ralf | May 1, 2018 | Annual, Glynn Seal, Overland map
For the May issue of the Annual 2018 we have a classic overland mapping style, created by Glynn Seal, who previously created the Havenland style for the Annual, and is a prolific rpg map maker and rpg designer (check out his MonkeyBlood Design & Publishing website).
The Myrklund style consists of more than 150 highly detailed symbols and bitmaps textures, that combine into a beautiful hand-painted look. The 4-page mapping guide gives you a detailed walkthrough of creating an overland map in this style.
You can subscribe to the Annual 2018 here. Once you have subscribed, the May issue will immediately become available for download on your registration page.
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ralf | April 1, 2018 | Alastair McBeath, Annual, starmap, world building
For the April issue we are looking up into the sky to view the stars and find the patterns they make.
Inspired by the work of Alastair McBeath (Wyvern) and with his permission, we have taken the star charts he created for the Community Atlas project and converted them into templates, drawing tools and symbol catalogs for the Star Charts mapping style. These allow you to map out the night sky spanning over your fictional world and connect the different stars to form constellations, adding to the myth and wonder of the world.
If you don’t want to place hundreds of stars by hand, the Star Charts style makes special use of the new Symbols in Area command to let you automatically and randomly fill the sky with stars of different magnitudes and colors. You can then use the included drawing tools to connect the most significant stars to form constellations that spring out from the jumble of lights in the sky. Check out the issue’s details on the Annual 2018 web page.
Also see a preview of the Annual’s May issue and its Myrklund overland style by Glynn Seal.
You can subscribe to the Annual 2018 here. Once you have subscribed, the April issue will immediately become available for download on your registration page.
Attention: This Annual issue needs the latest update for CC3+ to work. Please log into your registration page to download and install Update 15 for CC3+.
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ralf | March 1, 2018 | Annual, battle maps, Christina Trani
We are excited to introduce a new contributor to the Annual this month. Community member Christina Trani recently created a series of battle maps for Pelgrane Press’ encounter book “Fire & Faith”. We were delighted with the map work she did with CC3+, so we asked her to create a whole new series of maps for the Annual.
The Curse of the Lich King map pack is the result. Enjoy four gorgeously detailed maps in both DM and player versions. Let the Regional Map lead you to the Lich’s Tower, then navigate the Maze to find the undead’s Vault and, – if everything goes according to plan – destroy its unholy phylactery. Check out the issue’s details on the Annual 2018 web page.
Also see a preview of the Annual’s April issue and it’s star charts style.
You can now subscribe to the Annual 2018 here. Once you have subscribed, the March issue will immediately become available for download on your registration page.
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ralf | February 1, 2018 | Annual, dungeon, Floorplans
It’s time to delve underground, but we want to make sure our dungeon walls are properly build and nicely decorated. Explore a new feature of the Symbols Along command in version 3.80 of CC3+ (see Update 14 here), that allows you to auto-generate walls built from individual symbols.
The February issue “Dungeon Walls” contains 60 new symbols for three different mapping styles, command and symbol settings to make quick and easy use of them, as well as a 4-mapping guide explaining the process. Check out the February style details on the Cartographer’s Annual 2018 website.
You can now subscribe to the Annual 2018 here. Once you have subscribed, the January issue will immediately become available for download on your registration page.
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ralf | January 2, 2018 | Annual, hex maps, Mike Schley, overland
Welcome to 2018 and a new year of the Cartographer’s Annual with lots of mapping goodness! We hope you are as excited as us about delving into the twelfth year of our monthly subscription.
This January we start with a hex-mapping variant of Mike Schley’s wonderful overland mapping style from CC3+. We provide new templates, new versions of the style’s drawing tools, a bunch of hex symbols and take a tour through the creation process of hex-based maps. Check out the January style details on the Cartographer’s Annual 2018 website.
You can now subscribe to the Annual 2018 here. Once you have subscribed, the January issue will immediately become available for download on your registration page.
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ralf | December 19, 2017 | Annual, free resource
The Cartographer’s Annual 2018 is complete and we have a free bonus issue in store to cap the year. It is a set of beautiful bitmap artwork by community member Sue Daniel that lets you add scroll and parchments backgrounds to your maps.
You can download the free issue directly from the Annual page or, if you have subscribed to the current year, from your registration page.
We’ll shortly offer current Annual subscribers the option to re-subscribe to the Annual 2018. If you want to take advantage of the reduced rate for subscribers, you can still quickly subscribe to the Annual 2017 here.
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ralf | December 1, 2017 | Annual, city, Cthulhu, Par lindstrom
We close off the 2017 Annual (except perhaps for a little bonus issue) with another style by Pär Lindström. He created this wonderful new city style for the weird and ominous metropolis of Cthulhu City, a setting for Pelgrane Press’ Trail of Cthulhu role-playing game.
Of course we took the opportunity to create a city style for CC3+ from it. Since the style doesn’t use the City Designer way of drawing individual houses and random streets, you can even use it fully without having CD3 available.
The December issue is now available for CC3+ from the registration page for all subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2017 yet, you can do so here.
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ralf | November 1, 2017 | Annual, battle map, city, dungeon, pelgrane press
Are you looking for some house-to-house fighting with orcs or undead? Yearning to kick in that door or burn down a barn that hides an evil cult? Look no further, the November issue of the Cartographer’s Annual 2017 has you covered. It contains three highly detailed battle maps that combine building floorplans with outdoor locations.
The maps were produced for Pelgrane Press’ upcoming third installment in the Battle Scenes series and highlight the options you get when combining different map types and styles into a larger whole.
The November issue is now available for CC3+ from the registration page for all subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2017 yet, you can do so here.
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ralf | October 2, 2017 | Annual, Modern, Overland map
New Zealand is one of the most avid sailing nations of the world and while traveling along it beautiful coasts I often came across marine charts detailing the waterways. I always loved these maps and decided at some point I’d have to create a CC3+ style that recreated their detail and beauty. This is the month where it happened!
The vector style “Marine Maps” let’s you recreate navigational marine charts within CC3+. With three dozen news symbols and drawing tools and a 5-page mapping guide it’s snap to produce a detailed picture of your real or fictional coastline.
The October issue is now available for CC3+ from the registration page for all subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2017 yet, you can do so here.
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ralf | September 1, 2017 | Annual, Monsen, Tutorial
In the September Annual issue Remy Monsen, editor and author of the CC3+ user manual and the Tome of Ultimate mapping, takes you on a 22-page tutorial on doing extra-large exports from CC3+. Do you need that giant-sized poster for your gaming room? Or want a image for your website where visitors can zoom in to examine the specks of dirt on the houses’ doorsteps? Remy tells you how to do that, utilizing automated scripts to do section exports and image stitching. Take a look at his Snowport city map to see how far you can zoom in there.
The September issue is now available for CC3+ from the registration page for all subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2017 yet, you can do so here.
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