Pot-Boiler Lagoon: Critiques?

[barsoomcore]

So this is a simple island map for my DINO-PIRATES OF NINJA ISLAND setting. I started with a hand-drawn outline, scanned that and cleaned it up in Gimp, then used Create to add text, the "boiling water" graphic, scale and compass.

The idea is a collapsed volcanic caldera, where ongoing geothermal activity keeps the shallow lagoon waters near boiling, so the whole area is wreathed in steam clouds. There are Steam Drakes in the mountains, head-hunters who offer sacrifices (rowed across at great risk to The Altar, the nearest bit of land to the remains of the volcano ("The Black Cone")), the Steam Springs (possible source of steam-powered devices), and whatever the Roast Lobsters are.

Thoughts? I'm not happy with the "boiling water" effect, so any suggestions there would be helpful. I tried hand-drawing steam curlicues and it looked terrible. Any suggestions?

PotBoilerLagoon06.png

[barsoomcore]

Also, this is my first map.

[atpollard]

The large font ("Head Hunter Bay" and "Pot Boiler Lagoon") have lots of artifacts that I find distracting, and a mountain that is a fraction of a mile wide is probably a hill.

Everything else looks good so far.

[Gamerprinter]

Agreed with atpollard regarding the title font with the artifacts - I think it's the strange vertical lines in the font that's distracting.

Also agreed regarding your 'mountains' as your scale shows what a mile is. I'd probably advise replacing the mountains symbols with 1 or 2 hills on top and bottom, rather than your socalled 'peaks' - mountains make sense at this scale.

[barsoomcore]

Thanks! The scale isn't something I'm married to. What if it was 10 miles rather than 1 mile? Would that be reasonable?

[ravells]

I really like this map! It feels self contained and complete. I like the Fractur font (apart from the artifacts already mentioned) which gives it an old school feel as does the architect handwriting font. Looks like something you'd see in an 80's fanzine (in a good way!). The boiling water pattern works for me too.

The mountain / hill scale thing doesn't really bother me at all. This isn't the sort of map which gives an overall impression of setting out to be geographically accurate to start with - it's more of a sketch map, and I think it works really well as that. So hills that look like mountains are OK (for me) - I read it as poetic license.

[barsoomcore]

Thanks! I really appreciate everyone's feedback. I've replaced the initial attachment with one that has a revised 10-mile scale. I think that works with the mountains, anyone have an opinion?

[mearrin69]

Yar! It's a fun map. Agreed about the font...wonder why it's doing that. It's an artifact, not design right? I like the boiling lagoon concept. Haven't heard that one before but it's super cool (or hot). You've got dinos and pirates and ninjas...add some robots and zombies and I say you've got a saleable concept!
M

[barsoomcore]

Thanks everyone! I hadn't noticed all the artifacts in the font -- as far as I know that's the font's design, so I turned all the text elements into images and retouched them, and it looks much better like this. I updated the attachment in the original post with the new version. Appreciate the time and attention.