Vincius Family Dyson Tree Farm
by Southern Crane
Winner of Nov/Dec Lite Challenge
Challenge News
by Southern Crane
Winner of Nov/Dec Lite Challenge
Challenge News
Lite Challenge
The November/December 2017 Lite Challenge was ‘Map a Farm or Ranch’. Bogie wrote…
Since we are getting into the holidays I thought we should do something a little easier. Map a Farm or Ranch.
But that gives a lot of range of possibilities, could be a standard peasant farm, or a big horse ranch, a cavernous mushroom farm or a Tribble farm on an asteroid. Come up with something unexpected if you want to.
But that gives a lot of range of possibilities, could be a standard peasant farm, or a big horse ranch, a cavernous mushroom farm or a Tribble farm on an asteroid. Come up with something unexpected if you want to.
Voting was very, very close on this month, a testament to the quality of the mapping. Our congrats go to Southern Crane for map 'Vincius Family Dyson Tree Farm'. Southern Crane wins his first silver compass and the congrats of all at the Guild! Check out the WIP thread here.
Honorable mentions to runners-up ScottDA for 'Drow Mushroom Farm', and Tonnichiwa for 'Cthulhu's Soul Farm'.
The new Lite Challenge will start very soon, so keep an eye on the challenge folder for that.
Regular Challenge
December’s regular challenge is ‘Peace and Harmony’. It runs till the 31st, so still time to enter. Diamond writes…
Your challenge this month, should you choose to accept it, is to create a map showing two or more distinct races or cultures living together in harmony. For example, you could map a city with different districts that interact peacefully; you could map out the Babylon 5 space station; or a dwarven-made mountain city where elves have planted massive trees - the two races create a city of stone and wood spires...
The challenge is - the peaceful co-existence that you're mapping can't be the result of conquest or war. It has to be a genuine attempt to live together in harmony! Other than that, what you map and how is entirely up to you.
The challenge is - the peaceful co-existence that you're mapping can't be the result of conquest or war. It has to be a genuine attempt to live together in harmony! Other than that, what you map and how is entirely up to you.
If you want to take part, start your thread in this folder. Ask any questions in this thread. And check out the current entries here. Who wants to claim the last gold compass of the year??
Discord Server
If you’ve overlooked the widget on the front page, or this thread from Robbie, the Guild now has its own Discord server. If you aren’t familiar with Discord, it’s basically a chat room for Guild members. There are various ‘channels’ for more specific discussions (e.g. WIP chat) or a general chatroom if you just wanna hang with your Guild buddies.
You can download the Discord app to your phone, or install a desktop application, or just run it in a tab in your browser. If you’ve got a quick question about something that doesn’t quite merit its own thread, or you just want to bounce some ideas off people, this is the perfect place.
If you’re unsure of anything or have questions, ask them in the Discord thread.
So drop by and say hi!
Guild Community Projects
Guild City
Hot on the heels of finishing his epic ‘White Hill’ city map, Azelor’s back working on a new area: Northern Gate. Check out the WIP.
Fol2dol’s joined our city mapping project with ‘Section 48 - a section has no name…. yet!
Other recently updated maps include Mouse’s ‘The Ward of Erahum’, Nantara'Ïendel District by Ilanthar, and 'Monastery of Realisminites and its vicinities' by Pixie.
And if you wondered which Guild members J.Edward included in his city map, The Ward of Chiezbehrg, wonder no more…
There are still a number of areas available for Guild City, so if you’re in the mood for some city mapping, all you have to do is claim your spot. Lots of info in the main folder.
Guild World
We have a new region started for Guild World. Check out the WIP for The Moonwheel Islands & The Salt Web, by Southern Crane.
Guild Dungeon
Voolf finished his dungeon map, titled 'Crystal Cave'. Check it out here.
Remember to check out the full-size zoomy map that Redrobes is putting together. If you’d like to see your map in there, there’s more info on how to take part here.
Atlas Awards
Final reminder that only maps from the ‘Finished Maps’ folder are eligible for nomination for an Atlas Award. If you’ve forgotten to post a completed WIP or a challenge map, make sure you start a thread for them before 31st December. You can easily check back everything you’ve done this year by going to your profile page and clicking ‘Find latest started threads’ from the vertical menu near the top left. If you’ve missed something, post it now!
Five Finished Maps
- Mysenna by DanielHasenbos
- Imperial Bannarith by Diamond
- Reith: A Core World of Colara by freja82, first ever completed map
- 'First hand-drawn map' by JohnNelson
- Cordeauna Island by Ladiestorm
Five threads to check out
The latest work-in-progress threads, interesting discussions, new tutorials etc etc. It's all here.
- Castle of Azulhoc by Tenia, 3d model made in Sketchup
- Warlin’s posted another update in his Atlantide series, and it’s fantastic!
- Fresh from Inktober (err, a two month-long Inktober!) Thomas has started a 'Random sketches' thread showing some of his practice work and daily sketches.
- Shardom Empyron by Ilanthar
- City of Camfor by auke
Around the web
- "Building a scale model of our solar system in the desert is an eye-opening exercise" A short film recreating the vastness of the solar system in 7 miles of desert.
- These Imaginary Islands Only Existed on Maps, from National Geographic. "Some islands, like King Arthur’s Avalon, were pure legend. Others were mistakes or outright hoaxes."
- For our Gimp users: a new version (2.9.8 ) is out and the biggest new feature is On-Canvas Gradient Editing. Check out the blog post which includes a video demonstrating the new feature.
- Not really map-related, but we have a lot of skilled people here, and this might be of interest to someone. Envato Tuts are looking for tutorials from talented artists, illustrators and Photoshop gurus, and they're willing to pay. Check out their post for more details.
- I know many of us use generator sites to come up with names for our maps. If you’re interested in the processes behind name generators, you might enjoy the blog ‘Letting neural networks be weird’. They train a neural network with a large dataset, then let it loose. The results can be… creative! The latest experiment was with bird names. If anyone wants to change their username to ‘Slaty White-throated Fairy-bellied Ground-Tyrant’, just let us know!
- Adam Whitehead runs the well-regarded blog The Wertzone, where he reviews all things fantasy & sci-fi. He also has a second blog titled ‘The Atlas of Ice and Fire’, where he analyses the geography of GRRM's epic world. Lately, he's branched out with some new posts about 'Malazan: Maps of the Fallen'. If you enjoy either of these series, you'll enjoy his site.
- 'Extremities of the Earth: The Most Remote Inhabited Island', from Library of Congress blog.
Thanks for reading this post. I’m taking a break over the festive season, but we’ll resume again in the New Year. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Cool Yule to all.
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