Dion Kurczek ‘s post got me thinking.
I would wager you could make a DW supplement entirely based around making new world maps. People love mapmaking, and probably feel the need for a neutral third party to regulate and balance their group’s communal attempts at it.
I like Vincent Baker’s “Dragon Killer’ map making technique, although it does require having a particular big bad in mind :
http://lumpley.com/index.php/anyway/marginalia/2899
I also like the idea of taking a non-uniform shape, slicing it irregularly into a number of pieces equal to the number of players, and dividing a Pangaea super continent amongst them. They could cut out smaller islands, change the borders a bit, slice their chunk into two or more continents, what have you. Once everyone has their pieces distributed amongst their ‘quadrant’ of the map the GM redraws it onto a single sheet of paper while everyone else rolls against a chart of features – a number of 6×6 or 8×8 or 10×10 grids listing out pertinent features. Then the players, having rolled their dice, have to decide how to allot them.
So, for example, it’s the player’s fault there is a demi-lich (column 8, row 7) holed up on that island, occasionally striking out at the nearby shipping lanes with reanimated merm-folk, but the alternative was to have an active volcano (column 7, row 8) right by the capital city. They have a choice to make, buy in on the consequences, and no ‘right’ or ‘safe’ answer.
The map would be by no means inclusive to everything happening in the world, but would give a general outline and the mid-making and post-making kibitzing should offer a feel for the place.
(If this is even vaguely interesting to you, check out “How To Host a Dungeon”, the source material for almost every Dwarven Stronghold or Kobold tunnel complex I’ve used in a game. Also, “Dwarf Fortress” by Bay12 games, which will procedurally generate whole worlds for you and allow you to build up Dwarven Strongholds. And inevitably find out how those strongholds come to ruin. Usually within a year or three of their founding.)
Dawn of Worlds.
http://www.clanwebsite.org/games/rpg/Dawn_of_Worlds_game_1_0Final.pdf
I kicked about with the Quiet Year way of setting up a map. I asked each player to draw a landmark, then a civilised area, then a mystery or danger. As GM I went about using them as and when necessary but that sense of collective campaign ownership was there from the start. Definitely a recommended way of setting things up.
Maps have always been my time consuming weak point, so I’d probably buy it. Right now I’m using the old D&D Greyhawk map.