Greetings, and a Request for Feedback

[DavidVS]

Good evening!

For years I have longed to be regularly playing a RPG with my wife, and sharing the game and completed adventures online.

This dream is finally happening! I have developed a nice RPG system suitable for two players (GM and single PC). And my wife and I are playing it almost daily, especially as we take our 14 month old son on evening walks.

Anyway, while hunting for maps I was led to this delightful website.

I might as well as for help! (The tutorial PDFs here are quite scanty for Inkscape, and I have not yet searched for forum-format tutorials)

My first two adventures are here and here, and each concludes with a map I made using Inkscape (on my Ubuntu laptop).

I am sure that someone with expertise could provide some constructive criticism that would make those maps look twice as nice with only a little more work. The initial learning curve must be just as steep as with any other physical skill, and I am a greenhorn rank beginner with Inkscape.

I have GIMP but barely know how to use it, and do not have much time to invest in learning more about it. I have seen that the two can work together but am fearful of approaching this until mid-August when my summer term teaching duties are complete.

Thank you in advance for any help!

[NeonKnight]

Welcome to the guild. The maps are functional. Do not worry about being 'pretty'. None of our maps were pretty back in the early days of RPGs.

[Steel General]

Welcome Aboard!

[Korash]

Welcome to the CG David.

I know that the tut PDFs are pretty scant, but they are but the tip of the iceberg of what is available on this forum. It has only been very recently that Vandy started gathering the tuts in PDF format, and he knows that there are many more that deserve the same treatment. All in due time. There are many tuts that you should check out for both Inkscape and Gimp, but I would start off with RobA's tut on creating an artistic regional map. Although it is a long one and deals primarily with a region, he goes into soooo many techniques that can be used in map making in general that you NEED to check it out. It will help blunt the learning curve quite a bit. I know, cause I have been right where you are atm, and I have learned alot through that tut.

That been said, when you are in the process of creating a map (of any sort), I would recommend that you start a thjread in the appropriate Work In Progress forum so we can help you along towards improving your style and skills.

See you in the WIPs

[ravells]

Is there a particular look you'd like to achieve with your maps? If you can tell us that, then we can tell you how to go about getting there.

Welcome to the guild!

[DavidVS]

Thank you for the welcomes.

For my reference, the tutorial that RobA wrote and Korash mentioned is here.

In reply to ravells, I have no preferences. I simply assume that my current look of "very plain and functional after the two Inkscape tutorials" must be extendable to something actually artistic.

(I'll explain with a metaphor to swing dancing. New beginners need to learn footwork and a few dance moves. This requires all their focus, since after all they are just beginning. But these are physical skills with very little artistic expression, similar to practicing scales on the piano. Once a beginner can stop thinking about his or her feet and start focusing on his or her partner's center of gravity an entirely new experience opens up that simply cannot be explained in English to a new beginner. At that point swing dancing "evolves" to being about art instead of mechanics.)

I'll try the recommended tutorial. Thanks again for the help!

p.s. - I must spend too much time in the kitchen. Out of the corner of my eye, ravelis's phrase "Create a non-destructive editable map in photoshop" turned into "Create a non-destructive edible map in photoshop". Which, of course, reminds me of Cake Wrecks.

[Redrobes]

I wanted to post a link to the Minas Tirith cake but now that I have this link I am tempted to say that the first on this list is even better....

http://narwilliams.com/blog/2009/02/...10-geek-cakes/

[RobA]

I wanted to post a link to the Minas Tirith cake but now that I have this link I am tempted to say that the first on this list is even better....

http://narwilliams.com/blog/2009/02/...10-geek-cakes/

I think it was before your time, RR, but here is a cake I made for my son's D&D birthday part a few years back:



(This year was Descent, but I didn't have time to make a fancy cake...)

-Rob A>

[ravells]

Is there no end to this man's talents? !

[silverhead]

I think it was before your time, RR, but here is a cake I made for my son's D&D birthday part a few years back:

Wow. Impressive. My birthday is on August 17th, I like chocolate and the "Song of Fire and Ice" series. Just in case ;-)