Community Atlas: Dendorlig Hall - A Sort-Of D23 Dungeon for Nibirum

edited January 2023 in Show and Tell

Those of you who follow the RPG world online will be aware already that all kinds of hell have been breaking loose in recent days, regarding the curious acronym "OGL" and its current and future uses. Those unaware of, or disinterested in, the RPG world - you're very fortunate; DO NOT get involved in this morass!

Consequently, a distraction was obviously in order. So I distracted myself away from my latest Errynor map (not sure that was intentional, however!), and was thinking about another recent suggestion from the online RPG world, with the equally curious acronym "D23". Essentially, the original idea behind this, which I think loosely expands to mean "Dungeon 2023", was to set a personal challenge for anyone interested to design a dungeon room a day throughout 2023, to end up with a 365-room megadungeon for those lasting the course.

As you may imagine, people have approached this with varying degrees of optimism, since trying to persist with this for an entire year is quite an undertaking, particularly given how unpredictable the broader events affecting everyone have been in recent years. Quite a number of folks seem to be giving it a trial-run during January, followed by a "we'll see..." beyond that.

Being no stranger to long-term projects, unfortunately, I learnt about this only on Dec 31st last year, which was a bit late to start planning anything! Several ideas have been mulled over since then though, a couple of which might be of interest to some people here looking for a less challenging way to participate in this project - maybe a small dungeon level a month, say, perhaps using one of the free online random dungeon designer systems to generate suitable base maps, or possibly one or more dungeons containing each a dozen rooms. These could be for contribution to the Community Atlas during the year, though some might need an outdoor area map preparing as well, depending on exactly where they'd be located. I'm sure some of our more active area mappers like Quenten and JimP could suggest some potential locations, for instance, if you can't find somewhere satisfactory yourself.

While this list won't be complete, these are the random dungeon generators I've become familiar with in recent times. I'm sure others here can suggest alternatives:

https://dungen.app/dungen/

https://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/

https://watabou.itch.io/one-page-dungeon

https://www.d20srd.org/d20/dungeon/

https://osricrpg.com/tools/index.php

This latter site, also known as the "Robe of Useful Items", includes the old Wizardawn content as part of it. Wizardawn, as I've mentioned on the Forum before, is no longer available live online. Instead the OSRIC RPG site has a link letting you download an HTML version of the complete old site, which still works in a browser under Win 10 (at least - not sure about Win 11), though it is a little clunky to set-up. It contains a vast treasury of "Old School" style RPG features and random generators created by various people over many years, however.

So, what have I done? (Or should that be clasping-head-style, "On no; what have I DONE?!") Well, thus far, I decided a sort-of D23 dungeon for Nibirum wouldn't have 365 rooms, but 360, because of course Nibirum's year is 360 days long. So I generated a suitably-sized random dungeon using the Wizardawn system. This creates the map from a large series of old hand-drawn dungeon geomorphs, so comes out a little rough-and-ready, with the sort of imprecisions you might expect. Which I then traced into CC3+, along the way deciding I wasn't going to remove all those imprecisions, so not all the walls are quite straight, or always parallel to the one opposite, or wholly symmetrical, and so forth.

On that "Old School" basis - although personally, I still can't get away from the idea the style's quite new-fangled really (I come from still further away in time with RPGs, after all!) - I went with the Old School Blue Dungeon style from Cartographer's Annual 12. This is a very forgiving drawing style, and uses no effects, so despite the 700-foot-square size of the random dungeon, it only took a few days to put together, a bit at a time:

This is still work-in-progress, as even at this blurry scale, I'm sure you can spot some elements that need adjusting. I know I can! And if not, I've uploaded a larger version to my Gallery! Plus, I may want to add or amend details in places subsequently, once the content description is finalised. A symbol key will need adding as well, I suspect. Luckily, the Wizardawn set-up generates a vast amount of text data as well as random maps - albeit the description only has the same number of labelled rooms, and isn't fitted to whatever the random dungeon design plan looks like, so it takes some work to knock that into a shape that makes sense. Which may be where the "2023" facet comes in here!

That's all to come, but for now, it would be helpful if someone could point me towards a place on Nibirum where such a substantial dungeon might be situated. I'd thought about adding it to the existing Community Atlas megadungeon there, but as it's a megadungeon in itself already, that seemed counterproductive. Ideally, I'd like to place it somewhere that already has a suitable overland map at a small enough scale to show where a dungeon entrance could be, and while it's not firmly fixed, the original was chosen for "Mountains" as the nearby outdoor terrain during generation. It would be nice too to set it on a continent/landmass on Nibirum I've not mapped in before - so EXCLUDING Alarius, Kentoria, Ezrute and Peredur ideally (this is not a hard-and-fast rule, however).

There is an exterior entrance in a large cave towards the top right of the map (area 1), which has a heavily-walled military keep-like structure (3), and an external wall with a double door (the north wall of 2), and while I'd imagine the entire structure is no longer used by the people who originally constructed it, or not for the purpose it was first intended, at least, that may be something to bear in mind when looking for suitable sites on Nibirum for this to go.

More details to follow, if all goes to plan.

MonsenLoopysueJulianDracosJimPRalfScottAjmabbottRicko HascheLautipablo gonzalezand 1 other.

Comments

  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited January 2023

    That's all to come, but for now, it would be helpful if someone could point me towards a place on Nibirum where such a substantial dungeon might be situated

    How about making it the Dendorlig Hall? That's a marked entrance on an overland map.


  • Sounds like a plan, Monsen! Checking the Atlas maps and notes, would I need to connect it to Scott's "Darklands" as well? I'm a little hazy as to how far underground those might be, though there are a couple of small chasms already in this "Blue" that could be loosely claimed as descending far enough, without needing specific inter-map links - that by label 168 and in chamber 295 for instance (which latter could be converted to a chasm instead of a rocky cave wall - the original hand-drawn feature there was rather ambiguous).

    JimP
  • The other choice I was also thinkig of is one of the subregional maps of the Dunor Valley in Ezrute. Though I think the Mt Dendorlig choice to be really a great choice.

  • While this list won't be complete, these are the random dungeon generators I've become familiar with in recent times. I'm sure others here can suggest alternatives

    Challenge accepted! 😁

    This is my (current) take on procedural dungeon generation. Forever a "work in progress" it seems (haven't touched it in a long time). I've had so much fun creating it, perhaps someone else has fun using it:

    I also keep a hand-curated list of generators (which hasn't been updated in ages) here: http://rpg20.com/about.php#dungeon

    Autumn Getty
  • That is a lot of rooms. I dare you to say redo it in isometric :P

    JimP
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer
    edited January 2023

    @Wyvern wrote:

    Checking the Atlas maps and notes, would I need to connect it to Scott's "Darklands" as well?

    I would say that's completely optional. According to Scott's description, those are "deep underground". They're also continent-scale, so his map isn't at a detail level that would show any potential dungeon levels, so if you want a connection, it could be as simple as putting a trapdoor/hidden stair in any room and saying it leads to a long tunnel going down to the Darklands, or as you mention, just describing one of your chasms as being really deep....

    Loopysue
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    Wow! I'm kind of jealous that I don't have the time while I'm busy creating new stuff all the time, but on the other hand...

    I'm not really sure I would manage to stick the course.

    Good luck, Wyvern! :)

  • Thanks for all the comments, "likes", and so forth folks! Much appreciated.

    "Dendorlig Hall" it is then (and topic title amended to reflect the fact)! Please reserve it for me in the Atlas @Monsen, if not already!

    @roflo1 - Yours is another fun dungeon generator, and one that for some obscure reason hadn't come up among my Google searches previously. Looking through the list you have there (for random dungeons only), I note several links are broken now, and one of the sites that still exists, Dizzy Dragon's, isn't an "https" site, which sometimes get flagged or blocked by certain browsers/browser settings now. Might be worth reviewing and amending the whole page now?

    No thanks, Julian! I prefer to set my own challenges! But this might be an interesting project for another mapper here?

    @Loopysue - Maybe just one of the smaller twelve-room dungeons might be a possibility for you though? Might even fit to your creation schedule if there's a fresh dungeon style coming up later this year that will need a sample map preparing, say...

    Thanks for the comment re Scott's "Darklands" map too, Remy. I've been checking over the maps and descriptions for the Malajuri area since I last noted anything here, and as you wrote, couldn't find anything suggesting direct links to the surface world, though there is a somewhat "compartmentalised" layout to my blue dungeon map already, which could suggest a possible faction or two from the Darklands might have established an outpost or two here. I'll have to think about this further!

    LoopysueJimProflo1
  • Yours is another fun dungeon generator, and one that for some obscure reason hadn't come up among my Google searches previously.

    I don't know why it doesn't show up anywhere. Well, other than me not doing a single thing for SEO. :)

    It's always been more of a playground than a proper webpage. But it kinda works. And there's a couple of things there that no other generator does. So I keep it online.

    Looking through the list you have there (for random dungeons only), I note several links are broken now, and one of the sites that still exists, Dizzy Dragon's, isn't an "https" site, which sometimes get flagged or blocked by certain browsers/browser settings now. Might be worth reviewing and amending the whole page now?

    Yeah. I know. I should do that. (soon-ish) ;)

    JimP
  • Thanks @Autumn Getty, and good luck @roflo1!

    The final FCW file for the Atlas is going to be a bit different to the image here for this dungeon, as I've started making alterations to fit how I see it as being Dendorlig Hall, rather than a generic random dungeon as shown so far. Not least is the map's probably going to be inverted, so what's currently shown as north will be more southeast, to fit better to the area map (the cardinal directions will be roughly those suggested by the corner "arrow"-shapes of Room 17, for instance; at least on current thinking!).

    As the random design created a lot of oddly small rooms and buildings (?) in a cave in the current map's top right, and drawing on the map notes for Malajuri, I'm thinking this part is a gnome settlement under King Dendorlig XXX, which has only recently been reoccupied, with much of the dungeon remaining little to unexplored. Thus the gnomes might be looking for cannon fodder adventurers to explore and map further for them. What's more distant from that top right corner remains a little vague in mind currently, however!

    Actual mapping progress has been delayed by other matters, however, not least events yesterday relating to the first paragraph in my initial posting here (yes, it's all still dragging interminably on, like slaying a dragon that has far too many hit points...).

    More when I know what it is (on the mapping and dungeon notes only!!!).

    roflo1
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    That sounds like the beginning of a dastardly plan to confuse the players from the outset. Turning the map upside down is a good one! LOL!

    JimP
  • Well, it just fits better to how the Dendorlig region is set-up actually Sue (as the GM would say anyway, of course... 😉😈).

    Loopysue
  • I used to tell my players that South was the top of the map... they hated it, but it was to show them it wasn't a parallel Earth.

  • 18 days later
  • Well, my original intention was to provide a progress update here during January. And then before the end of January. And here we are in February, so you can see how well that went...

    However, progress HAS been made despite that, even if a lot of it's less easy to show here as yet. That's mainly because I've been preparing handwritten notes on the various itemised areas within this dungeon, which in turn has led to a few alterations in the look of the map. As I've reached area 100 of the 360 this way, things in that respect aren't going too badly. Typing-up my handwritten scrawlings is not moving at the same speed though, and that's still a LONG way behind.

    As I mentioned briefly before, from the initial map, it was clear that the parts nearest the entrance cave (areas 1-49) formed a separate region within the overall dungeon, as all being linked to one another, with just a single access-route to the remainder. Looking at the Atlas notes regarding Malajuri, in conjunction with the relatively small sizes of the rooms, led me to the idea that this had originally been a Gnome subterranean complex. For obscure/now long-forgotten reasons, the Gnomes had had to leave it for long enough that its whereabouts had been lost, until the Gnomes under King Dendorlig XXX had managed to find it again, and start to reoccupy, renovate and explore it in more recent years.

    As also noted, the description of what's where within the complex has been drawing heavily on the random details generated by the Wizardawn system, albeit amended or adapted in places, particularly in this first Gnome-reoccupied zone, where random monsters are not going to be lurking! Instead, things like that have been reimagined as alternative features, such as wall-paintings or sculptures, and rather more has been added to have the whole make sense, since there's now a village (in cavern 22) and a military compound covering access to the rest of the dungeon (where dangers DO still lurk), around and off the muster courtyard 39. Along the way, a powerful maybe-deity nature spirit of the mountain has been inserted, Dendorla, at the great Water Temple (17), since water is a) naturally vital for living things, and b) the Gnomes long had elements such as piped water supplies and flushing toilets. I've mentioned before how making sense of random descriptions and area layouts helps me better visualise what may have been happening/is still occurring in such places. There's even a serious danger I may yet have to devise a small area map for the Gnome and Halfling farmlands in the hidden Dendorlig Vale area just beyond the underground complex here (food, after all!). Yes, Halflings too, taking on-board the Tolkienian idea of Halflings being natural farmers and gardeners. Plus as there are almost no Halflings in the area of Alarius I've been mapping, I thought this would give a chance to explore something a little different this way.

    Since other parts of the map are still subject to change, I've not tried to present the whole again currently, so this is a view of just the reoccupied "Village" area and a small part of the adjacent areas, from the top right corner of the original map:

    As is rather obvious, the top edge of the map has grown, to better illustrate the full extent of cavern 1 (and yes, the number for that needs moving on this shot still!), and there have been other changes too. The "red-S" doors are no longer secret doors, but sliding ones, operated by magical card-keys only, to better restrict access to various places, such as the Royal Apartments (12-16), the Keep (3), and the route to the remainder of Dendorlig Hall (between 39 and 50).

    While not illustrated again here, as I'm still compiling notes and map amendments for the latter stages, I've set areas 50-66, 93-110 and 143-146 on the original plan as those areas the reoccupying Gnomes have currently explored, at least cursorily. The other areas - so most of the map - have yet to be looked over by them, and this is where things can get especially interesting. Even if that "cursorily" proviso means even the explored regions might not be quite so "safe" as expected. That stout, well-secured, red-S door between areas 50 and 39 isn't merely for show!

    All being well, further updates to follow (not saying they'll be any more frequent/regular though...).

    JimPMonsenLoopysueGeorge[Deleted User]jmabbottLauti
  • 15 days later
  • Today's update is partly a minor way to revisit the original premise behind the whole D23 concept, creating a dungeon room a day through the year. While it was never my intention to aim at trying that, because of the way I've developed the Dendorlig Hall map and description so far, as mentioned, areas 1 to 49 are effectively separate to the rest of the map, as being the reoccupied "Village" area closer to the cavern entrance. As today is day 49 of 2023, an update on how these first 49 places have developed seemed apt. The image below shows the current state of this part of the Hall complex:

    There've been a few changes since the previous update, including increasing the label text sizes (and having to move one here off the actual labelled area itself), along with setting up a different label colouring for those parts of the Hall that have yet to be reinvestigated by the incoming Gnomes. Note that those black labels have not yet been repositioned after their sizes were amended.

    And to complete the process to this point, here's the PDF covering just those first 49 areas for those interested. Be aware though that this is a draft version of the typed notes only at this stage, so may yet - like the map - be subject to further changes. It does though give a comprehensive view of how my thinking has progressed regarding amending the random notes from the Wizardawn system, in combination with how I felt this part of the dungeon would operate.

    Where we go from here is a little less straightforward, or rather when might be appropriate to post about it here, following the same "timing" theme as today, since the explored areas outside this Village section don't comprise a simple straight run of numbered places (as noted before, these are areas 50-66, 93-110 and 143-146). In the final PDF and text notes for the Atlas, these will be collected together for detailing ahead of the rest of the unexplored complex, a process which has already begun, in fact, as getting the notes typed-up has so far progressed to area 104 of these three segments, while my handwritten notes cover through to area 140 right now. Only another 220 areas to go!

    It has been fascinating, as it often is, to adapt the random information from Wizardawn into something that works better here, though I still feel I've been adding a few too many of the coin treasures at times (the classic D&D treasure type going right back to the original system, for those less familiar). Of course, those using the Atlas are naturally free to ignore or amend whatever they wish from these notes, so I've not been too concerned at this. It has been entertaining though to sometimes find the random system has come up with something perfectly suited to a given area, along with occasionally needing to resolve the equivalent to the old joke of finding "40 kobolds in a broom closet". That's what being inspired by random design systems will do for you, though!

    LoopysueJimPRicko Hasche
  • 14 days later
  • GM's Day today seemed an apt moment for another progress update for this project, which is continuing, if having been somewhat interrupted at times by external events since my previous post. In the interim, the handwritten notes for the place have reached area 168 now!

    However, today's notes focus on the re-explored parts of Dendorlig Hall, which, as mentioned earlier, comprise areas 50-66, 93-110 and 143-146. These have been allocated the same red numbering colour as the reoccupied "Village" section (areas 1-49), as also discussed before, while the unexplored bulk of the underground complex has been numbered in black. This illustration shows the south corner of the map, covering all the "red" areas now, as well as the nearby "black" ones (and remember, south is now towards the top right corner of this map as viewed here, north towards the bottom left; the Water Temple area, 17, in the top right corner, handily provides a reminder of the cardinal directions with its arrowhead-shaped sub-chambers).

    Note that only the red numbers have been adjusted to better fit their locations on this image so far. I've been amending the number-placements beyond this only as I've been typing-up the notes, as well as making occasional amendments to the room layouts, and that type-up still lags considerably behind the hand-scrawled descriptions, by about 70 areas currently.

    Next here are the extracted notes as a PDF for just the re-explored zone. In the final full PDF and text notes, it's intended they'll follow along directly after the "Village" notes that I posted here last time, and will then continue into the unexplored parts as well (so you may need to re-read parts of last time's PDF to get these new notes to make sense; or what sense they may make at this stage, anyway...):

    As before, these are just the draft notes, and haven't been fully checked as yet, so may be subject to changes later, but they will give some ideas as to what's been happening.

    From the original map alone, it's long been clear that some areas of variable shapes, sizes and connections, have mutual links or locations that suggest a main purpose or function - that's what prompted the whole reoccupied "Village" concept initially, for example. From that base, it's followed naturally that the Hall area, far from being a random dungeon (even if that's how it began!), was really an underground town or city-sized settlement originally, and one which had been expanded and adapted at different times. Hence we have places such as the Arena (66, whose ancillary rooms extend into the unexplored zone as well) and the Stone Garden (143) from the latest PDF notes. Elsewhere, there is already a former nightclub-like entertainment venue, with a separate dance-hall/plaza, a communal swimming pool, a royal palace, and the royal tombs, with other features noted for possible inclusion that are still to be emplaced subsequently. Some of these have been inspired by the random Wizardawn room descriptions; sometimes those descriptions have dovetailed beautifully into what I'd decided the areas were to be, without first checking the notes (which always raises a smile), although much remains to be finally defined.

    More when I know what it is!

    JimPLoopysueroflo1EukalyptusNowjmabbott
  • 28 days later
  • edited April 2023

    Having at last managed to map the exterior region beyond the Hall to its south, Dendorlig Vale, and having just discussed it on the Forum, it seemed a good idea to update the state-of-play with the Hall itself today as well. My handwritten notes currently have reached area 201, while the type-up of these has reached area 160, all of which is easier to tell now, as I'm past the point where some areas were being written and typed-up out of sequence. The map continues to be amended in minor ways, notably in the placement of the area number-labels, after these, as noted previously, were enlarged some time ago.

    Today's notes cover what was partly shown in the lower right corner of the previous sample map-segment here, the places formerly occupied by The Pegasus Club and the areas adjoining it (not all of which were directly related to the Club in their previous use). This is the map segment covering the areas involved:

    And these are the extracted PDF notes to go with the same areas (only):

    As usual, both map and notes are subject to further amendment subsequently, as the text hasn't been fully checked still, while the project remains ongoing. Indeed part of the earlier notes posted here, which mentioned Dendorlig Vale, have been altered slightly too following the mapping of that external region, to reflect how the map actually turned out, rather than how it seemed it might earlier!

    Further updates should follow, if all goes to plan.

    [EDIT: And if only I'd realised this would have had the Forum-added note "28 Days Later", I might have made some post-apocalyptic comment as well 😉. Too late now though...]

    LoopysueJimPpablo gonzalez
  • 2 months later
  • Well, this comes after a rather longer gap than I'd expected! However, progress has been continuing with this map throughout, if at a slower and much more intermittent pace than previously. Unsurprisingly, six months after the start, quite a number of folks who embarked on the D23 concept in January are either also finding problems and delays, or have abandoned the project entirely, so some ongoing progress is a positive note at least.

    My scrawled notes have now got up to area 271, although getting them typed-up has slipped back further, as I'm currently only up to starting area 211 with those. It is, of course, always much easier to add a few jottings to a piece of paper in a few spare minutes than to have to set up the wpc on the computer, type, check and correct stuff that can be deciphered from said handwritten notes, often written many weeks earlier!

    The map continues to receive small changes, and at some point I really must remember to add a key and a title to it... However, in honour of this Solstice update, let's start with an overview of the current state of the entire map:

    From which it's clear that tweaking of label placement continues, along with amendments to the appearance of the map, albeit for the labelling, only in areas for which the type-up has been completed still. The enlarged numerals, while now easier to read overall (at a higher-res than is suitable for the Forum, at least), have needed moving off their rooms entirely at times for clarity of map details. Area 210 has even had to have an indicator line added, so things still look OK on that bit of the map. That's the hidden entrance room to the old Thieves' Guild, also known as Toad Hall, incidentally. You'll have to wait to find out why though, as for today's closer examination, I thought we'd head into the more upmarket part of the Hall (or what was, when it was still occupied, at least), Khy Row (167-190):

    Why Khy Row? Well... When I was looking over the randomly-appointed features for the various rooms here, I thought one should be a bazaar. So it became the Old Bazaar (170); and for those who may not know, or recall, there was an old British Music Hall style song, "In the Old Bazaar in Cairo" 😁.

    For those undeterred by such awfulness, 😉, these are the PDF notes extracted from the full document just for this part of the Hall:

    Hopefully not quite so long a delay for the next update, though after what's happened lately, I make no promises!

    MonsenLoopysueroflo1EukalyptusNow
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    An undertaking of epic proportions!

    Great to see you haven't given up, Wyvern :)

  • That is a beautiful map! Makes me nostalgic :)

  • Thanks very much folks!

    I've no intention of giving up, all being well, though I do keep getting distracted with Other Things, and sometimes how oddly the random choice of features per area sometimes matches so well with what I'd had in mind for them (albeit not always - which of course creates still more distractions...) 😉.

  • Yeah, eleventy-dozen distractions. Egad.

  • 26 days later
  • edited July 2023

    Day 200 of 2023 seemed an apt moment for a fresh update on this project, so here we are, whole map first:

    Further tweaking of labels and minor map features has proceeded apace since my late June update, and the type-up of my notes is in the early part of the University, area 259, currently, while the hand-scrawled preparatory notes are nearing the end of the Manufacturing District, area 293. Still a way from the area 360 end, but well up on the area 200 the day per area idea might have indicated otherwise 😁. (And yes, I STILL haven't got round to adding a symbol key or map title...)

    For today's closer look, following last month's minor temptational mention, we have the extracted PDF notes for the less-well-off living areas of the Hall in The Dell, areas 191-224:

    All being well, still more to follow!

    Meanwhile elsewhere, most folks I'm aware of who were trying the D23 project seem to have been struggling to continue it of late. Some recent discussions on one of my more active Discords, where D23 was A Thing earlier, have indicated no one there's still persisting unfortunately, although a couple of folks on a separate Discord server were still posting occasional updates into early July at least. Certainly, having the base map and ideas for every area randomly generated in advance, as I did, seems to have helped keep my attention focused at least, so that might be a way to go for anyone contemplating something similar later this year or next, or on a smaller scale, for instance.

    LoopysueMonsenJimProflo1EukalyptusNowLorelei
  • 1 month later
  • Slightly later than I'd hoped for the eighth main update on this map, although Day 250 of 2023 seems an apt moment to present it at least, particularly as just this morning, I completed the draft notes for area 360, the final one in this mapping project! Getting those notes typed-up still lags some way behind (at area 310), so the map and notes won't be going into the Atlas right away. The end is in sight, however!

    While there may be (hopefully only minor) changes needed to the map after this, during checking of the text, or as other things occur, this is likely to be close to the final version now:

    From this, it's clear I finally got round to adding the title and a key for the more recurrent mapped elements, and also moved the North pointer and scaling note off the map entirely. I decided too to make the colouring of the title and header labels a pale cream, the same pale cream this style uses for its drawing window background, and which, in preparing the map for the Forum, I've also used as a thin "map border" of sorts. This header-colouring usage helps draw my eye (at least) into the map, making clear which items are peripheral to the map itself.

    I've not prepared any additional close-up map or PDF notes to add here today, since the final version will be ready relatively soon anyway, although I have updated my Gallery image for this map now, to a higher res version of this near-final one.

    All being well, the next update should be the Atlas submission one!

    LoopysueMonsenJimPEukalyptusNowLoreleiRalfadelia hernandezLauti
  • 1 month later
  • So, as promised, the final submission version of the map is now completed, as of Day 280 of 2023 (i.e. yesterday!). And here it is:

    You may not notice any difference from the Day 250 version posted last time, and I'm not sure there actually is one, at least not that would be obvious at this resolution. However, behind the scenes there have been substantial changes, as following discussions with Remy ahead of submitting the map for the Atlas, I've added descriptions as CC3+ map notes for each individual area, as hotspots tied to each number on the map, and which will thus be available in the FCW version of the Atlas map. The complete set of texts for all these, and the general map notes, will also be provided as a single PDF file, as normal.

    This particular mapping style is very straightforward to use, and as noted earlier, is also a very forgiving one, which uses no sheet effects. Thus it wasn't a strong challenge to map with, for all that was an interesting experience in itself. However, adding the map notes and hotspots to the map was something I've never tried before, and that proved a useful exercise in expanding my CC3+ experience. It was a great deal more straightforward, and quicker to complete, than I'd anticipated too, which was a pleasant surprise. [This is the point where Remy admonishes me for getting some key part of the exercise wrong, of course...]

    I'd never really considered adding notes to my maps electronically, since I normally only use printout versions of them, and while that's unlikely to change, this would be something I'd consider for the Atlas in future now, where the map's suitable for such, having tried it out. Which of course was part of the point in my taking part in mapping for the Atlas, to let me explore elements of the program new to me!

    Time to return to my Alarius mapping now though. Although it's possible there might be a further distraction before then...

    LoopysueQuentenJimPGeorgeroflo1Calibre
  • LoopysueLoopysue ProFantasy 🖼️ 39 images Cartographer

    Wow, Wyvern! Congratulations on completing this mammoth project.

    JimP
  • MonsenMonsen Administrator 🖼️ 46 images Cartographer

    And here it is in the atlas. Thanks for the contribution Wyvern.



    LoopysueJimPWyvern
  • Thanks very much Sue! It took a bit longer than I'd hoped, but reality's kept intruding all year, as it does... However, it was finished well within the year, so as a sort-of D23 effort, that's been quite pleasing.

    And many thanks to Remy for getting this into the Atlas so swiftly, of course!

    LoopysueJimP
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