This has gone through many changes and is just part of a map of Golarion that I'm working on in Campaign Cartographer 3. It's not yet finished, but I'm pretty happy with the results.
With the recent annual style by Jonathan Roberts I just knew I had to convert my map to that style, and with Paizo's update to the community map pack I believe I can include the hex map symbols as well.
The Empire is in it's 24th month (finished with Varnhold), but had a break for 5 months where the players weren't present due to a plot related absence (sidetracked to Slumbering Tsar and Demon Within).
The Black line near Brevoy's borders marks off the River Kingdoms (I have mapped most of it, but in less detail).
The very thin white line marks what the Empire considers their land, but have yet to settle.
The hexes do not match the one's in the Kingmaker map because I have this placed in Golarion at a correct angle, and angled hexes make my head dizzy, so I had to adjust the borders somewhat. Also the hexes are 11 miles across because the AP maps don't match the updated Inner Sea map 100% and I wanted that map to determine the scale.
As I don't know how far my players intend to expand I have hexes from the western borders of Pitax (outside of the Stolen Lands) and to the south of Mivon just above the borders of Galt.
edit: missed an S in the title.
Here's a snapshot of world view to regional to local.
edit: Even though coastlines and borders are traced from the original map I hope that it abides by the CUP, since it's made from the ground up and not modifying the original.
I like what your doing, the images for the mountains and forest look good. One issue is the political boarders. The coloured lines are too thick, obscuring detail and detracting from the map proper. I suggest reducing the depth of the 'fade' or removing it all together.
Cheers
Mark
Thanks! I dig Jonathan Roberts style, especially his mountains which is why I chose it for this map.
True about the political borders. I widened them so they would more visible in an Inner Sea area zoom level, but for closer zoom they are too wide.
Also the coastline is too wide in the linked map above, but I've reduced it.
Thanks. :)
That's true, but since it currently holds the borders of one of my groups kingdoms I don't see how it could be of much use.
I can certainly move the text outside of the map and remove kingdom & Varnhold borders to make it clean for sharing, but that'll have to wait till the weekend...
edit: Nwm, I'll get one up in a few minutes
Gah, too slow to edit my last post.
Anyway here's my take on the Stolen Lands for use beyond the maps provided in Kingmaker. It's is not finished and the surrounding nations in particular lack detail. In future versions I'd like to clean it up a bit and make rivers and lakes look better. I'm not happy with how the the island looks atm. :/
A few notes:
- Pitax city is not marked, but Oleg's and Restov have a small symbol with no text. (edit: not Restov, but Nivakta's crossing. Guess it was on the wrong sheet)
- Since the hexes go further in my CC3 map, the numbers don't start at 0000, but I find the numbering system relatively easy to use.
- Hexes are aligned north/south and are exactly 11 miles across. (I referenced he KM maps by matching Restov and Pitax to their Inner Sea Map Folio locations, and thus had to be shrunk and rotated by -15 degrees.)
- Map is scaled 5 pixel=1 mile.
- The thick rivers are way too thick.
- The black border is to mark the River Kingdoms.
Feel free to use the map as is, but please don't remove the text at the bottom should you share it elsewhere. /Shameless ego ;)
That looks great!
Glad to see that you're enjoying the overland style. Let me (or Profantasy) know if there are features in the set that are missing. You never know, there might be an expansion to the overland style...
Wow, now I'm flattered. Thanks for commenting. :)
Yeah I really like your style and am looking forward to the DD3 style (next month?). I know someone else also has asked for it, but a style for CD3 (City style) would be awesome.
For this map I noticed, and Ralf Schumann commented on the map I posted at ProFantasy, that since the widths of coastlines and rivers scales to the map border, I got some very large results in this map, as it covers the whole of Golarion (approx 9600 x 15700miles). I also shrank some of the mountains and hills to the east as the 1/1 scale didn't fit for zooming this close.
Yep, there's a dungeon style coming on the 1st of June. Complete with full dragon skeleton (that was a lot of fun). A city designer style hasn't been discussed yet but there are a couple of other projects with Profantasy in the works. Keep the comments up to Profantasy, and you'll keep seeing more work from me in their Annual styles. If enough people ask for a city style, I'd guess you'll see one.
Keep up the work - I'm looking forward to seeing updated versions!
Dude - that is beautiful!
Thanks! Campaign Cartographer 3 works very well when combined with a great artist's symbols and fills, making it easier for us less proficient in such arts. :)
Wow, very nice work! Please continue to post your progress. Will you be uploading any finished versions? I was planning on doing exactly what you have done for when my group gets around to playing this AP. Haven't gotten around to starting the map yet since my CC3 skills suck.
Thanks! I know CC3 takes a while to learn, and don't consider myself very proficient, but once you get the grip of sheets and effects, and also find a style you like, it's mostly point and click. Since I'm rather new to map making I prefer to "copy" an existing map such as this one. Also the ProFantasy forums and cartographer's guild are a great source for help and inspiration.
My map is a bit of a slow work in progress where I focus on where my two groups are at the moment. I have both their kingdoms and related info on separate layers so I can easily switch between while preserving the world.
Depending on what you mean by a finished version I don't think there'll ever be one. It will be further detailed as my campaigns require, and while I would like to detail all of Golarion I don't think it will happen. The good thing about having a map like this is that it becomes more "our" world and any changes that happen will persist between campaigns. Currently it hasn't changed much beyond border expansion of one of my groups' empire so not much to show yet.
A tiny update.
Changed hills to fill-style hills.
Adjusted borders to Stolen Lands to use hexes.
Adjusted river width to 0.1~0.2 miles.
Smoothed the lake shores.
edit: just noticed the symbol for New Stetven was left in there.^^;
That is looking damn good....any chance you can send me the CC file?
My eforts are very basic by comparison...so far just a simple representation of what's been explored so far here. Just a few PNGs and the sepia effect....
Cheers
Mark
That is looking damn good....any chance you can send me the CC file?
My eforts are very basic by comparison...so far just a simple representation of what's been explored so far here. Just a few PNGs and the sepia effect....
Cheers
Mark
Thanks for the comments. :)
I really like your map though, it captures the exploration part very well I think.
I've gone through many styles with CC, and it started with the built in overland style when I ran Red Hand of Doom back in 2009, before I moved on to various Annual Styles. I can definitely recommend the various annuals, and especially the this year's, as it contains the style I'm using in the map shown above.
Actually, I'd rather not share the CC file, due to the amount of details in it. I don't want to step on Paizo's toes with their great Inner Sea Map Folio, and the various country maps from the Inner Sea Guide, which I use as reference. Thus I strip out most of the specifics in the maps I put online.
However, if you have any questions I'm happy to help as best I can (which is limited), in terms of effect settings or use of sheets.
You can also get some great advice on the ProFantasy or the Cartographer's Guild forum.
edit: Dunno, but my previous link failed to load just now. Here's a new if the other doesn't work: MAP link
Actually, I'd rather not share the CC file, due to the amount of details in it. I don't want to step on Paizo's toes with their great Inner Sea Map Folio, and the various country maps from the Inner Sea Guide, which I use as reference. Thus I strip out most of the specifics in the maps I put online.
However, if you have any questions I'm happy to help as best I can (which is limited), in terms of effect settings or use of sheets.
You can also get some great advice on the ProFantasy or the Cartographer's Guild forum.edit: Dunno, but my previous link failed to load just now. Here's a new if the other doesn't work: MAP link
That's ok about not passing on the map....I do subscribe to the annuals and keep an eye on their forums....I was just being lazy and hoped to capitalize on your hard work ;-)....
As the AP progresses I'll have to change style and have several maps going....the whole Stolen Land as they work their way through the AP, their kingdom as they claim hexes (it would warrant a different style to my 'Explorer's Map') and City Maps.
Cheers
Mark
Leonal, I really like your map: you clearly have more artistic talent than I.
I would like to build upon what you've got, but in order to do that, could you share a version of your map without any political boundaries? Flattened PNG is fine if you don't want to share the CC source.
Thanks!
Thanks Erik!
@Mark & Erik
I'll try to strip down the map and also clean up the huge amount of sheets to make it sharable and also remove any custom changes like Tsar from FGG that I've made. It's still far from finished, so you'll see some regions are quite undeveloped.
Send me an email with your forumid at
(insert my forumid before 'mail' with no spaces)
and I'll see if I can send it within a few days. (Then you won't have to go through the pain of tracing the coastline of the whole Inner Sea, unless you have already;)
These maps are great and make me want to try my hand at CC. Can you estimate how much time you've invested in these maps and do you use them to show your players their kingdom borders in-game?
Thanks. :)
I have no idea actually, especially since I've changed styles quite often. I'll be sticking with this from here on though. The most time consuming job was to trace the whole Inner Sea coastline, and that took less than two hours I'd guess.
I think the most time consuming thing about CC is the learning process, especially if you're not familiar with vector programs, but once you get somewhat familiar with it, it doesn't take that much time to make something. For example it took me about 5 minutes to update 4 months of expansion from one group today. (12 new hexes, with roads, and three more cities)
I save image files of these maps regularly as my players update. We play online through Fantasy Grounds so I usually save a lower quality one for use there (to save transfer time), and upload a better one to GoogleDocs.
I run two groups simultaneously, and it's very handy to have the elements for each group on different layers, since then it's very quick to switch between the two. I also have a layer for hidden symbols and labels which I copy to the respective group when they encounter it.
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I'd love to do this for my Kingmaker Campaign since my group is really getting into the Kingdom building aspects of the game. Also since Paizo probably won't give us more maps west of the River Kingdoms for a while, I'd like to give my players a more than just a scrawl of a map with Castrovin Sea that way.
Looking at the buy in price of $600+ for all the updates and stuff is a little concerning. Can what you created be accomplished with just the basic program, or do you need all the updates and add-ons? What do you suggest I start with. I'm a graphic designer by trade so vector art is nothing scary to me.
To make the map I made you need the basic program and this year's annual (for the J. Roberts style), which totals for $84.9.
By now I have probably spent quite a bit on the software, but by buying bits and pieces over the course of two-three years makes the cost easier to handle (though more expensive I suppose).....and a lot of it I rarely use. CC3 + Dungeon Designer and the Annuals have gotten the most use by me.
Here's the latest expansion of on of my groups. The reason for the very thin expansion is that they disliked only being able to "claim" lands they had settled and given some infrastructure. As such the thicker purple line is what they have announced is theirs to the neighboring nations. Currently between book 4 and 5.
Link (spoilers)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Here's the latest expansion of on of my groups. The reason for the very thin expansion is that they disliked only being able to "claim" lands they had settled and given some infrastructure. As such the thicker purple line is what they have announced is theirs to the neighboring nations.Ok, so why do they have city names like beta, charlie, delta and echo and no Alpha. Was Alpha renamed?
Oldport was named Alpha until I showed them an example map of CC3's John Speed City style which was named Oldport, and then they took that name.
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Oldport was named Alpha until I showed them an example map of CC3's John Speed City style which was named Oldport, and then they took that name.Here's the latest expansion of on of my groups. The reason for the very thin expansion is that they disliked only being able to "claim" lands they had settled and given some infrastructure. As such the thicker purple line is what they have announced is theirs to the neighboring nations.Ok, so why do they have city names like beta, charlie, delta and echo and no Alpha. Was Alpha renamed?
Is there any chance of getting a copy of the cc3 (or better yet a layered psd/layered tiff) file of the map?
Thanks!
Oldport was named Alpha until I showed them an example map of CC3's John Speed City style which was named Oldport, and then they took that name.Here's the latest expansion of on of my groups. The reason for the very thin expansion is that they disliked only being able to "claim" lands they had settled and given some infrastructure. As such the thicker purple line is what they have announced is theirs to the neighboring nations.Ok, so why do they have city names like beta, charlie, delta and echo and no Alpha. Was Alpha renamed?Is there any chance of getting a copy of the cc3 (or better yet a layered psd/layered tiff) file of the map?
Thanks!
See a few posts up. :)
I don't have PS though and only have layers in CC3.
Thanks Erik!
@Mark & Erik
I'll try to strip down the map and also clean up the huge amount of sheets to make it sharable and also remove any custom changes like Tsar from FGG that I've made. It's still far from finished, so you'll see some regions are quite undeveloped.Send me an email with your forumid at
Spoiler:leonal mail at gmail dot com
with no spaces)
and I'll see if I can send it within a few days. (Then you won't have to go through the pain of tracing the coastline of the whole Inner Sea, unless you have already;)
Awesome job on this!