Southern Hyperborea (AS&SH)

[Olvyr]

So, I've decided to map the "southern" part of Hyperborea from the awesome gsme _Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea_ . I say "southern" but since this world is actually flat, it just refers to the part on the lower part of the map.

The game has an awesome giant hexmap by Glynn Seal (24-mile hexes) I traced the outlines from.
Here's my dilemma: I'm really not sure at all which style I should go for. I'm hesitating between pretty monochromatic parchment style or a more colorful "Saerdan" style, and I'm unsure how I should do the mountains: using more classic "side-view" mountain shapes, or going for top-down using bump-maps, overlays etc... What would be suited best for this scale, I wonder.

Here's what I've got so far. These are all just preliminary ideas.
Comments would be welcome.

P.S. I'm going to make a few geographical modifications since this will be my own version.

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[Azélor]

Judging by the kickstarter page, the initial style fits the setup pretty well.
It just need some polish and improving the areas between mountains and forests.

[Olvyr]

Aaargh, frustration!

Here's the basic layout (hand-drawn) of the terrain, but it seems I can't draw mountains *at all* ! First of all I'm undecided if I should go for a more physiographic look and draw isometric mountains or if I should draw them top-down as sort of folds/wrinkles. My isometric mountains look way too formulaic for my own taste. This is rendered especially hard since the mountain ranges here are mostly along a N/S axis (I find W/E easier to draw)

When I see what other ppl here come up with I can't help but feel a little jealous...

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[Kellerica]

I feel your pain. I always struggle with mountains too, I don't think I've ever managed to draw ones I'm actually happy with (at some point I just get tired of re-doing them and just go with what I have).

If you want my two cents, I always prefer the isometric mountain style over the geographical ones, but that's just me. I do see what you mean about yours being somewhat uniform... Maybe try having them vary in size a bit more, have a range consist of larger mountains as well as smaller ones? That's really all I can think of that could make the ranges feel a bit more lively. I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with the style you have here.

[Olvyr]

I feel your pain. I always struggle with mountains too, I don't think I've ever managed to draw ones I'm actually happy with (at some point I just get tired of re-doing them and just go with what I have).

If you want my two cents, I always prefer the isometric mountain style over the geographical ones, but that's just me. I do see what you mean about yours being somewhat uniform... Maybe try having them vary in size a bit more, have a range consist of larger mountains as well as smaller ones? That's really all I can think of that could make the ranges feel a bit more lively. I don't think there is anything particularly wrong with the style you have here.

Heh, just when I was going to try something like this (see picture)

But I agree, I *like* isometric, and I *want* to draw them isometric, it's just that I *can't* do it very well...

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[Olvyr]

Trying some Saredan-style...
Colours not final.

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[Olvyr]

...still experimenting....

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[Olvyr]

I found out I work best with traditional media. In this case: brushpens.

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