# Community Participation > Mapping Challenge Archive >  February '09 Challenge: A Political Map

## RobA

*** February '09 Challenge ***

*A Political Map.*

This month's idea comes from the challenge suggestion forum, compliments of joão paulo.

We are looking for a socio-political map.  The style, era  and scale are your choice.  It can come from the real world, a fantasy world or a future world.

A focus of this map MUST be political identifiers.... Flags, crests, banners or coats of arms must appear prominently on the work.

Entries should be in by no later than Feb 24th 2008.  Remember, February is a short month!

Good Luck!!!

As always, don't forget to review the General Challenge Rules.

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## Nomadic

Ooo this sounds like fun. I might give it a try.

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## Hoel

I'll do it. Had planned something of the sort for my campaign anyway

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## Jkaen

Hmm, this sounds like exactly what I need to do next for my landmass I am trying to work out, time to get access to my desktop again i think!

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## Bohunk

Everytime I think I am going to take a month off, you guys pull me back in!

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## Talroth

Hummm, interesting. And I just got my tablet back from a friend I had loaned it to for a few days,... a year ago.

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## Gamerprinter

If I have time to enter this month, I have an idea I might try out.

Create a Japan based map, using my Ukiyo-e map objects then go socio-political between individual daimyo family controlled provinces, then doing colored borders with overlapping edges for different political entities... as I said, Daimyo controlled provinces, shinto religious strongholds, buddhist strongholds and areas of control. The Shogunate dominated areas vs. areas of opposition to the Shogun. Instead of flags or crests I would use those Japanese "crests" or family symbols.

This could be interesting. Now if I can squeeze my Profantasy commission around this challenge!

GP

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## Steel General

> If I have time to enter this month, I have an idea I might try out.
> 
> Create a Japan based map, using my Ukiyo-e map objects then go socio-political between individual daimyo family controlled provinces, then doing colored borders with overlapping edges for different political entities... as I said, Daimyo controlled provinces, shinto religious strongholds, buddhist strongholds and areas of control. The Shogunate dominated areas vs. areas of opposition to the Shogun. Instead of flags or crests I would use those Japanese "crests" or family symbols.
> 
> This could be interesting. Now if I can squeeze my Profantasy commission around this challenge!
> 
> GP


Sounds like a neat idea GP, hope you can fit it in... I have an idea for my entry already, just not sure if it'll work.

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## ukgpublishing

Well, I'm not going to be able to enter this month, but the reason is a good one, I'm off to Egypt for a week  :Wink: 

Anyway I look forward to seeing the entries on my return.

John

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## Steel General

> Well, I'm not going to be able to enter this month, but the reason is a good one, I'm off to Egypt for a week 
> 
> Anyway I look forward to seeing the entries on my return.
> 
> John


Say hi to the Pharoah's for us.  :Very Happy:

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## ukgpublishing

> Say hi to the Pharoah's for us.


Only if they are worshipping the sun on the Sinai peninsular with us lol. Its a 7 hour coach trip to the pyramids from where we are so we'll do them another time.

John

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## joão paulo

You can believe I'll have fun with this challenge :Very Happy: 

Thanks Roba!

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## Steel General

OK here's a question... does it have to be a regional/country/overland map? Can it be a city that is say...divided along the lines of noble families and/or different guilds (merchants, thieves, etc.) with each guild having its own sigil/coat of arms/badge.

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## Midgardsormr

> The style, era  and scale are your choice.


Sounds like it's legal to me. 

Odd that here's a second challenge in a row that my Wheel of Time map would have been good for.

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## RobA

I'll defer to my colleague, and agree that it sounds legal to me too  :Wink: 

-Rob A>

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## Steel General

Allrighty then, I thought it would be OK - but wanted to make sure before I decided to go along those lines.

thanks...

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## Valarian

> Create a Japan based map, using my Ukiyo-e map objects then go socio-political between individual daimyo family controlled provinces, then doing colored borders with overlapping edges for different political entities... as I said, Daimyo controlled provinces, shinto religious strongholds, buddhist strongholds and areas of control. The Shogunate dominated areas vs. areas of opposition to the Shogun. Instead of flags or crests I would use those Japanese "crests" or family symbols.


Sounds like a very interesting map  :Smile: 




> This could be interesting. Now if I can squeeze my Profantasy commission around this challenge!


You could always bring the period forward and do some Shinkansen  :Very Happy:

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## Redrobes

I had better do some thumbnails again  :Wink: 



```
### New Challenge Entry:Hoel,4185
### New Challenge Entry:Gamerprinter,4193
### New Challenge Entry:Nomadic,4194
### New Challenge Entry:Bohunk,4195
### New Challenge Entry:Steel General,4202
### New Challenge Entry:Ascension,4209
### New Challenge Entry:Darken,4241
### New Challenge Entry:joao paulo,4263
### New Challenge Entry:tcberry,4264
### New Challenge Entry:CBDroege,4271
### New Challenge Entry:Korrigan,4277
### New Challenge Entry:mogul76,4296
### New Challenge Entry:Qbista,4329
### New Challenge Entry:Gimil,4490
```

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## Korrigan

Stupid question here :

Is the color reference enough for the political side of the map or do I have to add more distinctive elements ?

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## RobA

> Stupid question here :
> 
> Is the color reference enough for the political side of the map or do I have to add more distinctive elements ?


Well...... the challenge rules say:




> A focus of this map MUST be political identifiers.... Flags, crests, banners or coats of arms must appear prominently on the work.


So without these types of "political identifiers" you may get less votes in the end, as they are to be a "focus of the map".

-Rob A>

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## bartmoss

Actually... "must" is pretty clear, the insignia / identifiers are not optional.

However, Korrigan, you could just use failry simple flags somehow. Most real-world flags are very simple and abstract. However, you'll want to read up on the basics of heraldry / flag design first, as not all colors are used in maps and there are certain standard shapes and layouts. (Your world may have different rules, but it's still a good idea to get familiar with the basics if you don't know them already.) Wikipedia should have all the information needed.

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## Korrigan

Don't worry about that, I read a lot about heraldry some times ago  :Wink: 

The question here was mainly : are color codes considered political identifiers or not. I guess the answer is no, so I'll work on something more "graphic" ^^

EDIT : by the way, wikipedia doesn't have a lot about precise heraldry rules. If I have some time I'll translate a very good french site about it, which could interest some of you  :Wink:

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## Qbista

I think that You can put me in this challenge (of course if it is still able to do).

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## Gamerprinter

So join in, the challenge ends the 24th of February, so you have that much time anyway. Start a new thread in the Map Challenge Forum. Insure that you name it "February Entry:" and whatever you plan to name it. That's it, and you'll be "enrolled" in the challenge!

We welcome anyone who wants to join in!

Welcome!

GP

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## Redrobes

> I think that You can put me in this challenge (of course if it is still able to do).


Yeah - go for it. Theres a few sticky posts in the current challenge topic. One is the rules and general info and other is the thumbnails which I do so have a quicky look at that too. If you look a few posts up from here to #18 then thats the list I build for the entrants and the thumbnail script makes the thumbnail page which is also stickied in the current challenge topic. So when you have your entry thread ill add you to that list and when you post a WIP image then put a little ### Latest WIP ### tag at the end of your post and the script will look at your thread and grab the latest image and put it into the thumbnails page. Its a manual run so it wont appear instantly in the thumbs but it will get there when I next run it... eventually...

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## joão paulo

Please some CL, my entry is in accordance with the rules of the challenge or I made something missing?
 :Confused:

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## ravells

It looks fine to me, JP....unless I'm missing something too! What did you have doubts about?

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## joão paulo

I have thought a little out of focus of the competition.
Perhaps this was only an impression.

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## bryguy

lol darn it, I finally come up with a good idea but I dont have nearly enough time


oh well, I might join for the heck of it, I have a few days left, don't I?

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## tcberry

You have one day left. :p

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## bryguy

LOL then I guess I probably wont have time..... oh well, I may or may not try to get in a sudden last minute entry lol xD

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## gimil*

I just posted my first ever cartographers guild conmpetition entry!

Good luck to everyone and may the best mapper win  :Smile:

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## CBDroege

What's the exact deadline? midnight? which timezone?  I think I'm going to be getting down to the wire on mine.

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## Gamerprinter

The goal for this month I think is today the 24th - that's the goal anyway. Many times the CLs are busy and it doesn't end until the 25th. There is no time-zone as though the Admin is eastern time, depending on which CL ends the challenge. It could any time from early evening to tomorrow.

We've had months, where all the CLs were busy with work or homelife and a challenge didn't end until the 2nd or 3rd of the next month. We're trying to more consistent - but nothing is "cut in stone".

Shoot for today being the final day and early evening!

GP

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## Korrigan

Hello there ! I just realized that the thumbnail for my entry is not the latest WIP I posted... Do you think this could be fixed before voting begins (I don't know whether it is automatic or you have to run a script) ? If not, please just remember there is more of it to see  :Wink:

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## ravells

Don't worry Korrigan, Redrobes is pretty good at running the script before the voting begins!

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## bryguy

Wow Im actually making project on my entry, but I dont think Ill have it ready in time. Oh well, if I do I do, if I dont I dont  :Smile:

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## Redrobes

I ran the script again so it should be ok now. I ran it the other day and the site was being hit by like 20 or so spiders from yahoo and MSN etc and I couldn't get it to complete. Do give me a poke in the ribs if your not on the list or its pretty out of date tho...

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## joão paulo

gimil * is not on the list.

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## mogul76

gimil* forgot to add ### Latest WIP ### to his message. That's why his map doesn't appear amongst the thumbnails, JP.

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## CBDroege

Okay. Got my final entry in. Hopefully not too late.  :Smile:

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## Gamerprinter

If you don't see a Vote for Feb Challenge thread, then you're OK.

GP

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