Fort Tirad, a 2-hour map

[Galethorn]

So, this is the fist artwork I've posted here. It's the map of a city in my campaign. It's basically the main naval port for a large nation. I drew the original on graph paper with a mechanical pencil, and that part took about an hour. Then, I scanned it, and spent about an hour on it with photoshop.

Here's the result.

 

[Trainz]

The coastal layout is very inspired and interesting. I'm generally more uninspired about mine.

For your next map, try using a line drawing tool for the streets and walls. It will give a more refined result, but you will loose a bit on the "natural" feel. Experiment.

 

[Galethorn]

I guess I ought to mention that this was more of an experiment than anything. Now that I've seen it work, I'm planning to go back and ink in the pencil drawing, then re-scan it. That should make things a lot more defined.

As for the line tool, thank for the idea. That's one part of photoshop I haven't experimented much with.

 

[haiiro]

The coastal layout is very inspired and interesting.

I agree -- this is a really cool layout for a port city.

 

[James Heard]

Why not ink it in on the computer? It saves on skipping the scanning phase and unlike real ink you can step backwards and undo mistakes which is really awesome. I mean, if you'd already had it inked that's grand..but I think you're just adding more work for yourself if you're going to go back and ink it in by hand when you've already got a digital copy. Of course that's assuming you've caught the trick of a steady mouse hand or have a tablet, without which I might STILL do it on the computer because if you're at all interested in computer art it's a vital skill.

 

[Ferret]

Would the rich side want to be on the side where stroms wouuld hit hardest? Just a thought.

 

[Galethorn]

In this case, they would. If you could see the rough topographical map I drew, you would notice that the southwestern 'arm' of the city is sort of on a ridge, whereas the docks and slums are sort of on the mudflats. The climate also has something to do with it, of course; this port is at about the same lattitude as Spain or mid-california, and ends up with the same dry, warm climate (which I could go into more detail about the climatology behind, but I will suffice to say that both spain and mid-cali are between a northern 'cold and rainy' system and a southern 'warm and rainy' system).

Anyway...I inked in the drawing by hand, rescanned, and made the finishing touches about an hour ago. I'll post the updated version in a few minutes, with the key.

 

[Galethorn]

Ok...the key and the text I put in the [ code] box are supposed to go together, and be printed on the back of the same sheet as the map, but Word, for reasons that I'm too lazy to fix, made the resulting RTF about 4 megs.

1.	Main Gate
2.	Merchant Gate
3.	Fort Tirad Proper
4.	Naval Shipyards
5.	Public Harbor
6.	Jaryan Estate
7.	Jaryan docks
8.	Old Quarter
9.	Market Quarter
10.	High Quarter
11.	South Parade Ground
12.	North Parade Ground
13.	North Quarter
14.	Gold Point
15.	East-dock Market
16.	The North Gate
17.	The Orodil
18.	Castle Tirad
19.	Trade Guild HQ
20.	The Open Market

 

[blargney the second]

Nice map!

It looks a lot like the city I'm basing my current campaign in: Liberty. It's detailed in The Game Mechanics' gorgeous Thieves' Quarter book.

-blarg