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| BATTLETECH: The Hexening | |
|---|---|
| Product information | |
| Type | Sourcebook |
| Author | Mal-3 |
| Pages | 113 |
| Cover artwork | Anthony Scroggins |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | (Fan-made product) |
| Product code | Source Book Download Link |
| First published | 2020 |
| Content | |
| Content | Hex-Based Interstellar Maps |
| Era | Succession War Era |
| Timeline | 3025 |
Description[]
BATTLETECH: The Hexening is a Fan-Made book (abbreviated BTH) created by Battletech Fan Mal-3. The book uses data collected from various canon/non-canon sources try present the Inner Sphere's overall map as of game year 3025 in Hex based map. Each Hex is 5 light years apart. Suggested uses is for mapping out roleplaying purposes.
The map style is based on the space maps created for the Traveller RPG, created by Marc W. Miller and Loren Wiseman, and owned by Far Future Enterprises. Map data itself comes from such places such as canon themed wiki for Battletech, (Sarna.net).
- Note from the Author : This project originated on (SpaceBattles.com) BattleTech Story Ideas thread with, or maybe you've seen the maps I created for Valles' SI epics Tell The World That We Tried and If We Turn To Dust.
Contents[]
- Table of Content
- The Inner Sphere and near Periphery
- Inner Sphere
- The Sector System
- Map Keys
- Sectors of the Inner Sphere (P.5 - P.88)
- The Deep Periphery
- Sectors of the Deep Periphery (P.90 - P 111)
- Credits
Question & Answers[]
This was taken from the BattleTech Ideas Thread from SpaceBattle.com - 2020.
Why?
I've got my reasons. The biggest one is that the canonical map of the Inner Sphere is sufficiently untidy that it bugs the hell out of me. Furthermore, everything else in the game uses hexagonal grid maps, so for the starmap to be dots scattered across the page and looped off with scribbles is kind of weird. And in the end, why not?
I thought that they already had one of those maps? Aren't you just reinventing the wheel?
If you mean the Inner Sphere At War maps available at the official web site, I've seen those and I'm not impressed. They're a hex grid superimposed on top of the regular map. It doesn't make the map any better, it just adds aesthetic clutter to a map that's already kind of jumbled to begin with. If I'm doing this – and I am doing this! – then I'm not gonna come swinging at Dracula I won't just slap a grid on top of a preexisting map and call it a day. I'm doing this properly; I'll make a grid, scale it and then align everything to that. Every system will be in its own hex, all the borders will follow the grid, and so on.
Doesn't that make the map inaccurate?
Yeah, most likely. I'm going to take steps to minimize the inaccuracies as best I can but things are almost certainly going to change. The goal here is to make sure that they don't change that much; each system's 1-jump ring should stay roughly the same if I do this right, so the change from free-floating Cartesian to a hex grid won't compromise gameplay in the event somebody uses this for a game.
What, exactly, is the goal here?
At the end of this project, I intend to have two documents for dissemination. The first will be the working map, which will be a PDF document suitable for importing into the vector graphics editor of your choice and will have all the listed stars and astronomical features (nebula, clusters, etc.) in the Inner Sphere and Periphery mapped correctly on the hex grid. Once the working map is done I'll put it up on Google Drive for anybody to download and use for campaigns, stories, just to mess with etc. The second document will be the presentation map, a poster-sized flat graphics file (probably PDF again for the full scale version, but I'll post jpgs and pngs of the work-in-progress to the thread) of the Inner Sphere as of 3025 with everything marked in a very nice faux-National Geographic style. Something you could take to a printer and get a poster made of, if you happened to be made out of money. There may (heavy emphasis on 'may') be a third document, a sector map covering the 3025 Inner Sphere in more granular detail, but that's going to depend on how long it takes me to finish the working map among lots of other factors.
Wow. Need any help?
Most of the work is solo, but there's a few things I could use a hand on. If anybody has any experience with JavaScript (for I have a degree in English and cannot into programming) drop me a PM. All assistance will be rewarded with credit on the final work.
On The Shoulders of Giants
The Hexening wouldn't be possible if I didn't already have a pretty impressive body of work to use as a foundation. As such, much thanks must be given to Sarna.net as the single best repository of BattleTech information in the known internet. In particular, the Sarna Universal Cartography Society and their SUCKit coordinate set, the most ridiculously accurate set available to the average person and the base of this entire project. Also Gruese, the madlad behind the amazing Inner Sphere 3025 online map who's also been working with Sarna to update their system maps, developed some really nice tools that I'll be using to get this thing to completion. And of course, the BattleTech universe in general as created by FASA et al without which none of this would be happening at all. So welcome to The Hexening! Next time I'll be talking about hex sizes and just how big this goddamned map really is. See you then!