Check out last month’s live mapping video’s on our YouTube channel
Join us each Thursday evening at 6pm CET for an hour of unfiltered live mapping!
Here I am back in Germany from GenCon, finally over the jetlag, looking back at my first transatlantic journey in three years, and trying to think of how to describe the trip.
It’s strange, in most ways it was totally the same as other GenCons (take a look at my detailed description from 2016), but on the other hand it was new and exciting, as I was finally able to meet so many friends again. Seeing them in person is so much different from just communicating vial email, phone and video.
Travel to and from the show was mostly painless. I missed a connecting flight on the way to Indy, but got on the next easily and arrived just a little later than planned on Tuesday evening. Wearing a mask all four days was a bit annoying (if of course warranted), but discipline was high, and everyone I know and know of managed to avoid getting Covid at the show, so I count that as a clear win.
It was a bit quieter than usually, with only about 50,000 visitors as opposed to around 70,000 before the pandemic, but still lively enough and the vibes were good. Everybody was just happy to be back at the show.
Downtown Indianapolis has definitely suffered a bit in the last two years, with several restaurants going out of business and other springing up in their place. I did miss the Rockbottom Brewers, as it had been my favorite haunt on recent visits, but we found another great place to eat: Nada’s a Mexican place with excellent salsas and tacos.
As usual I didn’t get to game much at the show, but managed to sneak in a session of “The Thing” with Canadian friends on Saturday evening. It’s an excellent adaptation of the 80s John Carpenter movie and we had great fun with it, though us humans lost and brought the alien thing out of Antarctica to take over the world.
If you want to see my personal gallery of pictures with lots of miniature and game pictures, you can find it here.
Dear map-makers! Freshly back from GenCon and safely over the jet lag, I’ve now had time to check out all the community-made maps of July. You’ve been really busy, haven’t you!? Here’s just a small and pretty random selection of maps that caught my eye. Sorry to all the others I missed!
I chose two maps by EucalyptusNow, because I couldn’t decide which I liked better, the Oasis Town of Dekunu or Pamberton on Twynne.
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The third month (August 2022) of year two of the monthly free material includes symbols for a town or village marketplace with a variety of market stalls which can be combined with different types of merchandise, a large market tent, a speaker’s platform and a pillory.
Note that the example maps included with the free content make use of Symbol Set 4 to showcase the symbols in proper surroundings. If you don’t have SS4 installed, you won’t see these correctly, but you can still use the symbols on other maps. Symbol Set 4 – Dungeons of Schley is available for purchase here.
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 year two up to and including August 2022 is included in the one download.
You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.
The August issue of the Cartographer’s Annual has just been released. Sue Daniel returns to her Creepy Crypts with new symbols for her beautiful dungeon floorplan style. They mesh seamlessly with the Dungeon Designer 3 style, so it can be used to extend our big dungeon add-on even further. If you don’t own DD3, you can still use the style fully, you might just notice a few missing bitmap fills if you are going through the fill styles of the templates.
As the name implies, the Creepy Crypts focuses on tombs, graves and burial sites, with the second part adding more symbols for containers, statuary, skeletons and lots of other material.
The August issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2022 yet, you can do so here.
Most of you have heard about macros. If you are an existing CC3+ user you’ve used them, knowingly or not, and you might even have written your own. For some people, the word macro may sound a little scary because it is associated with programming, but they’re really not that complicated.
Macros are used in a lot of places in the program. For example, when you start a new map or load an existing map, CC3+ uses a macro (stored in the OnNewMacro/OnOpenMacro map notes) to show you the appropriate toolbars and load the filters needed for the style of the map. A lot of the drawing tools uses macros to accomplish the more complex stuff, for example the forest drawing tools use a macro to call the commands to fill the area with trees, or the fields drawing tools in several styles use a macro to align the fields to the first edge of the polygon (These macros are stored with the drawing tools).
Lastly, CC3+ also has a macro file that contains named macros. These are often called from the toolbar buttons and menu elements in the program, so editing this file may change how the program behave.
And then we have script files….
The second month (July 2022) of year two of the monthly free material includes symbols for a smith’s workshop with forge, anvil, tools, and supplies for a classic village smithy floorplan.
Note that the example maps included with the free content make use of Symbol Set 4 to showcase the symbols in proper surroundings. If you don’t have SS4 installed, you won’t see these correctly, but you can still use the symbols on other maps. Symbol Set 4 – Dungeons of Schley is available for purchase here.
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 year two up to and including July 2022 is included in the one download.
You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.
Dear map-makers! Welcome to the July newsletter and our look at what the last month had in store.
News
- The July issue of the Annual 2022 is available, providing a style and toolset for complex coastlines and island groups. It was inspired by Ralf’s recent trip to the Outer Hebrides.
- Visit the ProFantasy booth (#423) at GenCon Indy in early August.
Resources
- The next batch of free monthly symbols by Mike Schley is available. We are switching from overland symbols to dungeon/battlemap symbols for a while with this set.
- Watch or re-watch last month’s live mapping videos from our playlist on YouTube.
- Check out the community’s Maps of the Month for June to get inspired for your own map projects by the work of your fellow map-makers.
Articles
- Remy presents the bookmark function of CC3+ and how to utilize it for organizing your maps.
Reminders
- CC3+ has been updated to version 3.98 (Update 28) which is available from your registration page.
- Fractal Terrains 3+ has been released and is available from among your FT3 downloads on your registration page.
- Join our community of map-makers on the Profantasy forum and/or the Facebook group.
The first game convention (for us) since 2019 is getting closer … GenCon Indy is happening early next month (August 4th to 7th). We are excited to finally go out and meet many gamers again!
Here is the exhibitors’ hall map with our booth marked. As usual we are sharing the booth with our sister company Pelgrane press. We hope to see you there!
After a little break from our YouTube videos for an early summer holiday, we’re back with live mapping session. These are the most recent ones:
Join us each Thursday evening at 6pm CET for an hour of unfiltered live mapping!
