Welcome to another wonderful selection of maps created by the Profantasy user community. Let’s take a look at what our mappers came up with on the ProFantasy forum or the CC3+ Facebook group in July.
Mythal82 undertook a project to convert a Watabou-generated map into the Ferraris style by Sue Daniel, and look at what was achieved!
Continue reading »
Are you yearning for some spectacular entertainment? Perhaps some classic play on a grandiose stage? Or something more visceral like a gladiator fight in the arena? The latest monthly symbols have you covered. Get the new symbols by Mike Schley to add grand theaters and arenas to your cityscapes, pleasing the crowds.
The example maps included with this free content make use of Symbol Set 6 to showcase the symbols in proper surroundings. If you don’t have SS6 installed, you won’t see these, but you can still use the symbols on other maps. Symbol Set 6 – Isometric Cities 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 2023 is included in the one download.
You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.
In the August issue of the Annual 2023 we return back to some (visually) simpler maps in black and white. Draw ruins, floorplans and dungeons with faux-inked lines and easy to use black and white symbols.
Related to and compatible with 2020’s Inked Dungeons, the Inked Ruins style allows you to build surface ruins and outdoor areas that can be easily printed and comfortably read even at relatively small output sizes.
The August issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page.
If you haven’t subscribed to the Cartographer’s Annual 2023 yet, you can do so here.
One of the things that are easily overlooked when mapping local scale overland maps for gaming is the sheer numbers of settlements that traditionally dot the countryside. In medieval times, the distances between them could be surprisingly short compared to our modern standards, simply because we are used to larger settlements (and faster transportation) these days.
Now, dotting a landscape with settlements is pretty easy with CC3+, as we have great tools for doing this. To ensure randomness, we can have symbols randomly picked for each placement, we can use Symbols Along to place them along a road, and we can use Symbols in Area to fill a large plain with settlements. Great, job done.
Well, if you try to do this with a standard overland map, you’ll quickly notice that this doesn’t seem to work as desired for this purpose. You’ll notice that the groups in the settlement symbol catalog are set up with groups containing just a single symbol, including varicolor versions of that symbol. Now, that is not going to help us spread settlement symbols of various sizes easily as we wanted.
What we are seeing here is really the fact that you can’t organize everything for every imaginable purpose. It is similar to sorting your contact list on your phone. Should it be sorted by last names or first names? Last names are probably more formally correct, and it ensures that all the people from the same family appear next to each other, but you’re probably more used to refer to people by their first name, making them easier find for you when sorted that way. Neither way is wrong, but you can only have one of them at a time. Symbol catalogs are similar. When making them, the creator need to figure one sensible way to offer them, and then leave it to the users to rearrange things when needed. And that is what I will be showing today. I am using Mike Schley Overland for the example here, but this can of course be done with any map type and any style.
News
Resources
Articles
Reminders
Christina continues her series on the 2016 Annuals…
Temple of Bones was the next up for 2016’s Annual. Oh, Temple of Bones. This was a challenge for me, as I often find Perspectives to be. I honestly don’t have much to say about this map. I’m not sure how I feel about it aesthetically, but what I will say, as I say whenever I succeed in a challenge mapping with Perspectives, I am proud I was able to put out a decent map, at least. 😊
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.
Let’s enjoy another wonderful selection of user maps – all posted on the ProFantasy forum or the CC3+ Facebook group in June 2023.
Dak‘s Oriental Inn brings up wonderful memories of mine of playing Bushido and the Oriental Adventures for D&D.
Continue reading »
Here is the latest list of live mapping videos we’ve done on our YouTube channel.
Armies and soldiers need a place to rest when they are not in their barracks and on campaign. Pitch their camp inside a field entrenchment with this month’s free symbols, now available. 28 new symbols by Mike Schley let you build military camps with a variety of different tents and tiling symbols to build spiked entrenchments around them.
The example maps included with this free content make use of Symbol Set 6 to showcase the symbols in proper surroundings. If you don’t have SS6 installed, you won’t see these, but you can still use the symbols on other maps. Symbol Set 6 – Isometric Cities 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 2023 is included in the one download.
You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.
It seems to be the year of new contributors in the Cartographer’s Annual 2023. Please welcome Monkey Frog Studio with their new overland mapping style in the July issue.
Cleverly named “Monkey Frog Overland”, the drawing style comes with over 200 new symbols and we are planning to expand it even further, with lots of structure symbols later this year. As always the accompanying mapping guide takes you through creating a Monkey Frog Overland map step by step.
The July issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page.
If you haven’t subscribed to the Cartographer’s Annual 2023 yet, you can do so here.
