City Map for a fantasy campaign

[Leopardi]

Hi there,

My name is James and I'm hoping to find a cartographer that can create two maps for a Play-by-Email campaign that I've been running for the last few years. I promised my players a map of the continent more than a year ago and have finally come to the conclusion that my talents lie elsewhere. More recently, the group arrived in a large city in which they'll likely spend much of their time and they've asked for a map of the city. It's time I admitted defeat on this front and left it to the professionals!

The details for each of the projects are as follows (let me know if you have questions or need clarifications):

Commission:
Paid. I'm not sure what the going rate is, so this is negotiable, but I was hoping to spend in the neighbourhood of $150-200 US. Feel free to send me a private message to discuss rates. I'd prefer to use Paypal, but I'm flexible on this front, too.


Subject:
The city is a re-imagining of Waterdeep, with only superficial details in common with the Forgotten Realms city of the same name. Very little has been established so far in what the city looks like, so the mapmaker would have a fair bit of artistic license in its creation. What is known so far:
- It is a port city with the port on the south side (the harbour is named the Firth of Lee)
- It is a walled city, but the city has outgrown its walls and so there is significant habitation outside the walls as well
- The city is spread out over a large area, roughly ten square miles (it's not clear yet whether this is the area defined by the city wall, or whether the wall is a fraction of this area and the ten square miles includes the population outside the walls as well)
- The city population is 130 thousand, mainly human, but with a large population of elves and dwarves, along with a smaller population of gnomes and hobbits and a partially segregated population of orcs, half-orcs and various other giantkin
- There is a large river (the River Dee) running through the city (roughly through the center)
- There are large hills to the north of the city
- The city itself is fairly hilly, with two very large hills near the water (one on the east and west side of the city) having been tunneled through so extensively over the last few centuries that they both now appear as large arches. The arch dimensions are h x w x l = 300 x 150 x 1000 feet. The eastern arch is topped by dense human habitation and the western contains a sparse winged elf population.
- There is a settlement (of unknown size) of sea elves in the harbour (only a rough indication of where it exists would be needed on the map)
- On the west side of town there is an inner wall running north-south, partitioning the extreme west side from the rest of the city. It is a legacy from an earlier age and is not actually used today, with many gates along it offering passage. This western section still contains the most affluent citizens of Waterdeep, and so would have a higher density of larger houses, parks, etc.
- The northeast side of the city is a ghetto containing mostly giantkin. It is walled off (this section is called Uru-Grushuk), and there are perhaps 1-3 entrances to this neighbourhood (i.e. there would be gatehouses near the entrances, for example). The size of this neighbourhood has not been established, but it would likely be less than one square mile. The housing in this section may be larger to reflect the size of its inhabitants.
- There is another neighbourhood adjacent to Uru-Grushuk populated mainly by orcs, half-orcs and other miscellaneous populations that are not fully accepted in Waterdhavian society. The neighbourhood is named Mirdath, and it is likely smaller than Uru-Grushuk (maybe a 0.25-0.5 square miles). It is not walled.
- There is a population of water gnomes along the River Dee (not the full length of it)
- The ports of Waterdeep extend nearly the full length of the waterline (roughly 3-3.5 miles) and there are docks and piers along the River Dee's length within the city.
- Despite the large population, there is considerable green space still to be found within the city. One park on the west side of the river is the Petrified Forest, a large park containing (in part) columns erected to commemorate important events in the city's history. The north side of the park contains a large arcade (the People's Forum) where there is enough space to gather a few thousand people for public discussions. The north side of this arcade is flanked by the mayor's house. The rest of the park is flanked by larger houses where senators and other important city members live. The park is on the order of 500x1000 feet in size.
- On the east side of the Petrified Forest is a prominent statue of a martyr who was burnt alive at that location (modeled after the statue of Giordano Bruno in the Camp de' Fiori: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Giordano_Bruno)
- On the west side of the Petrified Forest (located anywhere on that side where it might fit in), one of the buildings flanking the park is a former military academy once run by the city guard. The building itself is modeled after Anguillara Mansion (image of the courtyard: http://www.iloveroma.it/ERF-CaseTorri/52.JPG, with military exercises taking place in a courtyard alongside the tower featured in the painting; orientation would be with the entrance to the courtyard shown in the picture opposite the park if possible).
- To the east of the river (a few hundred feet from the port) is Belkin Market, a historic market centered on a large fountain.

The detail I've given above only cover a small area in the city, so I'm hoping that the cartographer can add various neighbourhoods, markets, parks, important buildings, monuments, topographical features, etc. Basically go wild (I'm flexible in this regard), but don't worry about details like names and such, I can fill this information in later. However, because I'll likely need to add minor features to the map (place names, evolution of the city over time, etc.) I'm hoping the map can be made with software I have available (Campaign Cartographer 3). If there's some other easy way to make minor map revisions that doesn't require the software I'm okay going that route as well.

The map I'm envisioning will a layout similar to the Emerisia map (googling 'Emerisia map' should lead you to a detailed version of it), although the coast should appear on the south and the river should run north to south and could meander a bit more if you feel it looks more natural. This city looks to be on the order of one or two square miles, though, so for a city ten square miles I would assume the level of detail displayed in this map would have to be scaled back (e.g. individual houses may not need to be displayed unless they are larger and more prominent), unless you have the ability to produce houses en masse without much trouble. I'm also looking for more green space within the city and more ineresting focal points within the city (this is the City of Splendors, after all!).

The scale of the map will be approximately 500 feet to the inch. Assuming a city roughly 3x3 miles, this would put the map at somewhere between 30x30 and 36x36 inches in size. If this seems too large, I'm willing to scale back to reduce the workload (e.g. 1000 feet to the inch, for a map roughly 18x18 inches in size).


Style:
As mentioned earlier, a style similar to the Emerisia map would suit me fine. If you think another style would suit this project better, let me know!


Quality & Size:
The map will be used for a small campaign and will be available online once the website becomes available (hopefully sometime this year). While I'm hoping the map will be impressive to look at, I don't think it would need to be professional quality. At the same time, I'm hoping the prospective mapmaker will have had at least a few nice-looking city maps under their belt before taking on this map. The size, as mentioned earlier, should be somewhere between 30x30 and 36x36 inches, although if this seems like too big a job for the money offered I'd certainly consider scaling back (down to, say, 18x18 inches as a minimum).


Time Constraints:
I wouldn't mind having the map in the next 1-2 months, but recognize this sort of thing takes time and I prefer to wait for a nicer looking map than have one rushed to me, so this is negotiable to some extent.


Copyright:
I'll likely be using this map on the campaign's website when it is ready (hopefully within the year) and am happy to name the cartographer as creator of the image. So long as I can do this, I have no problem with the cartographer retaining the copyright and reproduction rights for the map. The campaign is not for commercial gain. As I've mentioned earlier, I will likely need to make small revisions to the map over time (adding names for neighbourhoods, important points in the city, etc.) so the cartographer would have to be okay with these changes being made and appearing on the website.


Contact Details:
I'm new to the board and so can't send or receive private messages yet. I can be reached at jjwbenso--at--hotmail.com (switch --at-- to @, of course). If those interested could send or post samples of their work that might be applicable I'd appreciate it!


Extra Note:
I'm also interested in a world map, but I've found to my surprise that the Camulus map created by Seraphine Harmonium comes close to what I'm looking for already, with some (I hope) minor changes:
http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=19645
If this user is reading I would love to get in contact with you and would pay for these minor changes to be done (I've sent details in a message to your Deviant Art page, incidentally). Thanks!

[jbgibson]

I don't use CC3, so I probably couldn't help. But for those who DO use CC3, can you tell us what kind of workflows might involve importing and 'finishing' or updating by the original poster? Not knowing the software, I don't know if that's even possible. Do you know, Leopardi?

I suspect the lack of much response is due to the fact city maps are tough. Particularly something like Emersia with a gazillion separate buildings. Rewarding, but lotsa work. Would a style that showed most blocks as joined units be okay? Say like this London?

[Wingshaw]

JB -- and everyone else -- I think it is OK for me to say that this commission is taken. I've emailed James/Leopardi, and agreed to do his map, and he seems happy with the arrangement we've reached. Probably nobody should close or archive this until he has confirmed it, though (I'll ask in my next email to him).

THW

[Leopardi]

It's true, as of yesterday THW has taken this commission so it's no longer available. Thanks to everyone that inquired about it!