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Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to A cartographer's attempt to realistically map Tolkien's world

Use the interactive map to explore the Silk Roads, discover new routes, learn what resources and goods are traded, and find an outpost or town to dive into.

This project presents a detailed cartographic recreation of J.R.R. Tolkien's fictional world, attempting to map Middle-earth and related lands with geographic realism. It is designed for Tolkien enthusiasts, fantasy… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes.

  1. 1

    An interactive map of Tolkien’s Middle-earth, with events from across the legendarium plotted as markers. I have been commuting a fair bit between the East and West coast, and thanks to American Airlines' free onboard WiFi, I was able to vibe-code a full interactive map of Middle-earth right from my economy seat at the back of the bus. It's rather amazing how much an LLM knows about Tolkien's work, and it was fun to delve into many of the nooks and crannies of Tolkien's lore. Some features: - Plot on the map the journey of the main characters in both The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. -…

    Apr 2026 · middle-earth-interactive-map.web.app · its alternatives →

  2. 2GF
  3. 3IE
  4. 4

    Open-source dotted maps and 3D globes for designers

    22d ago · globestudio.app · its alternatives →

  5. 5

    Interactive Game of Thrones map

    2016 · quartermaester.info · its alternatives →

  6. 6
    MapScroll▲109

    Hi HN, I built this after getting frustrated trying to map out things like “Ancient mayan ruins” or “James Bond movie locations” on Google "My" Maps. You basically have to drop pins manually, hunt down photos, copy links, it’s slow and never feels like an actual story. With MapScroll, you just type something like “Marco Polo’s route” or “forgotten WWII sites in France”, and it geocodes, grabs images + articles, and plots everything into a shareable story map. Each marker comes with a little gallery and sources tied to your prompt. You can also refine the first draft which AI creates before…

    2025 · mapscroll.ai · its alternatives →

  7. 7

    Now we only need turn-by-turn directions on the Kings Road.

    2015 · etsy.com · its alternatives →

  8. 8

    Procedurally generated maps for the next adventure 👑 ⚔️🛡🏹 💎

    2017 · watabou.itch.io · its alternatives →

  9. 9

    map33.js is a JavaScript library to build 3D maps. Made by Openbloc with three.js.

    2020 · map33.openbloc.com · its alternatives →

  10. 10

    This is a D&D map making tool I've been working on for a while now, but I just added some new features to the beta that I think HN users might find neat. When building a world map, you can use "Dynamic Brushes" to draw organic looking terrain. This is achieved entirely with svg filters and javascript canvas, no fancy libraries or anything. This came with a pretty large rewrite of some of the underlying code, so I'm sure there's a number of bugs I haven't come across, but I'd love to hear your opinions on it!

    2023 · dungeonmapdoodler.com · its alternatives →

  11. 11

    A design platform for radically custom maps

    2014 · mapbox.com · its alternatives →

  12. 12

    Essays on the creation of worlds, from geology to politics

    2016 · amazon.com · its alternatives →

  13. 13TI

    Inspired by The Infinite Conversation (https://infiniteconversation.com/), I built a site where J.R.R. Tolkien endlessly describes the landscapes of Middle-earth — trees, hills, rivers, ruins, dawns — one scene at a time, forever. If you've read Tolkien, you know the man could spend an entire page describing a single tree. My friends and I always joked about it. When I saw the concept of an infinite AI conversation, the connection was immediate: what if Tolkien never stopped describing things? It's a satirical/art project, not a serious product. The voice cloning is…

    Apr 2026 · infinitetolkien.com · its alternatives →

  14. 14

    3D geographic visualization library. Contribute to w3reality/three-geo development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

  15. 15

    Wood carving of the map from Ocarina of Time

    2015 · neutralgroundshop.com · its alternatives →

  16. 16

    Free to use drawing tool for creating RPG maps

    2020 · dungeonmapdoodler.com · its alternatives →

  17. 17
    Globe 3D▲151

    Convert your design into an interactive 3D globe

    2021 · globe-3d.vercel.app · its alternatives →

  18. 18

    Hi HN I’ve been working on Super Map World, a creative mapping platform and just launched a new animation feature. Try it: https://supermap.world/tools/map-animation What it does: The feature lets you animate maps directly in your browser with a few clicks. You can animate routes, regions, or just simply see a globe in your chosen style rotate from point to point. It’s designed for people who want to make short visuals e.g. social clips, or storytelling maps without needing to figure out GIS tools. Under the hood: Everything runs client-side. I'm using d3.js to render the…

    2023 · supermap.world · its alternatives →

  19. 19

    Design beautifully colored maps from all around the world.

    2018 · its alternatives →

  20. 20

    Explore Google Maps’ 3D imagery of the Himalayas as Verne

    2016 · experiments.withgoogle.com · its alternatives →

  21. 21MM

    Do you guys remember that magical map from that Harry Potter movie? That thingy a couple of guys at Dropbox made during their hackathon? We took it to the next level...

    2012 · discovercircle.com · its alternatives →

  22. 22

    The iOS game where you get to explore the world!

    2017 · its alternatives →

  23. 23

    Hey HN, jvaclavik here from OpenClimbing team! We are thrilled to release version 2.0 of our fully opensource/opendata climbing guide. Based on OpenStreetMap for map-data and Wikimedia Commons for images, we created a (hopefully) user-friendly app which completely uses these open databases, thus contributing data back to commons. We designed a simple and powerful notation for drawing climbing routes directly over the Wikimedia pictures: - https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:wikimedia_commons:pa... Check out the release article for a ton of new features, or go…

    2014 · openstreetmap.org · its alternatives →

  24. 24
    GeoKone▲77

    A web application for drawing awesome geometric shapes

    2017 · its alternatives →

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Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →