Cartographers' Guild - Current Mapping Challenge

May 2013 Entry: The Island of Tenandel

Vyxxen — Sun, 12 May 2013 09:47:47 GMT

After seeing the other entries, I kinda don't want to try and compete, but here goes :P

I went a little overboard with my hex tiles and made too many, but it's been raining all day and I was having fun so I'm going to post them all here anyway :D

I was going with a parchmenty feel originally, but decided to add a little colour so it's not quite as boring...

### Latest WIP ###

Attached Thumbnails

May 2013 Entry: Utgardar

Meshon — Wed, 08 May 2013 22:23:20 GMT

So here is my initial go at a map. The location is an area of an unexplored planet, close to a human colony. The colony is on its own (somehow... map and story grow together!) and so the inhabitants need to do a survey of their area. Humans arrived to a post-apocalyptic world, there are alien survivors living in the ruins and terrible mutated monsters everywhere! The map is intended to represent a survey that provides various kinds of data: predominant terrain, availability of resources, and general threat level based on hostile environments or aliens.

My problem right now is that I need to figure out a better work-flow to build this thing because it takes awhile to set up each hex. There are a few other logistical problems hampering my efforts, but hopefully I can clear them up and get this looking like something.

### Latest WIP ###

I think this is more a test of the concept.I don't really like my terrain icons yet but I'm happy with how the hexes are going. I basically want to try to make the actual hexes an important part of the map, as well as delimiting space.

cheers,
Meshon

Edit: in the current configuration the solid coloured circles attached to each hex indicate availability of resources (top circle, green, blue, violet) and level of threat (bottom circle, yellow, orange, red). The terrain icons are forest, badlands, hills and mountains, though I'm thinking that I should really make them more alien-looking. Especially the trees...

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May 2013 Entry: An Isolated Valley

mariuccij — Wed, 08 May 2013 06:51:53 GMT

Good morning all! SO I don't come here often, but when I do, I'm always floored by the number of amazing artists who contribute! I've seen a few of these mapping challenges, and I thought it was high time that I try one out. So tonight around 7ish I sat down and started making my Hex map.

The map has one central starting location, a Dwarven mountain stronghold. I'm basing it off of another map I did a while back, here's a link to that one. So far I've got the hexes done. Will be working on the map soon, will update when I have something more to show off!

Have a great evening err morning everyone!

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May 2013 Entry: The Northern Wasteland of Celonahr

Schwarzkreuz — Wed, 08 May 2013 03:53:24 GMT

Located in the mids between the Reign of the Domain of Nimtal and the Tremorlor Clans is the grand Wasteland of Celonahr. In recent issues of the Imperial Herold, Mihguelle Sastarphon, am acclaimed explorer and national icon of the Outer Borderlands, described his travels to the Lost City of Nihrward and its hidden treasures. Despite the fact that he barely survived the Dangers of Celonahr and swore never to walk the Sands of the North again, thousands of fortunehunters, sellswords and outlawed travels into an uncertain destiny. The Tromorlian City of Jerihstan became a central starting point and turned into a boiling junkyard. Who will be the next to step into the Streets of long lost Nihrward?

Will you become a Legend or just another pile of bleached bones under the burning Trisuns of Arden?

Welcome to my Hexcrawl Map, I used a 44 x 45 Isometric Hexgrid with a plain Sandtexture. The Players will be given such a map to record their movements, which can be confused due sandstorms and the shifting of the Ocean of Sand. Its interesting to see how different the players will experience their enviroment, if they have to explore it them selfs. The other Map, which is content of this months Entry will be having the Real map of the Locations, encounters and Plot elements.

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May 2013 Entry: Pritior

Carbus — Wed, 08 May 2013 00:39:39 GMT

What�s up guys!
Not much to say, again I�m going with a drawing style, as a way to improve my skills. As for the Hex, decided to put the grid in a different perspective!
Hope I�m going in an intersting way! A lot of work to do :)
### Latest WIP ###

Attached Thumbnails

May 2013 Entry: The Southern Plains

Diamond — Tue, 07 May 2013 06:00:00 GMT

I decided to zoom in on a portion of my Tir Oiche map from last month. The region I chose has a lot of potentially interesting stuff for a campaign, including a lich-king's valley, a large plain dominated by goblin tribes, several strong (and not so strong) dwarven and human nations, a couple of city-states, and other assorted stuff.

First WIP to come soon...

Attached Thumbnails

* May Challenge - Hexcrawl *

arsheesh — Mon, 06 May 2013 23:36:00 GMT

THE CHALLENGE

Hi guys and gals, this month's challenge is to create a regional hex map suitable for a hexcrawl style campaign. The hexcrawl mechanic was a mainstay of fantasy role playing games during the early days of the hobby but largely fell out of use by most gamers somewhere in the 90s. One of the many fruitful projects of the OSR movement has been to resurrect and breathe new life into this venerable form of game play. That said, by the admission of many within the OSR community, the typical hex map is somewhat lackluster. These maps tend to be functional rather than artistic, and while some enjoy this Spartan aesthetic the goal of this challenge is to create a more artistic hex map which ideally preserves the functionality of the hexcrawl mechanics. To that end, each entry must contain each of the following:

1) A numbering system for each of the hexes;
2) Symbols or drawings of "known" cities, towers, keeps, monster lairs, dungeons or other places of interest;*
3) A Map key (which should include a scale indicating the size of each hex);

* These should each fit within a single hex.

Other optional things which you may but need not add include: an Encounter Table, a Hex Key offering a title and/or short description of the contents of some or all of the hexes. Depending on how much interest there is, this month's challenge could lead into a followup challenge in June based on the winning entry.

Title each new thread May 2013 Entry -

Precede each WIP image with the tag ### Latest WIP ###.

The challenge will end on or around the 31st of May, and the winner will receive a golden compass, and the envy of your peers.

RESOURCES

If you are unfamiliar with the hexcrawl trope, Justin Alexander has a wonderful 10-part series of blog posts on the topic here. Looking for a way to create a hex-grid? There is a discussion at the Guild on that here.

Cartographers' Guild - Current Mapping Challenge

May 2013 Entry: The Island of Tenandel

May 2013 Entry: Utgardar

May 2013 Entry: An Isolated Valley

May 2013 Entry: The Northern Wasteland of Celonahr

May 2013 Entry: Pritior

May 2013 Entry: The Southern Plains

*** May Challenge - Hexcrawl ***

* May Challenge - Hexcrawl *