GAZ1 Karameikos, 8 miles per hex
1987’s GAZ1 heralded a new era for Mystaran cartography, bringing in the 8 mile Gazetteer series standard for hex maps, along with a new set of hex art, the distinctive castle border, and the change of font to Feinen Bold. Karameikos was redrawn to fit the new scale, likely based on the original X1 24 mile per hex map, with which it is quite a close fit. It also includes most locations from the Expert Set‘s 6 mile per hex map, although the fit is much more problematic; indeed, the shunting around of locations — most notably Threshold — resulted in misalignment with previous maps of the area, including B10’s larger scale maps. Note that even though the forested hex symbol debuted in the legend, it was not actually used until later in the Gazetteer line, hence the lack of that terrain type in this map.
Replica Map (December 2020)
Sources
- GAZ1 The Grand Duchy of Karameikos (1987) (PDF at DriveThruRPG)
- Poster map (Cartography by Dennis Kauth, David C. Sutherland III, Ron Kauth)
Chronological Analysis
This is Map 54. It was published in May 1987. The updated version of this map is available here. 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 1987.
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; and 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
- Settlements —
- Terrain —
Revisions
- Settlements —
- Terrain —
Hex Art & Fonts
- Symbols — Gazetteer series standard. Karameikos borders use an emphasising variant style only seen in this map and GAZ2’s Ylaruam map.
- Fonts — Feinen throughout.
23 August 2019 @ 1:30 pm
I’m confused with this map, isnt the town of Threshold on Windrush lake? This map doesnt show that.
21 October 2019 @ 9:40 am
The simple answer to this is that Lake Windrush is too small to appear at this scale. It doesn’t mean that it’s not there. On B10’s 3 mile hex map the lake takes up a little over one hex, meaning that it would be at most half a hex on this 8 mile hex map. Such details are often left out to avoid crowding the map.
It’s also worth noting that GAZ1’s map provided a new take on the area, slightly different from previous sources (notably B10). But in this case the lake was clearly still meant to be present, given the detail maps of Threshold included elsewhere in the module.