April / May 2016 Lite Challenge Results - Map a Campsite
This month, Bogie asked Guilders to map...
"Any kind of campsite, any genre, any location, any scale. You could do the classic fantasy campsite, a clearing in the woods with a campfire, a couple tents and bedrolls. or an oasis in the desert with a sheik's tent. or an entire army's bivouac as they prepare for battle, or a small cave in the side of a cliff where the escaped prisoners are resting for the night. or a regional map showing locations of safe campsites on the trade routes. or a small tent beside a gutted Tauntaun on the icy planet Hoth. Use your imagination. Use your skills. Have some fun."
Guild members clearly enjoy their campsites, and we had some great entries featuring a huge variety of styles and inspirations. Among the submissions, GLS created a Roman Cohort Military Encampment, Bogie and Waldronate created campsites uncomfortably close to skeletons or evil totems, Loukana's campsite was the base for a stakeout, and Wolram also went for an ambush theme in her map... until some potent mead interfered with plans! In total we had 13 entries, a fantastic response, and voting was close between the top-placed entries.
Our winner this month is Snodsy who created a gorgeous map inspired by a real-life camping trip he took in college. The map shows Red River Gorge, an area of Central Kentucky, and Snodsy described camping atop a ridge at twilight, while the song "Nights in White Satin" could be heard from the valley below. He was (jokingly) asked to incorporate this into the map, and more than rose to the challenge. Snodsy created a daytime map, a twilight map and an animated gif showing the light fading and the song drifting up from the valley, and wins a well-deserved first Silver Compass for his efforts. You can see the WIP thread here. Thumbnails of the alternative versions are below. Click to check them out full size.
Links to the other entries are given below, and they're worth checking out if you missed them.
- Cliffside Campsite by Aldersprig
- Caravan Campsite by Bogie
- Roman Cohort Military Encampment by GLS
- The Temple Oasis by justanotherhack
- Trench warfare in 1942 by kosmic dungeon
- Camping at Inqtala Lake by ladiestorm
- The Stakeout by Loukana
- Dawn Attack by Onilyn
- A Ghastly Rest by tilt
- Base Camp by Tonnichiwa
- Oops, Wrong Campsite by waldronate
- Ambush at the Ford by Wolram
Thanks to everyone who entered!
May / June 2016 Lite Challenge - Commission for a book map
The new Lite Challenge was announced a few days back and it's already shaping up to be a popular one. This month, the challenge is to create a map for a novel. Bogie says...
This time the challenge is for you to make a map as if you had been hired by an author who needs a map for her book. I will give you the specifics as if the author had given them.
Your map must comply with the specs, or you had better have a good reason why they don't.
Use your imagination. Use your skills. Have some fun. Earn 500 silver pieces,,, OK, 1 silver compass. Still worth it!
For my new book "The Old Mage Finds a New Love" I need a map of a small country. It should cover an area about 500 miles E-W by 700 miles N-S. Make the whole map so it will fit on an 8" x 11" page and it should have a nice border around the map with a legend that provides some details about the map.
There should be a N-S mountain range that is about 400 miles long and 150 miles from the East side of the map. In the middle of the mountain range there should be an active volcano. To the west of the range should be a mix of plains, forests, hills, and lakes with 3 small isolated mountains and 1 large asteroid crater that is about 100 miles in diameter.
There must be 2 medium and 1 large cities east of the mountain range and 5 medium sized cities west of the range. You can place as many towns and villages as you like, just don't over crowd the map with them. There will be an impressive wizards tower in the crater, and a dungeon entrance near the volcano. I would like one or two nice illustrations on the map so it will catch the eye if someone is just flipping pages. ( You don't have to draw them yourself, if you are unable to then stock art will be fine as long as it fits the map)
I need the map by June 14th, it MUST be completed by that deadline.
Who can resist the challenge of mapping an Old Mage and his New Love? Apparently no-one at the Guild! The challenge was announced only five days ago and already we have nine entries. There's still plenty of time to enter if you'd like to give it a shot. More info and rules here.Your map must comply with the specs, or you had better have a good reason why they don't.
Use your imagination. Use your skills. Have some fun. Earn 500 silver pieces,,, OK, 1 silver compass. Still worth it!
For my new book "The Old Mage Finds a New Love" I need a map of a small country. It should cover an area about 500 miles E-W by 700 miles N-S. Make the whole map so it will fit on an 8" x 11" page and it should have a nice border around the map with a legend that provides some details about the map.
There should be a N-S mountain range that is about 400 miles long and 150 miles from the East side of the map. In the middle of the mountain range there should be an active volcano. To the west of the range should be a mix of plains, forests, hills, and lakes with 3 small isolated mountains and 1 large asteroid crater that is about 100 miles in diameter.
There must be 2 medium and 1 large cities east of the mountain range and 5 medium sized cities west of the range. You can place as many towns and villages as you like, just don't over crowd the map with them. There will be an impressive wizards tower in the crater, and a dungeon entrance near the volcano. I would like one or two nice illustrations on the map so it will catch the eye if someone is just flipping pages. ( You don't have to draw them yourself, if you are unable to then stock art will be fine as long as it fits the map)
I need the map by June 14th, it MUST be completed by that deadline.
May Regular Challenge
The regular challenge "Map a trade route" has about a week left, so if you're speedy and want to get your hands on a Gold Compass, there's still time to take part. More info here.
On the Map Interviews
Finally, if you've missed out on any of our On The Map interviews, you can catch up with them here. We'll have a new one at the beginning of the month, so stay tuned for that.
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