The 1648 Paris Urbancrawl Project

[pepe_andre]

Hi there,

after I posted a few of my paper minis the other day, I came up with the idea of creating a hex-grid map of 1648 Paris. I thought such a map would be cool addition for my gaming group and add a better maneuverability to the gaming world. I contemplated the idea for a while and ended up with something that could possibly evolve into a neat little community side project: What if we developed an urbancrawl map of Paris together?

I hope that such a map would add a new layer to the game and make playing in the city actually more rewarding for all members of the gaming table. Right now traveling through Paris is quite a drag for our group and boils mostly down to ‘i go to x and y’. But the city has much more to offer with it’s different districts and sights. A grid would, obviously, make it easier to calculate traveling times and help you decide when a random encounter could happen.

I’m still in the process of figuring out what I would actually want from a hex-grid city map, but The Alexandrian’s post about urbancrawls has already provided some good insight into the idea of urbancrawling.

In GIMP I already created a little hex-grid map that I’d like to share with you. A cool feature that I want to add would be a color code for the different districts to help the players even more with navigating through Paris.

I used this map by the french engraver Jean Boisseau from 1648.

You can find the hex-grid map here in full resolution.

And here in 1080p.

What resources would you add to a urbancrawl? Have you already made some experience with it?

[luke (Luke Wheel)]

Very interesting map.

Edit: BNF has this in a collection of other maps of Paris. The full map shows the date of 1654.

Still, very cool find. It fills in a lot of details missing from the Gomboust!
-Luke

[pepe_andre]

Got a link to that collection?

Edith: Found the image you are probably talking about. The thing is: er only have a facsimile that has beend produced a few hundred years later, so the year given on the map doesn’t have to bei necessarily true. I would still use it for my game, since it roughly fits, and I don’t think that the city has been reshaped in 6 years.