*** November 2018 Challenge: Map a Story VOTING TIME ***

[Gidde]

This month's challenge asked cartographers to map a story, any story!

Click Here to view the maps (remember to click through to the actual map and to bestow rep where you feel it deserved).

Now vote for your favorite(s)! After 3 days of voting, the winner will be awarded a shiny new Gold Compass!

[Onirian]

This time, because I personally know MistyBeee and I think it would not fair, I will not vote at all for this challenge.
But, for me, the first one is... obviously, MistyBeee with Hogsmeade ! Not only because this little village is so cool and perfectly drawn, but also... Look at the hog's face on the shield ! So cuuuute !

Ahem. Well. So, as I said, my first "non-real-vote" is for MistyBeee ^_^.

A special mention too to Ithira by Ifrix, which largely deserve my second "non-real-vote" :-).

[ThomasR]

Duty performed ! I did not vote for Jaxilon's entry as it did not feel like map to me (perhaps I'm wrong) but, holy ballz what an illustration !

[QED42]

Some really great maps there, hard to decide who to vote on so I had to split my vote.

[Jaxilon]

Duty performed ! I did not vote for Jaxilon's entry as it did not feel like map to me (perhaps I'm wrong) but, holy ballz what an illustration !

Thanks for the explanation. I'm always interested to know what sways these votes so it's good to hear. For the record it is a battlemap for a final showdown. I didn't put a grid on it but it will have one for use in a VTT.
And I really appreciate you mentioning it as an illustration because I feel like my works are sort of straddling that space between illustration and map. So at least I'm half crushing it. Or at least that's what I'm trying to do.

[aeshnidae]

Agh! I meant to vote for Ifrix as well as MistyBeee. Stupid overly sensitive touchpad. Sorry, Ifrix! I like that yours was one of the few that truly mapped a full story. Beee's Hogsmeade is just so well done and every time I look at it I notice more details. The love that the banners are curled around the inner border line (there is probably an actual name for this) and that the border itself spells out Hogsmeade, Harry Potter, etc.

Wonderful entries, everyone, and thank you for the helpful feedback on mine!

[ThomasR]

Thanks for the explanation. I'm always interested to know what sways these votes so it's good to hear. For the record it is a battlemap for a final showdown. I didn't put a grid on it but it will have one for use in a VTT.
And I really appreciate you mentioning it as an illustration because I feel like my works are sort of straddling that space between illustration and map. So at least I'm half crushing it. Or at least that's what I'm trying to do.

I'd say you're double crushing it that perspective is so dramatic !

[Shall Teclex]

A short list of entries, but I like each one of them.

With all those details from the hand drawn initial to the color of the forest in the Fey Territory, I find "The Charge of Sir Arthur Bryne" by aeshnidae a really charming map well suited for the theme of this challenge. "(The Battle for) Al'Terrino" by ChickPea stands out not just because of the beautiful color palette, but also because of it's style - it would look good on the book cover for this story. Gidde's "Descent" clearly has a potential as a map for a seven-thick-books-megaepic-fantasy-novel-about-long-devastating-wars-and-political-intrigues-with-magical-doom-shadowing-the-world...ok, now I see why she couldn't finish it in a month "The Continent of Ithira" by Ifrix stands proud with the delicate lineart and subtle colors, a beautiful map for a long rpg campaign. Jaxilon's "The Shattering of Ixantar's Gate" is a very dramatic horror illustration; although it doesn't look like a map at the first glance, I use a rule of thumb - if a rpg party can use it to plan movement of their characters in the given space, than it is a map. As always, in "Hogsmeade" MistyBeee combines her playful imagination with great artistic skills; above all that, this map expresses really well the narrative element of this month's theme - Misty's map is the visual supplement that would make people interested in reading the book.

So, kudos to everyone, keep on mapping!

[Larb]

So to explain my voting for this one (and I still always pick three):

Mistybees was a certainty - I love village/town/city maps and this was an isometric one of a book and film series I'm familiar with. And it was so well done too. It was just superb.

Chickpea's was a struggle - I was stuck between her and Aeshnidae - but I went with Chickpea because while I loved the poetry of Aeshnidae's entry, Chickpea's map had a more fairytale feel. I dunno. It was a struggle. I would have voted for both but then I'd be breaking my three vote rule. Write a campaign setting book or something, Aeshnidae. =P

Ifrix - I've been hovering about on disco lately and I saw he was struggling with this. Which feels like a bit or a lie because the end result is really fantastic and it's a style I'd like to be able to emulate if I was any good at regional maps. =P

[aeshnidae]

A short list of entries, but I like each one of them.

With all those details from the hand drawn initial to the color of the forest in the Fey Territory, I find "The Charge of Sir Arthur Bryne" by aeshnidae a really charming map well suited for the theme of this challenge.

Thanks, Shall Teclex! I'm glad you enjoyed the process and the end result!

Chickpea's was a struggle - I was stuck between her and Aeshnidae - but I went with Chickpea because while I loved the poetry of Aeshnidae's entry, Chickpea's map had a more fairytale feel. I dunno. It was a struggle. I would have voted for both but then I'd be breaking my three vote rule. Write a campaign setting book or something, Aeshnidae. =P

The Charge of Arthur Bryne actually serves as historical backstory for a D&D campaign that just wrapped up! Alas many of my players were often too drunk to realize that it contained helpful info. It would definitely be fun to turn it into a campaign setting pamphlet.