The Kingdom of Eleseen - My First Map

[Tuleran]

Hi everyone, first time posting a map in the finished maps forum.

This map was made for a D&D campaign I am running and I decided to make my own setting. I used Gidde's Hand Drawn Mapping (for the Artistically Challenged) tutorial, through the gimp, and I was very happy with the results. So thanks to Gidde! I also posted this map on his thread, before I saw the finished maps thread.

Here's a little background on the map/campaign. The Kingdom of Eleseen has been plunged into war after the death of King Tristan Laenarin. His two sons Sedar and Thenys are both claiming rights to the throne and have begun warring against each other. Thenys holds the capital city Eleseen along the Eastern coast, while Sedar has taken up to the south in a neighboring kingdom (didn't get that far in the campaign yet ). The adventurers started out in the village of Ealdor along the forest to the west and have had two sessions so far doing early level quests. There's tons of stuff I haven't thrown together yet, but I knew I needed to make a map to get a good start to the area and get my players anticipation up.

Any suggestions/comments are greatly appreciated! I'll be doing a world map sometime in the next few months when the heroes outgrow Eleseen and any help or suggestions would be appreciated!

Hope you enjoy!
eleseen.jpg

[Cunning Cartographer]

Look forward to seeing more from you. Lots of great guides on these boards so its worth having a play about until you get a style that works for you.

From one DnD GM to another, welcome

[HQCosTheta]

I love the look of this. This is the second map I have seen today that made me think that maybe borders are more important than I had previously thought. I might have to start using them as well. Nice work.

[Tuleran]

Thank you for the kind comments! I really love hand-drawn style maps so that is most likely what my style will become. I have yet to do a full search but does anyone have a quick link for a hand-drawn village tutorial? That is my next step forward and to be honest my artistic talent is about zilch.

[Realmwright]

I don't know of any tutorials about village building, but I can offer a tip that works for me: Google Map real world cities. Look at Paris, Moscow, London, Budapest for Old World layouts. For more "modern" street patterns look at NYC, San Francisco, Dallas, etc. Hope that helps. Looking forward to more from you.

I have been notified that it's a breach of copyright to share CC3 icons. Duh, I really should have thought of that.

However, I would highly suggest popping over to Amazon and snagging CC3 used like I did. Totally worth the $ just for the icons! I never really got the hang of the CAD-ness of it, but I plan to dabble again in the near future.

[arsheesh]

Very nice Tuleran. Welcome to the Guild.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[sim97fan3]

Kept it simple and it turned out great!

[evilhusky]

i have one suggestion for you: MAKE MORE BC THATS AWSOME!!!!!!

[Friendly Sword]

Lurker here. Is it just me or does that map look heavily inspired by the work of a certain Tolkien?

[Tuleran]

Lurker here. Is it just me or does that map look heavily inspired by the work of a certain Tolkien?

I couldn't settle on a good coast line when I was drawing it on my own so I took middle earth, flipped it, and did like 30 degrees of a rotation. Instant shore line! =P