Post Apocalyptic Campaign Planning Map WIPs

[Plastic_Jack]

I've never played the previous editions of Gamma World, but I picked up the last boxed set Wizards put out a few months ago. My group had a good time with it, but the system didn't really seem right for a longer-term campaign. It's fun, but I agree with you - looking for something a bit darker for a longer term campaign. d20 Darwin's World seems like a good fit, rules-wise, and I'm busy concocting a world. Trying out an Obsidian Portal wiki to help me with the world-building. I'll put a link up once I get it a bit more fleshed out, for anyone interested in a wall o' text.

And yeah, I can see the font complaint. I think the one I was using, Blackadder, has more of a 'Western' vibe, than I was going for anyhow. I was trying to get away from my personal standby for fantasy mapping, Caslon Antique. I love that font, but that is probably just due to the nostalgia connection of it being all over everything in the Heroquest board game I had when I was a kid. Found one called Postnuclear, appropriately enough. I like it a bit better. Easier to read at any rate. Trimmed out some of the excessive labeling, and then compulsively added some more in different areas.



Thoughts?

[Plastic_Jack]

Did some more tinkering, bearing in mind that the intent of making these maps was to include them in a batch of handouts for the group. Decided to go a different route, focusing more on the intended ambiance than overwrought PS pseudo-realism. Shooting for gritty here, not cartoony. With that in mind, I tried to make it look more like a battered old daguerreotype photograph with typed and handwritten notations. Taken from a dirigible, of course. I think the intended feel comes across much better.

[SchildConstruct]

If the map is actually a photo with notations, I'd either get rid of the grid in the background, or make it an overlay (hand drawn, maybe?). Or maybe just hint at a grid with crosses in four corners as if it were a military recon picture (check images of the moon landing to see what I mean with "crosses").

Oh, and I'd hint at perspective with the help of shadows, and then make it greyscale (sepia colour in old photos is a result of the materials used to capture light, and not a result of aging).

[Plastic_Jack]

Gave the overland map a similar treatment, though less sepia, and more metallic-looking. Not sure which I like better. I see what you mean with the implied grid corner crosses from military recon photos, and I like it. So let it be written, so let it be done. Only a little more fiddling to do with these maps, then I'll move on to a few new ones. Corner crosses, color adjustments, and misc tinkering, and I think I'll leave them alone.