Thread: Hello Cartographer's guild

Hi Valmar!
I just registered to this site and this is my first post.
Firs off, let me say I am glad someone else seems to be using CC3, too. I have been using it for some time now and have created maps for my campaign set in Norwold of the D&D Gazzetteer series. I might be brave enough to post some here. I started with CC2 over 2 years ago and moved on to CC3 when it was released. I bought it at the gaming fair in Essen which was a nice deal since you could talk to one of its creators there. I also strongly recommend the tutorials from Joe Sweeny (not sure about spelling) on YouTube.
Concerning your map, I can only congratulate you on your use of the Sheet and Effects. The glow on the shore and the Map names are excellent. I'd like to give you some advice on the changes I'd do.
Was it supposed to have no settlements? Because of the fact that most settlements are built new water bodies those on this map will probably be near the shore. Otherwise I'd recommend creating some rivers which would lighten up the overall picture. How about some vegetation? Even if all the land around the mountains was plain a couple of single or 2-3 tress distributed here and there make it seem a little more "natural". The mountains to the upper north and the utmost south look great because you didn't line them up in a straight way like you did in the middle part. I'd recommend putting the mountains in the middle slightly off each other a bit. Might not look good though. I will try to post one or 2 of the 12 maps I did for my campaign and you can tell me, too, what you think of them. Maybe we can be inspired by each others maps and thus profit both from it.

- Dwarf

CC3 users unite...I think its a great map. I would echo dwarf's suggestions and also add that it might be nice to have that same glow effect you have on the peninsula applied to the islands (however, this might also be overpowering). You might also want to try to experiment with creating rough political borders for the regions you have labeled. I think most people do this with a combination of edge fade and edge fade inner effects.

Anyone here using City Designer 3 capable of pointing to a tutorial for doing hills? I know Gandwarf did some on his maps, but I can't seem to find a tutorial for those which is a pity since the tutorial for CD 3 on the Profantasy site is excellent.

Thanks everyone for your comments. It's funny, I had in my head that I'd fill in all those details (vegetation, cities) as the players learned about the peninsula, but if you think about it, putting in the mountains doesn't make any more sense than putting in forests and stuff. I agree that staggering the mountains is a great idea, so when I get the chance I'll give that a go! Political borders is something I'd love to do at some point, but I think I'll leave that for a different style of map.

Welcome to the Guild Valmar and Dwarf! Not a CC3 user myself, but there are a few members here that are old hands at it. I know that there are some tutorials for CC3 floating around here somewhere, but you'd have to hunt them down.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh