I've tried starting on a novel, but I find I'm much more suited to short stories. They can pack just as much punch as long as you choose your words and scenes carefully, and are overall less stressful in the long run imo. No long term commitment for the most part. In half a month you can have a nice polished story that's enjoyable to read, and also a bit of fun to write. But that's off topic.
I like your maps a whole lot. They look like fun. Also I apologize for not making that mug. I really had meant to, but got caught up in stupid college applications. Apparently trying to apply for college in a different state is a massive pain.
can't really complain about whether a post is off-topic or not in times like these. unless Blue Leafeon minds, in which case we can stop
you make a good point, but the thing with short stories is simply that you can't do as much. Not enough time to build up a world or large cast of characters or like and combine a lot of ideas that really impress over time. I mean, if you look at some of the most popular book series... well, tbh I don't know a lot as I'm not really a reader, but Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Game of Thrones come to mind and to my knowledge they all have a fair number of books. It's as simple as "more words = more development and more events = more interesting over a long-time". Yeah, short-stories can pack a lot of punch in a similar way as to how a 1.5 hour movie can be great compared to a 25-episode series that essentially lasts 6 hours, but sometimes they just don't work.
You probably know this though, I guess I'm just saying that while short stories will work for some purposes, they don't really work for mine because of the higher level of ambition, so there's not much choice there, haha. I'm glad they work for you though and I think ti's definitely worth keeping in mind as short stories can also be very beneficial in other regards (if you're one to start stories a lot but not finish them, maybe actually finishing a story, even if it's a short one, could help work on the end-parts of your story-writing... and well, finishing it in the first place, haha).