Remapping the Forgotten Realms
Steven Nentwig (Steven!)
🖼️ 122 images Traveler
A couple of years ago I was preparing to run a classic AD&D-era Forgotten Realms campaign for an online group I'm GMing. Initially I planned on being lazy and simply using the maps from the FRIA. I noticed that a couple of the maps were missing or had some inaccuracies. This led me down a rabbit hole as I decided to remake all the maps I needed for my game. My goal was to stay as accurate as possible to the original maps and to fix any mistakes, and make them look a little nicer and in a similar style to current official D&D maps (mostly Schley), while also being usable in a vtt.
It's become an ongoing project and I'm not planning on recreating every single FR map, but I'd like to share my progress so far (I had to split up the .fcw files over multiple zip files). Perhaps someone will find these useful for their own campaigns.
Anathar's Dell (Northern Journey fan project)
Ashabenford (Volo's Guide to the Dalelands, 3E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting)
Burial Glen (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Cadorna Textile House (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Castle Daggerdale Exterior (Northern Journey fan project)
Castle Daggerdale Interior (Northern Journey fan project)
Catacombs Beneath Kuto's Well (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Central Shadowdale (2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set)
Civilized Phlan (Pool of Radiance video game)
Cult Hideout (Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor)
Dagger Falls (FRQ3 Doom of Daggerdale, The Return of Randal Morn)
Daggerdale (Volo's Guide to the Dalelands, The Sword of the Dales, 2E AD&D The Complete Starter Set)
Dalelands (2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set)
Denlor's Tower (Pool of Radiance novel)
Dragondark Tower (The Ruins of Myth Drannor box set)
Eagle's Eyerie (FRQ3 Doom of Daggerdale)
Elminster's Back Door (Dungeon #30)
Elminster's Tower (Forgotten Realms Atlas, 2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set)
Fire Knives Hideout (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Flaming Tower (Ruins of Zhentil Keep box set, Champions of Ruin)
Fzoul's Tower (Ruins of Zhentil Keep box set)
Garrison Headquarters (The Return of Randal Morn)
Gothyl's Tower (The Secret of Spiderhaunt)
Hadreth's Glen (Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas)
Hap (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Haptooth Hill Caverns (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Hillsfar (The Moonsea, Mysteries of the Moonsea)
Hobgoblin Lair Below Ground (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Hobgoblin Lair Ground Level (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Jorren's Grove (Fang, Beak, and Claw)
Kobold Kingdom (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Kovel Mansion (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Kuto's Well (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Mage-Lord's Crypt (FRQ3 Doom of Daggerdale)
Mansions (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Mantor's Library (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Mistlebrook (Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas)
Mistledale (Volo's Guide to the Dalelends)
Mistletarn (Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas)
Nomad Camp (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Old Skull Inn (2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set)
Orcs' Camp (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Phlan (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure, FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Phlan Area Map (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Podol Plaza (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Sauros Island Inside of Central Keep (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Sauros Island Overview (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Sauros Island Underground Complex (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Secret Temple (Ruins of Zhentil Keep box set)
Sewers Under Zhentil Keep (Ruins of Zhentil Keep box set)
Shadowdale (2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set, FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Shraevyn's Tomb (The Sword of the Dales)
Slums (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Snowmantle (Ruins of Zhentil Keep box set)
Sokol Keep (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Sorcerer's Island Aerial View (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Sorcerer's Island Bottom Level (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Sorcerer's Island Upper Levels (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Spiderhaunt Woods (The Secret of Spiderhaunt)
Stojanow Gate (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Stormpemhauder (The Secret of Spiderhaunt)
Temple in the Sky (Ruins of Zhentil Keep box set, Champions of Ruin)
Temple of Bane (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Temple of Bane and Tower of Fzoul (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Temple of Moander (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Temple of Tyranthraxus (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Teshmere (Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas)
Teshwave (Northern Journey fan project)
Tethyamarside (Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas)
The Black Altar (Temple of Bane) (Ruins of Zhentil Keep box set)
The Blue Alley (City of Splendors box set)
The Llundlath (The Ruins of Myth Drannor box set)
The Neidrecrypt (The Ruins of Myth Drannor box set)
The Thelaeneum (The Ruins of Myth Drannor box set)
Thri-Kreen Village Below Ground (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Thri-Kreen Village Ground Level (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Tilverton (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds, Forgotten Realms Adventures)
Tilverton Sewers (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Tilverton Thieves Guild (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Tower of Ashaba (2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set)
Tower of Ashaba Dungeon (2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set)
Tower of Bones (Pool of Radiance: Attack on Myth Drannor)
Tower of Dracandros (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Twisted Tower - Part 1 (2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set)
Twisted Tower - Part 2 (2E Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting box set)
Undead Castle (Arcane Age: How the Mighty Are Fallen)
Valhingen Graveyard (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Village of Hap (Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas)
Voonlar (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
White Chalk Hollow (Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas)
Windlord's Rest (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Windsong Tower (Crypt) (The Ruins of Myth Drannor box set)
Yulash (Forgotten Realms Atlas)
Yulash Southwest Corner (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Zhentarim Tethyamar Outpost (3E Lords of Darkness)
Zhentil Keep Inner Quarter (FRC2 Curse of the Azure Bonds)
Zhentil Keep Outpost (FRC1 Ruins of Adventure)
Zhentil Keep Ruins (Ruins of Zhentil Keep box set)
Comments
Thanks for sharing!
I've tried converting a couple of the FRIA maps to a newer style, but I haven't yet managed to finish a single map before my players move to a new location. Heh.
Haha yeah I can relate to that. Some of the maps I finished after the fact. Now that I've developed a workflow and 99% of the work already done I can convert FRIA maps fairly quickly. Also trying to stay as faithful to the original maps was a good choice in hindsight, I saved a lot of time keeping maps sparsely decorated with symbols.
Finished a few more maps, this time from the 3rd edition Lords of Darkness source book.
Hey Steven, these maps are amazing, looking at the images on the site.
I liked them enough that I bought the basic bundle of CC3+, CD, and DD. When I downloaded your .fcws and opened them in CC3+, the city and dungeon maps have just 'X' in boxes against a white background.
For instance, Anathar's Dell looks like this:
I'm guessing either I'm missing some required map/symbol packs, or some other basic step to opening/viewing the .fcws.
I'm definitely not asking for a tutorial, but if there's a couple of pointers you could throw my way to get the .fcw files to open properly, it would be HUGELY appreciated!
Thanks in advance for any advice!
That map seems to be mainly made with the Symbol Set 5: Cities of Schley addon. You need that to open the .fcw file properly.
Thanks very much!
As Monsen already mentioned I mainly used Symbol Set 5: Cities for Schley and Symbol Set 4: Dungeons of Schley for most of my FR maps, as well as Schley's free monthly symbol sets.
There're a few exceptions where I experimented with different symbol sets. 'Elminster's Tower' and the 'Old Skull Inn' were made with Perspective 3, and 'Central Shadowdale' with Symbol Set 6: Isometric Cities.
Steven, thanks for the response. I purchased and installed several of the symbol sets, which resolved ~90% of the missing assets.
One other area that I'm still noticing on several of the maps is missing fills. When I look at the fill style properties (learned to do that from Monsen's awesome post https://rpgmaps.profantasy.com/why-do-i-see-a-red-x/ ) , several of the missing bitmaps are hardcoded to C:\CC2\* directories.
Example: Cobble on Denlor's Tower is looking for C:\CC2\TSR\CITY\Dryclay.bmp, which doesn't exist on my system. I did a full search for Dryclay.bmp but couldn't find anything.
Others include Earth Sym at C:\CC2\TSR\CITY\Brick08.bmp and P3B Parchment at @Bitmaps\Backgrounds\Parchments\P3B Parchment Background_HI.PNG....that one isn't hard-coded (relative directory naming), but is still missing.
Castle Daggerdale Interior has a missing Background, and it's looking for E:\FCW32\Texture\random.bmp and Ocean at #Bitmaps\Tiles\Ocean.bmp
Any idea if these would be addressed if I found and imported Perspective 3 (not sure what that is, honestly)? It seems like the hardcoded directories would still need to be changed, but I'm literally a day 2 newbie at CC, so I'm drinking from the proverbial firehose.
Again, thanks for any assist, and I'm super stoked to start using these beautiful maps!
Those "C:\CC2\" missing files are unlikely to be an issue, they're probably just some remnant definitions from old times that still is defined, but not used. I doubt Steven would have those either. Same with those "E:\FCW32" references. Sometimes some of those old references decides to hide out in the list of fill style, but it doesn't matter if nothing in the map actually references them.
If you see a red X in the map, use List on it. If it is a symbol reference, it doesn't matter what fill style it has, as you are dealing with missing art for the symbol itself, which should then be checked by opening up the symbol manager, finding the missing symbol in the list there, and hit the list button to get info on the paths of the symbol artwork files, while on the other hand if it is some kind of filled polygon, then the fill style matters, and you can look up the name in the fill style dialog and check the path.
Hey Monsen....appreciate the insight into symbol vs. fill. As far as I can tell, in the case of E:\FCW32\* files, it's a fill (see above). I'm not sure if this is a missing texture pack (is that even a term in CC?) that I need to import, or if I should change the file to point at a fill style that I actually do have?
I attached a similar screenshot showing Denlor's Tower with a missing background that also looks to be a fill style referencing a directory (C:\CC2\*) that doesn't exist on my system.
Let me know if you'd prefer that I have screenshots as attachments instead of copy/paste....not sure if it matters to you.
Thanks again to you both!
Looks like you're missing the bitmap. I thought it was a default bitmap but I had to double check, the parchment texture is included with Perspective 3.
Keep in mind that the names of the fills doesn't mean anything, it is just a name. Just because that particular fill happens to be named "background" doesn't mean it is the fill that is used for the map background.
If you look at my screenshot below, I have used the List command on the background polygon. In the list output, you can see the fill is "P3B Parchment Background Bitmap", which you can then look up in the fill style dialog as I did in my screenshot.
As Steven chimed in above, this comes from Perspectives 3. (It can be a bit difficult to read from the fill style file name since it doesn't mention Perspectives int he path, but P3B means Perspectives 3, bitmap style B.)
Awesome....I purchased Perspectives 3 and pretty much everything cleaned up after that....maps look great!
Thank you both for the great support!
Now I just need to understand how to edit/remove text off the maps to I can make player-friendly versions w/o room numbers, labels, etc 😁
Put all text on the text sheet and text layer. Print out the map with the text layer hidden. No text will show, unless its on a different lsyer.
Jim, thanks for the tip. I'll need to figure out how to look at the sheets and layers for a map.
Steven and Monsen, one other question. The images at
https://forum.profantasy.com/profile/gallery/12145/Steven%20Nentwig%20%28Steven%21%29/283/p2
have a nice white outline around the black text, and the walls have a nice black shadow effect around them. However, when I open the .fcw in CC3+, those effects are missing:
Is there some other utility or library I need to add to get those effects?
Sheet effects are turned off by default. Click on the 'sheets' button on the top bar, check 'Activate Sheet Effects', and then click the 'Apply' button.
Steven, you, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman. Thanks to you, Monsen, and Jim for the quick, informative responses!
I put text on a separate layer, either on the 'GAME MASTER ONLY' or 'TEXT' layer. Similar to sheets, click the 'layer' button on the top bar. This opens the list with layers, the first box is to select the current active layer, the second to hide/show the layer, and the third box is to freeze the layer.
I put all secret doors and traps on the 'SECRET' layer so you have to hide that one as well for player maps.
:)
Steven, huge thanks for the step-by-step info!
All, how do I change text on a map? I've selected the text layer, but I can't seem to select the text to be able to change it.
If there's a handy section in a guide someone could point me to, I'll 'teach myself how to fish' also 🙂
Make sure the text layer is unfrozen/unlocked and click the 'Numeric Edit' button on the left tool panel. The mouse cursor should have a small box next to it, then click on the text you want to edit. This should open the 'Edit Text' window. In the 'Properties' settings you can change the font, size, and alignment.
If you want to change the text color you need the 'Edit Properties' button right above the 'Numeric Edit' button.
Awesome...thanks yet again Steven!
No problem, glad to help out a fellow mapper.
I'd recommend watching tutorials on youtube, that's how I started. Aside from Profantasy's official channel I found Joe Sweeney's channel very helpful. There're a few other channels too.
I highly recommend the tutorials, too. I spent five years thinking I could learn it just from the PDF manuals, which are great references but I couldn't quite get it from them. Joe Sweeney's "Parrot Island" tutorial really made things click for me. From there, I watched more of Joe's tutorials, and then some of the shorter ProFantasy ones. Remy Monsen created a page describing the video tutorials. I'd start with Learning CC3+ and Campaign Cartographer Concepts, and then fill in with the Quickies to learn specific techniques before moving on to the Live Videos.
The Live Videos are fantastic, but some of the more recent ones may be a bit advanced for newcomers until they get the hang of the basic fundamentals. I watched one of the more advanced ones when I was first learning, and it was way over my head -- but really great in showing me the power and potential of CC3+. And now that I've grasped the fundamentals, I'm addicted to the Live shows, though I usually have to watch hours later. For me, they're very peaceful. I love seeing how a blank canvass can evolve into a work of art. I've watched the two Forest Trails ones multiple times when I need a soothing, bucolic break in nature.
thanks RS and Steven...I'll look into those resources.
Fixed some minor mistakes and spelling errors.
I just bought myself SS4 and Perspectives for my Birthday and to look at all your awesome maps.
Love the effort in all of them. Especially taking FRIA maps and turning them to point North as all maps should be.
Also fixing some maps like the Fire Knives hideout tunnel.
I noticed for some reason Tilverton has some hidden entities in the Text labels and text labels outlines.
It just won't zoom to extents properly if those aren't hidden. I tried a few things but cound't figure it out. It was very laggy for some reason. My laptop is pretty powerful so that was a bit of a surprise.
Thanks, glad you like the maps. :)
I'll have to look into the Tilverton map and clean it up.
I just stumbled across this thread an I must say that I am impressed by your work. I am planning on hosting the Avatar Trilogy via FoundryVTT and I am trying to get better versions of the overland maps (the ones I have are low-quality black and white scans). Re-drawing the dungon maps is not that hard, but I really struggle with the overland maps and city maps.
I would like to use your maps in my campaign. I see many of those red X tiles. Which symbol set did you use for Central Shadowdale?
His map seems to be made up from Resources from CC3+ Core, Perspectives 3, SS5 and SS6.
You can easily check where a symbol comes from by going to Symbols -> Symbol manager, selecting any symbol (including one of the red X's) and hitting the List button. This should show the file path to the art file used (among other information), and it is usually not too hard to figure out what it means, for example all SS6 resources have SS6 in the path.
You can do the same for fills by opening up the fill style dialog, go to the bitmap files tab, picking any fill in the list, and inspect the path shown in the appropriate field.