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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3746 Posts |
 Posted - 19 Nov 2008 : 05:13:01
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Very Cool.
I need to start writing out a bunch of articles myself - I've just about done as much research as possible so its about time.
I'm thinking a Religous overview first...
-Honestly, the easiest way I find to do things like writing long winded articles that touch on numerous subjects, is to break everything down into categories and work from there. Sure, a complete essay that flows is very nice and all, but it's just a lot easier, I find, to give yourself 'headers' (Geography, Religion, History, Sites of Interest) and keep the information in each 'header' pertaining to that particular header only. This is where a lot of the fault lies in Kara-Tur: The Eastern Realms. The article concerning religion will begin with religion, and then branch out into history and geography. It's not that history and geography aren't relevant, but the primary focus should be on religion, and in mentioning history or geography, it should somehow pertain to religion.
-The headers I used were (I believe these are the same ones in the KT:TER):
Introduction
Geography
Climate
Cities (And honestly, in many cases, cities can get broken down into individual headers, when there is enough information. That's another one of the problems with KT:TER. There isn't a lot of symmetry. There'll be a lot of information on one place, and hardly anything on another.)
Architecture
Social Customs
Language
Religion
Conflicts
History
NPCs of Note
Changes (As in, keeping track of the changes I made to information, or the additions to lore I made, that was not in any of the Kara-Tur sourcebooks).
-Concerning things that deal with one topic, such as religion, for instance, it is best to be brief in a general overview, and then delve into the nitty-gritty on individual articles concerning each particular religion, rather than smash all of the nitty-gritty into one article.
-So, there you go. Tips from the "master".  |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know)
Elves of Faerūn
Vol I- The Elves of Faerūn
Vol. III- Spells of the Elves
Vol. VI- Mechanical Compendium |
Edited by - Lord Karsus on 19 Nov 2008 05:13:32 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 19 Nov 2008 : 06:14:15
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Thats pretty much the format I'll follow, but I'm thinking I'm going to need an 'overview' of certain things - most especially the confusing religion (almost all of them use parts of each other, so it's really like a smorgasborg of beliefs).
Then I can write individual regional entries and name major temples and what-not, and no one will get confused because of the broader topic already covered.
Another good reason why the K-T material is so confusing (aside from the atrocious formatting) is that things are mentioned that aren't xplained right away, or not at all, or even in a completely different book (thats not part of the booxed set!) So to get the full-picture, you have to read EVERYTHING, several times, before it all starts to sink in.
For example, I found that little bit of Tabot Lore tucked aay under T'u Lung IIRC, that I pointed out to you. If you are just doing Tabot, you wouldn't never realize that info was listed elsewhere (there tons of that going on in those books).
I think the worst is Koryo - Only one city is described, and then the rest of the material discusses things in context of the other cities and towns - which are never, ever described. If you don't keep the map right next to you, you become completely lost. It's a pretty embarrassing analog of Korea, because someone thought just a couple of pages was sufficient for an entire country (and most of that was NPCs and Magic Items). Even the crap-tiny nation of Bawa - that no-one even ever heard of - got better treatment then that. 
Edit: I know! I'll do a gazeteer first, with just a quick blurb about each locale, similar to how stuff was handled in the regional boooks in 3e. This way, folks will have something to work with right-away, and I can do more detailed articles on each entry as I go along. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 19 Nov 2008 20:52:10 |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3746 Posts |
Posted - 19 Nov 2008 : 15:06:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
Edit: I know! I'll do a gazeteer first, with just a quick blurb about each locale, similar to how stuff was handled in the regional boooks in 3e. This way, folks will have something to work with right-away, and I can do more detailed articles on each entry as I go along.
-Honestly, I wouldn't bother doing that. You'll just be doing twice the amount of work, in the end. If someone needs something THAT BAD, they'll probably do their own research. And, if they don't, they'll be able to wait that extra day for you to compile and write everything. |
(A Tri-Partite Arcanist Who Has Forgotten More Than Most Will Ever Know)
Elves of Faerūn
Vol I- The Elves of Faerūn
Vol. III- Spells of the Elves
Vol. VI- Mechanical Compendium |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 19 Nov 2008 : 20:57:41
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Actually, that will help me greatly - I have a VERY disorganized way of working (as if you didn't know  ), and by first writing everything out in that format I can see where problems will be, or where other things can better mesh. Right now all my ideas are swimming in the limbo of my mind, seperate from one another. I need to do something like this anyway to establish a 'pulse' for the east, to see how events and lore fallout when placed alongside each other.
With a document like that laying around, I'll have plenty of other folks to rely on to pick-out all the potential problems I miss. 
However, I decided not to do that or the Religious piece first (because both of those are huge articles unto themselves). Instead, I've focused my mind around a little mechanical problem that I've worked out on my own, and I call the article The Fifth Element. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 19 Nov 2008 20:59:10 |
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Lord Karsus
Great Reader
USA
3746 Posts |
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UNSpacy
Seeker
France
78 Posts |
Posted - 21 Nov 2008 : 17:50:28
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| Update on Kara-Tur? (Wow...deja-vu) |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 21 Nov 2008 : 20:10:46
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| Because I have moved some-what backwards (explained above), I have nothing new at this time. I'm hoping to have a Koryo/Wa/Kozakura map up soon, though, or at least a WIP. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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UNSpacy
Seeker
France
78 Posts |
Posted - 26 Nov 2008 : 16:58:38
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...So!
I'm not gonna ask you if you have made any progress, but I do want to ask this: If you're really going to make a provincal map of Wa, Kozakura and Koryo...how will you do it? Or will it just not be canon? In any case, I really don't care, but I'm interested in how you'll do it. |
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UNSpacy
Seeker
France
78 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 04 Dec 2008 : 17:44:41
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Thats technically a WIP. 
Shouldn't have posted that here, but whatever. It was sent off to CK about a month ago and wasn't put up, so I put it on my site until it gets put up here, at which time I'll take it down. I'm working on a more polished version anyway, and thats the one CK will get. I'm never satisfied with any of my maps... which brings me to my point...
I haven't worked on this project AT ALL since I changed the Island nations - I just couldn't 'get into it'. Sometimes we have to go back and examine the reasons why we did something, and figure out where we went wrong - because I only stop working on stuff when I get disgusted with it.
I made those major changes LATE at night, and at the time I thought it was super-cool that the scale from the original (1e/2e) modules-maps would still work. The anal-retentive part of me embraced that aspect of my changes, and overode my common sense.
The next day I looked at it, and it looked okay, and I justified a lot of it by saying "it should be that way" to myself.
This was my secnd mistake - arrogance.
Not because of my 'skills', but because I'm American. Like I said - sometimes we have to become introspective to figure out why we choose certain paths.
Having read through all the K-T material regarding those Islands, it struck me as impossible that two such 'tiny' countries could keep Shou Lung at bay. On my new version, the Islands were a little bigger then T'u Lung, and that made more sense to my 'Ugly American' side. You see, I live on a small Island - just a tiny little piece of NY off the coast, and New York itself is just a small piece of the U.S., and that teensy-tiny Island I live on just happens to be 1/8 the area of Great Britain! 
So that throws my whole 'it's too little to be significant' argument right out the window. If Japan could take over the Pacific and hold off such giant powers as China, Russia, and America simultaneously, and Great Britain could rule an Empire that spanned the globe, then Wa and Kozakura could easily keep the Mainland nations at bay.
Getting back on track...
Despite the adequate job I did changing the maps around, they no longer LOOKED like the Kara-Tur we are used to - the Island chain dominated the map. Thats why I had trouble continuing - the Cartographer in me just hated what I had done, because it no longer looked like what I was trying to make, which is Kara-Tur, NOT my version of it. Shifting the position of Gargantua Island just added insult to injury.
So now I've gone back to my last version, and only slightly increased the size of the Islands. They are still nowhere near their original size from 1e or even 2e, but the map still looks like the K-T we are all familiar with, so I feel this was a good compromise. I did double the size of Gargantua Island, so that one thing is pretty close to it's 1e size (common sense dictates it needs to be larger, otherwise food sources would have run-out centuries ago). I did keep it in it's original spot this time, though; as much as I liked where I moved it to, thats not it's official placement, and while I do enjoy bending canon quite a bit, I try not to 'break it'.
I just figure I'd keep everyone informed about where my head was at and whats taking so long for me to show any new WIPs. I am now happy again, and am working on the new (old) K-T map as I type this, and hopefully I will have something for you guys soon.
As for Unspacy's question - there is a map in one of the modules that shows the provinces. Not sure what country, and there might even be one for both - I haven't gone back to that aspect yet. Right now I need to finish the continental map before I get into the more-detailed regional maps.
Cheers --- Mark |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 04 Dec 2008 17:51:42 |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 06 Dec 2008 : 18:10:44
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Going full-bore on K-T again, and I just posted a WIP of Koryo (FAR from finished) for the person working on Koryo in the Netbook project. Here's the Link for that WIP -
http://markustay.deviantart.com/art/Koryo-WIP-105583850
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"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 06 Dec 2008 18:11:06 |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 07:40:18
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Looking good... it's been a while since I read this scroll, so I had some catching up to do. I like the geography source you're using for Anchorome; the author seems to have thought things out well. Thanks for going with the link I found for Osse; I just really like the way the original artist filled out the geography. I also think you've ultimately done exactly the right thing with regards to the K-T islands.
Some thoughts on placement of Abeir... for those (like myself) who like the geography of Toril (and Faerun in particular) the way it was before 4E, what about placing Abeir west of Katashaka in the Western Ocean? There may be other possibilities too, depending on the scale of Abeir vs the other land masses; my pathetic excuse for a graphics program (Paint and Picture Viewer) won't let me open more than one file at a time, so I can't compare anything directly, not having any of my own original hardcopy maps with me.  |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 17:06:42
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
<chop>
As for that large island I named Numibia - I originally wanted to set the Jakandor mini-setting there, but it is too close to Katashaka to mesh well with the lore from those products. Ergo, I now use Jakandor in place of the large island at the far-western end of the Zakharan chain. As for whats on Numibia - whatever a DM needs to be there. 
</chop>
You might want to change the name of the island... seeing as it's the alternate name of a real African nation (Mauritania). Yeah, I know all about Koryo and Tabot... but I'd prefer to keep such things to a minimum. Does anyone have any other ideas for a name for that island? It's too early in the morning for me to be creative just yet, and I'm madly scarfing down breakfast before leaving for work.
Edit: And really, approximations of RW places are better than exact duplications, so even changing a few letters in the name works. I'll see what I can come up with at work. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 08 Dec 2008 17:12:12 |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 17:13:26
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
<chop>
I saw a world somewhere with EVERY D&D world grafted onto it, but I can't find it anymore. The thing was HUGE, and very, VERY cool.
I have the *tiny* version of that map... I'd love to find a bigger one. The title was "4th Edition Plan B" |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 17:18:40
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
<snip>
Just an update - when K-T was first introduced it was actually WAY bigger then what we have now, and in an effort to try ad fit K-T together with Faerūn, the Hordelands boxed set said to reduce the size of the scales from the original maps to 2/3 (so if 1 inch = 90 miles, it now equalled 60 miles, etc).
<chop>
Do you know if the Kara-Tur Trail Map product is correctly scaled to fit with the original large-scale maps of Faerun and the Hordelands - the ones that were in two parts, from the OGB and The Horde box? I've been told that they are, but I just received my Trail Map last week and I still don't have all my original maps to line it up with. Thanks! Leaving for work now! |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36905 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 18:10:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Jakk
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
<snip>
Just an update - when K-T was first introduced it was actually WAY bigger then what we have now, and in an effort to try ad fit K-T together with Faerūn, the Hordelands boxed set said to reduce the size of the scales from the original maps to 2/3 (so if 1 inch = 90 miles, it now equalled 60 miles, etc).
<chop>
Do you know if the Kara-Tur Trail Map product is correctly scaled to fit with the original large-scale maps of Faerun and the Hordelands - the ones that were in two parts, from the OGB and The Horde box? I've been told that they are, but I just received my Trail Map last week and I still don't have all my original maps to line it up with. Thanks! Leaving for work now!
The Trail Maps were huge, and I don't think they were to scale with anything other than each other. |
Candlekeep Forums Moderator
Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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I am the Giant Space Hamster of Ill Omen! |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 19:40:17
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Going to address Jakks posts in order, here -
#1 I decided I like Returned Abeir - I think a lot of the 'fan-hatred' toward it stemmed from the assinine inclusion of it. Had it been elsewhere, or even used for Anchorome, I think fans would have embraced the new lore instead.
Water under the bridge, as they say. Anyway, I have placed something in the Celestial Sea already - there is a small Island in the center there between Osse and K-T that I have named Meluria in my FR (a little letter-transposing from Lemuria), and its the Realm that my Beiy'maar (Seafolk) come from. That would make a perfectly acceptable spot to plunk-down Laerakond in, and just say it was always there.
#2 I swear to god I created that name off the top of my head! Are there ANY good letter-combinations left that haven't been used?
The same thing happened when I made up the name of the Island chain in my CkC article - I took the name 'Punjab' - which I always loved form the Little Orphan Annie comics (REALLY dating myself here) - and turned it into the 'Punjabbi Islands'... having no idea of course that there already was a real-world locale named that! I have to remember to Google any names I 'create' first, before committing them to paper. 
How about Numatango? (and no... it's not a place where the Numa Numa dance has become popular).
#3 Thanks for at least providing a name - I thought the one I saw was fairly large. Perhaps you saw a version someone made smaller and named 'Plan 'B' as a joke, because I find it hard to believe that someone would have went to THAT much effort to dis WotC - that map would have taken weeks to create, and was incredibly well thought-out.
#4 I never really bothered to compare them (strangely enough), but Wooly is probably correct here. One of my biggest problems has been getting different maps of the same areas to match-up (try getting the early Bloodstone Lands maps to work in Vassa and Damara and you'll get a good idea of why I pull a lot of hair out sometimes).
Now you've got me curious, so I'll have to look into it. It should have been the corrected (2e) scale, because that's when the product came out, but map errors have a way of making it from edition to edition...
I'm hoping to have some more Kara-Tur goodness up later today - I'm very happy with the latest iteration and its coming along nicely. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 12 Dec 2008 16:14:59 |
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eridanis
Acolyte
USA
9 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 19:56:32
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| The funny thing is, they do match up - to a point. When you get down to the area around Luiren on the western half, the coastline trails off eastward... but there's no matching coastline on the eastern map. It's just ocean there. Otherwise, I recall it matches up pretty well for the rest of the continent. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 20:24:49
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They match-up if you make them match up - the scale is WAY off from the originals.
I just checked - I ran into a bit of of a snafu - I only have a pdf version of the K-T trail map, and it has NO scale - it just says 1" = 90 miles! (This is why I always incllude a scale - I guess back in the days when not everyone had a computer, they never considered this problem).
However, by setting the size of the pdf to match a standard piece of paper - 8½ x 11 - I was able to come up with a reasonable approximation. I took two cities in Wa and compared the distance - on the Trail Map Akkaido and Hotomori are 90 miles apart (thats why I picked those - they were precisely one inch apart on my monitor). On the original K-T map (the smaller one with the islands on it), those cities are approximately 230 miles apart!
Now, if they were corrected, the two cities should have been about 154 miles apart, not 90 miles.
Since my world map is based on the picture on pg. 231 of the 3e FRCS (and all maps re-sized to best fit into that), I never really bothered to check how my maps compared scale-wise to any of the others. As I have stated, I have slightly increased the size of the islands, hoping to get them a little closer to what they used to be. After chaecking those two cities on my version, they are 100 miles apart - just a little bit more spaced out then the 2e trail map (which is what I was shooting for, so I'm very happy with that). Since I didn't increase any of the other terrain, except for a bit of 'stretching' along the SE (to better accomodate the larger number of canon locales), this means the size of my Kara-Tur is VERY close to that on the 2e trail map (which DOESN'T correspond at all to the 2/3 rules set-out by The Horde boxed set).
Since my version matches the closest to the last canon map of the region, I am very happy with the result... especially since I wasn't even doing them with a scale in mind. As I said, I had to make everything work with the only world map we have. Funny enough, the only real 'modding' I had to do to get everything to work with that is rotating the Faerūn Map 9.2ŗ clockwise - which brings it back to being very much like the 2e version. Ain't that a kick in the head? Even though they drastically changed the map for 3e, the world map (in the 3e guide) still showed the continental outline of the OLDER maps. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 09 Dec 2008 06:23:38 |
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Thauramarth
Senior Scribe
United Kingdom
732 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 20:34:25
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quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
quote:
Originally posted by Jakk
quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
<snip>
Just an update - when K-T was first introduced it was actually WAY bigger then what we have now, and in an effort to try ad fit K-T together with Faerūn, the Hordelands boxed set said to reduce the size of the scales from the original maps to 2/3 (so if 1 inch = 90 miles, it now equalled 60 miles, etc).
<chop>
Do you know if the Kara-Tur Trail Map product is correctly scaled to fit with the original large-scale maps of Faerun and the Hordelands - the ones that were in two parts, from the OGB and The Horde box? I've been told that they are, but I just received my Trail Map last week and I still don't have all my original maps to line it up with. Thanks! Leaving for work now!
The Trail Maps were huge, and I don't think they were to scale with anything other than each other.
If memory serves me right, the scale of both trail maps (Kara-Tur and the City of Waterdeep) was 150 miles to the inch. The maps in the OGB were 90 miles to the inch ("continental maps") or 30 miles to the inch (Heartlands and Dalelands maps; maps of the steppelands in the Horde Box). If I am right, then I think that Wooly is right - the Trail maps will not line up with the boxed set maps. |
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see
Learned Scribe
235 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2008 : 23:52:48
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| The Kara-Tur trail map is not the same scale as the OGB and Horde maps, as I learned spreading the maps out on the floor fifteen years ago. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 09 Dec 2008 : 06:36:06
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Nope, on the trail Map it says 1" = 90 miles, although if it said 150, it actually would of been DAMN close to the size the Horde boxed set recommended.
Anyhow, like I said, my version is very close to the K-T trail map scale, with just a few places (like the Islands) ending up slightly bigger (which is what I wanted anyway).
The only thing I didn't change was the canon 3e FR map - the scale on that remains constant, since I built everything off of that, and re-sized the world map until that matched up with it. After that, I made everything else (K-T and Zakhara) fit into that same outline (now re-sized to match the canon map). That means whatever size the rest fell out at is what I made it, so that my finished map looked very much like the one in the FRCG (in outline). If I tried to correct any of the scales (which would be impossible, considering how many different ones have been canon), my continent would have varied too much from the picture in the guide.
Anyhow, I've been doing mountains ALL day... and I HATE mountains. I'm happy with the way its coming out, though, and I should have something to show tomorrow (I have lots of finishing touches to put on Wa, but its nearly done enough to show). |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 09 Dec 2008 23:45:19 |
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UNSpacy
Seeker
France
78 Posts |
Posted - 09 Dec 2008 : 18:08:27
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OH GOD HOW DID I GET HERE
I AM NOT GOOD WITH COMPUTER
(Weirdness translation: i can haz kara-tur maps?) |
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HandsomeRob
Seeker
68 Posts |
Posted - 09 Dec 2008 : 19:04:53
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Hey Mark,
You used to have a bunch of maps posted on your deviantart page that are gone now. There is a note on that page that the maps are now hosted at Candlekeep, but I cannot find them, aside from a handful that have been here for a very long time. Can you remind us where we can find the rest of the maps?
Thanks,
-Rob |
Visit Sorol today: http://sorol.wikispaces.com |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 09 Dec 2008 : 23:48:24
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I'll have to figure out which you mean - I thought all the finished ones were hosted here at CK - my DevinatART site is just for WIPS.
I'll go through my map files tonight and tomorrow, and figure out what CK doesn't have, and mail them to Alaundo. I have newer versions of a couple to send off anyway. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 09 Dec 2008 23:48:43 |
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UNSpacy
Seeker
France
78 Posts |
Posted - 10 Dec 2008 : 17:50:48
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Ah.
I've been checking your deviantart for like, 2 months now for a Kara-Tur map...so they're all hosted here then? |
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Jakk
Great Reader
Canada
2165 Posts |
Posted - 10 Dec 2008 : 18:12:21
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Thanks for all the responses regarding my map scaling query. I was aware of the scale mismatch of the original boxed set maps; I was kind of hoping that they had redone the scale for the K-T Trail Map to allow it to match up with the two-part OGB Faerun map and the similarly-scaled Hordelands map.
Mark:
#1: I like Returned Abeir too; my biggest problem with 4E was blowing up Faerun for no good reason, but I'm done with that; I like 3E geography and your cartography enough that I see no reason to change things. Change is good; change for its own sake, or change with no attention to consequences, is dangerous. I was looking at the Southern Ocean (SE of Malatra, SW of Osse) for Returned Abeir in my Toril; I thought that it should be somewhere out-of-the-way if I'm making it a retcon, and halfway to Osse is about as out-of-the-way as it gets, given the nature of Malatra, particularly given that we know next to nothing canonical (yet) about Osse.
#2: Numatango works for me. It sounds suitably exotic, and if there's anything RW with that name, it's probably a village somewhere, so I wouldn't worry about it. 
#3: NP. I'd like to find the full-size map for my own purposes; I seriously think it would make a great 4E Plan B, and would help explain why all the 4E campaign worlds have such interchangeable crunchy bits.
#4: I suspect you may be right. I have my K-T Trail Map in hardcopy, but all my other 1E/2E maps are in a PVC map tube and a poster-size portfolio in storage in another city about 200 miles away.
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Edit: One more question for you, Mark: Do you plan to extend Faerun north to include your map of Hartsvale and the rest of the northern coast? Just curious. |
Playing in the Realms since the Old Grey Box (1987)... and *still* having fun with material published before 2008, despite the NDA'd lore.
If it's comparable in power with non-magical abilities, it's not magic. |
Edited by - Jakk on 10 Dec 2008 18:44:02 |
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ErskineF
Learned Scribe
USA
330 Posts |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 12 Dec 2008 : 16:34:36
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I use photoshop.
I started out just taking bits of the map and pasting them directly into mine, without altering the size, shape, or orientation in any way - thats how the map of Evermeet was done. That was incredibly hard, and I learned how to resize things and change them up enough to suit my purposes, rather then always having to find the exact piece of terrain I needed.
Eventually as I got better and better, I built my own set of textures (using the canon Faerūn Map as a template), and even created my own icons with vector graphics. Now the only thing I still 'copy & paste' are mountains, and even there I still change them up quite a bit, and draw a lot on my own. I still haven't figure out a way of creating mountains without a lot of hand-drawing (same thing goes for cliffs - all the ones in the Ixinos map were done by hand). I did finally create an exceptable 'Hills Texture' just recently, and have been using it like crazy for the K-T Islands.
I've only started using layers the last year, believe it or not - I use to have to re-draw everything over and over, until I watched some very excellent how-to's on Fantasy Cartography at ZombieNirvana Games (which I highly recommend) - you can catch them on Youtube as well.
I'm now looking into developing my own techniques, rather then just copying the 3e maps (my first step is the Fonts I use, which I have been playing with). I'm learning quite a bit from the guys over at the Cartographer's Guild.
Than You for your interest.
quote:
Originally posted by UNSpacy
I've been checking your deviantart for like, 2 months now for a Kara-Tur map...so they're all hosted here then?
The finished ones are, but Alaundo was taking them from there himself, and I realized not all of them were making it here (and some that shouldn't have made it), so now I've taken to mailing him the ones I think are polished enough for this site.
I had Faerūn extended far north... but I lost all of that when I saved over one of my revisions, and had to go back a month - everything in the north, including the Bloodstone lands and the Moonsea region, was lost.
I will get back to them eventually. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 13 Dec 2008 00:31:57 |
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Ashe Ravenheart
Great Reader
USA
3249 Posts |
Posted - 12 Dec 2008 : 16:50:37
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| CRAP! I found a great tutoring video on how to do the mountains and such in Photoshop without hand drawing them, but I can't find the link right now. I should have it on my home PC. When I get home tonight, I'll try and post the link. It was REALLY good, MT, and should save you hours of work. |
I actually DO know everything. I just have a very poor index of my knowledge.
Ashe's Character Sheet
Alphabetized Index of Realms NPCs |
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Map of Shou Lung?
