So, what to do with an annual such as this? Well, I’ll tell you. First off, this is my annual 😊 I was asked to do this annual last year and it was a lot of fun putting this together for an adventure. But…what if you don’t have a Lich King in your adventure? What if the big bad in your campaign is an evil wizard? Here’s how you can easily change up an existing .fcw for your own needs. It’s pretty simple.
So, first off, I want to get rid of the dark feel to the regional map. This is a big reason I often us the varicolored symbols in a CC3 map. This way, you can select the symbols you want and change the color of those symbols, which will completely change the feel of your map. I’ve done this with the mountains, trees and hills. I’ve also changed the Hue/Sat of my fills to lighten them up some.
You can also replace symbols. In the case of the regional map, I’ve replaced the dead trees with regular varicolored trees, again to give the map a lighter feel. A name change here, a font color change there and viola! A whole new looking map for a completely different kind of campaign.
For the tower I changed the fills and decided for a “cold” feel to the Blue Wizard. So all the dirt fills were changed to greys and snowy fills. Again, the varicolored symbol’s color were changed to reflect the blue theme I was going for. Again, a few easy changes, and a whole new looking map.
For the Maze I had to put a little effort in. Aside from the fill changes, I wanted to fill this maze with mushrooms, so they all had to be placed. I made a couple of symbol changes and there you have the Mushroom Maze.
Lastly, the Vault. I used the Symbol Manager to replace all the symbols on the walls – this map uses the Dungeon Walls annual technique and you can easily swap out one style for one of the other 3 provided with the annual using Replace in the Symbol Manager as I did on previous maps. Once more, sticking with a blue, cold theme I made a few simple changes to change the feel of this map, too.
And there you have it….Four entirely sort of new maps 😊
About the author: Lorelei was my very first D&D character I created more years back than i’d like to remember. When I decided to venture into creating maps for my and others rpgs, I thought I owed it to her to name myself Lorelei Cartography, since it was her that led me to the wonderful world of tabletop gaming in the first place. Since then I have been honored to have worked with companies such as WizKids, Pelgrane Press, and ProFantasy.
Those are beautiful maps Christina.
I love your All the Annuals articles, even if I don’t usually comment.
I did wonder what you were going to do when I saw that this annual was probably the next on your list.
You’ve effectively ggiven us a bonus annual issue!