Welcome dear cartographers to another instance of the Maps of the Month post. We’ve got another selection of gorgeous commmunity maps for you, posted during April on the Profantasy forum or the CC3+ Facebook group. Enjoy, and thanks to everybody out there sharing their maps, whether they are featured or not!
Jacob Hicks’ drew his Twin’s Crossing map with the Ferraris style by Sue Daniel, plus some modifications of his own and a few other bits and pieces.
Continue reading »
This month’s annual, by fellow mapper Jon C. Munson II, was meant to be used alone or in conjunction with Symbol Set 4. I decided to map out a small abandoned mine using only the symbols provided in the annual, since I realize not everyone has Symbol Set 4 available to them.
This map is pretty basic, with no special bells or whistles. Though I can be known for using some original, creative techniques with this program, I wanted to showcase some maps with those tricks and others with nothing but the basics, I’ve done this for the average mapper, to show that you can still produce quality maps for your gaming needs and not need the skill that some of the Master Mappers and longtime, proficient users out there.
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.
The May issue of the Annual 2021 is now available. Dive into more sinister styles of overland mapping with Sue Daniel’s new Darklands drawing style.
More than 150 new symbols, beautiful bitmap textures and a 5-page mapping guide let you design your own darker fantasy maps. Sue’s detailed and beautiful sheet effects make sure everything comes together as one good-looking package.
The May issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2021 yet, you can do so here.
In our weekly live mapping series on YouTube I’ve recently begun to revisit the first styles that I created for the Cartographer’s Annual back in 2007. Sue Daniel was inspired to use these herself for some example maps, and as you’d expect the resulting maps are gorgeous pieces of art. See for yourself!
Mercator Historical
The very first Annual issue took the maps of perhaps the most famous cartographer of history as inspiration for some large-scale overland mapping. You can see me using it here.
Here is the map Sue came up with using the default Mercator style.
.JPG)
(Download the FCW file)
Not satisfied with the looks, she expanded on the style with colours and effects to produce this beautiful variant.
.JPG)
(Download the FCW file)
If you want to recreate Sue’s version, you can take a look at her sheets to see the effects she implemented, and you’ll need this little symbol catalog for the decorations on the map border.
John Speed City
The second Annual style was inspired by another historical cartographer: John Speed. The live video showing its use is here.
Sue used the John Speed City style to create a map of the early modern town of Dorchester.
(Download the FCW file)
Again, there is a symbol catalog with the extra material that Sue created for the map.
Dear mappers, the first quarter of the year has flown past and although it is unlikely we’ll see each other at conventions this year, the signs are there that the pandemic will loosen its grip on the world in the coming months. We are certainly looking forward to be travelling again, and to be sharing the maps we create virtually with our gaming groups in person. But until then we can still be content to share them virtually, as so many of our users do in the Profantasy community forum and the Facebook group. You’ll find a sample selection of these below, along with the latest Annual issue, example maps by Christina Trani, a superbly useful article by Remy and the latest live videos.
News
Resources
Articles
Every week we do a live mapping session on YouTube, showcasing a certain style or set of tools in CC3+. Here are the most recent Live Mapping videos, as archived on YouTube:
It is time again for me to look though the many wonderful maps the Profantasy user community shared last month. It is quite a difficult task sorting through all the posts on the community forum and the Facebook group, trying to decide which to highlight, but it is anything but a chore. Such a joy to see all that creativity. I hope you like the few I can show off here and take a look through all the rest yourself!
Community regular Quenten Walker created this map of a Ruined Crypt and used the Token Treasury to highlight some of the monster found within. I really love the creature images by Rich Longmore and am excited to see them used like this.
Continue reading »
The April issue of the Cartographer’s Annual 2021 revisits and reworks an old classic, the Sailing Ships issue from 2009, making it into a full-fledged drawing style called “Ship Deckplans”.
Draw your own war galleys, longships, merchant traders or gun-bristling warships of the age of sail. The issue contains two example ships, a viking longship and a small merchant vessel, as well as a full mapping guide taking you through the creation of a ship deckplan.
The April issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2021 yet, you can do so here.
This was a fun map that I put together in a couple of hours, and honestly most of my time was spent on names thanks to the Mapping Guide [HighSpace Galaxy].
(Download the FCW file)
I basically followed along Ralf’s guide and made a few personal touches here and there with some color changes. But otherwise I’ve done nothing special and this map came out pretty good, I think. This month’s edition couldn’t be any more user friendly for anyone looking to put together a map for sci-fi based game.
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.
For the Wild West Annual I decided to try something a little different and include a horizon within the map. I’ve done this before on a map I contributed to the Community Atlas, and I loved how it looked that I thought I’d do it again. Once I saw the lovely blue faded bitmap fill used for the water, it reminded me of the tinges of orange you can see in a sunsetting sky and knew I had to use it for this purpose. After some trial and error with glow effects on my Sky sheet and adding another sheet for the sun’s own glow, I got the look of the horizon and of the setting sun I was hoping to achieve and then just began mapping from there.
(Download the FCW file)
The cliff symbols inspired me to create a large river akin to the Colorado River in the U.S., so I just placed them to layout the path of my river and finished the opposite banks off with some hill symbols on a polygon fill on it’s own sheet over the river sheet.
After adding a few of my favorite effects on the Whole Drawing option in the Drawing Sheets and Effects tab, such as adding a Blend Mode (Multiply) and Texturize (I’ve used the Concrete fill in the Filters folder) I added a map key to the side and used a favorite addition I picked up from our very own Shessar on the forums, is to add a symbol within the Map Key for a little extra flair. I’ve added a 50% transparency to Key symbol’s sheet to give the symbol a bit of subtlety.
This is a great style and really inspires me to play a Deadwood themed one-shot. Anyone else?
