A map in between
Gathar
Traveler
Hello,
I was thinking about creating a map that was not an overland map, but not a city-map/battle-map either. I know I already tried something like that in the past, but my results were very disappointing. My plan is to map a small island (roughly 20km * 5 km), with one main city and a few small villages. Last time I tried something like that, I remember I encountered mostly two difficulties:
- The city: At this scale, it's not possible to draw each individual building, but just using a simple symbol for the city looks limited too. The city clearly is more than a simple point, and I would like to describe its overall shape.
- The relief: I think it's really important to display it, but once again, when I tried with mountain symbols, it did not work out well, and when I tried to do it as I've seen it on battle-maps, I was disappointed too, everything looks too smooth for this level of detail.
In term of style, I'd don't want it to look modern: it's for a campaign that takes place in ancient Greece, when the gods walked among humans (apparently, most of the time, it was only to breed with them...). Otherwise, I'm not even decided between a top view map or a map with some 3D style, or between a realistic or more symbolic style.
Do you have any suggestions, or maybe maps I could take inspiration from?
I was thinking about creating a map that was not an overland map, but not a city-map/battle-map either. I know I already tried something like that in the past, but my results were very disappointing. My plan is to map a small island (roughly 20km * 5 km), with one main city and a few small villages. Last time I tried something like that, I remember I encountered mostly two difficulties:
- The city: At this scale, it's not possible to draw each individual building, but just using a simple symbol for the city looks limited too. The city clearly is more than a simple point, and I would like to describe its overall shape.
- The relief: I think it's really important to display it, but once again, when I tried with mountain symbols, it did not work out well, and when I tried to do it as I've seen it on battle-maps, I was disappointed too, everything looks too smooth for this level of detail.
In term of style, I'd don't want it to look modern: it's for a campaign that takes place in ancient Greece, when the gods walked among humans (apparently, most of the time, it was only to breed with them...). Otherwise, I'm not even decided between a top view map or a map with some 3D style, or between a realistic or more symbolic style.
Do you have any suggestions, or maybe maps I could take inspiration from?
Comments
https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=35201&p=311700#post311700
You may also want to look at these amazing maps by KROM from a few years back (here and here), who innovated the marvelous idea of making "painting-style" maps using the Herwin Wielink style. In these (and many of his other) threads, KROM generously posts the FCW files, though not always in the initial post, so read through the thread. Also, in at least one of these — I can't remember which — someone generated a hi-res version of the map and posted it to DropBox or something, so you can get a great look at it.
I hope that helps,
~Dogtag
Dogtag, thank you for reminding of Krom maps. Although I believe his cities might be too much on the symbolic side for my purpose, his mountains might be just what I need for this island. I'm also aware of CharlesWayneRobinson maps, I'll look at them again.