Map Showcase

[Treslo Kresha]

Strange place for a first post I know but maps are what I enjoy, so here are a bevy of unfinished maps I've done in the past.
Newish unfinished map

Semi-new playing.
Goofing off and learning map.
My First map, Pern for my friend.
Pern map.
For a sci-fi setting.
Planetary System Map
First map that started trying new methods.
Old map 1.
and its earlier version
Old Map 1.2

[Matt Larkin (author)]

Welcome to the CBG!

I'm a big fan of "Newish unfinished map" - I really like the texture of the land.

Is that Photoshop work?

[Treslo Kresha]

A merger of sorts, first I create the shapes in photoshop, then I drop them into a terrain program for Terragen, render the terrain.  After that it heads back to photoshop where I do the seas, and the like at my leisure.  The map is a 20MB .psd photoshop file right now, a lot of the stuff is hidden but really cool as I've combined the terrain rendering softwares things with the photoshop map.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Great way to get started around here, Treslo.  I can't wait to see more work from you.  I agree with PK, the Newish Unfinished map has a very nice look to it.

[sparkletwist]

Hehe, my favorite is actually the "goofing off" map.

I wonder if this is a good or bad thing. ;)

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Yeah, I liked that one too, but I would like to see it larger.

[Treslo Kresha]

Yeah, I liked that one too, but I would like to see it larger.

Interesting thing about that map is that it is simply a different technique applied to the top map I described earlier.  I took a portion of it, affixed it and blended it through photoshop to produce the effect.  My edge blending could be better but it was a smash and grab job.

Warning very large animation of what would happen if the world flooded. (which was necessary for this world in that the beginning of the game was set with a earthshaking celestial event.)

[sparkletwist]

Here's a map I've been working on lately :)

[Ishmayl-Retired]

Nice, what program do you use and what kinds of filters?  And what font is that?

[Seraph]

Rael the DMG does say that a DM can add a town in or tweak the location of a town or city any time they want, doesn't it?

Of course you still don't have to make regional maps, but I personally see them as a way to spur on creativity (More details=more things to work off of)

If you have every single square foot of land mapped, it becomes harder for the DM to glue things in, of course, so I'm going to assume you mean that some regional maps help things out. I think it depends on the themes of the world. Phaedoras is 80% wilderness and most of the land isn't mapped, but there are interesting things in the jungle, so I  don't want to go down to regional mostly because there isn't much to show. Over those three big islands, there are only two major cities and two minor cities. A world with a more civilized feel, such as Avayevnon or Jade Stage, I'd want plenty of regional maps.

---

@ Mina: The compass was colored by me, but it was clipart before that. Thanks for the link. I'll check it out.

Well yes, I can definitely see how a world like Phaedoras would not benefit from regional maps.  Perhaps an occasional map of a village, but there is little point to mapping anything else (beyond an overall world map, just to have something, though it's not really important in such a world).

[sparkletwist]

Nice, what program do you use and what kinds of filters?  And what font is that?

I'm using Paint Shop Pro (version 6! But it still does everything I need...)
All of the terrain was drawn with the various paper textures (mostly "Terrain," "Lava," and "Fruit Peel" for the land, and "Mist" and "Ocean" for the desert sands and water), then I used the clone brush to put in the mountains and treetops from a screenshot of some random fractal terrain.

The font for the terrain features is called "Carolingia."
The one for the cities is "Papyrus."

[Elemental_Elf]

Hi, I'm new here but I thought I might toss my hat in and see what people think.

This is the map to a new campaign setting I'm making. The setting itself is in the early stages of production, so the map lacks names and scale :(

 [spoiler=Anyways, here it is] [/spoiler]

EDIT: just so you know, the map is more topographical, each color representing a thousand feet in elevation. :)

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've started to redo the map of Urbis - I want to do a color map in the style of 19th century maps.

So far I have the basic background - coast lines and political boundaries, including different colors for each region:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

So far, it is huge and empty - but don't worry, it will fill up fast with the details...

[LordVreeg]

Jurgen, you've gotten the feel you want, the '1840' europe look...if that is what you are looking for.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Jurgen, you've gotten the feel you want, the '1840' europe look...if that is what you are looking for.

That was precisely what I was aiming for, and you'll see more of it in the future...