Yo hey how ya do.

[Circuitous]

My word, you actually clicked that topic title? You're a brave sort. I like that.


All kidding aside, my name is Kyle, I go by Circuitous (ser KYOO ih tus, or just Circ), my website is one hit combo and stumbling upon this site rekindled my love of fantasy cartography.

Since I started tabletop gaming back in '01 I tended to favor the role of DM, so it was up to me to make at least moderately interesting worlds capable of holding the attention of three or four like-minded adolescents for a few hours at a time over the course of several weeks or months. This wasn't an easy task, and I had an odd way of going about it.

Usually, I'd end up in study hall with a pad of graph paper open, doodling the outlines of continents, countries, and islands. I feel I was actually pretty good at it, using maps of the real world and other fantasy worlds as guides - where rivers came from, how edges of continents ought to look, how island chains took shape, etc. - and creating world after world until I hit upon something I was legitimately happy with.

From there I would break it down, dividing the land up along natural borders, giving temporary names to places, and coming up with story hooks in my head. Building from that, alliances would form, nations would divide or combine, or be destroyed. With a few simple changes and a couple dotted political lines, I had a functioning world with a bit of backstory that usually never made it into the actual game.

The only real end result was a notebook full of maps of dubious quality.

Of course there were a few I took a shine to, regardless of their effectiveness as campaign material. I'd take them out of the pad and color them in with colored pencils, or even scan one and fiddle with it in Photoshop 7 LE because it was all I had besides Paint. Without giving it much thought, however, they were all lost to time (or the Recycle Bin as the case may be).

Looking at the work here, though, I remember what I once loved about it. Even if my maps aren't as good as any of the ones here, I feel somethin' inside saying "Draw some more, jackass." So I think I will.

Though none of my old maps exist, I do have one I did of someone else's game world. It was never finished (the owner commissioned a commercial artist to do the map for him - the end result was nothing short of spectacular and I didn't begrudge him the decision), but I present it here just for comments' sake.

Thanks for your time and/or interest.