Maps of Extraordinary Coolness

A few days ago I put out a challenge to come up with maps suitable for +Jason Packer‘s campaign. While I got some really neat submissions from some of my regular readers, plus a lame-ass PowerPoint sketch by yours truly, a new reader (at least that I know of) rose to the challenge so well I wanted to break his comments and submission into their own post.

ZukePrime  stepped up to the plate and gave us three maps. The first was his own creation. He took the basic description, and created the map to the left. There was a broken coast (check), a huge area of swamp (check), a massive mountain range to the north. Presumably one of the towns/cities/villages in the west is presumably Frostharrow.

The darndest thing about this is that it was supposedly his first effort. He “only” used black and white to keep it simple.

Jeez. I’ve had and attempted Campaign Cartographer for some years now, and not once produced anything even remotely this cool. This map deserves to be used in someone’s campaign.

But nooooo . . . that wasn’t good enough. He had to go and do more. He modestly comments:

I’ll be redrawing the map as a fun project…this time in color. Here’s the thing: I’m brand new to CC3 and mapmaking in general, so this is my official “first attempt.” CC3 is definitely hard to master. I think the best place to start is Joe Sweeney’s YouTube page, where he has a whole bunch of tutorials as playlists. I just follow along. 🙂 The key to CC3 is working in a logical, layered approach. If you have the product, it helps to follow the tutorial pdf’s they provide as well. You always start with the landmass/coastline, then add your significant terrain features, then rivers/lakes. After that you “populate” it with towns and features. The biggest difficulty for me is editing out mistakes and trying to get the right sheet effects to kick in. I’ll try to add more with my follow-up submission in color. What I love about CC3 is it allows noobs like me to produce cools maps in minimal time.

OK, so other than this being his first time frackin’ ever with the package, no problem, right?

Anyway, so then he saw Jason’s actual map. So, naturally, he changed his design, and started crackin’ away with the same outline that Jason wanted for his own campaign. While he published two iterations of it, I’ll only show the second one, which is more complete. Zuke comments (I”ve strung them together from previous comments).

 This is the basic landmass outline with a 25 mile grid. The map is 500×400 miles for reference. The “unnamed sea” is set into position, and I’ve added some rivers/streams to fix the area of the Gray Marshes. The effects you see around the landmass (highlighting etc) are the default settings in CC3. Next up, putting in the Granite Halls and Gray Marshes.I’ve been playing around with the sheets, so it’s taking me a while to do this properly. I’ve just added some river courses and laid in the Verdant, Gray Marshes and Granite Hall areas. I don’t like the default color symbols as much as the B/W symbols…so I’m experimenting with mixing/matching. Note the foothills are just a test. This is fun!

Clearly, there will be further iterations as he refines his technique. No matter what, this is a very impressive offering, especially given his proclaimed lack of experience with the program!

Notionally, I should be able to follow the tutorials and get the same thing done. Right? Right? We’ll see. I am going to have to schedule some of my next vacation or not-home-with-the-toddler time to work through the tutorials, read the manual, and follow Joe Sweeney’s advice, to determine whether I’m just missing a few key concepts, or I’m just a no-talent hack. Maybe both.

Anyway, by the time I finished this post, Zuke had populated an entire album with maps. His closest-to-finished entry is below.

So, kudos to ZukePrime for great work. Surely no one could do better than this.

(Hear that sound? Gauntlet meeting concrete? I super-secret double-dog dare someone to do better.)