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I must say overall I am really impressed with the mapping system. The four different levels of the map allow for such a variety of campaign maps to be made, and the way the all connect together is really intuitive (for me at least). There are only a couple of things I found wrong or awkward in the text.

- In the 4.0 intro section 4th paragraph 2nd sentence "Empires that allow empires ..." um, is this supposed to be "Campaigns that allow empires ..."

- 4.2.1 4th paragraph, this paragraph about Sector Lanes in Sector Maps feels confusing an out of place, Sector Lanes have not been mentioned before so it's hard to relate them to the Galaxy Map at this point

- 4.3.1 Final example, the target system being not valid and thus creating a Sector lane does not really make sense how you got there with the rules before. The target system is greater than 40 so it's a sector lane in the example but the rules say sector lane if greater than 50

Two other things I really liked in Maps rules are the way System Maps are constructed make them really easy to visualize the system and the planet layout, and I do like the name of the next planet past Pluto, Makemake . Also I really like the descriptions of the various campaign scopes in 4.6, I think those will be really helpful for people trying to decide on the scale of their campaign.

DrakenFrye, thanks for the feedback! I fixed the spelling issues you brought up, and also went back to the Sector Maps chapter and did a complete rewrite to bring it back into line with the direction that chapter has moved during the last two weeks of writing. I think the changes (which I will post later this week) make the section much easier to follow, and actually eliminated about a column of unnecessary or redundant text.

This mapping solution is something that I think will work out pretty well. It allows us to reuse quite a few rules (jump lanes for everything, and the same classes apply to each type), and also makes it fairly intuitive to add additional levels of detail later on.

I still need to finish fleshing out the campaign scopes section that I started reorganizing based on the old text copy (a lot of that was pulled from what I had written for the previous map sections). From there I will finish the "this is how you create your maps" descriptions at the end.

I do think I have finished rationalizing how the system maps will end up working, and they will end up being essentially a duplicate of the sector map rules, except that the maximum number of "systems" on the map will be reduced (probably down to 25 from 50), and each planet will be assigned a planet number. You will then roll for jump lanes just like you would for star systems, and the non-planet locations that are assigned planet numbers will effectively serve as waypoints in the system. The final element is that any destination numbers less than 1 will connect to the primary star (making it serve a quick nav hub in the inner system), and any number greater than 25 will attach to a "jump point" in the outskirts from which ships can travel to the indicated system across the associated jump lane.

I need to do more testing on the concept to see if it will work or not, but something along those lines should end up working.

-Tyrel

At first glance the mapping system seems like a lot. It is definitely cool with different levels of detail. At first I thought that maybe this would be better as a supplement option. But then looking at it more it seems perfect for the main rules. I'm not sure about lanes for inter-system movement. I kinda liked the rules in the current Companion book where movement is from zones to individual planets. It allowed some tactical intra system movement with out too much detail. Lanes for star systems is definitely a good idea for small campaigns. I recommend both these options for VBAM2 and let the players decide which is best for them.

You've got a good point, James, that the simplified Companion system movement rules really need to be added back into the 2E rules as an optional rule. They work better for campaigns where detailed system maps are unnecessary or undesirable, but you still want to allow units to run around a bit.

I'll get that added to the rules at my next opportunity.

-Tyrel