OBT Forum

I am thinking of running an Inner Sphere at War game. I read Interstellar Ops, got excited and asked on facebook who would be interested.
I expected none, but got 7 volunteers instead.
For the 6th player I suggested a seceded Duchy of New Syrtis, rather than a periphery power, so quickly whipped up this in photoshop, based on the map available on Catalyst.



The problem is, I'm no good at photoshop, it took too long and it will probably get all pixelated in actual game-play as systems swap back and forth.
What I needed was a map that was quickly and easily editable. One that coloured controlled hexes would be useful too, as that effects some of the gameplay. After a couple of hours goofing around, this is what I have as an initial messy attempt.
It includes the 5 inner Houses, the new Duchy of New Syrtis, and an expanded Taurian Concordat (based on their 3040 size) for the 7th player who did not fancy being the Free Rasselhague Republic sandwiched between the Lyran Commonwealth and Draconis Combine.

If a hex is completely controlled by a faction, it is coloured for that faction. Contested Hexes are light grey, empty ones dark gray.
To change ownership of a system, I just change a character in a text file.

still to do:
-Clean up the overlapping systems. By moving them. Yup moving systems is heresy, but it is a 2d map of 3d space to begin with, and gameplay wise, all that matters is what Hex a system is in.
-Add symbols to denote Capitals and Industrial worlds 




Does anyone else have suggestions of what would be useful for ISaW maps?