Isolde-Delta Continent Map (Finished)

[Silverleaf]

Good evening,

Typically I don't post here, staying in the shadows and just being blown away by the artistic talent/skill of everyone here. For those that know me, I'm the owner/author of the Bloated Blowfish blog, and I focus on the recreation of my 1977 AD&D (1E) original campaign. Today I made the trek to Staples and had my finished campaign map "Isolde-Delta" printed at 3'x3' size. I wanted to share my results with you, the people who inspire me on a daily basis, so please be gentle.

Cross-posted from my blog:

24 December, 1977:

It began with the Bloated Blowfish Tavern in early December of 1977. After finishing that single point of reference I slowly expanded outward on old brown paper and by Christmas eve, I had roughly drawn out the area of Lake Elise, and started branching towards the Crestfallen Mountains.

In March of '78 I had the Southern tip completed, and began work northward ever-expanding the realm. By Christmas of that year I had started reading a series of Fantasy books that would alter my vision. Stephen R. Donaldson's "Thomas Covenant" series began with Lord Foul's Bane, and the character's and the map of "The Land" fascinated me.

As the years passed, I kept adding to my own world, but couldn't come up with an area to fill the northeastern corner. My original brown paper drawing had been erased so many times in that area that it was tattered and had torn easily from all the redrawing attempts.

I redrew it and improved the details over the next five years.

Then, one evening in 1983, I had just finished a chapter of Donaldson's sixth book, "White Gold Wielder" when I casually flipped to the map in the front of the book. It suddenly dawned on me what was missing, so at 2 am I took off from my apartment in Illinois, and drove straight through to my grandfather's house in Ohio. Six coffees and one stop for breakfast later and I was comparing my dog-eared tattered paper-map to the "The Land" map.

This could work...

Over the next thirty years I slowly laid everything out, and finalized each place, creating backstories and using newer media to update and make my world come to life.

12 October, 2013 to 14 November, 2015:

After laying out "The Land" section, I began re-creating my features using CC layers and sheets to provide a unifying base. Throw in some custom textures and symbols, and in the end I settled on two distinct types of fonts - Packard for my world, and Palatino for "The Land" so that it would be easy to differentiate between worlds.

I used Sketch-up to create various city symbols like the Bloated Blowfish Tavern and Castle of the Bloated One (in full scale). I created a ship called the Maiden's Kiss (see the post for details further down the front page) - for inclusion as a Symbol in any port of bay where I needed it.

I used Campaign Cartographer 2, then updated to 3 about a year and a half ago. One thing is for certain, the new CC 3+ is out, and I will be purchasing the updated base kit that Pro-Fantasy offers (CC3+ and City/Dungeon Designer 3) because I now have proof that the software is worth every penny.

I created the map border, ripples for the shoreline, underwater features and legend/compass on different layers in Paint Shop Pro 7/9. Then added a burn layer on the underwater features (set at just 17%) to blend everything together.

Software used:
Campaign Cartographer 2/3
Paint Shop Pro 7.4/9.1
Google Sketch-Up

Time:
Twenty three months

38 years later it's finally finished. Included is a finished 1/2 scale copy and one of the map and me. (Sorry for the group photo image quality).

Cheers,
B.B.

[J.Edward]

Nice work BB and nice to see it as a huge poster.

[TT1]

I love everything on this map. Looks like my old Forgotten Realms maps. Good color, amazing names and really fun to play.

Love it. Just awesome. Congrats BB!

[Warlin]

Nice work. A shame not to be able to do a zoom more important, the details seem interesting. Thank you for the history, it shows that this map is important for you.

[Chick]

What an awesome story!! A fabulous journey through life and cartography and gaming. Your group must be one of the luckiest in the world. The map is great and I'll bet the adventuring is as well. It's so cool that you shared not only the map and the story, but even a picture of yourself. "Silverleaf" indeed, I call you pure gold

[ChickPea]

Love this! It's fantastic to actually see the map hanging on the wall.

[drow]

what makes a map good are elements such as icons, palette, and typography. what makes it GREAT are the stories behind it. this is a great map.

[Silverleaf]

First off I just wanted top say "Thank You" to each person whom responded to this thread. Your comments, along with those at Dragonsfoot is like the cherry on top.

Honestly finishing this project has been so bittersweet, from the final render/output png and spending three hours just slowly exploring my favorite places. I thought - it looks pretty good, but how will it look at 3 feet x 3 feet? Will it be clear, will it allow the casual viewer to see my vision and most importantly, is it something I would be proud to hang on my wall?.

The next day, when I was at Staples, the very nice lady there (Sam is her name), convinced me to trust the choices of glossy over matte finish - mainly due to the thickness of the poster paper comparatively. The next moment of complete insanity came as she said, "it has 14 more minutes to print, but do you want to see what it looks like?" When I walked around the counter and first laid eyes on the lush deep colors, the clear font and the details - for the first time in my life, I truly was rendered speechless and very emotional.

As a Dungeon Master I immediately saw the value, the ability to trace the salt route, or see exactly where "Quarter-till-Ten" was in relation to Halfmoon Lake, and to see my very own Bloated Blowfish (and Castle of the Bloated One) in print. That was EPIC!. But it dawned on me in that minute of silence as I was staring through tears rolling down my face and onto my glasses, that this was the compilation of a childhood dream, a very powerful sense of completion, and the anticipation of what lay ahead. What I also realized was, this is why I game and this is who I am.

Cheers,

B.B.

[ChickPea]

What a lovely comment, Silverleaf! I can appreciate your bittersweet feeling. It's great to finish a long task, but there's also a sense of loss that it's over and you can't tinker any more. Thanks for sharing your story.

Might you consider working on a new map at some point? Perhaps to expand on one of the existing areas within your map, or something like that?

[Veldehar]

I started first drawing maps about '77 also, probably '78, but I'm not sure, and despite the fact I now have a map of the entire planet... I can't quite call it finished! LOL. I think every act of creation that is personal will carry the conflicting emotions of pride and sadness.

Take pride in that map! There's always version 22.0 to look forward to, LOL.