I'm intimidated by all the great maps on here!

[Krieghund]

Hi!

I'm a bit amazed that I haven't stumbled across this corner of the internet before, as it combines two of my great loves: mapping and imaginary worlds.

I started playing D&D 30 years ago and I've been following various roleplaying systems and worlds ever since. Honestly, though, my interest in actually *playing* RPGs has waned a bit since college. I still very much enjoy world creation, but we'll blame the busyness of adult life and the ease of playing computer games for my lack of recent tabletop RP experience.

Playing D&D was my first experience really enjoying maps and mapping. (Remember that isometric map of Castle Ravenloft? That was so awesome!) It led to an interest in architecture that lasted up until time to pick a major in college. At the time, I was too intimidated by the artistic side of architecture, particularly the drafting and drawing. I spent a bit of time as a Computer Science major, until I stumbled across a geography class.

I enjoyed learning about the people and places in the world so much that I switched majors to Geography. With my background in Computer Science I had a bit of an advantage some very new sub-fields that were just starting to take off: GIS and computerized mapping. After getting my BS in Geography, I worked for a time as a CAD draftsman making topo maps for an aerial photography firm and then making legal maps of sewer service areas for the Sanitation District. Don't let anyone tell you mapping isn't glamorous!

Eventually, though, I married and my wife moved with her job, winding up in Los Angeles. I went with her and started a second career as a stay-at-home-dad. In my spare time, I've been working on a world-building project centered around a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. Part of the fun of this project is learning about the area that I currently live in. The maps I produce might have a bit more of a basis in reality than some of the other maps on this site. While I add some fictional elements, I do want to keep Southern California as recognizable as possible.

I've primarily been using Photoshop, basically as a sort of ghetto GIS for organizing my thoughts. I hadn't even really considered making a map as a finished product until stumbling across this site. (Imgur led me to /r/imaginarymaps which led me here).

Anyway, I'm looking forward to learning as much as I can here, and hopefully upping the artistry of my maps.

[zeichen]

welcome, and look forward to seeing your maps.

[Jaxilon]

Well welcome aboard and very glad to have you.

I think you will enjoy it here. It's about the best place I've found in the net. We don't mind real maps one bit even though we seem to make so many fantasy maps.

I'm like you in that I don't RPG like I used to. Busy life seems to keep us at about one big night every year which is really not enough to keep up but my crew has to many family responsibilities. I'd like to get a virtual table top going but even then I'm not sure how much it will help. So I have fun making up worlds.

Look forward to seeing some of your work.

[Chick]

Hello Krieghund, welcome to the Guild! I'll look forward to seeing your maps!

[Meshon]

Welcome to the guild Krieghund. I'm always interested to see maps that have some basis in a real place. There's a great map thread to check out here started by @jugabyte (does adding an at sign actually do anything? If not it's just jugabyte ) which combines mapping a local area and the dad career. I'm not sure what size your junior cartographer is at but exploring and mapping would be a lot of fun I think.

Enjoy your awesome job! I'm excited to see what you do to LA...

cheers,
Meshon