Hello all.

[SharpPointyStick]

Hi everyone. My name is Chris & I'm an old fart of 50 from South Carolina. SharpPointyStick (or SPS for short) is from an online gaming community I've been a member of for several years. Been a gamer, lover of fantasy, & map fan since I was a child. My love of maps probably started with reading Tolkien in about 5th grade & spending hours poring over the maps in the back, imagining all those amazing places from the literature. Got into D&D shortly afterwords & discovering Greyhawk, Faerun, Mystara & countless other incredible worlds just blew me away! 10 years in the military back in my younger days also taught me the use & utility of good maps in the real world...though I'd far rather use maps to navigate safely from The Shire to Minas Tirith or from Waterdeep to Cormyr! lol

I have to say that I LOVE lurking on this site. My own artistic skills are more verbal & barely exist visually. The artistry & imagination on display here though is simply breathtaking! Hoping to get back into some pen & paper gaming (it's been years since I had the opportunity) if I get the chance. Always loved Game Mastering just because the world building & story telling was so fun! Have to give fair warning, if I do get to put a campaign together its highly likely some parties of adventurers will end up roaming across some of the beautiful maps many of you ladies & gents have posted! I've literally spent hours just looking at maps here, mentally saying WOW!!! Don't know if I'll ever be able to actually contribute any decent maps here but part of the reason I'm joining is just so I can tell you guys how much I enjoy & appreciate your work!

Look forward to seeing more awesome artwork here. All the best & Happy Mapping!

[Kellerica]

Glad you decided to actually register! Lurking is of course fine too, but it's always nice to drop a comment to someone who's work you admire even if you aren't really doing art yourself.

Now, that being said, I'd heartily recommend taking a stroll down the tutorial section if you haven't already. You might be surprised to see what you might be able to come up with if you have something to give you a little boost in the beginning. The thing about cartography is that you don't need to necessarily be that amazing an artist to come up with a decent map. In my opinion, digital tools in particular can help you create pretty awesome stuff even if one can't draw very well.

Give it a try if you feel like, but be warned - you might become addicted!
Glad to have you along, in any case. Welcome to the Guild!

[Zor100]

Hey Chris, new joiner too. I am also an old fart of 56 years. I have to say, your background is very similar to mine (minus the armed forces). Good to see there are others out there like me.

[SharpPointyStick]

Thanks for the welcome! To be honest was recalling a lot of amateur map-making I used to do as a young teen & thinking it wouldn't hurt to give it another try. All my old work is lost but that's not to say a fresh start couldn't be fun! Already addicted to maps from an early age so now its just a matter of how far down the rabbit hole I want to throw myself now. lol