Take You Map Making To The Next Level With Campaign Cartographer 3

You don’t need to be an artist to create realistic, aged maps for your D&D campaign.

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Every great story has to start somewhere, for many adventurers this will be sat around a table in a tavern, drinking some ale of dubious origin while recanting exploits and tales of great valor. It’s then that a mysterious stranger joins, with a round of drinks, and hands over a map, a small coin purse, and exclaims that, “Heroes such as yourselves, would fare well under his employment!”

As the Dungeon Master, your job is to set up the perfect start to the session, whether it is a single, one-off adventure or a multi-part campaign that has been running for several years. Nothing makes a story more real than a prop that your players can hold, the most basic of which is a map. It’s hard to imagine a world without the full-color, detailed maps that game studios produce today, but this wasn’t always the case. I can still remember drawing my own maps, and I took my design cues from the D&D source books and from authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien. This often resulted in a badly hand-crafted map. Thankfully, today we have better methods available but I will always have a soft spot for the dungeon maps that I created using a pencil and some graph paper, surrounded by pixel sprite dragon doodles of course.

Before We Start

During your campaign, adventure, or single session dungeon crawl, your players may come across one or more maps. Each map tells a different story, and this is a unique opportunity to do something special. The map is the first things that the players will see and it should be more than just a “You are here” arrow and “X marks the spot.” There should be mystery and intrigue that can draw the focus away from a linear path. Yes, it’s a game, and yes, everyone knows what they have to do and where to do it, but the players don’t want to feel forced. They want to live in a rich and vibrant world, full of opportunity and treachery. A carefully designed map makes the world feel real. We don’t want to spend forever working on our maps. We want to strike a balance between creating something that stands out but doesn’t take years of our life to craft.

Software

This is going to be a bit intimidating to some of you, especially those, shall we say, more artistically challenged. That’s why map creation software comes in handy – even for the more artist folk out there. Software can help you ‘cut corners’ with the design and layout by letting you use preset design elements. This can then be printed out using an ink-jet printer and aged and weathered to look old. We’ll go a bit more into finishing your maps later. For now, let’s focus on the software and today it’s the turn of Pro Fantasy’s Campaign Cartographer.

Opening up an art program can feel quite daunting, but this software has a slightly retro yet familiar feel to it. The interface has echoes of programs you’ll likely be familiar with, like Paint and Office, yet is tailored for the purpose at hand. It may not be the most sophisticated solution but it more than gets the job done and the basics are easy to grasp, which is especially important for those new to map creation.

The first thing to note is that you can create maps of different types and this will adjust the options available to you. For instance, an OVERLAND map offers the option to create oceans and islands, just by clicking and dragging. Simply mark some points on the map and the software draws a realistic looking rugged coastline between the points you set. Dungeons, on the other hand, have different tools to create rooms and corridors of different sizes.

Each map type also offers a choice of related icons or symbols (as they call them) to choose from, meaning you don’t have to hunt through masses of unrelated tiles. These are themed to the type of map and include markers for treasure, points of interest, quests and many more related items. However, the map software can also be used for much more specific purposes than a map showing a general overview of a world. Thanks to the icons and tools you can plan out a building, or even a room. If you want to have maps to refer back to for the layout of a building, as well as what each room contains, then this can also be done with the software.

Most of the functionality is based on a drag-and-drop system, but there are additional plug-ins and assets that will offer users additional map types, more flexibility, and greater control. This means users are given the choice of if they want to create a more basic reference map or explore the extra options and functions to create something epic.

If you want sophisticated, high end graphic manipulation then this program won’t be for you. But if you are searching for map creation software that enables you to draft simple, functional and practical maps quickly, then Campaign Cartographer could be the answer. Factor in the impressive results you can achieve once you know the software then you are definitely onto a winner. Beneath the surface, Campaign Cartographer really is an impressive piece of kit, for fantasy map makers and DMs alike.

Weathering and Aging

I mentioned earlier about using an ink-jet printer. To be fair, any printer will do but an ink-jet, as the name implies, uses ink. While you will not get the true feel for handwritten place names or hand-drawn outlines, the ink used will be absorbed into the paper and will not leave a glossy finish the same way that a laser printer gives. This is important for weathering as something that adheres to the surface will stand out. There are several techniques you can use to age and weather paper, but the easiest and most accessible is using coffee and tea to stain the pristine white paper a pale brown. Paper should be soaked for short periods of time and is a process that can be repeated several times to build up to the desired look. Extra staining in smaller areas will enhance the effect – you don’t want to have it too uniform and you can fold and crumple the paper to give it wear and tear, and the more brave of you could burn part to give the effect of near disaster. Finally, the use of stamped molten sealing wax will give an heir of authenticity that is otherwise unattainable. Whichever route you go have fun but be careful to not go overboard.

Campaign Cartographer is currently available as part of the Maps Extravaganza Encore Humble Bundle.

Link Source : https://www.thegamer.com/map-making-dnd-ttrpg-campaign-cartographer-3/