Merry meet, Mappers! We’re down to the style for 2016, bringing us to the Dark Realms Annual. This set is meant to stand alone, yet it also can be used in combination with two other styles in this year’s annual, Scorching sun and Realms of Legend by TJ Vandel, both of which I’ve given you basic sample maps. This wraps up the overland styles for 2016 available in this amazing annual.
I just love this one, along with the Scorching Sun. The textures are some of my favorites for overland mapping. The little bunches of woods and forests are just…..chef’s kiss adorable for me. As usual with overland mapping, I struggled….these maps tend to take me much longer than my worth in mapping sometimes, but I stick to it, to improve and get over my geographic anxiety of where and why everything goes where it goes. For my own personal use…..my players no nothing about nor do they care about where mountains are, or if the rivers flow rightly….plus I can use magic and supernatural explanations for the aberrations in geography. For a map I am putting out there on the internet for the world to see? For the River Police that once plagued, and may still, a popular cartography web page? Well, that just stresses me out. After getting over my anxiety, I just relaxed and mapped what felt right. I think it looks good, and I sure hope you do, too.
The only thing I did here was make a few adjustments in PS to the png with the contrast. I love how my maps look on my screen in CC3, but once saving them, they often change appearance, especially since I save at such high resolutions, so that my maps are still clear enough for VTT play when I size them down to the usual 20MB limit most VTTs have, sometimes I make some minor adjustments outside of this incredible program.
(Download the FCW source file of the map)
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.
