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Wyvern

Wyvern

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Wyvern
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  • Cosmographer Questions

    The Cartographer's Annual star charts graticule started life as described in this Forum topic from 2018. There are several links to find similar graticules from that topic if you don't want to draw your own. CA34 from 2009 October has one, for instance, and long-time Forum correspondent @JimP has done work on the subject too, culminating in Bill Roach producing some templates available for free download from Jim's Crest of a Star website - zip file is on this page.

    Loopysueargel1200JimP
  • Printing maps with a Parchment Appearance

    @Monsen makes an interesting point regarding your printer dialogue boxes. A quick check online suggests the HP4650 series printers seem to have had repeated issues printing in colour, sometimes where another printer is also installed on a given computer, and others where the problem seems to have been solved only by reinstalling fresh printer drivers downloaded from the HP website. I don't know if this is what's happening here, but it may be worth checking some of the online HP information sources just in case.

    I've occasionally had problems printing directly from CC3+ before, often where fills don't come out looking right (texture becomes patchy, but still the right colour), for instance. So now I just do what Sue already suggested, prepare a .jpg, and then print that.

    Loopysue
  • WIP Large Area, small village and battle maps. For a viking-ish Trudvang campaign

    Something odd and glowing in the centre, perhaps - something apparently out of place, say? Or maybe an odd animal that doesn't scare off as the players approach? Or perhaps some kind of offering - old flowers, oddly tied rags, something unusual made of sticks, a symbol of some kind? Important places often attract small tokens being left in profusion (someone starts and everyone else copies) in the real-world, so maybe something similar here might work - try looking up "clootie well" online, for more ideas.

    Loopysue
  • WIP Large Area, small village and battle maps. For a viking-ish Trudvang campaign

    I forgot to mention this the other day, but you might have also tried the Jon Roberts Dungeon style mushrooms (among the "Cave" symbols for that style), as they look quite similar to the standing stones as you currently have them, and some of the single rocks in that style (same catalogue) would work equally as different-look standing stones, as many are elongated along one axis.

    Looking at your new ruins (oxymoron alert!), they look a little too uniform in height. You could try moving some to Sheets with different Glow Effects (looks lower than with a shadow) or different length shadows, as you have for some of the standing stones already. You might also add a few smaller areas that are raised above the flatness of some of the current pieces, placed on top of the existing walls; if set on a different Sheet even with similar Effects to the lower ruin walls, they'll help break up that uniform appearance more.

    I agree with Sue. The moss looks really good, and yes, keep experimenting!

    LoopysueAleD
  • Community Atlas: Wyvern Citadel Defence Zone on Kentoria

    @Autumn Getty - I'd forgotten your comment about castle maps earlier.

    I've rather drawn this one "by-hand" as it were, instead of using some of the shortcut options CC3+ might have provided. The Castle Walls add-on from the Cartographer's Annual for 2010 adds some useful commands for drawing the walls particularly, for instance. I wasn't sure how it might handle some of the variable size crenelations I needed here though, but it would have added fancier doorway and archer-window options than the simple straight cuts I've used, certainly.

    If you're intending to draw a lot of castles, you might want to think about the Source Maps: Castles pack too. It is an older system which hasn't been updated for CC3+, and probably won't be now as far as I recall. However, you can use it with the usual DD3, etc., fills and symbols instead of the simpler vector options it comes with (it was designed to the old CC2-Pro standard). Beyond the information in the product pages I've linked to, if you also have the Tome of Ultimate Mapping, there are some additionally helpful discussions and tutorials regarding all the Source Maps products there as well, so you can get a better feel for what it can do for you.

    Loopysue[Deleted User]Autumn Getty