The Known World - Fantasy RPG Commission

[xpian]

This is one of my first commissioned maps, recently finished after lots of tweaks and revisions. It's intended to be printed across a two-page spread in an upcoming tabletop role playing game manual, depicting a region of the world where one might begin adventuring. Some details, such as roads, are intentionally left out to allow the game master more freedom to customize the environment. The continent in the sea to the west, Thalyr, is meant to be off-limits to adventurers by virtue of the perpetual, magical storm that surrounds it. It will open up when detailed in a later supplement.

The map was conceived and created in greyscale, but there's a good chance I'll paint a full-color version at some point.

Most of this map was drawn by hand in ProCreate on the iPad with an Adonit Jot Touch stylus. Photoshop was used for compositing, for text labels, for icons, and for a few effects. The map is presented here at full resolution, but has been blurred slightly during the JPEG compression to allow it to fit under the MB cap for attachments.

As @-Max- says, feel free to rate, rep, or run away!

The_Known_World.jpg

[Chashio]

Cool map, with some interesting representations of things (drawn in ways I've not seen before). Very nice, xpian!

[xpian]

@Chashio - Thanks! I had to do a lot of problem-solving and experimentation on how to represent things, since I was going for greyscale and couldn't rely on color to help convey information. I looked at the way lots of other cartographers have done things like deserts, canyons, etc. and then tried to draw features that I was satisfied with. The mountains were the easiest thing to draw, but also the most time-consuming, as they're all unique and often connected.

[Wingshaw]

Very nice. I agree with Chashio: I really like the original ways you have depicted various features. The village icons and storm symbols, especially, but it's all good.

I think there is a minor problem with the forests where they have rivers running through them: the Wolfwood and forest near Blackthorne are the problem ones; the rest are fine, as far as I can tell. I'm also not completely sold on the canyons, but I shouldn't quibble.

Out of interest, how do you find the iPad as a mapping tool? I wanted to try making maps on a tablet, but I think it is too difficult without the use of stylus.

THW

[xpian]

@TheHoarseWhisperer - thanks for the comments. Can you be more specific about the forest/river problem? I know how they look--intimately familiar with them, as you might expect--but I'm not sure what you find troubling. I'm definitely interested to know. I did a bit of a compromise approach to the rivers flowing through forests elsewhere, especially evident in The Grove. There are places where the edge of the forest seems to follow the line of the river, and other places where the river simply dives into the forest and there's no dividing border. The thinking being that these would be the places where the forest overhangs the river so completely that there's not much in the way of clear banks on either side

As for the iPad, I really love drawing in ProCreate. I've tried all of the available painting/sketching apps, and ProCreate is by far the best, for several reasons. It has complex and fully customizable brushes that can be shared between people, it has layers and the ability to effortlessly rotate the canvas to any angle (the rotating thing is very rare among iPad apps), and perhaps best of all it has an incredibly fast graphics engine that allows for incredible speed and liquid-smooth painting. I miss some of Photoshop's capabilities, but I haven't found any platform, including my MacBook Pro running Photoshop with a Wacom Intuos, that comes close to the responsiveness of ProCreate on the iPad for sketching and painting.

I've been using a stylus with the iPad since the very first Adonit Jot kickstarter pen, and now I use the Jot Touch with the pressure sensitivity and bluetooth connectivity. It works really well. I'm always on the look out for a new stylus, and I try others from time to time, but the Jot Touch has been my mainstay.

[Wingshaw]

Thanks for the info about drawing on tablets. I've got an Xperia tablet and Autodesk Sketchbook Pro, and I'm not sure what, if any, stylus is available with that brand, but it is good to know that excellent maps are just as possible with this technology as with the old-fashioned pen and paper.

As for the forests, I suppose the simplest way of expressing my thoughts is that the rivers look like they are on top of the trees, rather than beneath them. Overall, I prefer the places where you have matched the forest edge with the river edge, as in the Grove. (I have also just noticed that the Blackbriar also possesses this troubling characteristic).

I can't claim that I know a way around this issue. I did attempt to resolve it in a different way in one of my maps (eg near the 'gingerbread house of the witch,' and the 'house of the robber bridegroom'), but I have never been particularly convinced mine was an effective method.

Hope that makes it clearer.

THW

[xpian]

@TheHoarseWhisperer - Happy to help about the tablets. I think there's a ton of potential there for productivity and lots of room for innovation. I also like Sketchbook Pro, and I've done the most work in that app besides ProCreate, but it's missing some of those awesome features I like: rotating the canvas (which, once you try it, you won't want to live without it), customizing the brushes and creating new ones, and it's just so slow and laggy when drawing.

Thanks for the feedback about the rivers. I see what you mean now. I'll keep considering the issue and work on ways of making it work better.

[Sapiento]

A wonderful map with lovely details!

[Eilathen]

A very nice map! I like the feel of it. The only thing that is, slightly, buggin me is that the rivers that go through forests seem to lie on top of the trees which looks kind of weird.
It's very nice that we can have this at full res.! I love to zoom in to look at details. Have some Rep.!

[- Max -]

Nice map Xpian. I especially like how you gave some "depth" to the deserts areas. Though, like Eilathen, I'm not a big fan of the rivers lying on top of the forests. I also not very keen of the kind of bevel added on the coastline and the compass, I'm always a bit partial when it comes to use this kind of digital effect on hand-drawn maps. Otherwise the map is great