This map shows the city of Loewenreuth, the scenery where our RPG-group enjoys a little steampunk campaign.
To get the players into the mood and to offer them the opportunity to get to know the city itself, I made this map with GIMP over a year ago. It was supposed to imitate the style of a tourist info brochure, giving a general layout and highlighting points of interest ans important sites.
The city itself is loooooosely based on some 19th century London, of which I copied and rearranged the outer line to give me a natural border to operate in - hence the black fence. I belive, the outer outskirts were not worth mentioning in the eyes of the ministry for tourism.
From there I drew a new river that suited my taste. Then I divided and arranged the districts, of which everyone has its own setting and atmosphere. The main streets (yellorange) are old Londons', I think, the rest I erased into the coloured blocks of district. Cut out where some prominent place was planned to be and added green for some parks and gardens.
Wolkenheim is a special district, as it is built on an half-artificial plateau that resides on the side of Mt. Erethil, above the billowing smoke of the industrious city. Here the noble and wealthy reside.
The background I made following a nice tutorial I found here somewhere in the guild, added a frame and a grid. To complete my goal I added markers with numbers, the legend for the numbers indicating POI, a compass and a title with grandeur.
For a finishing touch I added a layer of canvas-optic, so the map would have a visual tactility.
I could have worked a lot longer on the map, polishing it, but the campaing was about to start and the story needed to get going, so here we are with what I call the finished version.
I hope some of you like it and that geography doesn't bite my butt off.
Cheers.