Related to this village: I am planning on submitting an intermediate map of the Kingdom of Enía portion of the Gold Coast. And now I'm thinking that I might also do another map of just the Firessí Woods. I think it might be easier to do the Firessí Woods map now than after this temple village is added to the Atlas.

If I do create a Firessí Woods map, are there any sorts of adventure hooks or mapping possibilities you'd recommend including? I have the Tempuwari Ruins, which were meant to provide a place for an adventure reminiscent of the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. Other than adding a few more tiny elven hamlets, and maybe a few cave openings in hills, are there other mapping/adventure hooks you'd like to see?

This is really lovely. My only ever-so-slight feedback is that my old eyes are finding it a little difficult to read the legend, so I would consider increasing the opacity of the background fill/color slightly.

I have a feeling that like Chekhov's Gun, that "eccentric 'world's largest operational Jeep'" is going to come into play in the story at some point. An escape vehicle? A mobile battering ram? I'm dying to know!

I love the mountain symbol with the cave. So many adventures end up underground.

Per Quenten's suggestion, I have been playing with the Line Styles for the roads. I didn't try creating a custom one, but I did try some of the other presets, and they didn't really work. I also tried checking the Paper Scale checkbox, and that had weird effects when I zoomed in.

Here's an attempt that sets the roads to be solid and leaves the guided routes as dotted lines. I like that it makes it a bit clearer which ones are actual roads. I will also put it in my WIP gallery to make it easier to zoom in. Thoughts?

I have been looking forward to seeing what you do since you first claimed Elkton.

Also: DD4 things! Squeeee!

They are absolutely stunning! These will be a great to have available for map styles that don't come with cartouches (and as a supplement for others that do).

As a jog for inspiration, if you're open to ideas: sinister/evil (evil sorcerer, lich king/vampire/undead, etc.), fairy tale, swashbuckler/pirates, maybe demihuman-inspired ones (elven, dwarven, halfling, orc, draconic)? Maybe seasonal -- your top one is great for spring and summer vibes, but it would be cool to have autumn and winter options.

Well, I was going to make a twist of Hanlon's Razor ("Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity") phrased more like Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law ("Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"):

A secret grand design is indistinguishable from stupidity.

The truth is...just a clumsy attempt to recreate from a much bigger parent map that was itself derived from a much, much bigger parent map.

This is the parent map I took it from (Gongodûr is in the lower right):

And this is the section parent map that this whole 1,000 x 1,000 mile section comes from:

When I downloaded the FCW for the parent map, it said there were green mountains there, which I took to mean vegetation-covered hills and small mountains.

So no real grand design, just an over-exuberance in trying to add more detail from the parent map and slip in some mapping/adventure hooks.

I think that front and back parts of the northern courtyard are supposed to be a whole story above the east and west sides, but in looking closer at my sheets, I didn't draw them that way. (I used too many images for inspiration that had different floor plans, and I think I muddled them up.)

I moved those two roofs to higher sheets. Does that capture it a little better?

Hi Ryan,

Welcome! I see that your hometown was chosen as the inspiration for Mayberry because it was where Andy Griffith grew up. Very cool.

I also started with Fractal Terrains. It took me a while to get my head around how FT and CC3 do and do not interact with one another. I finally started watching some of the older tutorials, and it was watching Joe Sweeney's that Ricko recommends above where things really start to click for me. Before that, I was trying to teach myself using the PDFs and I wasn't really absorbing it.

Joe Sweeney has some videos that show how to use Fractal Terrains, and here are some more from ProFantasy from a few years ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuhB_LXr3Sg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khNR-BBPSRo

There are some others that show how to take what you've built in Fractal Terrains and then elaborate on them in CC3. They're a bit advanced, though, but if you want to take a peek, here is one from early 2024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nd78fcQc1YA

(The beginning covers taking part of a continent from FT to CC3.)

But don't get intimidated if it seems like a lot. I started with Joe Sweeney's, then watched some of Remy Monsen's that were about specific techniques and tools, and then graduated to the ProFantasy's "Live" sessions. The Lives are great, and I always learn something new from every one, but you never know (unless it's the main focus on the session) what techniques you'll learn from them. I'd recommend getting a good foundation from the other videos first.

And also, this forum is very welcoming, and we are all happy to answer any questions you have.