New Map
Dak
🖼️ 37 images Surveyor
Hi, I've just got into CC3+ and have been learning to use it by copying maps from old D+D modules. Here though are the first maps I have made myself, from my own campaign world. Any critique would be appreciated. Thanks, Dak.
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Comments
These are great. You've done a good job with these.
Nice Work.
Very engaging map and supporting work. You've done a beautiful job of the Heraldry :)
Great job! Like the names.
Absolutely excellent work! I love it.
May I suggest about the heraldry. In RL blazons, metals cannot touch metal (i.e., the yellow on white, etc.) Does that matter to you? It's so nicely done, though, and you aren't submitting it to an SCA herald heh.
Would love to read the backstory on your world some day.
thanks
Cal
These maps are gorgeous! Were there any "gotchas" that you had to work out to get here?
Looks Great!!
Very well done!
This is by no means a criticism but for political borders I prefer the effect to be completely transparent in the centre, i.e. just an outline, so as not to obscure what lies underneath. What you have though is bloody brilliant. Your players are very lucky indeed!
Normally, i would agree with jim about the political borders, but as you have done the political map separately, i think it looks really good.
Good point @Quenten!
I totally did not even think of that. I take my comment back @Dak Great work!
Thanks for all the kind comments.
Heraldry's been an important part of my game (AD+D) since I created the campaign world. It's great now to be able to give colour to my imagination, as it were, with the Heraldry package. I have 3 more sets of heraldry if anyone is interested in seeing them.
To Calibre - I should know better regarding the traditions of heraldry as I have a few books that explain such things. For my campaign world though I didn't even consider such things. If I had thought about it or been aware of it I may have followed the example set by history. I have tried to add a lot of historical realism into the campaign world (with regards to the technology available at any given time), but I always saw the colours of Avalonia as gold and white so I probably would have used those together even if I knew better than to do so.
The Backstory for the world is extensive. Although I'm new to CC3+, I've been a DM for 36 years, starting with AD+D. So, there is a lot of stuff after all this time. Also, there have been years when I was unable to play or DM as the people I knew at the time were not interested in RPG's, so during those periods I worked on the campaign world instead and built up quite a volume of notes for the world.
The world has all the options from the AD+D Players Handbook, Unearthed Arcana, Dragonlance, and Oriental Adventures (with some 2nd edition additions). Adapted by me to fit into my game world, for example there are no Knights of Solamnia, but there are 3 distinct orders of knighthood (they use most of the game rules for Solamnic Knights, but are very different culturally to the dragonlance knights).
These maps are set about 500 years after the fall of the empire. Unable to unite the empire, the country divided into smaller nations, which are mostly friendly towards each other, but not always. Giants have overrun the territories to the north and an orc empire has invaded the lands to the south. There is a feudal system in place and the knighthoods are the political rulers of the nations, aided and sometimes usurped by the priestly religions of Elloran. I have 2 sets of knowledge for the world. History, the events that actually took place and when. Mythology, the events that people think happened but are often not sure when.
To DaishoChikara - Sorry Daisho I'm old-school and not sure what you mean by gotchas.
To jmabbott - Thanks for the comment, and I don't see it as criticism, just a suggestion to try out. At the moment I haven't got any players, but I'm sure the ones who adventured in my campaign world would love these maps. I'm trying to set up a game in roll20, which was one reason to get CC3+. I'll put the original maps I drew for the campaign world below.
This is the quality of map my players had in the past, I'm sure CC3+ would blow their minds. Attentive folks may be familiar with one or two names on the maps.
This map was the template for the larger map, and shows the amount of detail I was working with.
Just want to say how much I enjoyed your maps in your gallery.
Your hand-drawn maps leave mine for dead!
Thanks everyone. The first hand drawn map above was drawn in 1984 in Bath on writing paper because that's all I had, but this map was the beginning of my campaign world. The second map is from 1985. The 3rd map which I used as a trace is from about 20 years ago. It's just wonderful now to be able to represent these maps in such detail and quality because of CC3+.
I made this the best res' I could, and turned the smaller text on to see how it looks when uploaded. I probably have a few more names to put on this map and the rivers of course, which is criminal as I invented the river names for most of Elloran (certainly all of eastern Elloran) about 30 years ago.
Worth saying too I think that your hand-drawn maps were pretty much state-of-the-art 30-40-plus years ago. Some of mine from the early '80s don't look too dissimilar (drawing a careful veil over those from the mid-late '70s when I was just starting out, however...), and I suspect many other DMs/GMs from back then would agree. And also with what we can now do with CC3+ of course!
Looks great. Thank you for posting all of these views.