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NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
Some quick sketches
- Thread starter psyekl
- Start date
Kid Charlemagne
I am the Very Model of a Modern Moderator
Lalato said:I'm not sure I understand your objection. The original drawings could be alongside the "blown up" D&D versions.
--sam
I suppose that's true - if there's a version with no scale, it can be worked to any scale needed. Another neat idea might be to do an overall map - like the castle one - and smaller "encounter area" maps, along the lines of the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft book...
Geez Psyekl, it doesn't seem to matter what type of map you do (dungeon, building, city), they all keep turning up cool 
If you do get close to publishing, it wouldn't hurt to talk to Cartographers who have already "made it" (as in being published in a commercial product) for pointers and advice. Three good ones I can think of off the bat are Christopher West (see Dungeon magazine, Wotc and the Game Mechanics City Quarters series--especially Thieve's Quarter) at http://www.velocity.net/~westwinds/; Craig Zipse (whose done a lot of work for Kenzer and Company (Kalamar), Wotc, 7th Sea, Shadis and Dungeon Magazines) at http://www.craigzipse.com (you can check out a broad selection of his work at http://www.craigzipse.com/ mapdungeon.htm; and Keith Curtis at http://www.kacurtis.com (his City of Tallon at http://savageearth.net/Tallon-Rendered.html is one of the most insane pieces of Cartography I've ever seen. Homeslice either has some serious drafting OCD or went into overdrive using the autofill function in his cad program . His world and continent maps are something special to behold as well, check out http://www. baegtobar.com/tier_3.php?page=atlas ).
West and Robert Lazzeretti (who does a lot of work for Dungeon and Wotc) sometimes hang out at the Paizo.com messageboards and seem to be very approachable and courteous. While you're there, you can check out the free Dungeon Magazine issues map downloads at
http://paizo.com/dungeon/news for a broad cross section of the types of cartography that Dungeon is using (and they use quite a bit).
One of the things that they've been publishing recently that I really like are what I call "cartographic paths". The paths are a series of generic maps that can be used as stand alones but have pointers to other maps that are published in previous or later issues (check the last page of each Dungeon supplement for the maps, they should be labeled Maps of Mystery--one of my favorites is a series of maps of a subterranean lost world formed in a glacier by steam from a volcano). If you go commercial you might want to try some variation of the idea for yourself, so far, it's been going over really well.
Keep at it and I hope you find something of use in the above Psyekl.
If you do get close to publishing, it wouldn't hurt to talk to Cartographers who have already "made it" (as in being published in a commercial product) for pointers and advice. Three good ones I can think of off the bat are Christopher West (see Dungeon magazine, Wotc and the Game Mechanics City Quarters series--especially Thieve's Quarter) at http://www.velocity.net/~westwinds/; Craig Zipse (whose done a lot of work for Kenzer and Company (Kalamar), Wotc, 7th Sea, Shadis and Dungeon Magazines) at http://www.craigzipse.com (you can check out a broad selection of his work at http://www.craigzipse.com/ mapdungeon.htm; and Keith Curtis at http://www.kacurtis.com (his City of Tallon at http://savageearth.net/Tallon-Rendered.html is one of the most insane pieces of Cartography I've ever seen. Homeslice either has some serious drafting OCD or went into overdrive using the autofill function in his cad program
. His world and continent maps are something special to behold as well, check out http://www. baegtobar.com/tier_3.php?page=atlas ).West and Robert Lazzeretti (who does a lot of work for Dungeon and Wotc) sometimes hang out at the Paizo.com messageboards and seem to be very approachable and courteous. While you're there, you can check out the free Dungeon Magazine issues map downloads at
http://paizo.com/dungeon/news for a broad cross section of the types of cartography that Dungeon is using (and they use quite a bit).
One of the things that they've been publishing recently that I really like are what I call "cartographic paths". The paths are a series of generic maps that can be used as stand alones but have pointers to other maps that are published in previous or later issues (check the last page of each Dungeon supplement for the maps, they should be labeled Maps of Mystery--one of my favorites is a series of maps of a subterranean lost world formed in a glacier by steam from a volcano). If you go commercial you might want to try some variation of the idea for yourself, so far, it's been going over really well.
Keep at it and I hope you find something of use in the above Psyekl.
DethStryke
Explorer
Indeed, it's good to see you back, Psyekl!
I tried working with him to bring combine PDF format with his work to overlay grids and allow editable areas to place names and the like on rooms... but I failed.
The format from Adobe really couldn't handle that, and what it could do with layers didn't really do it justice.
I've been looking for another platform/way to combine his maps into a viable format like that for over a year now - I think it deserves the attention and praise! - but I just keep coming up frustratingly short.
I tried working with him to bring combine PDF format with his work to overlay grids and allow editable areas to place names and the like on rooms... but I failed.
The format from Adobe really couldn't handle that, and what it could do with layers didn't really do it justice.I've been looking for another platform/way to combine his maps into a viable format like that for over a year now - I think it deserves the attention and praise! - but I just keep coming up frustratingly short.
Thanks for the links! I particularly like http://www.craigzipse.com , his style is most like what I'm trying to accomplish. Thanks again for all the positive feedback!
Attachments
Glad you found something of use in the mass of links I posted Psyekl. Keep drawing, and if you feel like it, keep posting
The smugglers city was pretty nifty, consider it snagged. I like how you created the room complexes in stone surrounding the city--they remind me of those spectacular buildings and cities carved out of stone I've seen pictured in National Geographic, such as Petra in Jordan and Medain Saleh in Saudi Arabia. Having also grabbed the dwarven keep you posted earlier, I shudder to think what a dwarf city, dungeon or extensive underground complex of yours would look like.
The smugglers city was pretty nifty, consider it snagged. I like how you created the room complexes in stone surrounding the city--they remind me of those spectacular buildings and cities carved out of stone I've seen pictured in National Geographic, such as Petra in Jordan and Medain Saleh in Saudi Arabia. Having also grabbed the dwarven keep you posted earlier, I shudder to think what a dwarf city, dungeon or extensive underground complex of yours would look like.
Ursa Romanov
First Post
As a 26 year vet of D&D I have to say Im impressed. 
