Hello

[Crinias]

Hello everyone, I recently joined this site, but I must confess I don't actually have any cartography/map making experience. I have thought of writing books and have written quite a few short stories, but it was only recently that I learned to appreciate maps as a similar way of expressing ideas and stories. Maps can tell a lot about the living conditions of certain places, they can show roads, political boundaries, etc. I have always found the whole map-territory relation very apt. Maps are a representation of reality (or other realities in the case of fictional maps). They can never be the real thing, so that makes them beautiful in the same way books are beautiful.

A pair of years ago a friend introduced me to D&D, and since then I've immersed myself into it. He's a DM, so I can appreciate the tremendous amount of effort he puts into every single session. It was sometime around then that I became more interested in maps.

Some weeks ago I thought about learning more about cartography and actually making maps for a D&D campaign, but I realize now that I want to learn about cartography because it is interesting, not just out of half-hearted interest and convenience.

I look forward to contributing to this site in the future.

[Gidde]

Welcome to the Guild!


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[arsheesh]

Well you are certainly in the right place to learn how. MANY people (myself included) have come here looking for tips on how to create fantasy maps for their RPG campaigns. I had no experience at all, either in cartography or in working with digital mediums prior to coming to the Guild However, with the help of the wonderful tutorials here and the tremendously helpful community, I was able to pick it up rather quickly. My suggestion is to browse through the finished maps for inspiration, then through the tutorials to see what is feasible for a beginning project, as well as what software is required. Then dive right in. Look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh