Canonfire! Forums-viewtopic-Google Oerth?

Wed Feb 01, 2006 6:16 am Google Oerth?

Was daydreaming the other day (in an altogether too rare moment of free time) and pondering how impressed I've been with Google Earth's usage of satellite imagery to provide an awesome navigational experience through a VRML client.

And then it struck me... wouldn't it be amazing if there was such a thing as Google Oerth? Complete with the Google Oerth Communities where people could post placemarks to such things as their group's home or their favorite dungeon? One click of the mouse and your display seamlessly zooms in to an aerial view of Castle Greyhawk?

Ah... but a boy can muse, can't he? Smile

_________________
Catapultem habeo. Nisi pecuniam omnem mihi dabis, ad caput tuum saxum immane mittam. (Translation: I have a catapult. Give me all the money, or I will fling an enormous rock at your head.)

Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:07 pm

That isn't far off on Canonfire. There are mappers belonging to Canonfire who are or have done aerial photograph quality maps of the Flanaess. The whole Oerth is way off but it is being explored by intrepid authors everyday. Not everyone likes realistic aerial maps though and they also tend to be huge on file-size to download.

Interestingly, Fharlanghn possesses an item that could be considered 'Google Oerth'. The Oerth Disc!

The Oerth Disc will depict any area of the surface of the world. Fharlanghn simply looks upon the Disc, concentrates and the miniature of the land desired appears in a 1/12,000 reproduction. It is then possible to teleport (without error) to any locale so pictured.

Thu Feb 02, 2006 12:40 pm

Hi

I just wanted to add my little comment about Google Oerth and that is to stay tuned because one of the mappers is about to release some new work that I hope will satisfy your thirst for maps like satellite images, and like you said mortellan the files tend to get really big :-)

You will hear more from me soon and hopefully see some of my work on this site as well.

Anna

Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:58 pm

Welcome to Canonfire, Anna. I'm sure your maps will be a big hit on this site!

Sat Feb 04, 2006 8:40 am

Thank you mortellan :-)

Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:26 pm

If someone is putting together a "Google Oerth" program, did he or she see the article regarding the distortion of mapping a globe in two dimentions in The Oerth Journals? What was it, vol. 3 and 4? I'd be interested to spin Oerth around and see where that "hidden" continent of Aquaria is and what it looks like.

Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:31 pm Hollow

Oh, and do most people think of a hollow Oerth as having openings at the poles such as http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth (which is what Mystara's world has) or closed up at the poles?

Did anyone ever think it an interesting cooincidence that both Greyhawk and Mystara contain a spot for Blackmoor where Blackmoor is contemporary in Greyhawk and in the past before a cataclysm for Mystara? Or did I get something wrong with that impression?

Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:07 pm

The 1984 boxed set seemed to imply that Oerth might be hollow, but Greyhawk Adventures introduced Rigodruok as the source of those rumors. So apparently Oerth has a small valley with an artificial sun at its north pole rather than an opening to a hollow interior. Obviously your mileage may vary in your own campaign.

Gary Gygax included a nation called "the Archbarony of Blackmoor" in his campaign as a reference/homage to Dave Arneson's campaign, which he had played in exactly once, when Mordenkainen and Robilar ventured into the City of the Gods there. The geography doesn't really look anything like it did in Dave Arneson's actual Blackmoor campaign, though. Here's a map of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. Here's a map of Oerth's Blackmoor. The politics and history are different as well.

The DA series of modules was set in the past of the D&D "Known World" campaign because Dave Arneson was a freelancer, and at the time it was TSR's policy that all freelance works be set in that world. Fred Weining made some references to features from DA1 in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, but the two Blackmoors still ended up very different.

Tue Nov 18, 2008 8:56 am

Wed Nov 19, 2008 11:57 am An alternate attempt to mesh Blackmoor with Greyhawk

Hi all,

http://scottenkainenland.blogspot.com/2008/11/overview-of-blackmoor-greyhawk-version.html

~Scott "-enkainen" Casper

Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:21 pm

Wed Nov 19, 2008 12:25 pm