For my own ongoing Deadlands Reloaded campaign, I’ve created this battle map of a run-down home out in the Weird West. It’s based on the DD3 Battle Map template from the Annual Vol 2 and uses textures and symbols from DD3, Symbol Set 2 and the CSUAC. The roof texture on the upper level is from City Designer 3.

Click on the images below to load the full-size A3 pdfs.

You can download the CC3+ version of the maps (FCW format) here, but be aware that you need all the afore-mentioned products to view them properly in CC3+.

Prince George BC
October 20-21

NPC-Con 2012 is the 3rd gaming convention we have held here in Prince George with a focus on table top gaming. Primarily for Role Playing Games and Board games. This year, we also added two new features to our Con relevant to gaming: tabletop war gaming and Fantasy Map Making. The Map Making addition took the form of a how-to tutorial on how to use Campaign Cartographer 3 done by Dominic (Nick) Pelletier, known on the Profantasy Forum by the user name ‘bearclaw’.

Nick used many of his own map works as examples of how to do many of the basic functions such as adding landmasses, rivers etc. to an overland map; snaps and connecting tools on a dungeon map; sheets and effects; zooming tools; symbols; and how to edit entities. Time limits made it so that he was unable to demonstrate how to use layers, manual drawing tools or printing of maps.

The mapping session was well attended with several of the attendees saying that they came to the Con specifically for the tutorial on how to use Campaign Cartographer 3. All in all, the session went for just under two hours.

All of us at NPC-Con want to extend an extra special thank you to Profantasy for providing three door prizes for our mapping tutorial. The attendees were eager for these prizes and they made a wonderful addition to the Con. Next year, we fully plan on adding more mapping events to our con and are very thankful to Profantasy for supporting our small northern gaming Con.

By Dominic (Nick) Pelletier

Now that I’m safely back home, had a good night’s sleep (or two) and have sorted out all the boxes and stuff I brought back, I’m happy to report that it was another good year for ProFantasy at SPIEL. Games were played (few by me), fun was had (lots by me) and software was sold (by my stalwart helpers Gordon and Michael was well as me).

Spiel remains the huge affair that is has been with well over a 100,000 visitors (if not beyond 150,000). I’m sure they be announcing a new visitor record shortly. I get to see the usual mix of familiar faces and new people. It’s fun to hear “I wish this had been around when I was a GM!” from 30ish people. I can heartily assure them that our software WAS around when they were GMing.

We keep getting very good feedback from people using the software. One customer specifically congratulated us on the “excellent work with Symbol Set 3”. I am happy that the Annual Vol 5 was very popular (we almost sold out). Having a Jon Roberts Style map on the wall was one of the major drawing points and quite a few people took an Annual Vol 5 together with their CC3 purchase. Interestingly the popularity of DD3 and CD3 switched from last year, where City Designer was more popular. This time it was Dungeon Designer – perhaps in part because I had the big “Tendrils Oak Inn” poster not back on the wall, but lying on the table as a main display.

We did sell some fewer core programs this year, but made up for it with more add-ons. Dioramas was more popular than usual, which have to do with me having the Dungeon Diorama from the January Annual on the table. SS3 Modern didn’t do quite as well as I had hoped because interest in modern settings seemed generally lower (fewer Shadowrun players than usual). In contrast, we did get several inquiries about Steampunk artwork – a genre that is apparently still on the rise. Some customers purchased the new Tome, but generally customer at the booth prefer a hard copy to a download only which I can’t put into their hands immediately (same as the current Annual subscription). Both are much more popular in our web store in comparison. We sold two of our posters (the Kuslik city and the Tendril’s Oak Inn) on Sunday to a very keen customer (he kept coming back and asking me for my display posters).

Demoing was mostly confined to CC3, DD3 and CD3 (more DD3 interest this time), with some Fractal Terrains, Dioramas and Cosmographer thrown in. While I switched to the Annual styles (e.g. the Jon Roberts style) a few times for demoing, the CC3 default Structures catalog is always good for a “Wow, that is VERY nice!” comment.

I was especially impressed with a perhaps 6 years old boy who created the map on the right. I demoed Cosmo 3 for his (much) older brother and he insisted on giving it a try as well. I gave him some pointers for the first few steps, then left him alone for 10 minutes or so. When I came back he had created this. I didn’t touch CC3 myself for this at all, except for exporting the map.

Overall I still think that the rpg part of Essen is slowly shrinking. The rpg hall (Hall 6) was definitely a bit smaller than last year (again), although most of that seemed to have been due to less LARP booths – the usual suspects of German rpg publishers and vendors were still there. Miniatures are also still strong, but a lot of “utility stuff” is creeping in, like card protectors for magic cards, carrying cases for miniatures and so on. Sunday had some rather quiet stretches, and the last hour before closing time is slow every day. I’d prefer a closing time of 6pm instead of 7pm (like at GenCon).

This year – due to it being school holidays – general attendance was high throughout, with a significant drop only in Sunday. Saturday of course remains the busiest day. This mostly affects the larger boardgame halls. While it was busier on Saturday in our hall too, we never had the kind of press that you get in the bigger halls. There are rumors that at least some of the halls will be torn down and rebuilt over the winter, but I’m not sure how much truth there is to this. It would certainly be nice for Hall 6, as it is getting a bit scruffy – and it is also rather dark compared to the other halls. And it would certainly benefit from easier access. Currently you have to walk quite a long way from the main entrance to get to the rpg hall.

I had Gordon at the booth to help me from Thursday to Saturday and Michael on Saturday and Sunday (giving me two helpers for the busiest day). They were invaluable as always. Apart from some strange problem of my usual adhesives not working on the booth walls anymore, setup and take down was smooth as always. If the Autobahn hadn’t been closed on my way home I’d have been home early.

I’m looking forward to next year’s SPIEL. See you there, boardgamers of the world.

Six years ago we began the Cartographer’s Annual, a monthly series of style, maps, and other cartogrpahic contents for CC3 and we thought it was about time for a little retrospective. The Annual has brought an immense wealth of style options to the ProFantasy community and we have been thrilled by all the beautiful maps our users have created. What better way than to highlight the the full scope of the Annuals than with some of these works of art?

2007 – Volume 1

When we set out with the new concept of a subscription for Campaign Cartographer 3 users, we were really feeling our way around for what content was most popular. It quickly became apparent that new overland styles were the most popular type of Annual entry – but far from being the only thing people were looking for. We decided to strike a balance between generally popular topics like overland styles and more specific ones as seen in the “Parchment & Paper” June issue of 2007. The inaugural issue – the Mercator Historical style as shown on the right – represents the type of popular overland style that we strive to include in every volume of the Annual. The depicted map is by forum user Rogdor and was posted as a work-in-progress on the ProFantasy forum in March 2010, and there is another complete one here.

Another very popular and beautiful style from the first Annual is the John Speed City style, a black and white style emulating the city maps of famed British cartographer John Speed. Take a look at the map created by community member Modric.

Other highlights of the Annual 2007 include the multi-level floorplan of the “Tendril’s Oak Inn” complete with description and adventure ideas, an overland style based on the artwork of Sarah Wroot ( a user map here), and a tutorial on how to create your own drawing styles from scratch.

2008 – Volume 2

We received very positive feedback on the Annual 2007 – users were enthusiastic – which made the decision to continue the subscription model an easy one. And we were able to start the second year with a real bang as we got permission from one of the rpg industry’s cartography legends to emulate him: Pete Fenlon of Middle-earth roleplaying fame allowed us to recreate the style he used for those beautiful maps of Middle-earth.

The map here was created in the Pete Fenlon style (again by Modric) just recently, proving that the old style from the early days of the Annual are still used to great effect.

As a second overland style for 2008 we produced a black and white vector style which also proved very popular. So popular in fact, that we added a simiular – but distinct – b&w style to Campaign Cartographer 3 as a free download.

The sample map on the left shows ever-prolific Modric using the style with a parchment filter to create a beautiful in-game artifact.

As a special highlight the 2008 Annual saw the first video tutorials for CC3 produced by Joseph Sweeney. His videos have become a staple of introducing new users to CC3 and by now he has created a whole range of them for various products and add-ons.

2009 – Volume 3

2009 started with a style created by Master Mapper Allyn Bowker. The Fantasy Realms style captures the look used in some Forgotten Realms maps and still produces pangs of sweet nostalgia in many people who see it. Originally the style was produced for CC2, but the lack of drawing tool functionality made it hard to use by anyone a little less meticulous (and may I say “brilliant”) than Allyn. CC3 allowed Allyn to make the look easier to use  and, with sheet effects, more attractive. Here you can see forum user Henrie61 applying the style to a custom world.

The 2009 Annual also saw another artist contributing his first style to the subscription: Pär Lindström. His beautiful world map caught our eye and although he did not use CC3 at the time, we came up with a way to transfer bitmap-based art into a CC3 drawing style. The artist supplies us with layered Photoshop files of his work and we extract the symbols and textures and convert them to assets in CC3.

The Fantasy Worlds style proved extremely easy to work with, so that first time users of CC3 managed to create very beautiful maps. The example here was done by Neilander as a first map!

2010 – Volume 4

As we had learned from the black and white overland style in 2008, monochrome maps where quite popular (in part certainly because they print easily), so we decided to add dungeon and city styles in b&w to the 2010 Annual. Especially the city style became a fan favorite. The example shown on the right was created by community member bearclaw and shows the beautiful layout of a riverside town.

Another option for quick and easy maps that’s popular with role-players is the hex-based map. Back with Cosmographer Pro hex map functionality was introduced to Campaign Cartographer, and with the Annual 2010 we added a new style for old-school fantasy overland maps. Here you can see forum member Skycast using the style to create the map of a wooded peninsula.

2011 – Volume 5

2011 was undoubtedly the year of fantasy cartographer Jonathan Roberts. We can across his beautiful work on the web and asked him whether he’d be willing to produce a couple of styles for us. He obliged and the Annual 2011 could boast both an overland and a dungeon style created by him. We even made the dungeon style available for free at the end of the year.

Community member Koth produced the gorgeous map called Kern’s End shown here, by exporting a coastline he liked from Fractal Terrains 3 and then build upon with the Jon Roberts Overland style.

Pär Lindström (who writes on this blog) used the matching dungeon style to create this little encounter map for a role-playing session with his children.

2012 – Volume 6

As 2011 was the year of Jon Roberts, 2012 will prove the year of another great fantasy cartographer: Herwin Wielink. His overland style (going by his DeviantArt handle “Djekspek”) was the single most popular style every created for the Annual, measured by the amount of maps shown on the forums. So popular in fact, we will be publishing an extension of the style with more symbols and textures in November. And his isometric dungeon style is just extremely clever and beautiful. We are thrilled that all new artwork from Herwin will also be included in the upcoming Perspectives 3.

The user map in Djekspek’s Overland style was done by Modric, and the isometric dungeon here by forum member Tommek, who even commissioned custom symbols for his map from another artist. There are other amazing maps in this style.

Conclusion

When we started with the Annual back in 2007 we hardly imagined that we would be able to fill six years of subscription with material and keep everyone’s interest. But now the Annual is still going strong and the new and amazing talent within and without the ProFantasy community means we can rely on a steady influx of new ideas for upcoming issues. We’ll keep it coming.

The Annuals website is here, and you can see the full range of styles and other content on the gallery pages.

I’m not sure I can handle the flood of beautiful new user maps posted on the Profantasy forum. I may have to go weekly instead of monthly in the future. I certainly hope I didn’t miss anything.

Anomiecoalition awed everybody with this beautiful floorplan of an Al-Quadim style temple. Check out the forum thread for the second floor!

Continue reading »

We’ve got previews up for the two remaining Annual issues of 2012.

In November we have an extensions to the fan-favorite overland style by Herwin Wielink from April. Orcs, Elves and Dwarves get symbols for their cities, castles, etc, together with lots more symbols and textures to choose from. It basically doubles the resources included in the original style.

We close the Annual 2012 subscription in December with a new style by Pär Lindström. This one is specifically designed for creating regional campaign maps, ie smaller areas than your typical continental or world campaign map.

More images in the Annual gallery.

We’ve just released the October issue of the Cartographer’s Annual 2012. It contains a huge amount of gorgeous bitmap artwork which focuses on alien starships and landscapes. It was created by Storyweaver (Joseph Sweeney’s rpg company) in conjunction with their High Space setting.

This is the second part of the immense collection of bitmap art, the first part having been released in July. The October issue also integrates all the bitmap artwork and drawing tools into new template wizards based on Cosmographer 3’s Deckplan Bitmap A style.

Master Mapper and developer L Lee Saunders has been working on a random city generator for City Designer 3 for a while now. It’s a tough nut to crack – it’s hard to make human(?) environments which look plausible. But we are ready to release the latest version, the first public beta of the Random City Generator. To get the generator, which requires City Designer 3

1. Go to the ProFantasy registration area, and login in or register
2. Register your CD3 if you need to
3. Download the Random Generator and install as Adminstrator
4. Launch CC3 and start a new map based on a city template
5. Type CITY at the command prompt and press Enter

Please give us feedback and new feature suggestions.

More and more beautiful user maps are appearing on the Profantasy forum, if you’re not regularly following the posts there, here is an overview:

Grimur Fjeldsted has updated his Naturns city map, done in the Jon Roberts Cities style.

Forum member HadrianIV has created this beautiful regional map “Sea of Tears” in the Herwin Wielink overland style.

Community member soldyne created this map of the “World River” as his very first map in CC3.

Henrie61 drew this “quick and dirty” town map to try our the Jon Roberts Cities style and was impressed how quickly you can create a beautiful map this way.

The Jon Roberts Cities style seems very popular as shown by the “Yellowmire” map created by Dargurd. The unusual, swampy location of the city comes acress very well.

In a change of pace Modric created this black and white map of “Avern” and added a great parchment style filter for a great player handout. The style used is from the Cartographer’s Annual Vol 2.

And last but not least, forum member anomiecoalition drew this neat little Al Quadim-flavoured dungeon, using resources from DD3, the CSUAC art collection and Dundjinni forums.

Kudos to all the great maps our users have been creating!

The September issue of the Cartographer’s Annual 2012 was released last Saturday. It lets you create maps in the beautiful style of the 13th Age world map by Lee Moyer. 13th Age is the upcoming new role-playing game by Pelgrane Press.

To download the September issue, log into the registration area at www.profantasy.com.