Excellent advice, Rob.

If you are working at the 5m/hex JG scale, what size river is the smallest you usually draw on the map?

Quote from: Cole;459386Excellent advice, Rob.

If you are working at the 5m/hex JG scale, what size river is the smallest you usually draw on the map?

The smallest that I would draw on show up on a 5 mile hex would probably be a 40 to 80 foot wide. The JG Mapping system had hex sheet with a single giant hex enclosing a set of small hexes. The giant hex is 25 hexes across making each .2 mile. At that scale the thinnest rivers show up as  1/8" or 3/16" wide with a visible coast and water fill.

Below the .2 mile hex is another map that uses the same giant hex with 25 small hexes across. This makes this scale at 42.25 ft per hex. The smallest 5 mile hex rivers are drawn a hex or two in width, hence 40 to 80 feet in width.

For me I consider anything the size of French Creek near my town to be worthwhile to put on a campaign map at the scale of 5 miles. And note that French Creek is a misnomer it is a small river.

Quote from: estar;459402The smallest that I would draw on show up on a 5 mile hex would probably be a 40 to 80 foot wide. The JG Mapping system had hex sheet with a single giant hex enclosing a set of small hexes. The giant hex is 25 hexes across making each .2 mile. At that scale the thinnest rivers show up as  1/8" or 3/16" wide with a visible coast and water fill.

Below the .2 mile hex is another map that uses the same giant hex with 25 small hexes across. This makes this scale at 42.25 ft per hex. The smallest 5 mile hex rivers are drawn a hex or two in width, hence 40 to 80 feet in width.

For me I consider anything the size of French Creek near my town to be worthwhile to put on a campaign map at the scale of 5 miles. And note that French Creek is a misnomer it is a small river.

Thanks, that's very helpful.

Yes, a bridge would not just require a road between two communities; it would require an important and well-travelled road between two communities at least one of which (if not both) is very prosperous.  Otherwise, you get a ferry or the likes.

Also, "cyclopean bridges" are ok and all, but Aqueduct Systems is where its at!

RPGpundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;459599Yes, a bridge would not just require a road between two communities; it would require an important and well-travelled road between two communities at least one of which (if not both) is very prosperous.  Otherwise, you get a ferry or the likes.

Also, "cyclopean bridges" are ok and all, but Aqueduct Systems is where its at!

RPGpundit

Aqueduct systems are great. Although, of course, where in the game world and when in the game world's history you are affects whether or not the locals have their shit together enough to build or at least hold on to existing ones.

Bridges go only on major roads IMFC. Everything else is Fords and Ferries.

Rivers rarely run straight, and not even for a hundred yards when they do. They twist and turn and split and join, and loop around. In the mountains, streams run fast and deep, in the lowlands slow and strong.

There's sandbars, and fallen trees, rubble and detritus and Big rocks. Did I mention rocks?

Some rivers are clear (highlands), some green, some brown. If it's been raining alot the rivers are wider than normal and very muddy.

Near the coast, they fan out into a huge swampy Delta if there's lots of flat land around.

About how small to go, I myself am detailing a creek system on one province in Birthright. Major rivers naturally have more navigable traffic, but it mainly depends on the regional climate. Like, in my design, the definition of creek is more Eastern USA instead of Western USA (where even a river may look like just an Eastern USA creek). Climate and region and the expected flow of the water cycle truly fleshes things out (I know imagining cloud patterns sounds like a lot, but even a cursory idea helps).

So with my little slice of the world I mark navigable creeks and then draw a line where barges and ferries stop, and then further up where canoes stop (or rapids begin). This is useful because cultures managed trade by water more than roads on average -- at the very least it increased item availability manifold. And where more things gather, wealth gathers, and where wealth gathers, plot hooks gather. Currently my regent player is tallying which creeks might be worth connecting via canals, and which cities are worth connecting to promote their local trade. Where the water goes, often where goes the people.

Remember to keep map scale in mind. A small scale map of the continent  should only show the largest/most important rivers, and as the map scale increases so should the density of detail.  Up-thread, the map of Florida is slightly cluttered,but still legible while the map of Italy is way too cluttered for its scale.