After only two sessions of Pathfinder I'm hooked on the idea of pencil and paper RPG. What really piques my interest is the thought of designing an entire world. After talking this over with my GM and some other players, they've decided that I can help the GM in some generic creation. one of which is the design of an entire continent in which we're playing.
Since we've only played two sessions the areas we've encountered are small. A town and the days travel to a nearby dam. So that puts our location a day away from a mountainous region, it'll have a lake that the dam is.. er.. damming and a river running out of the mountains no doubt.
So with that in mind I fired up photoshop and hunted down some tutorials on map creation.

What I found astounded me.


This is originally a 2000px x 2000px image I've shrank for the forums. This only took 20 minutes following a tutorial.. Can't wait to find some good city generation tutorials.

I have been using Campaign Cartographer 3 - a CAD based mapping program.

With the various expansions and the Annuals there are a lot of customized mapping tools for things like cities and specific map styles.

One of the best purchases that I have ever made - CC3 finds the center of the Venn diagram for me. (Easy to Use, Powerful, Inexpensive.)

Dammit! Now I want to fire it up and start doodling!

PS is just way too much program for my needs, but yeah, with the right tools mapping takes a whole lot less time and looks pretty danged sweet!

The Auld Grump

I've been using Campaign Cartographer since it was just CC2 then CC2 Pro then CC3 and every product in between.

You should see my registration list!

I've made battle maps for Mage Knight dungeons



Space Maps



Planetary Empires maps



Fantasy town maps



World Maps



Political Maps



Different style Fantasy Maps



I've made hundreds all using Campaign Cartographer. It is a brilliant program.

Ive seen CC3 a few times but have always thought that what I'm paying for, I could do in PS or by hand if need be. Looking at some examples though I do like the look of it. The solar system one is good.

+1 for Profantasy products. I started with CC2, didn't do much with it, and have almost all of their products now. I do wish they would update some of the older tools still hanging out there, but for pure mapping I love them! You can also use PS to create custom items that can be used in CC3, which is nice, so you can get the best of both worlds. Conversely, I know of some people who create the map in CC3 then port it over to PS to do finalization.

Anyone got really good map in PS links?

I'd love to get better at making them.

Heh, at least once a year the Annual adds something that makes the subscription worth it. This year I had been disappointed, but they just added a real classic - the style used by Robert Louis Stevenson for Treasure Island.





Arrrrr! (Actually a good style for maps in player handouts in general.)

The Auld Grump, she was schooner rigged and rakish, with a long and lissome hull.
And we flew the pretty colors of the crossbones and the skull....