We are happy to announce the next compatibility update: Symbol Set 2 – Fantasy Floorplans is now available for CC3+. SS2 provides four new drawing styles for dungeon and floorplan maps, made up from over 2,500 new symbols, bitmap fills and drawing tools.

Click on the example map on the right created by Ralf Schemmann. It uses one of the new bitmap floorplan styles included in SS2 in conjunction with a few symbols from Dungeon Designer 3 to create a large-scale battle map of a river canyon. The style, created by graphic artist and designer Peter Gifford, uses highly-detailed almost photo-realistic bitmap artwork for high quality maps. Download a large-scale pdf version here.

Check out the two more pdf examples of maps drawn with the styles included in SS2:

Smuggler’s Shack (using Peter Gifford’s style exclusively)
Temple of the Fire Demon (using the second bitmap style from SS2, created by Michael Tumey).

If you already own SS2, you can simply download the setup for CC3+ from your registration page. If you do not own SS2 yet, you can get a copy here.

We are still hard at work updating all the CC3 material to CC3+. This month we have Symbol Set 1 – Fantasy Overland ready for you!

News

• CC3+ Update: The compatibility update for Symbol Set 1 – Fantasy Overland is here!
• Two new Annual issues have become available since the last newsletter: June and July.
• CC3+ Update 2 is now available, fixing some bugs and preparing CC3+ for future add-ons. Log into your registration page to download it.

Resources

• User maps of May and June
• Ralf shares two large-scale battle maps from his ongoing 13th Age campaign.

Articles

• Simon previews the new style for the Source Maps series of map collections.
• Ralf takes a look at using different way to bring your battle maps to the game table.

Our Source Maps products are packed with predesigned flooplans, cities and temples. The maps are available in cc3 format with their own viewer, or as PDF or PNG files. I’ve printed them out and used most of them over the years for my old-school D&D game and for 13th Age. However, they are are bit long in the tooth, so we’ll be updating them, starting with Source Maps: Temples! this year, in a new style and adding new maps and floorplans. Here’s a look at a recent draft of the new style, and the old style for comparison.

The current Source Maps: Temples, Tombs and Catacombs map

A close-up of the proposed new style:

We intend to released Source Map: Temples mid-June next year.

The process of converting all our products to work with CC3+ continues. This month we have Symbol Set 4 – The Dungeons of Schley available in the updated version.

News

• CC3+ Update: The compatibility update for Symbol Set 4 – The Dungeons of Schley is here!
• The next Annual issue is available: May.

Resources

• User maps of April
• Installing Campaign Cartographer on a Mac by Steven Townshend

Articles

• GamerDad reviews CC3+ together with some other electronic resources for role-playing games.
• Simon previews the new large-scale icons for CC3+ which will make the interface more suitable for very high resolution monitors.
• Ralf takes a look at the upcoming “Dracula Dossier” floorplan style.

Most of the development work we’ve been doing since release involves fixing bugs behind the scenes, many of which arise from the interaction with new versions of Windows 8. It’s not as much fun as adding new features, but we are working on those, two.

Somewhere in the middle are changes we make in response to technological advances. One such advance is the gradual introduction of super-high-resolution monitors, the most recent being 4K. On such monitors, our new 24×24 toolbar icons look a little small, so we’ve been working on 32×32 and 48×48 sizes. This will take a while, but I thought you might like to see a preview.

The May Annual issue goes back to the roots of fantasy mapping both in terms of CC3 and the maps we’ll create. Many of us fantasy mappers have originally been inspired by the maps we found in fantasy novels, from the Lord of the Rings to the Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire and so many others.

The Classic Fantasy style gives you the opportunity to draw maps those yourself, on a beautiful parchment background, so they will also make great handouts for your players. As always you can download the style from your registration page.

If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2015 yet, you can do so here.

We’ve good news for the owners of CC3+ and City Designer, our most comprehensive add-on (CD3) is now available for CC3+ users.

News

• CC3+ Update: The compatibility update for City Designer 3 is here!
• The next Annual issue is available: April.

Resources

• User maps of March
• Multipolys by Joachim de Ravenbel

Articles

• Simon celebrates the release of City Designer for CC3+ with a collection of support material for CD3.
• The second part of the CC3+ user tutorial by R A Jacob.

This is the first ProFantasy newsletter since the launch of CC3+. We’ve been very busy improving CC3+ and preparing the add-ons for their free compatibility updates. It’s a lot of work, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel… wait, looks like we are already deep within the dungeon.

Existing users: to get CC3+ at a reduced upgrade price, login to your registered users page and click the Upgrades and Offers tab.

News

• CC3+ Update: The compatibility update for Dungeon Designer 3 is here!
• The first three Annual issues for 2015 are available: January, February and March.

Resources

• The first CC3+ user tutorial is already available.
• User maps of December and January
• User maps of February
• Top-view perspective dungeon maps by Joachim de Ravenbel

Articles

• Simon Rogers gives a current Business Overview of Profantasy.
• Basic Select Techniques in CC3+ (Part 1)

We’ve been working hard on making the add-ons compatible with CC3+. It’s not straightforward, as not only maps and templates need to be updated, but interactions with our polished, updated code and the legacy code in add-on functions can cause new bugs in legacy to rear their ugly heads. It does mean that add-on code gets a polish, too. So, we are please to announce that a much faster, CC3+ compatible Dungeon Designer 3 with all-new icons is now ready.

You’ll first need to update your CC3+ to the latest version (3.66). You’ll find the update among your downloads for CC3+ on the registration page. Or if you haven’t installed CC3+ yet – perhaps you were waiting for it to work with DD3 – download the latest full setup for CC3+.

Then you can download the DD3 compatibility update for CC3+ from your registration page and install it. It will add all Dungeon Designer functionality to CC3+. Enjoy!

In addition to preparing CC3+ for DD3, the Update 1 fixes some additional bugs that came up during the early adopter phase and adds some additional resources. Here is the list:

CC3+ Version 3.66

• added CC3 Overland Hex style
• added Text drawing tools to Mike Schley Overland style
• added “Open Autosave File” option to the File menu
• includes preparation for DD3 integration
• updated tutorial maps with current effect settings
• Insert File fixed to recognise @ path
• Symbol Manager display fixed to show all Symbols
• Control points fixed to work in CC3+
• Templates fixed to correctly swap fill style resolutions
• restored drawing dialogs to the Draw Menu: Path, Polygon, Circle, Arc, Lines, Offset
• fixed some DPI scaling issues in the Symbol Manager