Blue Missions: Fantastic Search for Clues

The Challenge

I am taking part in Blue Fairy 74's unofficial challenge this year. Here is the task I have been set:

Your world is still very young and I see you already have a lot of material. But what makes your world different from others?

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Your mission: Set your world apart from other worlds with your world banner and background image and liven up your primer with a world map, some pictures and a few reading recommendations to make it easier for your readers to get into your world.

See the Challenge Page here

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Subtasks

World Banner

I had always intended to use my world map banner (which I already use for the primer) for the world banner because it made logical sense, though a part of me is also contemplating designing something a little bit more snazzy! I am actually quite proud of my world map, and use it a lot during my games to explain things like distances and differences between cultures.

Background Image

My issue with this is that the resolution and size limitations tend to mess up anything that I already have, so I shall have to experiment with what looks best. As I'm no good at CSS, I will have to work with basics for now.

World Map

As I already have a world map ready to go, this one will be easy to update! The only challenge will be shrinking it to fit the size restrictions but keeping the details, as the map itself is technically sized for printing at A1! This is a holdover from my digital art, where I have to draw things at a larger scale in case prints need to be made for posters, etc. Sizing down is simple enough, but it does result in some artefacting, which is annoying. As it was requested that I include a world map in the Maps section by one of my players (literally last week) this stuff was on my To-Do List anyway!

Pictures

This one will be a little tricky, as I don't really have a lot of images that would fit a primer, per se. I have a number of character portraits, but I'm not sure those would fit... might be time to get the old drawing tablet out and brush off my rusty landscape skills!

Reading Recommendations

This part could take a while... I want my recommendations to fit with the nature of a primer, so they have to be relevant to someone new to the world. That being said, while I know what I would want to read, I think my recommendations should reflect what others want to read instead. I think perhaps a few polls are in order...

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Challenge Updates

Here is my list of Subtasks, and any notes related to them:
World Banner

• 12/01/25 - I have added the World Map Banner used for my Primer as the World Banner for now, as I'm actually quite proud of it! I may try to snazz it up later, once my other tasks are underway

Background Image

• 12/01/25 - Temporarily used one of my photos from Creswell Crags as a background, to test how they look. I'm not thrilled with the quality so will look into ways to improve that

World Map

• 12/01/25 - I have a world map, but it needs resizing! I will have to add this to my To-Do list

Pictures

• 12/01/25 - I need to figure out what kinds of pictures would suit the primer, then make a list of images that I already have, and those that I don't

Reading Recommendations

• 12/01/25 - Not sure where to start here, so will likely make some polls or ask advice in the Discord