[Download the FCW file]

Well met, Mappers! We are working our way through the 2015 Annual and this month’s style is City Panoramas, by TJ Vandel. This style is modeled off the 16th century publishers and engravers, Braun and Hogenberg, famous for their “birds-eye view” maps of cities from all around the world. I will admit, I did a bit of a Google deep dive looking at their maps, and they are fantastic, and I highly recommend you all taking a look.

For this map I didn’t do anything special out side of the provided Mapping Guide. I really like this style, and think if you get yourself into an editor and have the skills (of which, I do not 😊 ), anything free will do, you could get this map to have that old, antique look of the original Braun and Hogenberg works.

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.

[Download the FCW file]

Hello Cartographers! It’s another monthly annual for the 2015 Annual and we have a classis … Classic Fantasy, that is. This style, Classic Fantasy, brings us back to the days of the classic fantasy novel map, usually found in the inside cover or the first few pages. I remember spending so much time pouring over the maps of my favorites novels, Wheel of Time, The Dragonlance Series, Lord of the Rings, and studying them working out where all important moments from the books happened. If a book comes without a map, it’s a huge disappointment, and not because I make them, because I love them. 😊

For this month’s map, I just made a simple environs map, depicting an area where there was a historic battle that took place between two long warring realms – the perfect setting for a short story or campaign. By following the Mapping Guide, this map took me no time at all to put together – also a plus for those last minute maps needed for any RPG campaign!

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.

[Download the FCW file]
Hello Mappers! This month’s annual in the 2015 set is Black & White Towns by one of our favorite resident artists, Pär Lindström.

Following the Mapping Guide, I started first by creating the water, and then adding some elevation symbols around the banks and in the outer corners. I quickly decided that I would tie in this map to the OSR Dungeon map I had done earlier in the 2015 Annual series and sticking with the black and white theme, I added a section of ruins. Once I got in my main road of the hamlet, I used the Random Street tool to line the road with some houses. I then removed a few and inserted some of the symbol houses that come with the set to mix up the housing look of the hamlet. Some bushes, some trees and some accessories and 15 minutes later and this map was done.

Despite my love of color and texture blending, I oddly love this style more than I’d like to admit. I am going to quickly work up copies of many of my villages in my homebrew world, making printing up maps for my players so much easier and cost effective.

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.

[Download the FCW file]
Well met, Mappers! I come in peace. This month’s issue of the 2015 Annual is SciFi Downport. This issue, by Steph Mclea has drawing tools and symbols that allow you to put together a starport map for you sci-fi rpg campaign needs in no time at all. Truly, this map took me less time than maybe any I’ve ever worked on, and sci-fi is not my typical rpg genre to play or DM in.

It’s spring here in the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York, yet I am currently hunkered down at home during Spring Break (I work in a school now) watching the SECOND snow storm since the beginning of spring blow outside my office window. It’s snowed more this spring that all of winter combined (our last storm on the 2nd day of spring brought me 20” of snow). With that in mind, I’ve been doing a lot of “winter” themed mapping and decided to do this starport on a polar planet, engulfed in snow and ice.

Using the river to divide residences and the “industrial” sector of the port, I simply placed some road where I wanted buildings to be and began dropping the easy symbols in this set. I noticed there is a drawing tool for “monorail” so I decided to create an elevated monorail by adding a sheet and adding a drop shadow to it. I also created a sheet for elevated buildings, such as the terminals and landing pad, and put a drop shadow on those as well.

This issue is super user friendly, and I recommend it for beginners and experts alike for your Sci-Fi tabletop needs.

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.

“To me, every hour of the Day and Night is an unspeakably perfect miracle.” I wonder if Walt Whitman ever thought of battle maps when he was speaking of how perfect both night and day are? Day or Night, what better way to be prepared for battle in your game than with the Day and Night issue of the 2015 Annual?

[Download the FCW files: Day Version and Night Version]

You know, as a DM your players can just go off the rails far, far off the tracks of your diligent, carefully thought out prep material … left turns to right, good turns to bad, up to down, and sometimes day turns to night. No problem! You can easily alter any existing map of yours to accommodate the shifting shadows of night creeping in on your planned daytime encounter.

Now, I won’t even go into explaining how to do this….as I, who has been using this program for YEARS, Master Mapper me, could not figure it out at first. After reaching out to our beloved community, Sue and Remy got back to me right away … kindly pointing out my mistake, and Voila! Day became night on my map and I got set to placing light sources. For more detailed information on how to set up the lighting, I suggest the 2008 Annual with Lighted Dungeons or my go to The Tome of Ultimate Mapping, of which I simply cannot give more praise in helping with some really great beginner, intermediate and expert tips and techniques. Truly, it’s worth the purchase, in my opinion.

So, I used Mike Schley’s Dungeon style and also a few Forlorn Cottage and free monthly content symbols for this map. It’s a generic, simple end street in any village town or city that I like to keep at hand for the unexpected stops in a village or town I hadn’t fully fleshed out yet. Getting caught off guard and by surprise as a DM is not uncommon or unexpected, but having that ability to change the time of day this easily is a great tool for all game masters.

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.

Welcome to the 2015 Annual, mappers! So we wrapped up last annual (2016) with TJ Vandel, and we start 2015 with them 😊

(Download the FCW file)

Black and white mapping is not in my wheelhouse, to say the least. I love taking textures and layering them, creating new colors in the color palette. But, with every new adventure we learn new things and experience new options in mapping. Working with this style was pretty simple. It’s great for printing out maps at home, especially if you like to conserve ink, like I do. You can easily do a DM and Player versions in less than an hour.

For this map, I used an online generator of dungeons and simply traced out my rooms and added a little bit of flair (I just can’t resist trying to make things look “pretty”). The mapping guide is simple and even the newest of beginners can work with this style early on in their CC3+ learning journey.

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.

Merry meet, Mappers! We’re down to the style for 2016, bringing us to the Dark Realms Annual. This set is meant to stand alone, yet it also can be used in combination with two other styles in this year’s annual, Scorching sun and Realms of Legend by TJ Vandel, both of which I’ve given you basic sample maps. This wraps up the overland styles for 2016 available in this amazing annual.

I just love this one, along with the Scorching Sun. The textures are some of my favorites for overland mapping. The little bunches of woods and forests are just…..chef’s kiss adorable for me. As usual with overland mapping, I struggled….these maps tend to take me much longer than my worth in mapping sometimes, but I stick to it, to improve and get over my geographic anxiety of where and why everything goes where it goes. For my own personal use…..my players no nothing about nor do they care about where mountains are, or if the rivers flow rightly….plus I can use magic and supernatural explanations for the aberrations in geography. For a map I am putting out there on the internet for the world to see? For the River Police that once plagued, and may still, a popular cartography web page? Well, that just stresses me out. After getting over my anxiety, I just relaxed and mapped what felt right. I think it looks good, and I sure hope you do, too.

The only thing I did here was make a few adjustments in PS to the png with the contrast. I love how my maps look on my screen in CC3, but once saving them, they often change appearance, especially since I save at such high resolutions, so that my maps are still clear enough for VTT play when I size them down to the usual 20MB limit most VTTs have, sometimes I make some minor adjustments outside of this incredible program.

(Download the FCW source file of the map)

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.

Hello Cartography Friends! We are down to our last two sets….both Overland. Not my favorite, as you would know if you’ve been following along and have read my blurbs. However, I usually do my best work under pressure….I guess that’s why I trained as an Emergency RN as my nursing career choice, lol. Organized chaos is my Roman Empire 😊

Anyway, this style is one of three ins a set overland styles offered this year, along with Scorching Sun and Realms of Legend. All three of these sets, created by the talented TJ Vandel, were made to work alone, or in combination with one another. In this example, I’ve just followed along with the mapping guide, so as to decrease my stress of where I wanted things to go. It just flowed nicely. I really like the clean look of this map and decided to keep it simple and free of clutter.

(Download the FCW source file of the map)

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.

Well met, mappers! This next monthly installment of the 2016 Annual was timed perfectly with Spooky Season … Pär Lindström’s Horror House!

(Download the FCW file)

This black and white style is perfect for your spooky season one-shot this year! Planning a Cthulhu themed game? This style easily puts together a quick, clean, modern floorplan for your gaming needs. As per my usual, I did a search for an olde tyme floor plan from days of yore on the internet and dropped a png image onto my map for me to easily trace. After tracing the basic plan, I deleted my pic and just filled in the rooms with some of Pär’s assets, such as the broken furniture for any murder mystery you might be planning for your gaming party!

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.

(Download the FCW file)

Hello mappers! Another month, another annual. This monthly installment of the 2016 Annual is Alyssa Faden’s City Streets. This annual is perfect for mapping a section of a city in your world, for some zoomed in, regional maps your players can use in planning their way through city streets and shops.

For this map, I decided to map out a small district in a large town in my homebrew world. In this area, there are shops galore for my players to enjoy – know your players – mine love a shopping session. I just love the color scheme this annual affords. It’s bright, vibrant and by adding a tiny little Multiply 5% in Blend Mode, the map pops perfectly. I also darkened the buildings and the cobblestone background, as I prefer a darker map with more contrast, personally. This map took no time to put together and any mapper, from novice to master can easily put together a quick map for their gaming needs.

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.