[iframe_loader width=100% height=650  frameborder = 0 marginheight=0  marginwidth=0 scrolling=no   src=http://www.profantasy.com/poll/sourcemaps.asp ]

News

• If you are a Fractal Terrains 3 user, an update is already available. Log in to get it.
• The Fractal Terrains 3 upgrade price of $9.95 / £7.50 will be increased on 1st November – log in and get it while you can!
• We’ve announced a new recipient of the Master Mapper award.
• We’ve launched Fractal Terrains 3
• Here is an update on Symbol Set 3 Modern Symbols for version CC3

Articles

• Tips for the busy GM – using Source Maps in your campaign
• Creating a Fractal Terrains world with Terraformer – Part 1
• Creating a Fractal Terrains world with Terraformer – Part 2
• Read this excellent tutorial on creating a map with Fractal Terrains, Wilbur and Photoshop.

Symbol Set 3: Modern includes 50 templates and 1100 symbols for overland floorplans. For the CC3 version, we wanted to make sure an upgrade is worthwhile, so we are adding three new floorplan styles and another overland style.

CC3 allows us to use raster (paint style art), so two of those new styles will be raster-based; the third will be traditional modern-looking vector CAD symbols, to create blueprint style artwork.

Jonathan Roberts is putting the finishing touches on his style which is detailed and grimy but not photorealistic. Michael Tumey’s is clean, bright and more suburban.

In 1998 we instituted the coveted Master Mapper award for excellence in cartography. You can see the hall of fame here. One Master Mapper is a full time freelancer and ProFantasy mainstay – Ralf Schemmann; L Lee Saunders creates amazing add-ons, and other Master Mappers still contribute to the community.

We are reinstating the Master Mapper award. There is a backlog of worthy candidates, so expect to see us making up for lost time with a few select awards. This brings me to our Master Mapper, best known to the ProFantasy community as Joachim de Ravenbel, a name Jean-Michel Bravo took on a whim for RPG-related posts.

Jean-Michel is unusual even amongst Master Mappers for the breadth of his talent. He creates maps, writes macros, develops map-making techniques, supports the forum community, and has even programmed an XP – the CC3 name for add-ons.

Continue reading »

There is a podcast interview with Ralf here with GMS Magazine – 14:00 in. They discuss using CC3 to create the Dragon Rage boardgame map (articles here), Dioramas, Fractal Terrains 3 and the Annuals. He also mentions the Tome – and Remy Monsen is working on a new version of that for our updated software.

Fractal Terrains 3, the latest version of our world-building software is out now. It is even more robust, features an improved interface, increased speed and more export features.

FT3 is designed to create entire worlds from scratch, starting with a flat sphere or real world data, but it’s with its random world creation that FT3 comes into its own. You can change colour, lighting and random settings, and choose physical parameters such as the size of your world, then just scan through the effectively infinite possibilities until you get one you like.

My main use for Fractal Terrains, aside from creating entire worlds for Ashen Stars, is to pick out islands, with rivers, to import into my own campaign world. It really does feel like your are exploring when you seek out the perfect world or landmass, though of course you can use the editing tools to shave off continents, flatten mountains and fill in depressions. The most megalomaniac-friendly command though, is Planetary Bombartment – the ability to crater your world with asteroids.

October 2011: Treasure Maps

We’ve just released the October Annual for subscribers to download: A beautiful map style inspired by classic fiction treasure maps. It allows users to easily create handouts for their game and set their players on the trail of that elusive treasure hoard.

September 2011: Military Operations

Due to after-GenCon demands and vacation times, we didn’t get around to posting about the September Annual when it was released. Here is sneak peek at the military operations type maps that can be created with its included style.

Our users are a discerning bunch, so we thought we’d seek your input on a new front page.

(If you comment, bear in mind that the designs are displayed randomly.  We know which one you’ve voted for, but you’ll need to describe any others.)

[iframe_loader width=100% height=650  frameborder = 0 marginheight=0  marginwidth=0 scrolling=no   src=http://www.profantasy.com/contest/intro.asp ]

The RPG maps blog has been going for over a year now, and while some articles were topical, most have long term value, so here is a summary of those articles with links. Also, if you want to try your hand at some CC3 programming and scripting, check out the development blog.

General Map Making Advice

• A Rough Guide To Castle Design – Part 1,Part 2, Part 3 by Jon Roberts
• Mapping Cities Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 by Steve Davies
• Campaign Cartographer, the Writer / Designer’s Friend (Part 1), Part 2, Part 3 by Robin D Laws
• Using CC3 and City Designer for a board game by Eric Hanuise
• Video Tutorials for Cosmographer 3
• Using ProFantasy’s Software with RPTools MapTools

Example Maps

Overland

• Pete Fenlon Style Maps
• The Shadow World
• Hex Maps with the Annual and Cosmographer
• Raisz-style Landform Maps
• Classic German adventure maps redone
• The World of Torn
• Erdan Annual Map
• Photoshop Brushes and Robert Altbauer Style

Floorplans

• 1930s Baedeker-Style Floorplan
• October Annual – Complex Castle Walls
• June Annual – Jon Roberts’ Dungeons

Dioramas

• Dioramas: Paper Ships
• Paper Modeling – South of the Border
• Mine Diorama

Science Fiction

• T5 in Cosmographer – Customizable deckplans
• Cosmographer 3 – Free Starship Deckplans
• Ashen Stars with Cosmographer 3
• There are four types of SF planets (Terraformer and Fractal Terrains 3)
• Hex Maps with the Annual and Cosmographer
• Cosmographer Deckplans by Scrying Eye

Historical Maps

• Albion Map
• Battlefield Maps
• 1930s style floorplans
• Massachusetts Treasure Map

ProFantasy Software

• Using ProFantasy Art without ProFantasy’s Software
• Publishing and CC3
• Registration and Product Downloads
• Our guarantees
• Perspectives 3 Proof of Concept Video
• ProFantasy Gift Vouchers
• Review of CC3
• Reasons to Upgrade

Development

• Random City Generator
• Looking under the hood of the .FCW file format

by Avotas

Eight months ago I took the digital plunge into a brave new world called “YouTube” and released my very first video tutorial explaining the how to integrate maps created in CC3 and DD3 into RPTools MapTools. Since that time, and after careful reflection, I have come to the determination that the video really does look like something someone does for a first project.  Still the advice is sound, and I wish to expand on concept.

In the video I used a PNG, which is a lossless compressed format, but not the best tool for streaming images across the internet. For that you should use JPEG.

Now we are talking about JPEG, if your file sizes are still too large (and I mean over 150K) export your image without a background. You will see an instant reduction in the file size as the computer discards all of that white space in the compression.

Use tiles! Wait not, not the stuff in the bathroom, well, kinda .. ok it’s close. If you want to sacrifice a little artistic direction, you can make tiles by photographing common materials (such as floorboards, walls, doors, furniture, etc) and build your own dungeon like you would assemble a puzzle. This will require a photo editing program such as Photoshop, or Paint .Net, but when you’re done you end up with a dozen tiny files that are repeated to make up a larger picture. The theory is sense these images are duplicated, the user only has to download a three 64×64 squares instead of a 4000×4000 image to cover the same ballroom floor. MapTools allow snapping, for ease of building, along with rotation tools to spin the images and scale tools to change the size.