Howdy!

As requested by the welcoming email, I'm here to introduce myself.

I'm a long-time GM and aspiring novelist (wait, is that redundant?) who has also developed a love for drawing maps. Usually I do them by hand with multi-color pens, but having seen the work of some of the people here, I thought maybe I'd try my hand at some digital creations. I will probably not be using Photoshop as I don't have a grand to drop on software just to do maps, but am looking at several Mac-based packages, most notably Pixelmator, so any advice on how to accomplish cool effects with that software will be appreciated.

I think the biggest issue I've had with mapping is trying to get all of the useful information onto a map in a way that isn't too cluttered. Geography, biomes, political regions, city names, resources, etc., etc. I'm thinking going digital will help with this because I'll be able to make one multi-layered map and print out several versions for my players' (and my) use.

Anyways, looks like I have a lot of reading to do here. Thanks in advance for all of the great advice I'm going to find in the archives!

JOhn.