Hello the guild!

I started reading Tolkien, of course. It was winter and early in the year of 1980. I was a major fan of the maps. I have been a fan of maps ever since.

That summer in 1980, a friend came along and said, "Want to play Dungeons & Dragons?" I asked what it was about. He said it was like Tolkien. Elves, dwarves, magic, etc. I went straight for that.

I have drawn numerous maps since then. Not one of which is in electronic format and I have never had a scanner.

I have tried CC2 and CC3 demos but they are very complicated and don't work the way I do. I have sat through twenty-part tutorials on YouTube and they're very good at explaining how to use CC3 to accomplish basic local mapping (like a jungle island, in the example I saw). I had a lot of trouble remembering the requirements and purposes of all those obscure dialog box options which needed to be changed as the project moves onward, in order to fulfill a certain look and feel (frankly, all settings for all elements of a certain look and feel should be pre-set under a single style name, but that's just me).

I have seen Hexographer and the black and white versions are still how many of my maps are drawn by hand when I do them. I have a strong nostalgia for the Expert rules and the maps in the Isle of Dread. I have not yet picked up this software, though.

I have also looked at many other software programs, including NBOS. Right now, if I were to buy software, it would probably be Astrosynthesis to go along with Factal Mapper (bit of an SF-leaning going on at the moment with me).

Currently, I am not engaged in any map-making projects. Sorry!

I have stopped by here to register due referrals on an EnWorld topic, and hope I will be able to utilize the available resources as time and inspiration come along.

Sincerely,

RainOfSteel