Slowly excising other people's IP besides the D&D rules ... the latest to go is the Outdoor Survival map. I'd like to have the freedom to publish maps, and to make the terrain exactly how I want it. I really wanted a Merman or Triton city, for instance, and didn't have a place to put one on the OS map. So fuck it, making a map.
I'm not a good cartographer, but I've started a new blank JG map for the Dwarf-Land wilderness. I don't expect it'll take me long to fill it out in a slightly gussied-up "Known World" hex-style.
Below are very early screen shots. I usually get the mountain ranges down, then rivers, swamps, forests, settlements, castles, and dungeons. I've also placed a few dungeons already that you may recognize. Or not, I'm a shit artist.
(I'm placing Quasqueton, Galap-Dreidel's Tower, Acererak's Tomb, and White Plume Mountain. It looks like I may get to run a small tabletop thing here shortly, so I'm peppering in a few of the more "modular" classics. The Tomb of Horrors is waaaaay over to the southeast part of the map.)
I figure it'll take me a few days to get the map about where I want it. I'm contemplating doing my own dungeon maps, too, so I can put them in the supplement along with very sparse keys.
Heck, that's excellent cartographic drawing. At least as good or better than the hex map in my jungle supplement. Did you practice the little drawings on scratch paper first before inking them on the map?
ReplyDeleteDid you practice the little drawings on scratch paper first before inking them on the map?
ReplyDeleteYeah, for sure. I still haven't worked out a "forest" symbol I really like, and I expect the towns and castles to be pains in the butt.
Just when I thought this couldn't get more entertaining and excellent. Truly inspired.
ReplyDeleteI'll be doing a similar thing once I receive my own blank maps. I hope to be able to do each town and castle with their own unique symbol.
ReplyDeleteYours are definitely looking good so far.
1. So this is all going into the pdf?
ReplyDelete2. Is this getting way beyond what you thought you'd be doing when you started?
3. In a good way?
4. This is looking like it will be kinda amazing.
That's looking great so far. Can't wait to see the final map!
ReplyDeleteYou do yourself a disservice Scott, the artwork is great.
ReplyDeleteIt looks awesome, Scott. Good decision to draw your own map.
ReplyDelete1. So this is all going into the pdf?
ReplyDeleteIt's all going into the supplement, i.e., getting photocopied. I'm not doing a .pdf. Which, as everyone knows, doesn't mean there will never be one, just not one generated by me.
2. Is this getting way beyond what you thought you'd be doing when you started?
Definitely, although I've learned not to expect what I end up with to resemble what I originally planned.
3. In a good way?
Absolutely, although I'm trying to avoid it becoming too bloated, both on design principles and because I don't want it to end up so big that it becomes vaporware before I get anything to anyone. I'm still trying to be brief, just broader than I thought.
4. This is looking like it will be kinda amazing.
I appreciate it, along with the other kind words. I'm hoping for an effect similar to the serried ranks of 10mm Warmaster armies - individually, any particular 10mm figure doesn't look like much because of the tiny scale, but at "tabletop" distance, even a competent paint job yields pretty cool results.
I agree with the others; so far it's looking toward being a nice-looking map. Bonus points for the frowning ghost tower. What kind of pen are you using to draw it?
ReplyDeleteWith respect to forests I wouldn't look for a cute hex symbol. Texture is better I think and allow them to occupy fractions of a hex. Same with lakes and marshland.
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of pen are you using to draw it?
ReplyDeleteMicron 05 for coastlines and rivers, 01 for detail work. I'd like to go smaller than the 01 for lettering but can't find my nice cartridge drafting pen, so I may have to order a Micron 005.
With respect to forests I wouldn't look for a cute hex symbol. Texture is better I think and allow them to occupy fractions of a hex. Same with lakes and marshland.
I'm not really looking to use a single tree in the center of the hex as in the Cook Expert style of mapping, but I haven't decided if I'm drawing unified "cloud" forests, or multiple shaded lollipops per hex.
Lakes definitely get drawn as blobs. Marshland will probably be tiny sprigs, several per hex as in the Wilderlands maps.