Regional savanna map desired, if possible with transparent overlay
Subject:
I am looking for a map maker to help me out with an overview for our tabletop campaign. It is a bit of a mixture of RPG and tabletop, where players will command armies around and conquer territories. This will be for private use in our group only, but we will use the internet for planning the next steps in the game as well.
I am not looking for the whole continent displayed, but a larger piece of it, able to fit in multiple tribes and cities. It should display a land which is mostly wild, the wide areas controlled by native tribes of amazons, barbarians and animal people (like the beastmen of Warhammer), while humankind, elves and dwarves (as the civilized races) live in few, fortified cities. A good part of it will be occupied by savanna, but I'd rather not leave this blank. On many maps I saw forests, mountains and rivers depicted, and savannas and grasslands filled up the 'empty' space between them. It'd be nice if there was a way to put something there. Minor areas will contain hills, mountains and a few forests and jungles. Small symbols are fine for tribal settlements and cities, mines and other points of interest.
While I cannot go with a simple political map, where the controlled regions are covered in the respective faction colours, I would still like to include this aspect. And here comes the tricky part. Is it possible to put a semi-transparent layer on top of the finished map, which can be altered by myself later, to depict the progress of the campaign? If country A successfully invades country B for example, I would put a symbol of their faction on it to depict that it has been conquered. Since my players and I don't live in the same country, printing it out and doing it manually would be a bit difficult to keep the map up to date. I think it is still possible, but a digital version would make it much easier for me to handle. Please keep in mind, that I have only Gimp as a drawing software. Won't help much if I need to buy Photoshop first.
Style:
I am quite flexible here. A bit more than just borders and one colour would be nice, but I don't intend to spend hundreds of Euros on this project. It's a bit hard to guess how much effort it takes to draw this or that, and thereby judge how much over the top my expectations might be. But something along those lines could work, for example: The High Forest & Silver Marches, by 4gent Or4nge with a bit less blur, or The Sundered Lands, by boognish, but something like Protector 4, by Coyotemax could work as well. As I said, I am flexible about the style of the map.
Even if your own art is differing from the examples above, don't hesitate to send a link in my direction if you like the topic. I'll give it a look and reply as quickly as I can. Or maybe it's a good chance to try something new?
Quality & Size:
Yes. Of course I want good quality and some size, the bigger the better. But again, this part will be more directed by my funds and what the artist is willing to come up with. There is no need for a fixed size or dimensions. The contained sizes and numbers of lands are not completely decided yet, so I will be able to adjust here.
Time Constrains:
None at all. We have not started the campaign yet, and the whole setup will partly be based on the outcome of the map. I have no time limit for this, so the map maker will have neither. The only thing I ask for, is an update every two months or so if the project takes longer, so I know it has not been forgotten.
Copyright:
Oookay. I don't know much about this part, and I never had to discuss it before with standard commissions for art. It is hard to understand in my own language already, and English does not make things easier at all. Please, bear with me.
As said, I would like to post it in a forum in the web which we use to plan the next moves once the campaign has started, as well as altering it a bit with symbols as the game progresses. This is completely non-commercial though, and won't be used for anything else. I don't have a problem with the artist using it for anything.
Does that count as reproduction rights? Copyright will stay with the map maker for sure, and they are free to use it for commercial purposes as they see it fit.
Costs:
Right now, I am planning to spend something around 50 Euro for it. I can adjust this a bit upwards if needed, but for now I would like to keep it roughly around that figure. Payment via PayPal is preferred. In Germany, a direct bank transfer can alternatively be arranged. If I can see that you successfully worked a few times with people here on the forum already, I have no qualms with payment upfront.
Contact Details
Since I cannot use the message functions of the board yet, e-mail will have to do.
ancalagon(underline)der(underline)schwarze(at)gmx( dot)de
Even if you're not interested in the project, feel free to comment. Any advice how to make this topic better organized, hinting at missing information for the artist or any ideas how to solve that issue with the campaign development are most welcome.
Thanks for reading.
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