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Blackhawk748
2015-01-01, 01:06 PM
Ill be running a Sci Fi campaign in the near future and i need a map of the Milky Way, as this is set in our future. The problem is i cant seem to find a decent map of the galaxy that is easy to read. So, as always, i turn to the Playground for help.

Honestly the map doesnt even have to be the actual Milky Way, it just needs to be a Spiral Galaxy, hell id be happy with a halfway decent map of an arm of a spiral galaxy. Generally id make the thing myself, but all of my map making programs are for overland maps, so no help there. So if anyone knows of a good website or map making program id love to hear about it.

Akodo Makama
2015-01-01, 02:43 PM
The people that made BattleTech did this already, google "inner sphere map". However, the maps they came up with were horrible to use: Not because they were made poorly, but because they strived for accuracy, and galaxies are larger than people can understand. Even using only 1 in every 50 stars or so, there were so many that the maps were huge, with tiny writing and little real info . Even then, they only covered a tiny fraction of the galaxy (less than 0.01%). If you really *need* a 'galaxy' map, use one of theirs; it will have more stars than you could ever come up with adventures for, and many are partitioned off into sensible areas of control for various sized governments/factions.

I'd advise skipping the 'galaxy' map idea altogether, and just present the players with story decisions (e.g. "Fast, dangerous run near the black hole or safe run that leaves more time to get interceopted?", or "You being stealthy or arrogant?"). Small, 'tactical' maps showing a couple stars with made-up-names can allow for players to make interesting choices without being overwhelmed by possibilities. Also, this allows you to create 'terrain' scenarios for their 'play interest', rather than being stuck with reality.

AstralFire
2015-01-01, 02:51 PM
Backing that up. You're really better off with a picture of a galaxy and a list of locations beneath it.

Blackhawk748
2015-01-01, 03:07 PM
just looked up the 3130 mech warrior map, holy crap thats a lot of systems. Now generally i would just give them the list of planets like you suggest, but one of the possible campaigns is one where they are exploring the galaxy, so they would be flying around in uncharted territory, thus why the map would be helpful.

Ok so, the "galaxy" is way to big, so ill probably slim this down to the sectors around Earth, not sure how big that would be, but id like to cover several hundred lightyears.

1337 b4k4
2015-01-01, 03:12 PM
Maybe not quite the style of map you're looking for but have you tried the maps for Trveller? http://www.travellermap.com/

snowblizz
2015-01-01, 03:13 PM
If you google "Warhammer 40k map" and image search you get a bunch of nice looking not too detailed maps of our own galaxy. If you are sneaky re-use the named plantes with your own/same...

Most of them even marks out earth in its correct place, well near enough.

Blackhawk748
2015-01-01, 03:25 PM
Saw some Traveller maps, and they looked fairly nice, just not quite what i was going for, and there is no way i could sneak the WH40k map past my players, as half the table plays and everyone there is familiar with the naming conventions.

However, as i continued to poke around the internet i did discover the map for Wing Commander, so i think i may use that, as they have Sol in the center so that would make navigation easier.

Akodo Makama
2015-01-01, 05:05 PM
just looked up the 3130 mech warrior map, holy crap thats a lot of systems. Now generally i would just give them the list of planets like you suggest, but one of the possible campaigns is one where they are exploring the galaxy, so they would be flying around in uncharted territory, thus why the map would be helpful.

Ok so, the "galaxy" is way to big, so ill probably slim this down to the sectors around Earth, not sure how big that would be, but id like to cover several hundred lightyears.

250 lightyear diameter is still a lot of systems (Terra (Earth's system) is in the middle)...

http://battletech.rpg.hu/images/ismaps/republic_of_the_sphere_3085.png


Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind- bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space.

Also, if the area's uncharted, how do they have a map?

Blackhawk748
2015-01-01, 05:13 PM
250 lightyear diameter is still a lot of systems (Terra (Earth's system) is in the middle)...

http://battletech.rpg.hu/images/ismaps/republic_of_the_sphere_3085.png



Also, if the area's uncharted, how do they have a map?

That is a lot, but thats far more manageable.

Also the map is for me, as i will give them the revealed parts of the map as they discover them.