Cartography Stamps

[Paper Labyrinth]

I’m creating a set of cartography stamps, to serve as a map-making accessory for tabletop role-playing games. These are traditional art stamps, made of vulcanized rubber and mounted on wooden blocks.

I’d like some feedback on the artwork I’m using for the prototype.

So far, I’ve designed seven stamps for the basic set:

• Mountains
• Hills
• Woods
• Grassland
• Sea
• Village
• Tower

Below is a sample of the artwork...

20180627 large woods (cropped).png

The scale varies a lot, which could be a problem. Here is the same map with smaller trees...

20180627 small woods (cropped).png

Any feedback or advice is welcome.

Known issues:

I may eventually create stamps for rivers and roads, but not as part of the basic set. For now, players have to draw these by hand, placing them along the faces between adjacent hexes.

The artwork fills the entire hex, so there isn’t any room for text. I’m exploring various solutions, such as creating semi-opaque stickers shaped like scrolls, as a companion for the stamps.

[Paper Labyrinth]

My original post included small sections of a map, to show the artwork at high resolution. Here's a picture of what a full page would look like...

06302018_map.jpg

Is the style cohesive and legible?
The scale varies a lot. Is that too distracting?

I can add a few more stamps to the basic set -- what terrain do you consider essential?

[MistyBeee]

Hi there

I'm absolutely not an expert of this kind of objects, but it's difficult for sure to deal with the sale. In my opinion, you should try to take a step back and look at the global effect : are the water tiles distinguinshable enough ? Is the grassland, wich is an "empty" terrain, gives the appropriate feeling ? If it's for a tabletop, you also have the risk the people will rotate the tiles : the water can look like hills, and hills like water, maybe, and confuse a non-attentive player ^^
A good way would also be to try a print, cut the tiles and play a little : it may helps a lot to find what works and what needs to be redone.
Also, I don't know the technical needs for vulcanized rubber but I wonder if some of the lines aren't too thin to be useable ?

Maybe desert and swamp would be a nice addition

Keep going, Paper Lab, it sounds like a fun project you're working on ! ^^

[Paper Labyrinth]

Thanks for the feedback, Misty!

Swamp and Desert are at the top of my list for new stamps. Conifers seem pretty iconic too.
I want the basic set to be affordable, so 12 stamps is probably the limit. That only leaves room for two more.

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I've already created a few prototypes, using laser-etched rubber and traditional wooden mounts. The artwork transfers well, but I'll need to run more tests to get it right.

So far, the biggest drawback to the stamps is the permanent ink. There is no "undo" button, and you can't erase part of the terrain to add text. I recently ordered some wet erase ink, to see if the artwork transfers onto a vinyl hex mat -- that might be a good solution.