Javartan Regional Map

[Paul]

In fits and starts the design of my Javarta campaign lumbers into motion once more... I've begun the process of transforming thumbnail sketches and mental mapping notes into a map of the campaign area. This is, of course, a project that is standing on Tear's able shoulders. His remarkable Saderan tutorial has taught me a lot about the inner workings of Photoshop—not to mention some fantastic mapmaking techniques!

My goal was to capture the look and feel of southeast Asia, and create a setting consisting of numerous archipelagos and imposing interior highlands the PCs can romp around in (and get romped on in). I'm still laying in rivers; vegetation and polishing await (I may vary some of the coloring). In terms of real-world analog, this map runs from just above Taiwan down to the tip of the Cambodia/Thai peninsula (scale is 50 miles per hex).

Critiques welcome...

One thing I couldn't get to work as described in the tutorial (page 6) was the underwater terrain; maybe it's because I am working as high resolution? I could get the continental shelf effect, but only very close to shore and at a small scale.

More soon!