I was experimenting with creating a maze for fun. There's no particular use for this map other than learning how to do certain functions. Obviously I haven't finished putting in all the symbols and other fun stuff, but I'd appreciate any feedback you all might have to offer.

Hey all,

I created this map a few years ago for my book, but didn't have the ability at that time to finish it completely. I really like the shape of the land and some of the land features I've laid down. As you can see, I haven't maxed it out with a bunch of symbols yet. Just mainly mountains, rivers and one huge forest at this point. I've recently had more time on my hands and I want to finish it one of these days, especially as I start work on the second book of my trilogy. I would greatly appreciate any thoughts or comments as I plunge back into the task at hand.

It's about 3500 korads from east to west, and pretty much the same north and south, which works out to be about 2100 miles in each direction. This eastern continent is called Ythira, with the rest of Anarra being completely terra incognita to its inhabitants.

There are vast open grasslands to the southwest called the Plains of Kuria. Jutting out from that is the Spur of Grothos, where the blighted land of Kulnedra is home to foul hordes of Gorguls, loathsome, evil soldiers spawned long ago by Muurdra, the Fallen One. On the eastern portion of the continent, near the equator, lies the great deserts of Uu-Kesh, where rival chieftains engage in constant warfare against one another. Far to the west is the ruined kingdom of Vandikar, once home to the Keldar, noble races of Elves, now scattered across the face of Anarra into seven clans or Noble Houses by the hatred of Muurdra. Imprisoned for a thousand years with some of his mightiest minions in the Outer Darkness, the Dark One even now seeks to free himself from his prison, to once again roam the land, destroying all that is good and pure upon Anarra.

Anyway, please let me know what you think. Thanks,

Elfling

@Loopysue

Yeah, but you really should sit down and watch it sometime, Sue. It's a great movie. Not to mention, it's an incredible source for great movie quotes like, "He's not dead. He's just mostly dead."

And let's not forget the wonderful sword fighting scene between Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin.

@Wyvern I don't know how I could have forced Sue to reveal anything, let alone her mapping secrets. I think she is just a very helpful and caring person by nature, not to mention talented when it comes to her map saavy. I appreciate your help as well. I have had CC3 for years but have only been able to dabble at it for most of that time. Life just always seemed to get in the way when it came to doing things I love to do. It's also worth mentioning, as many others have said before me, that CC3 is notorious for having a bit of a steep learning curve. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, because ProFantasy has engineered a great program. It just takes more than a casual dalliance to get proficient in its use, which until about a year ago, I couldn't dedicate to it as I would have liked. I hurt my back at work, so I've been home and able to devote to other projects, mapping for one, and completing a life-long dream of writing a fantasy novel. I'm also happy to say I used CC3 to make a couple of maps for the book. Now, as I begin work on book two, I have other mapping challenges I'd like to tackle. And thanks to people like you, Loopysue and Ralf at ProFantasy, I am learning how to overcome those obstacles. I'll check out those commands you mentioned to see if I can get the results I want. Once again I say thank you.

@Lillhans I really like the look of your hand-drawn style. It has a natural elegance to it. I would love to learn how you do it. I know you've given brief explanations before here in the forum, but when I tried to duplicate what I thought you had said, I just couldn't get it to work.

Would you please make some kind of tutorial, written down here or perhaps put it in a you-tube video, where you explain each step in detail. For example, are you using a mouse or a tablet to draw the lines? What specific tools are you working with? I think you mentioned a closed polygon with a degree of fractalization, but I couldn't figure out how to make that into a line in CC3+ without looking like a mess.

Any help you would care to offer would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Elfling

@Lillhans These look really good, Anders. Are you working up to a release of a full set of military equipment or are you just tinkering? These would make a good addition to anyone doing WWII role-playing campaigns. Keep up the good work.

@Frosty

There are lots of Traveller sites on the web. Some offer adventure modules, some provide actual sector or character generators, and others involve ready made maps. As far as ship designs, Robert Pierce made a wonderful book of Traveller geomorphs a few years ago which can be found here https://travellerrpgblog.blogspot.com/ Look for the Geomorph 2.0 link on the right panel of his page. He has also had other people contribute to a growing line of ship designs. The only problem I see with them is that he designed them in an autocad program and published them in a pdf format. Eric Smith took all Pierce's pdfs, as well as adding some of his own, and converted them to pngs here https://gurpsland.no-ip.org/geomorphs/ These have a transparent background so they can be mixed and matched in a favorite graphics program, such as GIMP, Affinity Designer, Photoshop or Paint.net, to form an endless array of starship or station layouts. Both Robert's and Eric's work are for non-commercial use, I believe.

@JimP

You know, I think I get the overall vibe that your players hated mazes. Can't imagine why not. Doesn't everyone like wandering around in a claustrophobic place in which you haven't got a clue where you're going, and most likely you can only see a few feet ahead at a time? I think I'll book my next vacation in a maze. Or is that amazement?

I haven't made up complete languages yet, but I have enjoyed tinkering around with individual words here and there. I guess I caught the bug from reading Edgar Rice Burroughs and J.R.R. Tolkien a lot when I was a kid. I've employed some of them in my own book, like names for creatures or various objects which are unique to the world I created. Names like bathalisk, theralon, sironath, and the like. Character names and place names are certainly common among fantasy writers, I would think. And good names are always useful. I met Anne McCaffrey some years ago and she urged those in attendance to compile and keep a list of names which we could draw upon whenever we needed one. That practice has stuck with me all these years later, and I have lists of thousands of names I can use.

Marc Okrand is well known for creating the Klingon language for the Star Trek franchise. Being an actor and a writer, that had greatly appealed to me, but I never really had the time to develop those kinds of projects fully on my own.

The other thing I've played around with is creating my own fonts, ones that are unique to different places and people groups. I think that sort of thing can add a lot of depth to whatever stories you are writing. Tolkien certainly was masterful at doing that with his dwarf runes and elvish scripts.

@Lillhans Vehicles, great! Anders, I love what you've done so far. And that's what I was saying about a set. You've made a good start so far, but at some point, when you have an even larger variety, you could offer them out as a set. Maybe as a PF annual issue. I'm not sure how all of that works. Tanks, trucks, jeeps, half-tracks, officers' touring cars, motorcycles, especially ones with a side car. Then, if you have time, you could always branch out into truck-drawn weaponry, like big artillery guns, rocket launchers, etc. I think it would work well with the military installation style Ralf just introduced this month. Sorry, I forget the real name.

Anyway, just a thought. I wish I had your artistic flair. I also wish I had more time to devote to map-making. Too many other irons still in the fire, I guess. I can honestly say that I am learning the program slowly but surely, yet unfortunately at this point I'm still stuck with my training wheels on. I haven't had the chance to stretch CC3 to its full potential yet, but I look forward to the day those training wheels come off.

Happy mapping.