The year of free monthly symbols by Mike Schley ends in a place we hope you won’t have to spend any significant time in: a nasty medieval prison (aka dungeon) to break out of or to free some unjustly held prisoners from. You will find oubliettes, iron bars to build cages, chains and torture implements, plus a handy set of key to unlock all these nasty features. Including varicolor variations, the symbol catalog contains 27 new symbols.

Note that the example maps included with the free content make use of Symbol Set 4 to showcase the symbols in proper surroundings. If you don’t have SS4 installed, you won’t see these correctly, but you can still use the symbols on other maps. Symbol Set 4 – Dungeons of Schley 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 December 2022 is included in the one download.

You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.

The new set of free monthly symbols let’s you venture into the legendary dragon’s lair, where untold riches are piled on top of each other. Will you dare to face the wrath of the ancient dragon when you disturb her slumber? And even more doubtful: will you be able to bear stand against the unbearable cuteness of her pup?

Note that the example maps included with the free content make use of Symbol Set 4 to showcase the symbols in proper surroundings. If you don’t have SS4 installed, you won’t see these correctly, but you can still use the symbols on other maps. Symbol Set 4 – Dungeons of Schley 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 November 2022 is included in the one download.

You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.

The November issue of the Annual 2022 has been released. It adds another set of symbols and tools to Sue Daniel’s run of dungeon and floorplan symbol styles. This time you can venture out into the woods and forests and fight beneath the shade of trees.

The Forest Trail style gives you lots of new symbols and bitmap fills that work with the Dungeon Designer 3 and Creepy Crypts styles. Build encounter maps in the depths of the forest with easy options to switch between a view of the forest floor and the tree canopy.

The November issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2022 yet, you can do so here.

We continue the free monthly content with the dressings for the lair of a proper villain like a necromancer. Corpses fresh and old, moldy skeletons, black robes, tools and machinery, as well as the proper occult tomes, will serve to make your resurrectionist or vivisectionist feel right at home.

Note that the example maps included with the free content make use of Symbol Set 4 to showcase the symbols in proper surroundings. If you don’t have SS4 installed, you won’t see these correctly, but you can still use the symbols on other maps. Symbol Set 4 – Dungeons of Schley 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 September 2022 is included in the one download.

You can always check the available monthly content on our dedicated page.

The September issue of the Cartographer’s Annual has just been released. With it we celebrate the end of summer with a new dungeon and battle map style for some frigid caverns and icy waters. Let your players explore glacial tunnels, high mountain caves or the caverns beyond the mountains of madness.

The Ice Caverns style can be used as an extension to Dungeon Designer 3 or own its own. Either way, it is setup for ease of use making drawing some natural caves a snap.

The August issue is now available for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2022 yet, you can do so here.

Our Dynamic Dungeon project is moving along, and for this installment of the series, I am going to address several interesting concepts and techniques.

• Creating custom entities so we can store our settings with the map.
• Creating dialogs to change settings. Here I also show how we can use owner-drawn lists to draw comboboxes with previews of the fill from the map. We’ll also create macro versions of the settings commands.
• Accessing the drawing InfoBlock to find fills.
• Making sure our tool stop at the map border, the same way that CC3+’s drawing tools does.

I am including the interesting bits of code right here in the article, but I have made minor changes all over the code from the previous articles to accommodate some of the new features from this article, so don’t forget to download the complete project from the link at the end of this article.

To be able to follow this article series, you should have read my earlier articles in the series.

As with the previous installments, here is a short video showing our results so far.

Continue reading »

You can’t make a good dungeon without having some secrets, right? Hidden traps, secret doors, concealed corridors, illusory floors, invisible enemies and fake treasure. Now, placing invisible enemies on the map is dead simple (trick being not actually placing them at all) but how can I make a map with a secret corridor that I can reveal and hide at will, and not betraying it’s existence when it is hidden?

CC3+ has nice tools for adding corridors to your map, but you have do decide if they should break the wall or not when connecting to an existing room or corridor. And this is where the challenge begins. It is easy enough to temporarily hide something by putting it on it’s own layer so toggling the visibility of the corridor is easy, but if you chose to have it break the wall when placed, you would still have that hole there when the corridor is hidden. Now, that isn’t actually a good way to keep it secret. On the other hand, if you chose to not break the walls, then there will be walls blocking the corridor even when it is revealed, which look a bit weird, and we can’t have any of that, can we?

Continue reading »

This month’s annual, by fellow mapper Jon C. Munson II, was meant to be used alone or in conjunction with Symbol Set 4. I decided to map out a small abandoned mine using only the symbols provided in the annual, since I realize not everyone has Symbol Set 4 available to them.

(Download the FCW file)

This map is pretty basic, with no special bells or whistles. Though I can be known for using some original, creative techniques with this program, I wanted to showcase some maps with those tricks and others with nothing but the basics, I’ve done this for the average mapper, to show that you can still produce quality maps for your gaming needs and not need the skill that some of the Master Mappers and longtime, proficient users out there.

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.

Grids are a necessity when you are making your battle maps and it is easy to add a grid in CC3+ through the Draw Menu (Hex or Square Overlay). And this is quite OK for many maps, but with just a little bit more work, one can make it much prettier. For example, a common desire is to only have the grid visible over the floors in the rooms, where the characters can actually walk. And maybe you have a tiled floor and want the grid aligned to that? In this article, I am going to discuss some of the things you can do with your grid.

Continue reading »

Ever wanted to have something appear as a being inscribed into the wall or floor instead of appearing on top of it? With a little bit of manipulation and a few effects, we can turn any vector symbol or basic shape into such an inscription.

We can then use this technique to decorate floors in a dungeon, or used with both walls and floors in a perspective drawing, netting us some nice way of adding decorations without overusing symbols.
Continue reading »