(Download the FCW file)
Welcome to the Darkbelow mappers! Happy new month, and with that new All the Annuals. This month’s annual is a favorite of mine. I remember when it first came out, I had a new map done before the end of the day. Anyway, the Darkbelow is my version of a very large TTRPG company’s region of the world below (you know the one 😊 ).

I found myself playing around with this annual more, tweaking here and there to get the dark, gloomy look I was going for. I found, that despite looking dim and dark on my screen in CC3+, once I saved to a png file, the fills really lightened up. For this reason, when you look that the .fcw, it looks nearly black, but when saved, it lightened up just a bit to get that look I was going for. This one took a lot of trial and error, but I was really satisfied with the results. Hope you are, too!

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 All the Annuals has Naomi VanDoren’s annual on display. It’s the perfect annual for those last minute maps. You know those sessions I speak of Game Masters… It’s game night, you’ve been doing your “adulting” all week and didn’t have time to prep for your game. The game, that your wonderful players derailed and ended up somewhere you never thought they would. Well, have I got an annual for you. I actually made this map up in the middle of session. Yes, in the middle of a game session. We often take a mid-game break – you know drink refills, a smoke if anyone partakes, bathroom breaks, returning texts, checking on the kids, whatever. Well, while my players were off doing those things and preparing their next move… I was silently clicking away at my keyboard and came up with this perfect, on the fly, tavern.

With this annual, considering my time constraints, I didn’t so anything off the beaten path. Stuck right with the basics and dropped this map in my VTT in no time and we were back at it, encounter ensues. Good times, great annual.😊

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.

Last up this bunch, 1800s Floorplan. Oh, boy I loved this one. What fun it was looking for inspiration for this map. I ended up using a floorplan for a model home from a Sears and Roebuck Co. Catalog from the early 1900s. These homes could be ordered via mail catalog and Sears would ship the homeowner all the materials needed to build this home, seriously everything, was sent by train to be constructed by the homeowner. These catalogs are a huge favorite resource of mine for floorplans of all kinds.

I used an image of the floorplans and traced them with the Annual’s tools making a few minor adjustments of my own to the floorplan. Everything I needed to reconstruct the catalog image was at my fingertips. What an easy annual. I then inserted a file of an image of the actual house for this floorplan. I processed the image in PS, gave it a little more a sepia hue to it to give it a more authentic look. I think this is the PERFECT map for a Cthulhu game, don’t you? . I also did felt the need to change the name of the catalog company, as well as the model home name and number for copyright purposes.

[Download the FCW file]

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.

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. 😊

[Download the FCW file]

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.

Christina continues her series on the 2016 Annuals…

Next up, Empire of the Sun. I love, love, love this Annual. It looks like wall art, doesn’t it? For this Annual I changed nothing except the range of the text’s outer glow a teeny tiny bit. No reason to change a thing. I love the brushed watercolor look of this map.
For this map, I must admit I used my own homebrew fantasy world for this landscape. I’ve changed the names from my world, just in case any of my players make their way here, or come across this map for any reason other than within their gameplay.

[Download the FCW file]

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 Mappers! After a long absence from mapping due to life and some medical issues, which I am still battling, I’ve just decided to push through and try to get back to something that always brought me joy. I’ve enjoyed the heck out of watching the amazing maps some of you are putting out there. Ricko here’s your shout out….I see you and am inspired, as well as so many others new and old in our ProFantasy family in the forums and Facebook posts.

So, we last left off finishing up the 2017 Annual. I’ve worked on the first four maps in the 2016 Annual, Here Be Monsters (Overland), Empire of the Sun (Overland), Temple of Bones (Perspectives), and 1800s Floorplan (Floorplans). Okay, so I’ll be honest, it’s been a looooooong while since I’ve been inspired in my own right to create anything, so it was super slow going getting back in the swing of things.

[Download the FCW file]

Here Be Monsters … not my typical style preference, but I must say, after working with it, I grew to adore it. My only adjustment was the water hue, as I wanted it to be a slightly more greenish blue shade. This was easily remedied by adjusting the Hue and the Lightness on the Sea Sheet, which was also showing as my Rivers Sheet. For the Rivers, I deleted that sheet and just placed them directly on the Land Sheet, added a Color Key, this way my Rivers and Sea were the same shade of greenish blue I was going for.

I based the map off of a story I wrote back in college for my Creative Writing course. The story was a bit rudimentary, but seeing the idea of it in the form of a map, especially Pär Lindström’s whimsical style, was a pretty satisfying way to get back in my favorite hobby.😊

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.

Love a world with monsters, mystery, and supernatural horror around every corner? Love the 1920s? Dying to run a campaign speaking in Old Tyme radio announcer voice? Oh, yes, then this annual should be the inspiration you need for your next Cthulhu themed tabletop game. You guessed it readers, I’ve been trying to get my gaming group to play Cthulhu for a few years now. Maybe this latest map will finally help them along to love and crave the Lovecraftian universe I have for so many years.

[Download the FCW file]
This annual allows a game master to create a Cthulhu inspired city easily with pre-made city street grid symbols. After laying out a few street grid symbols, and adding a street or two using the road drawing tool to connect the grids and also finish off the outer sections, laying out the building symbols on this map was so easy, since aligning them with the roads isn’t part of this particular map style aesthetic. I placed the symbols and named them all while creating a dark adventure in mind for my players.

This setting is a particular favorite of mine, so this annual is one of my favorites of the year. Speaking of… All the Annuals 2017 has come to a close. But wait! There’s more!! Stick around for the bonus annual… Sue Daniel’s Parchments.

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.

This month’s annual, Village Battle Map, shows how you can combine multiple assets of Campaign Cartographer 3+ to create these unique, large areas of role-playing battles for your gaming fun.

I love maps like these and have quite a few for my campaign, and boy did they come in handy over the pandemic’s worst when online play was the only kind of gaming we were doing. A map this large works well with my VTT. However, if you want to print something this large out, please follow along the Large Exports edition of this year’s annual.

In this map, I combined the elements of DD3+, CD3+, the free assets available from the Vintyri Project, the CSUAC2 and Bogie’s Mapping Objects, and I even grabbed a symbol from an earlier annual, Munson’s Mines. This kind of mapping is a longtime favorite of mine, blending multiple styles and symbols. Normally, I’d add in some of my own homemade symbols and fills, but due to licensing I am unable to share them, so I left them out of this map, but you mapper, go nuts…..add symbols, create or purchase textures for fills, and make the most detailed map you like. I’m a fan of the little details and so are my players.

For your enjoyment, I decided to make it with a bit of a built in adventure hook…..notice the blood in the river? Perhaps your players approach this village and find it empty, with a few buildings looking “tossed” or perhaps there was a struggle? Or some magic where everyone just disappeared….a Thanos Snap, if you will. Whatever sets off your imagination, enjoy the map, and hopefully you’ll all share your creations with us in the Forums! Happy Mapping!

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.

This was different for me and I must say I am honestly happy with it being that I am vaguely familiar with marine maps, though I’ve come to rely mostly on gps these days.

(Download the FCW map)
For this map I decided to do a section of the coast near my home, though I modified it some for artistic flair and license. Here on Long Island the shore and all it has to offer are popular to the residents of this 118 mile long island with it’s outer barrier island known as Fire Island. The inlets into the Great South Bay provide great currents of fresh sea water into the bay, along with copious marine life. A popular fishing spot in the bay is The Drink, where depths can get up to 40 feet deep, providing wonderful depths for sea life. There is also a lot of boating traffic, so buoys marking the channels are scattered throughout the bay.

Being that there are several wrecks off the coast of Long Island, I thought this a good place to map. This place has a rich early American history, such as Bellport, one of the earliest fishing villages on the island founded by Captain Thomas Bell in 1664, who incidentally, found himself there by way of shipwreck 😊. There are also several WW1 and WWII shipwrecks in this area, though I’ve mapped none on this particular 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.

In our weekly live mapping series on YouTube I’ve been revisiting the first styles that I created for the Cartographer’s Annual back in 2007. Sue Daniel took it upon herself to create new maps with these styles as examples and here are the next two beautiful results!

Sarah Wroot Overland

April saw the first style by a freelance artist which we converted into an Annual style. Saraw Wroot had been producing maps for Pelgrane Press’ Dying Earth RPG and her handdrawn style and watercoloury look translated well into the new sheet effect-powered visuals of CC3+.

(Download the FCW file)

Cave and Cavern Maps

The May Annual issue of 2007 saw me delving into natural caves, using noth Dungeon Designer 3’s style and a new modern map look, which I had kind of pioneered in the Source Maps: Temples, Tombs and Catacombs collection. Sue took the DD3 version to produce this great spiral cave layout.

(Download the FCW file)