Players Map Handout - The Known Area

[Chgowiz]

Map (click to enlarge)

Artists Notes:

This map was created as a player handout for the kickoff of my "old school" OSRIC/1st Edition D&D game - The Dark Ages. The final product will be printed on cotton paper, then treated to a simple aging process and the edges torn to make it look realistic. I'm very pleased with the results.

The map was created using GIMP 2.6 - the initial document size was 3000x2250 at 300ppi. I work in Ubuntu and I use an old-school Wacom Intuos serial tablet. The map image shown above had the canvas resized so that it was square to be uploaded to the Obsidian Portal map manager. The actual document will fit on a 8.5x11 landscape page.

The hardest part was the trees. I've struggled with the ZombieNirvana method of making trees and I was never truly satisfied with the end results. After seeing this post about old Russian maps on the Making Maps DIY blog, I had found my answer and stole the concept.

I created two layers of tree pattern fills and tinkered with the layer masks. I had to go around each edge of the pine tree areas to properly masking the trees right so they looked natural. I then filled in the background color with a waterpaint brush.

The clip art was unashamedly used from openclipart.org. I downloaded the SVG outline files, imported them into GIMP then traced over them to make them look more "rough" and hand drawn.

So that's about it. Thank you to those of you who've put up with my patient questions over the past 9 months or so. This map wouldn't be without your input and suggestions.