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Thread: Laramis

  1. #1
    Community Leader Immolate's Avatar
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    Post Laramis

    My Dungeons and Dragon group has been together since 1978. Three of us started playing then, another three joined around 1980 and the last two came aboard about ten years ago. There are a couple of persistent campaign worlds that have been going on for quite some time. One of our better DM's, Greg, has always run a world called "Mythgar". After many years, Greg finally tired of Mythgar and decided to bridge us to a new world called "Laramis", which is a more cruel and brutal place with a less-settled civilization.

    Greg asked if I could help with the map of Laramis. I studied the map he'd done in CC3 for a while, then decided that this would be a perfect opportunity to emulate my favorite map of all times on these boards, Ramah's "Vaniya".

    Vaniya was the first master-quality map that I saw when I came here, and it made an enormous impression.

    Here is the original map that Greg made. I have also included my first pass at the world itself, with just the continent itself and a bit of texture included. Suggestions and recommendations are, of course, welcome.

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    Guild Journeyer Syt's Avatar
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    I like the look of your continent and texturing so far. I very much like the lettering you've chosen, but I think it might be best suited to a 19th century style setting? Then again, when the rest of the map is filled up it may fit, anyways.

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    Community Leader Immolate's Avatar
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    I appreciate the perspective, and my wife thought the same thing. She said it was a bit too western. I replaced the font with Vafthrudnir. She likes it better.

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    Guild Journeyer Alecthar's Avatar
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    I like it very much so far. I'm very interested to see how the map progresses, and I really like that second font. The first one didn't bother me, but the second one I like better still.
    "Unless I'm allowed to carry around a gun to shoot their giant killer-spiders, Australia needs to stay the hell away from me. Also Australians, who if they have lived this long are obviously agents of the spiders and not to be trusted."

  5. #5
    Guild Journeyer Syt's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Immolate View Post
    I appreciate the perspective, and my wife thought the same thing. She said it was a bit too western. I replaced the font with Vafthrudnir. She likes it better.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    That one looks great.

  6. #6
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    Well I feel like I just got back from a two-day sojourn to discover mountains, and as if I didn't really find any. I have tried a half-dozen styles, and have yet to find one that satisfies. Take a look at these and give me your brutally honest thoughts on how they work with the map.

    Go ahead. I can take it.

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  7. #7
    Guild Journeyer Syt's Avatar
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    To be brutally honest: I think those mountain symbols go very well with the map style.

    I would save that and try, as alternative, to put the mountains closer together, so they overlap and make the mountain range more massive.

    Another alternative (one that I, as fan of historical maps like) is to present ranges as single lines of mountains like in this example:


    Play around with the arrangement and see which you like best.

  8. #8
    Guild Journeyer Alecthar's Avatar
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    As yet another alternative, there's a tutorial on making hand-drawn mountains. What I plan to do with my next regional map is to PosteRazor an outline of the map with a guide on where I think the mountains should be and then using that as a guide for hand-drawing my own ranges.

    But really all you need to do is hand-draw 6-7 mountains and scan them in and make them into brushes, then place them well and you have cool hand-drawn ranges that you made yourself.
    "Unless I'm allowed to carry around a gun to shoot their giant killer-spiders, Australia needs to stay the hell away from me. Also Australians, who if they have lived this long are obviously agents of the spiders and not to be trusted."

  9. #9
    Community Leader Immolate's Avatar
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    Syt,

    I looked at that style and it just didn't "catch me". It seems to be one of the two most prevalent mountain styles in the old maps I studied. The other was the topographical style that must have taken an enormous amount of time and an epically steady hand. I don't know that I could emulate those and can't think of any short cuts.

    Alecthar,

    I've read that tutorial a few times and tried it, but haven't been pleased with the results. The mountains in my example were "hand drawn" but on the computer. By the way, everyone has a scanner though they might not be aware. Simply draw what you want on a plain white piece of paper, put it in a well-lighted spot, then snap it with your mobile phone's camera, then mail it to yourself. The picture should be in far larger resolution than you need, so you won't lose the detail.

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    I put in the rivers last night, which was basically using an eraser as a brush to make the rivers seem integrated with the rest of the land mass. I would like to do some shading on them to give an impression of depth, but not sure how best to approach it.

    Click image for larger version. 

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