The Tronum Dreeba

TheMazeController

Started work on the first part of my sandbox mapping tonight in Gimp after getting upset at how much I suck with Campaign Cartographer. It is absolutely an awesome tool but I am about dumb as a box of rocks with it so far. Since I need to get this stuff done so I can hex it out and be ready in advance of my players I am just relying on my half baked art skills.

I am going to chronicle my progress mainly since I feel like it. lol

"Rough Draft":http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff300/A-G-A/TonumDreebaWip-1.png

"Brushes made and Prelim Terrain laid out":http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff300/A-G-A/TonumDreebaWip.png

"Labels / Text":http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff300/A-G-A/TonumDreebaWipText.png

"Coloring and effects":http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff300/A-G-A/TonumDreebaWipND.png

"Detail work / Hexing it out for GM use":http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff300/A-G-A/TonumDreebaWipHex.png

Not so bad I think - now that I have tried this technique I will be much better at it on subsequent maps. I am pleased with my Escarpment work ... the mountains need more detail I will do better next time. Trees turned out ok - not great but ok ... same thing I will add a scrub brush and 2 different tree brushes next time - one deciduous one evergreen.

The swamp is a little hard to spot near the ruins of old Urcit at the north of the lake ... I need to think on how to improve there.

I am not pleased at all with my buildings ... must get better there.

Anyhow here is a really brief overview of the Map -

The intent is to lay out the city of Urcit and the outlying towns known as the Tronum Dreeba - when my players did the world building session (if you have been following along) one player decided to make an "evil god" (Jury is still out on whether he was evil or not). I happily went along with this and then to make for even more GM fodder, the evil god attacked my "good" god sealing away his consort in Ice after the escarpment was raised. (Technically I attacked first but I had to slow him down from making shadowlands all over the map) - This all lead to a crusade after the races showed up.

The town of old Urcit was occupied and the crusade liberated it but since I need places for my players to explore I decided that part of the liberation involved destroying a damn to the south where the lake starts which lead to the destruction of Old Urcit. Ruins and Swamps - how can you go wrong?

The outlying towns are a mix of farming / martial communities I think - with the ones being near the Mts more of fortified cities.

Now that I have hexed the map out I am going to start making interesting areas. The map is supposed to be 300 mi square. with one hex being 20 mi. I know the North south is off by one hex but if you dont like it make your own damn map lol.

Now I am soliciting suggestions - what to place where? The escarpment will have caves underneath, and the swamp and ruins I have plans for - as well as some of the Mts. The hills near the escarpment will be Barrows / due to old battles of the crusade being fought there. and the Shadowlands are easy.

I have plenty of hexes to fill though so if anyone has something interesting I'd love to hear it. Also critiques of the map are welcome. The players wont see the hexed version they only get the watercolor layer.