The December Annual 2016 brings you another overland style – also created by TJ Vandel. While working perfectly as a standalone style, it also can be used in conjunction with this year’s previous overland style Scorching Sun and Realms of Legend to vastly expand your symbol and texture options.

To facilitate combining these drawing styles this Annual issue also contains a tutorial on the topic. It discusses how to combine symbol catalogs, set up new catalog settings, merge bitmap fill styles as well using drawing tools from one style in another.

The issue is now available for CC3+ from the registration page for all subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2016 yet, you can do so here.

Sweeping mountain ranges, trackless deserts, endless oceans and deep forests, that’s the stuff the Realms of Legend are made of. Fearless cartographers brave these mythic landscapes to chart the paths heroes must take to defeat ancient evils, soulless necromancers and barbarian plunderers.

TJ Vandel’s latest overland drawing style lets you create beautiful maps of the lands we have always loved in our games, where dragons roam, courageous princesses save their loved ones and the next treasure-filled dungeon is just around the corner. They are the Realms of Legend and your adventurers are just waiting for the right map to lead them there.

The November issue is designed to mesh well with August’s Scorching Sun and the upcoming Dark Realms style to give you a huge selection of symbols and textures to choose for your maps.

The issue is now available for CC3+ from the registration page for all subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2016 yet, you can do so here.

Scorching desert, scouring dust storms and bleak landscapes are the daily lot of your adventuring party? Cruel magic has stripped most life from the surface of your world? This month’s Scorching Sun drawing style by TJ Vandel will let you map this kind of landscape in beautiful detail. Click the image on the right to see a high-detail version of the included example map.

In addition to the style, the included mapping guide gives you two tutorials on topics that come up in CC3+ mapping occasionally: How to add islands and lakes on top similar features without them getting obscured, and how to import fill styles from one drawing style into another.

The issue is now available for CC3+ from the registration page for all subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2016 yet, you can do so here.

Need a nicely illustrated map for your campaign? Perhaps as a hand-out for your players? Or a clear-printing map for your book project? This month’s “Woodcut Maps” style might just be the thing for you. Created by TJ Vandel it takes its inspiration from early-modern woodcut prints. More than 230 new symbols let you create a wide variety of landscapes. Click the image on the right to see a high-detail version of the included example map.

The issue is now available for CC3+ from the registration page for all subscribers. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2016 yet, you can do so here.

Several users over on the ProFantasy community forum have recently posted tutorials on various aspects of their map-making. These are wonderful resources for any mapper, and we are sharing them here for your convenience and ease of access.

Charley Wayne Robinson has a huge project going on, mapping his fantasy world in intricate detail. He discusses creating mountain ranges in a two-part tutorial, as well as creating rivers, and – a specialty of his – misty areas. You can download the pdfs from these links:

• River Tutorial
• Mountains Tutorial 1
• Mountains Tutorial 2
• Mist Tutorial

Ever-industrious Shessar posted two excellent tutorials on drawing streams and cliffs in DD3 Battlemaps. Both are difficult features to depict on a static, 2d map, at least if you want to make them look really good, but Shessar shows you exactly how to accomplish that.

• Streams Tutorial
• Cliffs Tutorial

As always kudos and many thanks to our wonderful user community, and here especially to Charles and Shessar. You can find more user tutorials on the Profantasy website.

And here is another tutorial by ArgoForg, showing the detailed river work of his country-scale maps.

• River Tutorial

As promised this month we are expanding last month’s Ancient Realms style by TJ Vandel with a whole bunch of additional location sybmols.

Several dozen gorgeous little vignettes show places like exotic cities, mystic stone circles and fobidden caves. They will pique the interest of your players and send them off to many places of adventure. Click the sample map on the right to see some of these symbols in use.

The November issue is available both for CC3 and CC3+. You can download both setups from your registration page on the Subscriptions tab. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2015 yet, you can do so here.

We are happy to announce the next compatibility update: Symbol Set 1 – Fantasy Overland is now available for CC3+. SS1 provides four new drawing styles for overland map, made up from over 2,500 new symbols, bitmap fills and drawing tools.

Click on the example map on the right created by Stephen Manuele. It shows off one of the new overland styles included in SS1 . The style, created by fantasy cartographer Sean Mcdonald, it is a wonderful handdrawn-like option for your fantasy maps. Download a large-scale pdf version here.

Check out the two more examples of maps drawn with the included styles as pdf versions:

Kingsport and Surroundings (the second bitmap style included in SS1, created by Peter Gifford)
Range of the Gods (a hand-drawn vector style, created by Sarah Wroot)

If you already own SS1, you can simply download the setup for CC3+ from your registration page. If you do not own SS1 yet, you can get a copy here.

The May Annual issue goes back to the roots of fantasy mapping both in terms of CC3 and the maps we’ll create. Many of us fantasy mappers have originally been inspired by the maps we found in fantasy novels, from the Lord of the Rings to the Wheel of Time, A Song of Ice and Fire and so many others.

The Classic Fantasy style gives you the opportunity to draw maps those yourself, on a beautiful parchment background, so they will also make great handouts for your players. As always you can download the style from your registration page.

If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2015 yet, you can do so here.

We’ve been following Alyssa Faden’s wonderful map-making work on the internet and have extremely please to now see her great artwork in the Annual 2014. With the November issue, you can create overland maps in Alyssa’s style, including her signature floating clouds.

The Annual issue includes more than 250 symbols, 16 bitmap fills, 40 drawing tools, as well as a 6-page mapping guide to follow along.

As a subscriber you can download the November Annual issue from your registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2014, you can do so here.

We are very happy to release another great Annual issue by Pär Lindström. Originally designed for the adventure collection Mythos Expeditions by Pelgrane Press, the style came out too beautiful to not make it into an Annual issue. The style lets you depict the itinerary and visited locations for modern journeys or expeditions as would be found in many modern horror or pulp adventures.

Quick and easy to use the Modern Journeys style lets you whip up a gorgeously illustrated maps in minutes. Choose from 150 Symbols to depict your locations, show the travel routes and identify the mode of transportation used.

As a subscriber you can download the September Annual issue from your registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2014, you can do so here.