Looking good so far.
This is my map of the region we're gaming in. Its Boot Hill 3rd Edition. I worked from a map that I found of the area circa 1895. Lots and lots of stuff changed in those years. I then went on a ghost town hunt. Using my google-fu, I went looking at the founding date of each settlement, trying to figure out if it was inhabited or not in 1873. Wow. I will say I've learned a bunch of New Mexico history. I already knew quite a bit, I'm from the area. On the one hand, that was great. Knowledge is always good. I now know all kinds of useless little details.... I just got so caught up in it I've stopped work on the map.
It was all going so well, treating it like a Fantasy map, since in a sense it is. Then, "Mr. Bright Idea" decided to go look at google maps and see the satellite photos. Things went down hill from there. After lots of time spent, I saw that I had forgotten White Sands. My peaks don't look like the satellite pics. The shadows on the mountains also... annoy me. I used Kjdavies method on the mountains. I tried Rob's but I kept getting less than pleasing results. I know I did something wrong somewhere, but for the life of me I can't figure it out. I got some AWESOME looking rocks that way though. There is lots more water in the area too but I can't see it on the google maps. Its not shown on the old map. So, I'm left with trying to find a map that does have it, or just making stuff up. A couple of creeks/rivers and draws I know are there, since I've been there, but the rest... I'm at a loss. I guess I'll just fill in the ones I know about til I find another reference map. I've got a Rand McNally county by county road atlas/gazetteer thing if I could just find it. (From back in my outlaw trucking days. Nothing better for sneaking around scales.)
The old map donaana.jpg My Mapdonaana3wip.jpgwithout old map superimposeddonaana3bwip.jpg
Last edited by RevGunn; 09-06-2011 at 11:35 PM.
Looking good so far.
My Finished Maps | My Challenge Maps | Still poking around occasionally...
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New Mexico is a wonderful place and there is some terrific information there for map hounds. There is a book called "Place Names of New Mexico", if you can find a copy it has some really terrific history in it. Since you are doing Boot Hill you simply MUST check out the history for Lincoln County, New Mexico. There is a company called Spatial Data Research (www.sdrmaps.com) that at one time had a contract with the state of New Mexico to do all of their e911 maps. I know that one of the company's founders, Keith, is an incredibly bright and friendly fellow - as well as being 'gamer-nerd friendly'. You might try contacting him and seeing if they have any public domain digital maps that you could use.
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City of Opal Island Map (Featured Map Winner...yay!): http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=5966
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Various maps from my Homebrew Game: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=5407
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Unless I explicitly state otherwise you have my permission to use my maps in any capacity needed just give me credit. If you make money off them somehow, that's awesome - let me know! In fact, I LOVE to hear about the ways maps I make are used.