The Western Lands

[Loudwolf]

This is my first endeavor with CC3+ redoing some of my old D&D maps from the 80s.
“The Western Lands” represents the world as my players knew it in their explorations from 1980 – 1990 when we were actively playing. It’s part of a larger continent that I never quite finished creating.
Western Lands - reduced.jpg

[Arimel]

That looks like a landscape that would hurt to walk around in with all of the mountains/ruggedness! Very nice though! I think my favorite part is near the Library of Orthalas. Seems rather peaceful there. The only improvement I could think of is perhaps dimming the brightness on the red lines (Lava, right?). They really stand out on the map.

[Kellerica]

Very nice! And that's great praise coming from me in this case, since I've never been overly fond of this particular CC3+ style. But you've used it extremely well, the place looks very carefully put together with lots of interesting locations. I think my main issue with this style is that some people use it with very little care, often with elements that don't sit well together or are even placed on top of one another, but none of that exists here. You've clearly spent time with this piece.

Looks like it was a fun world to play in!

I'm with Arimel on the lava rivers, though, they really pop out way too much. I'd also consider maybe a different color for the Grass Sea, it looks more like sand waste to me.

[Loudwolf]

Thanks for the feedback. Agreed that the lava is probably a tad bit too red. I might drop the lava entirely as it's somewhat redundant info (the smoking mountain top sorta gives it away that it's a volcano)

This is literally the first time I've tried to transfer any of my pen-and-paper maps to a digital format. The original 24" x 36" hand drawn map was an evolving work-in-progress for the 10 years that we played. You should see it now...It's been folded and refolded so any times I think it's held together by maybe 3 of 4 molecules at this point. I chose CC3+ mostly as a trial tool to see what I could do. With all the symbols, color schemes and sheet effects built-in, it makes for a quick map (I spent about 3 weeks putting this together). I have a lot of experience with AutoCAD, so it wasn't much of a learning curve to jump in as the programs are roughly similar.

Now that I've stepped through the looking glass, I can see though that I will have to look into getting more adept with Photoshop or Gimp (or other) to have more control and create my own stuff. I use both PS and Gimp with one of my other hobbies (photography), but only in a limited fashion compared to the vast potential present in both.

[Kellerica]

It might be a bit longer haul to get your PS/Gimp mapping skills up, but in my opinion it's more than worth it. You just have so much freedom that way. Don't overlook the Tutorial section on this forum; those things single-handedly taught me to use PS when I knew nothing about it, and I can with some confidence say that I'm pretty handy with it this days. You probably have some grasp on the software via your photography hobby, but making maps with them is often a very different beasts.

[Loudwolf]

It might be a bit longer haul to get your PS/Gimp mapping skills up, but in my opinion it's more than worth it. You just have so much freedom that way. Don't overlook the Tutorial section on this forum; those things single-handedly taught me to use PS when I knew nothing about it, and I can with some confidence say that I'm pretty handy with it this days. You probably have some grasp on the software via your photography hobby, but making maps with them is often a very different beasts.

No doubt, but retirement from my day job is only a few years away...time to start developing a few new interests. Oh, and don't sell yourself short...I checked out some of your work...you are more than "pretty handy".