Ye Old Map of Grevesmuhl Sites

[niekell]

I'm working on a handout for a Player in my PathFinder Birthright campaign.
It's a map (or copy of and map) from an explorer who was hired by the local government to chart out the area almost a century ago, but the government of the day fell before the explorer had a chance to finish the map.

I am aiming to keep colour to a minimum as the map was likely either quickly copied from the original or it was made during the explorer's travels and hence more of a scratch map than an official document they would submit to the government that requested it.

GVMAP01.png

Still a very much a WIP, towns, villages, sites, and roads (major and minor) are still to come.

Comments/Advice welcome.

[ChickPea]

My first impression is that there's a serious lack of rivers. Those deep inlets are begging for a river flowing into them! You've got high ground near all your inlets, so I think you could easily add in rivers flowing from there.

You're off to a nice start and I'll look forward to seeing what comes next.

[niekell]

Hi Chickpea, you're totally right. I have definitely neglected the presence of rivers on the map so far. The map I based it off from the campaign material only really shows major (massive) rivers, but I really should show the medium ones for this type of map. Off I go to add a rivers layer! Thanks for pointing that out, much appreciated.

GVMAP02.png

[TJLuke]

I really like your mountains and forests, did you build a brush for those?

[niekell]

Hello TJLuke, those brushes are by the wonderful StarRaven and can be found on her DeviantArt portfolio. I meant to mention they weren't created by me but I had to figure out which .abr file I imported them from and then trace back through my browser download history to find whose they were. I download a lot of brushes and samples and try them out but rarely keep them in PhotoShop since I find most of them of limited use, but these from StarRaven are definitely keepers! Enjoy, and please don't be lazy like me and leave out the brush creds for your map(s).

Now with thicker rivers for major watercourses and a smattering of small lakes.
GVMAP03.png

[niekell]

Added major roads, villages, town, city, mines, and altered coastlines to include more detail.

### LATEST WIP ###

GVMAP05.png

[niekell]

Added names and a couple of miscellaneous sites.

### LATEST WIP ###

GVMAP06.png

[Falconius]

Nice job so far!

I have some nitpicks that you should take with a grain of salt, since I think the map is coming along very nicely regardless. The first is that I get the sense the coast line is overly rough/jagged and that the roughness is spread too evenly (ie. it's the same all along the coast). And the second is up near the Mt. Righ Mines, as my eye was following the mountains down the page it blended the large trees into mountains and was hard to tell which was which (ie. I took the solitary trees there for mountains at first glance.). There are also some stamps that have been blurred, probably by resizing them larger, and there are a few places where the stamp lines cross (for instance near Beuge, the small mountains in the back have a line that goes over the large mountain in front).

[niekell]

Thanks for the feedback Falconius.

Issue #1 : coast line is overly rough/jagged and that the roughness is spread too evenly
I went back over the coastline manually, the ultra-jagged coast was generated by by Photoshop using difference clouds along a black/white border (coast). Comparing (via transparent overlay) with the original official map showed me that the resulting coast made by Photoshop was (in places) quite far off what it should have been. I've smoothed it out and brought it back on track with the official map coastlines.

Issue #2 : up near the Mt. Righ Mines, as my eye was following the mountains down the page it blended the large trees into mountains and was hard to tell which was which
I've removed the confusingly placed trees, hopefully the hills now sufficiently divide the mountains and forest.

Issue #3 : There are also some stamps that have been blurred, probably by resizing them larger,
Yes, totally due to resizing from Photoshop jitter put on brush size. I've tried to firm up the blurry stamps manually with a thin darker line brush, but I am not great at freehand so... how are they now?

Issue #4 : there are a few places where the stamp lines cross
The brushes are transparent fill so even those stamps over the top which are in front can have lines crossing from behind. I've been through the ranges and think I've now brought all the front mountains forward.

### LATEST WIP ###

GVMAP07.png

[niekell]

Added a couple of missing site names. Added ruins.

### LATEST WIP ###

GVMAP08.png

I think I'm about done if I want it to be a Player handout of an old map.
Unless anyone else can think of something I should add?