Alan’s La Vallée des Loups, 1 mile per hex
This was Alan’s last hex map — and it really shows. It’s the peak of his mapping efforts, and the most complete of all of his hex maps. While his previous hex maps had often been missing symbols, this one has a complete and varied set, carefully reproducing all of PC4’s hex art.
He shared it in early 2003, the first of a few PC4 maps he completed after finishing X2’s maps the previous year. Unfortunately, these would be his last maps, and he never moved on to the rest of the Gazetteer series.
As I mentioned in the posts for some of his earlier maps, I suspect that, beautiful as they are, this map’s symbols may have caused problems. Even today the map is noticeably slower to work on in Campaign Cartographer than most of Alan’s other maps. That suggests to me that back in 2003 it may have been prohibitively slow, which would go a long way to explain why it was his last hex map, why he didn’t go back and update previous maps, and perhaps even why he abandoned his mapping at this point. Of course this is all speculation, and I’m sure there were other factors, too.
This is undoubtedly the map that most benefits from a high resolution export (below). Alan’s original image file (second below) was really too small to make out the details. Some labels remain almost illegible even in the high resolution map, unless you zoom in.
It really is a wonderful piece of cartography, and I’m thrilled to be able to share it as Alan originally designed it back in 2003.
Fan-made Map by Alan Derek Jones (January 2003)
exported in high resolution by Thorfinn Tait, April 2025
Fan-made Map by Alan Derek Jones (January 2003)
This is an original map created by one of Mystara’s excellent fan cartographers. For more information on the cartographer, including a gallery of all their maps, see also Appendix M: Mappers of Mystara.
Sources
- PC4 Night Howlers (1992) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
Fan Sources
- None.
References
- All of Alan’s maps at the Atlas of Mystara
- Alan’s entry in Appendix M: Mappers of Mystara (upcoming)
- Alan’s author page at the Vaults of Pandius
Chronological Analysis
This is a fan-made map. It was published in January 2003. The updated Atlas version of this map is La Vallée des Loups, 1 mile per hex. See also Appendix C for annual chronological snapshots of the area. For the full context of this map in Mystara’s publication history, see the upcoming Let’s Map Mystara 2003.
The following lists are from the Let’s Map Mystara project. Additions are new features, introduced in this map. Revisions are changes to previously-introduced features. Hex Art & Fonts track design elements. Finally, Textual Additions are potential features found in the related text. In most cases, the Atlas adopts these textual additions into updated and chronological maps.
Under Construction! Please check back again soon for updates.
Additions
Revisions
- Caves — PC4’s map showed caves with a mountain background colour, while Alan changed his to a hill colour.
Hex Art & Fonts
- Art — Campaign Cartographer 2 recreation of the original hex symbols, with CC2 palette.
- Fonts — Benguiat Book throughout.
