exception; large areas of al-Haz and al-Wazif are populated by nomadic tribes.  These areas should be considered civilized and or borderlands depending on their location despite containing no urban settlements.

Note: Swamps, mountains, desert, forest and hills can never exceed a Borderlands rating, no matter how close they are to an urban center.  

 Civilized hexes are assumed to contain innumerable trails and paths and count as Roads to all adjoining civilized hexes.  Civilized hexes do not necessarily indicate the presence of urban areas.  Well populated nomadic lands with no urban settlements could be considered "Civilized" for population purposes.  

 To test this approach I looked at Megalos and Caithness.  Megalos contains 1 Metropolis, 8 large cities, 11 cities and 48 towns.  Rough math for all those areas worked out 18.2 million souls living in the empire.  I did not remove water hexes or account for hexes which would automatically count as borderlands due to their terrain type from the equation.  I also did not reduce population where zones overlap across a border into other realms (typically the zones for cities in foreign realms overlap so it all comes out in the wash at a macro level).  These reductions would have reduced the Meglan population numbers by several million easily and would bring the population figures well within the canon 16 million.  Any remainders would be considered to be living in the wilderness in isolated settlements.  The zones also match canon description, with eastern and western Megalos being largely civilized while northern and central Megalos are more sparsely populated.  However, rather than reducing the population size for these unusable hexes I would likely make the assumption that the population in those areas are instead concentrated on coasts and other hexes in the zone.

 Caithness consists of 2 cities and 15 towns.  That works out to 800,000 for the cities and 2,100,000 for the towns.  Canon population is 3 million.  The country contains areas of tight civilization surrounded by borderlands and wilds.  

 Cardiel is interesting in that large portions of the interior are wilderness, with civilization concentrated along the major rivers and coasts.  This allows many options for traditional adventures in the interior regions.  The population for the zones is roughly 5.5 million, with the population of Tredroy split between the three adjacent nations.  

 I created a map with "Zones of Civilization" to indicate how this all works in practice, with the inner band around an urban center being Civilized and the outer band being Borderlands.  I will be revisiting the map and adjusting it to account for this demographic overlay, moving/removing non-canon settlements as needed.  Using this methodology should provide a much better image of the levels of civilization throughout Ytarria.  It is not perfect, but it does provide a basis to determine where the "wilderness" areas could be found.  To be sure, there will be uninhabited areas even in civilized zones.  The opportunities for adventure still abound. 

Here is the demographics that I use:

1 Family counts as 1 "Able-Bodied Man", suitable for fighting, local defense, ect.

Agricultural
• One Family = 5 people
• One sq. mile will feed 64 families (320 people)
• One sq. mile needs 30 families (150 people) to utilize at 100%
• One 24-mile hex has 320,000 acres
• One 24-mile hex has 500 sq. miles
• One 24-mile hex, with 100% utilization, can feed up to 32000 families (160,000) people.
• One 24-mile hex will require 15000 families (75000 people) to utilize at 100%
• Actual utilization is assumed to be from 25-50% depending on the climate and arability. This is a total guess on my part. You could roll 1d100 if you wanted on a hex by hex basis.

Nomads (Cattle, Goat, Sheep)
• One sq. mile will feed 100 families (500 people)
• One sq. mile will need 50 families (250 people) to work at 100%
• One 24 mile hex will feed 50000 families (250,000 people) at 100%

Nomads (Swine)
• One sq. mile will feed 160 families (800 people)
• One sq. mile will need 100 families (500 people) to work at 100%
• One 24 mile hex will feed 80000 families (400,000 people) at 100%

Hunter-Gatherers
• 1 square mile to feed 1 family (5 people)
• One 24 mile hex will feed 500 families (2500 people)

Hex map of Ytarria. Canon with some location names for flavour.

Hex map of Ytarria with added details (villages, trails, ect)

Hex map of Ytarria with zones of civilization

Hex map of Ytarria with lots of added features and non-canon areas.

hex map of Ytarria with terrain only, for Post-Banestorm campaigns.

Here is a link to my Google Drive for a PDF version of this map 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XVEDFY6D1X0aKppyj2L8I5TvY3UmsqPO/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Y1UwBkssIzGdLsDUeinAvtbSslctYsQ/view?usp=sharing

Here is a link to a sub hex map template that you can use to break down the 24 mile hexes into 6 mile hexes.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1n4wGuosrO2gN0KygAv1QB0sIGVj-w6YK/view?usp=sharing

Only the pseudo-canon version is online at the moment.  I will post other versions in PDF form as time permits or by request.

Below are two custom versions of the map with several additional terrain features added (the individual layers can be swapped out if desired...I designed them to be modular and stand-alone).  I would not necessarily use all of these at once in my own campaign map.  

• a large glacier in northern Zarak filled with the ruins of a lost civilization, frozen under the ice.
• lake in northern Djinn lands to accommodate a hidden civilization, or the ruins thereof.
• the Great Desert has a large canyon in the center, The Landtear, the result of the Banestorm.  This canyon leads to uncharted depths below Ytarria, filled with untold horrors and alien inhabitants.  
• An area of badlands in the southern area of the Great Desert.
• Three small city-states along the southern Djinn coast.  Think the North African Barbary Coast, but with magic and unspeakable horrors, ruled by Sorcerer Kings from parts unknown.
• a large forest added to southern Cardiel, along with a small coastal mountain chain (replacing the hills).  The forest is filled with dangerous monsters which threaten southern Cardiel periodically.
• a radioactive area in the Djinn Lands containing the ruins of a Terran Alliance Base.  

 

Here is the current map (still WIP), printed out on 11x17 (I printed the image in tile format).

Here is a world map of Yrth, care of Sinle over at Deviant Art.

GURPS Banestorm + Caravan to Ein Arris Basemap by SinLeqiUnninniMaps on DeviantArt

Here is a link to a post on the GURPS forums regarding the areas of the various regions.

Cardiel is slightly bigger than France.  Like I have indicated, Ytarria is HUGE!

Yrth: General Data - national areas - Steve Jackson Games Forums (sjgames.com)

Area of regions/nations
-----------------------------------------------------------
Megalos: 1.241 Million + Island: 56,762 square miles

Al-Wazif: 302,712 square miles

Al-Haz: 639,992 square miles
Al-Haz without Mountains:424,236
Great Valley Mountains: 215,756

Cardiel: 274,169 square miles

Great Forest: 153080 square miles
Caithness: 581,473 square miles
Caithness less Great Forest: 428,393 square miles

Sahud: 106,505 square miles

Zarak: 436,362 square miles

Araterre exclusive of Bilit Island or ring islands: 77,169
Bilit Ilsand: 38,319

Great Desert: 294,978 square miles

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