Aldebarand Map (for a pathfinder campaign)

[anthyna]

Aldebarant Map - city of the wizardry school (in the center), with Boccob's symbol integrated in the street design.

It's been a while since I have completed this map for my husband's pathfinder campaign, and we have had the oportunity to use it as we play. For the moment I have printed it in an A3 format and plastified it, but I'm thinking about printing it on fabric. I would love to know a bit more on how you people proceed to print and use this kind of maps during gameplay. Do you print in big format and put it on a wall, do you prefer having the map on the table for everybody to see / small format and pass it to each other? ...

In this map the city plan was drawn with an architecture software, but I think I'll save some money for a Wacom tablet, as I prefer the natural feel and imperfections of hand drawn lines.
As for the roof tops, well, bevel and emboss function was really great for fast results, but if you go into details (moreover if you are un architect) you notice that that's not how it would have been build lol

Feel free to comment, as I'm eager to learn from my mistakes c ya!

Aldebarant4vogel.jpg

[Abu Lafia]

Fantstic work anthyna! I pretty much like everything about it (i'm no architect ) The city-layout, as the overall layout with the regional -map inset looks great. The colour palette is very appealing and i really like the way you made the trees. I prefer the "more natural" feel of hand drawn linework too, but in my view, you managed to make the software generated city plan look not "artificial" at all. Great job!
For playing i prefer to have a map on the table, but i think a map like this would be great hanging on a wall in a bigger format. One question: what do you mean by plastifying the printed map?
Looking forward to see more of your work!
Cheers,
AL

[J.Edward]

That's a wonderful map Anthyna.
I featured it over on FB.

[anthyna]

WP_20160103_17_49_42_Rich_LI.jpg

Thanks for your comments
Here's a photo of how the plastified map looks (colours a bit darker than what it looks like on the screen), it's a plastic film to simply protect the paper, it doesn't add much to its appeal

[arsheesh]

Gorgeous! These sorts of maps take heaps of time to create, as I'm sure you well know by now. So sometimes trading realism for the utility of a quick bevel & emboss function is worth it. Also, given the genre you are working with it's assumed that this is a work of fiction, so certain constraints of realism can be relaxed a bit.

Anyway, you've done a marvelous job with this. I agree with Abu, lovely work all around.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Abu Lafia]

Oh ok, sorry, a short google search from my side could have made the question about plastifying unnecessary (it's called "laminieren" in german). It's looking great btw and now you can have some nice rpg-sessions with it without spoiling the map with coffee or wine stains!
I just thought you want to make the paper / carton of the map somewhat relief like, what might be a very interesting thing to do if i think about it ...
Cheers,
AL

[AzurePlanet]

Excellent result anthyna!
I like everything in your map, I may say the architect's hand is quite evident here.
I especially like the pentagonal shape drawn by the inner roads, very convincing.

P.S. I'm not a roleplayer, so I can't answer your questions.

[Christian Nicholas]

Wow. I wish I could do maps 1/4 this good...

[ChickPea]

Gorgeous map with a lovely muted colour palette. Was it some sort of CAD software you used? Would love to see what you come up with using a tablet!

Have some rep and looking forward to seeing your next project. Hope you and your hubby enjoy your campaign.

PS in English, I would say you 'laminated' the map (i.e. put it between sheets of thin plastic then ran it though a laminating machine, which melted the plastic onto the paper. That's what you did, right?)

[Diamond]

Everyone else has already heaped you with praise that I agree with, so no need to type it all out again, right? I'll just say that I LOVE this map.

As for printing/using it: back when I had a regular RPG group we always used to have a smaller table map AND a bigger one for the wall.