Rules Cyclopedia Known World, 8 miles per hex
1991 saw the release of the Rules Cyclopedia, compiling all of the rules from the BECMI era into a single volume. The book also included a short gazetteer of the Known World, with more than 10 pages of maps.
According to Bruce Heard, the Rules Cyclopedia‘s maps were taken directly from the TM1 and TM2 trail maps, so they are identical to those maps in most respects. This replica presents the maps in combined form, so it’s possible to see at a glance what areas the Rules Cyclopedia covers.
Combined Replica Map (December 2020)
Sources
- Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
- 12 full page plates on pages 273-279 and 284-288 (Cartography by Dennis Kauth and Frey Graphics)
Map Types
The Atlas of Mystara includes a few fundamentally different types of maps. The colour of the castle wall border on each map shows which category it belongs to.
- Replica maps (white castle border) are exact replicas of primary source maps. They present the world of Mystara as the original source materials depict it, warts and all. No attempt has been made to fix errors of any kind — even typos. As far as possible, replica maps use the same art as the original maps, though in many cases they are colourised. These maps are the main source material of the Atlas of Mystara, forming the base of all of the updated maps.
- Updated maps (green castle border) present the Atlas of Mystara’s consistent view of the world, with all errors, alignment issues, and so on fixed. They use standardised hex art and fonts. Anything not marked as a replica map is an updated map.
- Chronological maps (yellow castle border) provide snapshots of Mystara at the end of a certain year in its publication history. In effect, they are updated maps created from a limited list of sources. The years in question appear in the title of each map.
- Fan-made maps are unofficial maps created by other fan cartographers. As such, they do not follow the Atlas’s castle border colour scheme. The Atlas presents these maps in their original form, with the permission of the cartographers. The Atlas considers these maps secondary sources, and updated maps of areas not covered by official maps make extensive use of them. In a few cases, the Atlas also presents Replica fan-made maps (red castle border).
21 June 2016 @ 6:23 pm
Really liking your updated website. Your maps are fantastic. Wondered if it would be possible to get this map of the known world as a pdf? I hav the cyclopedia and most of the old printed maps that was published, but it would be great to be able to print maps for game sessions without risking to bring out the originals
30 June 2016 @ 1:03 pm
Hi Niels! Thanks for the nice message about the new site. 🙂
I haven’t quite decided what to do about PDF versions yet. There’s a slight problem in that the new updated maps are created using Photoshop to composite files together, so it’s not possible to generate PDFs of those.
In the meantime, you should be able to get a PDF version of this particular map at the following link:
http://adobe.ly/296Dggk
10 July 2016 @ 1:58 am
Thank you for the link. I was under the impression that photoshop could output its files as pdf. Also the link is an .ai fil, and I am sure that you can save an illustrator file as a pdf.
Anyway, great maps. It is just great to be able to mess around with the maps, not risking the prescious old originals.
18 January 2019 @ 1:52 am
WOW!! Great! Thank you for all!