Zone Maps - Map Making for the Lazy Games Master

I am a big fan of any technique which can minimize the amount of time I spend prepping a game and maximise the utility during play.

What is a Zone Map?

Put simply these are maps which don't try to show things like distance or scale in favour of the relationships that the different elements have with one another.  This is a concept popularized in the game fate and its descendants.  

My own exposure came in the form of Starblazer Adventures (Cubicle 7) which is a monstrous tome but my go to Space Opera systemand I have even adapted it for a Fate Judge Dredd Campaign.

The beauty of a Zone Map is that you don't need any kind of cartographic skills in order to produce them.  You just need to know what the relationships are between the zones.  They also don't pay any particular respect to scale or distance and so they can be used to represent anything from a building to a galaxy.

Show and Tell

Its easier to show rather than to tell so here are a couple of maps from one of my Judge Dredd games to illustrate a few of the different styles I use.

The examples above are sketched onto 5"x 3" Index Cards which is incidentally my favourite method for initiative tracking in RPGs but I will talk about that in another post.

Zone Map Resources

• Show Me Your Fate Style Zone Maps - A great Reddit thread with a lot of inspiration  
• Fate Zone Map Pack - If you prefer a flowchart design try these from DriveThruRPG
• Fate Zone Maps Tumbler - A bunch of different maps including a jungle map I might steal... 
• Using Abstract Maps in D&D - A look at how you can use the zone map in your D&D game

Show Me Yours

Have You used zone maps in your games? Share your experience in the comments section below.

15mm Judge Dredd: Civilian Vehicles

The Streets of Mega City One are littered with an array of crazy looking vehicles which George Barris or Ed "Big Daddy" Roth would have been proud to have designed.  But finding 15mm scale civilian vehicles which fit the genre aesthetic is harder than I imagined.

My 15mm Vehicle Fleet

An eclectic mix of vehicles from various sources

Bladerunner 2049 Spinners (Thingiverse 3760309) - These two designs are inspired by the 2017 sequel to probably the greatest sci-fi movie of all time.  The designs build upon the original iconic spinner with an angular aesthetic which was apparently inspired by a sidewalk snow sweeper.

Flit Cars (Alternative Armies V101) - These cool looking 2 seat hover roadsters are perfect for the perp about town.  The models are resin cast and quite reasonably priced although a little small for 15mm,

Hover Van (Alternative Armies V103) - A very utilitarian flat bed pickup style van which can also double as a meat wagon in a pinch,  A resin cast piece which is elevated on a resin plinth for that hovering vibe.

H-Wagon (my own 3D design) - Heavily influenced by some early iconic Dredd artwork by Mike McMahon this H-Wagon is the workhorse of the Justice Department.  Whether it is being used as a perp transport, a meatwagon, an APC or just as a mobile patrol vehicle, the H-Wagon is a stalwart and dependable vehicle and a common sight on the streets of Mega City One.

 

Bus (3D Print ) - I can't remember where I downloaded this mini bus from but I have 2 in my fleet.

Korben's Taxi (Thing 2639417) - I couldn't say no to a 5th Element Taxi and the great thing is that it looks cool as a civilian sedan too.

 

Cargo Truck (my own design) - Sadly the file for this has long since been lost to a dead laptop, this was before I imortalised my designs on Thingiverse.  As I need more trucks, and I've gotten much better at 3D modelling I'm inclined to try this again.  I will of course include more 80s movie references in the panel art.   

 

URSA Tracked Truck (Thing 4513543) - One of three vehicles the Industrial Vehicles collection from Shiaic1 on Thingiverse.  It's a solid looking small cargo hauler and we won't mention the fact that tracked vehicles are a bit of an anachronism on the bustling highways of the city of the future.  It looks cool and that's good enough for me.  It comes with two optional cargo beds either a box truck or a tanker.  

Big Tanker (Thing 4513543) - Another from Shiaic1's Industrial Vehicles Collection.  This bad boy barely fit on my printbed and took almost 10 hours to print.  Once again this is scaled up 300% from it's Epic scale (6mm) original size but the quality holds.  Easy clean up despite a huge amount of support material.

What I want to include in my fleet

A Mo-Pad - The motorised home of the future which spends its entire life cruising the 13 billion miles of megways.  It is rumoured that some citizens have spent their entire lives travelling from sector to sector aboard their mobile home having never once set foot on the streets of Mega City One.  There is no definitive design for these mobile monstrosities but one of my favourites comes from the Mega Rackets Crime Files strip in Prog 219.

Trucks - The citizens of Mega City One need to be fed, clothed and entertained and there should be a steady stream of robo-trucks plying the megways fulfilling their every need.  As I mentioned earlier this is a perfect opportunity for me to dust off my modelling skills and put together a kit of parts so that you can mix and match bodies cabs and wheel configurations to suit the cargo.  This could also be a good way to kickstart a mo-pad build. 

The Killdozer - This beast of a vehicle (actually two vehicles) was a major tie-in with Matchbox toys under the "Adventure 2000" brand name back in the day.  The diecast vehicle is sadly not 15mm scale but a nice 3D Printable version is available from Thingiverse.  Whilst the original never survived its journey out into the Cursed Earth, a model exists in the museum of the Halls of Justice and every now and then gets put out on a tour of the sectors.   

Sky Surfers (Thing 5177927) - "Chopper Lives" is a slogan that almost every citizen will have seen scrawled on a wall, on the seat back of a mono-rail or on the side of their neighbours block in letters 50ft tall.  The most famous skysurfer of them all needs to make a comeback and be chased down by a patrol of judges.  Why stop at one, when you can make a whole lineup of surfer dudes waiting to become the next greatest thing.  

I've designed and printed out some surf boards I just need to find suitably posed surfer dudes to go on them.  If you want some of your own head on over to Thingiverse.

Jessie's Prints - Episode 15 - 15mm Bladerunner Cars & A Gloomy Box

 

This week, I are mostly been printing...

Bladerunner 2049 Spinners - (Thingiverse 3760309)

Dennis Villenueve's design team (Dennis Gassner and  did a pretty good job, in my opinion, of updating.  Vanity Fair ran a great article on the design for K's spinner which unbelieveably was inspired by a snow sweeper.  These Spinners are courtesy of Thingiverse user Carandhel and they include 2 different designs, including a re-imagined police spinner.

 

The original design of the police spinner was of course penned by the legend that was Syd Mead and is such an iconic design that it is hard to beat. 

 

Talking about beats did you know that one of the Bladerunner spinners was featured in the promo shots for Iron Maiden's "Somewhere in Time" album.

 

Extra points to the reader who can identify the white vehicle in the background of this shot which looks like it could have driven off the set of Buck Rogers or Battlestar Galactica.  Please post a link to a good image in the comments below.

Cthulhu Gloom Deck Box (Thingiverse 4787273)

I finally got tired of my Cthulhu Gloom falling out of its custom Tuck Box and so I found a new better box thanks to Thingiverse creator Duncan Mac.  

 

This is a sweet looking box and is no doubt going to double as the housing for some eldritch artifact in a game at my regular Friday night game group Dragons Keep Roleplay Club.

15mm Judge Dredd: The Justice Department

My current penchant is for Judge Dredd, so I dug out some old Laserburn Lawmen which had been gathering dust and decided to splash some paint on them

Street Judges

You can never have enough rank and file street judges on hand when your PCs have just ordered a Crime Blitz or as crowd control reinforcements at that Ugly Pageant.

Standard Justice Department loadouts are the order of the day, but may be augmented with the ever popular Widowmaker 2000 magazine-fed automatic shotgun.  Sometimes a stern warning falls on deaf ears.

Riot Squad

Probably the hardest working Division (also the highest injury rate) of the Justice Department.  Everyone does their stint on the Riot Squad at least once a week.  Some Judges volunteer for Riot Squad duty but the Psyche Squad are always on hand with their evaluation surveys to root out those bad apples that like the detail just that little too much.  You never can be too careful.

The standard loadout for a Riot Squad is augmented with the MkIV extra long daystick, a stumm gas mortar and a riot foam thrower for when things get a little too heated.

Wally Squad

The undercover Judges of the Justice Department (colloquially known as Wally Squad) are indistinguishable from your everyday citizen.

Reaper Bones #39 - Human Barbarian, Goldar

By Crom this guy has an interesting pose.  It's screaming "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enuff!!"

Human Barbarian, Goldar - Matt Gubser (SKU 77047)

My first Matt Gubser miniature and looking back at his back catalogue in the Reaper Figure Finder, I can see some great sculpts.  Matt has since turned his attention to flexing his comedic muscles in stand up comedy, but there is nothing funny about Goldar.

Human Barbarian, Goldar (SKU 77047)

Bones Progress