Weekly Round-up - 8th January, 2018

Mappy New Year to all Guilders!

This blog post covers the high points from the last three weeks, as I took a break over the festive period, so there's lots of catch up on.





December 2017 Regular Challenge
December’s regular challenge was ‘Peace and Harmony’, where Guilders were asked ‘to create a map showing two or more distinct races or cultures living together in harmony’.

Voting was extremely close with only one vote separating the top three maps. Our congrats go to winner Jo for map Mostar Bridge, showing the destruction of a famous bridge during the conflict in the former country of Yugoslavia.

Honourable mentions to our joint runners-up GreatWhiteNorth and Greg, who both produced fine maps worthy of a gold compass.



January 2018 Regular Challenge
January's challenge is already up and running, and it's a fun one! Titled 'Fill in the Blanks', your task this month is to take the supplied image of labels and create a map out of them. More info in the main thread. We have several entries already, and it looks like it'll be a popular one. Thank you to Chashio for the idea.










December 2017/January 2018 Lite Challenge
At the time of posting, the Lite Challenge has just under a week to go, and there's a silver compass up for grabs. Our topic this time is 'Map something from your home town', so still time to enter if you're fast. More info here.



Mapping Challenge Suggestions
A few new mapping suggestions have been put forward. If you like 'em, go vote for the them.

Mono biome map : Make a map displaying a single biome. It could be a desert, a forest, a jungle, an ocean, etc. Suggested by Azelor.

Seasonal map : make a map displaying a specific season, perhaps winter, or make a world map showing accurate seasons in different areas (further details at the link). Suggested by Azelor.

Map a competitive sporting activity : create a map based on an organised sporting event, examples at the link. Suggested by ChickPea.





Guild City
Ilanthar updated his city area 'Nantara'Ïendel District'.

Azelor finished his city map 'Northern Gate'. Check out the final map.

Mouse is working on the cliffs on her map 'The Ward of Erahum'

Another update from Pixie for 'Monastery of Realisminites and its vicinities'


Guild World
Azelor's started on his second Guild World region, and he's bagged the infamous 'Area 51'. The map is titled 'The Forsaken Land'.

And not content with two countries, Azelor is also mapping a region titled Yinpei Province from his previous completed area The Kingdom in the Clouds.

ThomasR is back working on his as yet untitled area. Check out the latest updates.

Ladiestorm has started on Area 58, titled 'Yilseudor'.

Southern Crane updated his region 'The Moonwheel Islands & The Salt Web'.


Guild Dungeon
damonjynx decided to join the project, with 'Damon's Demonic Dungeon 1'.

Azelor's been working on 'Confused Architect'.

Jo updated his WIP 'The Thieve's King'.





Normally, we go for five maps but we'll have ten (plus a few extra) this week, since we've had a bit of a break. Also it was impossible to limit myself to five.

• Official L5R Rokugan Boardgame Map by FrancescaBaerald
• Hothachar Map Set by DanielHasenbos
• Ashem city map by ZoraSpringer
• A few new maps from Wired : 'The City of Conraest/The Ruins of Conraest' | 'Town by the Lake' | 'Small Town Map' (to celebrate 500 watchers on DeviantArt)
• We also had a few maps from ThomasR : 'The World of Anonyma' | 'Cadurca' | 'Lok'Tara Itza'
• Continent of Adania by spyb0y1
• Union, a "Points of Light" setting (Continental Map) by handsome_unlimited
• Egishirgal's Constellations Map by Ilanthar
• Two new maps from Sapiento : 'Zkantovarg' | 'Terris'
• Two commissioned maps from Caenwyr : 'Heimfold World Map' | 'Heimfold - the Essence Isles'

The latest work-in-progress threads, interesting discussions, new tutorials etc etc. It's all here.

• MapForge mapping software is having a short Indiegogo fundraiser.
• Ilanthar's tests & sketches
• A new in-depth tutorial from Charerg : Using GPlates to model continental drift
• Altrunchen sparked some lively discussion with his question 'Which Alignment do you Usually Roleplay As?’
• New Atlas Elyden update from vorropohaiah
• Castle of Azulhoc by Tenia
• Two threads from Jo to check out : 'The fortress of Blackbones' and 'The border at the river'
• Most intriguing thread title of last year? 'naked mannnequins walking around a . . . . underground warehouse' by Sam101
• Dwarven City of Kuglutuk by aeshnidae
• Dreadnought by Sapiento
• Starship Deck Plans for Starfinder RPG by Gamerprinter
• 'My first continent map' by fetid_discharge

Some links for your reading/viewing pleasure.

• Google Maps’s Moat. How far ahead of Apple Maps is Google Maps? (thanks to Redrobes for this one)
• WineHQ. Mapping on Linux is a pretty popular topic in the forums. if you want to check if you'll be able to run a Windows app on Linux, WineHQ is the place to go. (Thanks again to Redrobes for the link).
• Feeling a little down after the festive season? You can wallow in misery at the ‘Sad Topographies’ Instagram feed.
• 'Space-Time And Place: The Culture of Indian Maps' Fantastic exhibition-style web site, well worth a visit.
• From Twitter, TSR's original maps of the Forgotten Realms hand drawn by Ed Greenwood.

If you see an article around the web that you think other Guild members might enjoy, please PM me with a link and I’ll add it to a future blog post (with due credit, of course).



That's all for this week. We'll be back again next Monday with more mapping goodness.

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