Greetings

[Feralspirit]

Ah, yes. Greetings, and many apologies for the delay. I've been haunting this site now for a couple of weeks, checking out maps for styles. I was looking at purchasing some mapping software in preperation for starting a new campaign and found this site. I would have introduced myself sooner, but I hate showing up to a party empty-handed. It looks like you guys are all drinking brandy, and I've shown up with beer...

I cannot say enough about what I've seen here so far. Amazing work! I hope I can pick up on a little of what you guys are doing.

I didn't want to go digging through storage to find an old and tattered map, and I did have a few things on the drawing boards. It was just a matter of bringing one to completion.

One more short note of explanation, I'm going to attach the same map three times. It was drawn on paper with pencil. The first (I hope, being completely new at this kind of thing, I can't honestly be sure where my attachments will end up) is straight from the scanner, this morning.

Stern's Bridge 1 from scanner.JPG

It obviously needed some touching up. Some lines needed to be darker or closed, some spots removed, some smudges sharpened. There are probably much easier ways to go about doing what I spent about 6 hours on, but the second map is the first computer aided map I've ever made.

Stern's Bridge 1st Edit.JPG

The third map I must include because credit is due to this site. It took me days to figure out how to get the map to sit on the paper, rather than under or over it, but that's the first kind of real manipulation I've made. I am very pleased with it, though I'm sure my audience will be under-whelmed.

Stern's Bridge Player Map.JPG

While it's obvious that the map could use more work (which it will likely get in time), I consider it finished and playable. That doesn't mean you've seen the last of it. I will likely use it to try some of these cool new things.

Feedback is welcome, , though I am aware of many errors (I consider small) already (the buildings aren't square, walls and other lines are uneven, etc.). I am hoping everyone can discern the buildings from the animal enclosures and the graveyard, but I hope to solve that by mastering layer masks or using some other tool/utility. I did away with the dotted lines.

Thank you all. Special thanks goes out to the Steel General (for pointing me towards The GIMP), Sagenlicht (for the torn old paper script and script and plug-ins overview), and jfrazierjr (for the tutorial regarding layer masks, I didn't use it with the map posted in this thread, but I intend to).

BTW; There are a couple of introductory narratives to the city and region, if anyone is remotely interested.

[ravells]

Welcome to the Guild, Feralspirit - I don't know about bringing beer to the party, that map is more of a very fine wine! I'm glad that you are using the tutorials to bring out the best in your mapping.

Don't be too critical about the map - slightly wiggly lines and not quite right-angled corners are to my mind an advantage rather than a drawback in fantasy city maps. They give the map a more hand drawn feel and indicate a society which is not technically advanced. What stands out in your map for me is the very credible layout of the city and the relationship between the roads and the buildings. One of my private niggles about city building is that many mappers lay them out like lego and the city simply doesn't look convincing. Definitely not the case here. Of all the scales of mapping in my experience, city maps are the most time consuming and difficult to draw, so congrats on starting on the black piste!

If anything I would love to see more irregularly shaped buildings to give the map even more character. I would love to hear a bit of background to the city if you have a mind to post it! Have some rep for a great contribution!

Also feel free to start a new thread in the WIP forum taking this further so the evolution of your map doesn't lost in the introductions sub forum.

[ravells]

Hi Feralspirit, I've copied your thread to the WIP forum so you can continue posting there. Cheers.

Click here to go to your thread.

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the Guild.

P.s. I further cleaned this thread up to remove all deleted posts

[ravells]

Lol, thanks Neon!