The GIMP Trick

sisren

sisren

Hi,
Recently I was looking at my campaign map and thought - why show all this neat stuff to my players when they are new to this region?
So I loaded the map into TheGIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) and added 2 layers.
A light gray layer at about 50% opacity - this should things the characters have heard about but not yet visited.
A black layer at about 80% opacity - this hides most other details, excepting major terratin features (like a mountain range).

"Nentir Vale Map":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/nentir-vale/maps/show/763

I thought it was neat, and wanted to share.
Feel free to ask me for help in doing this if you want it also...
all my best
sisren

FemmeLegion

Oooh, a fog of war! Very cool!

And this reminds me: Zombie Nirvana Games has a set of podcasts on fantasy cartography. Mr. Curry does work pretty much exclusively in Photoshop to get the effects he's using, so maybe not everyone can benefit, but I wanted to throw it out there while it was in my head.

Flatscan

Cool idea. I'd recommend feathering the edges of your blacks and grey instead of leaving hard edges. ;-)

sisren

Glad y'all think it's cool. :)

It is still WIP (Work-In-Progress). I uploaded this really just to see if it would work.

Many of the tips Mr. Curry has can be done using the GIMP. I've actually listened to a few of his podcasts.

Thanks for the looksie - it's appreciated. :)

~sisren