“To me, every hour of the Day and Night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.” I wonder if Walt Whitman ever thought of battle maps when he was speaking of how perfect both night and day are? Day or Night, what better way to be prepared for battle in your game than with the Day and Night issue of the 2015 Annual?
You know, as a DM your players can just go off the rails far, far off the tracks of your diligent, carefully thought out prep material … left turns to right, good turns to bad, up to down, and sometimes day turns to night. No problem! You can easily alter any existing map of yours to accommodate the shifting shadows of night creeping in on your planned daytime encounter.
Now, I won’t even go into explaining how to do this….as I, who has been using this program for YEARS, Master Mapper me, could not figure it out at first. After reaching out to our beloved community, Sue and Remy got back to me right away … kindly pointing out my mistake, and Voila! Day became night on my map and I got set to placing light sources. For more detailed information on how to set up the lighting, I suggest the 2008 Annual with Lighted Dungeons or my go to The Tome of Ultimate Mapping, of which I simply cannot give more praise in helping with some really great beginner, intermediate and expert tips and techniques. Truly, it’s worth the purchase, in my opinion.
So, I used Mike Schley’s Dungeon style and also a few Forlorn Cottage and free monthly content symbols for this map. It’s a generic, simple end street in any village town or city that I like to keep at hand for the unexpected stops in a village or town I hadn’t fully fleshed out yet. Getting caught off guard and by surprise as a DM is not uncommon or unexpected, but having that ability to change the time of day this easily is a great tool for all game masters.
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.
Comments Off on All the Annuals: Day and Night (February 2015)
In the July Annual issue community veteran Quenten Walker revisits the Watabou Cities tool pack and style. The style referenced the Watabou online random village, town and city generator and leveraged it to create city maps in CC3+. Since its inception, the Watabou map generator has been changed and developed further. Quenten has taken it on himself to revise the style to take the changes into account and expand it to offer more tools and options.
The new style does not only contain a new bitmap fill selection, more drawing tools and more detailed instructions, it also leverages improved options of the Watabou Cities Generator to make creating cities, town, and villages randomly even easier in CC3+.
The July issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2024 yet, you can do so here.
Comments Off on July Annual Issue – Watabou Cities Revised
From the Far East we travel into the Utmost North with the latest free symbols by Mike Schley. Here are thriving settlements from walled cities and towns to single farms and huts, from which merchants and raiders may set forth on long sea journeys in their longships and knorrs to bring back the riches of the south, east and west.
To download the free content go to your registration page and on the Downloads tab, click the download button for Campaign Cartographer 3 Plus. Mike’s new symbols are the last link in the list. All the content of the current year (January to June 2024 so far) is included in the one download.
You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.
Comments Off on Free monthly symbols – Viking Settlements
Humble Bundle is offering the Maps Extravaganza Revisited bundle – a great opportunity to either start with CC3+ and/or grab several add-ons at an amazing price.
The June issue of the Cartographer’s Annual 2024 is available. It offers a fresh drawing style for Ancient Cities by new contributor CC Charon.
Mike Schley has additional free symbols for the latest set of Far Eastern Cities and Villages that expands his overland style.
Resources
Watch or re-watch the recent live mapping video from our playlist on YouTube.
May has been a busy month for many of our community member, in terms of map-making at least. So many great maps to choose from, and I can’t really pick them all. Here are just the ones that stood out to me:
Kevin Goebel used the Marine Dungeon style for this excellent lighthouse and underwater ruin.
For those of you who haven’t seen them, we do a live mapping session on YouTube most weeks, showcasing a certain style or set of tools in CC3+. Here are the latest ones:
Humble Bundle is currently re-running the first Campaign Cartographer 3+ bundle, the Maps Extravaganza, containing not only CC3+, but depending on the level chosen also:
City Designer 3
Dungeon Designer 3
Tome of Ultimate Mapping Plus
Perspectives 3
Sources Maps: Castles
Source Maps: Temples, Tombs and Catacombs
Symbol Set 2 – Fantasy Floorplans
Token Treasury – Monsters 1
Battle Maps and Floorplans Collection (contains a selection of Annual issues)
If you were waiting to jump into CC3+, this is a great opportunity to get it at an awesome price. Even if you already CC3+, this can be well worth it to get a great selection of add-ons. Part of the cost goes toward charity, Save the Children.
Did you love last month’s Far Eastern symbols by Mike Schley, but feared there was not enough variety available? Don’t worry, we have you covered with more of the same style. Sprawling castles, palaces, temples and shrines, as well as ruined town and smaller places, they are all included in the May selection of free symbols.
To download the free content go to your registration page and on the Downloads tab, click the download button for Campaign Cartographer 3 Plus. Mike’s new symbols are the last link in the list. All the content of the current year (January to May 2024 so far) is included in the one download.
You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.
Comments Off on Free monthly symbols – More Far Eastern Structures
Black and white mapping is not in my wheelhouse, to say the least. I love taking textures and layering them, creating new colors in the color palette. But, with every new adventure we learn new things and experience new options in mapping. Working with this style was pretty simple. It’s great for printing out maps at home, especially if you like to conserve ink, like I do. You can easily do a DM and Player versions in less than an hour.
For this map, I used an online generator of dungeons and simply traced out my rooms and added a little bit of flair (I just can’t resist trying to make things look “pretty”). The mapping guide is simple and even the newest of beginners can work with this style early on in their CC3+ learning journey.
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.
Comments Off on All the Annuals: OSR Dungeon (January 2015)
Let’s welcome a new contributor to the Cartographer’s Annual: C.C. Charon has been sharing wonderful maps on the Profantasy forum for a while, and we were especially intrigued by his “Sumerian City” maps. Now you can create cities in the same wonderful style, as the June Annual adds his creation as the new “Ancient Cities” drawing style to CC3+.
New symbols, bnew drawing tools and a fresh application of bitmap fills in conjunction with detailed sheet effects make up this new style. Two big example maps and a four-page mapping guide give you plenty of guidance to create your own maps in C.C. Charon’s style.
The June issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2024 yet, you can do so here.
