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The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.
Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.
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>> I like seeing maps done in gaming software...just to see what's possible. I've tried the Neverwinter Nights one and the Middle Earth one...with horrible results Dwarf Fortress has an amazingly powerful map generator. Not counting all of the settings you can give it there are roughly a billion seeds you can use to create maps. There there are the actual parameters...69 of them by my count that effect the landscape itself--I'm counting subregion size as an applicable variable, along with caves which are location features (like buildings)--with another dozen or so for the historical events (History has its own seed value too! That's a billion histories on each of a billion possible worlds!). http://dwarffortresswiki.net/index.php/World_generation
