Original Campaign World (d20 compatible with Pathfinder rule set)

[StormCatalyst]

This is essentially the 2nd layout/design the world has gone through. I've been working on this campaign setting on and off for roughly 8-9 years. All the previous maps I have done for this have been hand drawn. I've only made one attempt to scan a map in many years ago and play with it in photoshop but that file has long since disappeared. If there is any interest I will attempt to scan some previous versions of the world, however my main focus will be its current incarnation. I will be attempting to use Adobe Illustrator CS2 for my digital modifications. I pretty much have next to no experience with Illustrator. My Adobe experience mainly lies with Pagemaker.

Anyway this is my intial scan stitched together in Illustrator. I had to break it into 6 different scans (and a couple re-scans to improve quality, mind you my scanner is probably as old as the campaign ;-P ) hence the ugly patchwork. This project took probably about 3-4 hours to get a good draft of where I want things to be (this includes making my own grid paper at work in excell... hehe). If you notice the faint grid lines, each section represents roughly 100 miles. Circumference at the equator is slightly greater than around the poles as is the Earth's. Total size of this world I would say is roughly between the size of Earth and Venus. So we set at a nice estimate of 12,200 miles around the equator and 5,900 miles from north pole to south pole. Forgive my heathen non-metric measurements ;-)


Word Beta Layout - 1st.jpg


I think my first step with digital modifications will be to blend the 6 parts and redo some landmass outlines to make it look more like one piece of paper. Any initial thoughts, comments, constructive critiques are welcome.

P.S. As I progress with this project I will also give some details into the world itself if there is interest in my ramblings.

After post edit - I just noticed the section of the northwestern continent that got cut out. I'll get the hang of this scanning thing eventually.

[StormCatalyst]

Word Beta Layout - 1st Outline.jpg

So here is the outline layer to give you a crisper idea of the world. I plan on searching the tutorials for ideas on a problem I have, however I will post it here as well. I'm not sure how to duplicate the hand drawn look of the forests/jungles aside from a specialized texture... any ideas?

[Lalaithion]

I think you need to rethink your idea about projection... unless this is a fairly small area, the "100 Miles" will quickly become inaccurate. A distance representing 100 miles along the equator increases exponentially as it nears the poles.

Maybe make those lines lines of longitude and latitude; read up a bit on projections and look at the Equirectangular Projection.

[StormCatalyst]

Lalaithion, thanks for the reference. I was wondering how I would be able to rework the map taking that into account, it is an area of cartography that I lack any relevant experience in.

[StormCatalyst]

Here is an updated version of the world map. At the moment I have not made adjustments with the projection (still reading up on the :how-to's"). This is a combination of work done initially in Illustrator 7 and then finished up in Gimp 2.0. I've been playing with the many custom brushes available across the net. Eventually I'll get around to learning how to make my own. One thing I am trying to figure out is how to modify colors, yet keep the parchment texture (mostly for bodies of water)... If anyone can direct me to a good tutorial that be sweet.

Word Beta Gimp Transfer.jpg

[StormCatalyst]

Greetings all!

Over the past few months I have been familiarizing myself with climateology, plate techtonics, global winds, and ocean current systems in order to revamp my maps into something more pleasing to myself as well as being a reasonably plausible world. The overall world size has shrunk to roughly 1.5x the size of Earth. The world map has been scratched untill I find time to go thru the projection process. Instead I have focused on two of the major continents as regional maps and a smaller regional map of the Ossiryion City States, in which my Pathfinder campaign will take place.

I will be posting a series of progression to bring you up to where I am currently. This will include some experimentations with different styles.

The Karthian Continent + The Northern Wastes

Eastern Daseryn Hemisphere.jpg


The Ardenian Continent + The Norbien Continent

SouthWestern Hemispheres.jpg

[StormCatalyst]

The Ossiryion City States

*** #2 Pencil ***
Pencil-OssiryionCS.jpg


*** Ink and Colored Pencils (A few areas still need coloring. Will update when finished) ***
Ink&ColorPencil-OssiryionCS.jpg