Prelude

I’m sure you all know that I am a huge fan of Campaign Cartographer. It is a CAD-based, mapping program that is robust, feature-rich, wonderfully well supported, and (imo) second to none. Those that take the time to learn the software, find it to be utterly amazing and indispensible. However, the learning curve is steep, the documentation is quite lacking, and it takes a serious investment in time in order to become proficient.

For these reasons, many people desire an alternative. After looking at Hexographer, I heartily recommend it for those looking for an easy to use, yet powerful mapping package.

Getting Started

There is a free, web-based version and a Pro version (which runs locally). Most of the features of the Pro version are available in the free version (which is what I have been using). Check out their website to see what extra features come with the Pro version.

To start the free version, simply click the link on their website. This will download a couple of java files (the first time) and then start the program. You then setup the basic parameters of your map (hex size, number of hexes horizontally and vertically, etc). The program can create a random map based on your settings, a blank map, or load a previous saved map.

Terrain

The most basic map simply contains a hexagonal terrain piece (with a default background color and symbol representing the terrain type) in each hex. These symbols (apparently called “floor icons”) are depicted in what the author refers to as the “Mystara Gazetteer style”. Others may like them, but I find them extremely dated, overly simplistic and downright ugly. I had the (mistaken) impression that these symbols were all that came with the free version and that you needed the Pro version in order to use different sets. That was my previously-mentioned misconception. As it turns out, you can simply click a checkbox to disable these symbols. Or you can disable these symbols for each terrain type individually.

Other Symbols

In addition to the “Terrain/Floor Icons”, there are various other categories of symbols. The “Map Items” are extremely higher quality symbols (as seen in these maps by Joseph Bloch at Greyhawk Grognard).

During placement, most symbols have the option of automatically aligning to the center of a hex or being placed freehand. Symbols can be scaled, moved, deleted, and rotated. In addition to symbols, text and freeform lines can be added as well.

Just the Tip of the Iceberg

The above is just an extremely cursory look at an expansive program. There is much more to the program than I have described (and probably much more than I have discovered myself). As everyone told me, it is very intuitive and easy to learn. I felt comfortable using the interface within minutes. Moving/deleting objects felt a bit odd at first (only because it is different than what I am used to) but I got the knack of it very quickly.

My only real complaint is that, as a web-based app, it felt slow. Not terribly so, but noticeable. But honestly, for $25 just buy the Pro version and run it locally. It’s an awesome program and well worth the money.

If you want the play-by-play, check out my WIP on the ProFantasy forums.

Starting With Scans

I have high res scans of the two panels that make up Darlene’s map. I’ve tried to scan them myself with a small flatbed scanner, scanning each of the eight sections of each panel and then piecing them together in Photoshop. Every attempt failed miserably. The slightest rotation was amplified throughout the map, and (due to folding) each section was distorted, stretched or compressed, making it very difficult to line them up properly. The two high res scans though were done by someone else and appeared that each panel had been scanned as a single piece on a large poster scanner.

I thought this would be a good place to start. I played with the two PNG files, got them as straight as I could, sized them so that the hexes on both were as close to the same size as I could manage. When I was done, I imported them into a blank CC3 drawing and added a hex grid over the top. I moved the scans around so as to line up the printed hexes with the hex grid overlay.

Sadly, the distortion in the original maps was far worse than I thought. I was able to line up the hexes on the bottom section perfectly. The section above that was so compressed that I gained an entire hex row. The section above that was stretched and I lost an entire hex row. The top section lined up perfectly just like the bottom. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed.

Still, I thought I could account for the discrepancies as I went. I constantly shifted the panels around in order to line up the section I was working on. I finished transferring the landmass, mountains, hills, swamps, forests, and started placing cities. Then I noticed that two sets of hills had one hex between them where there should be two. I was sorely tempted to ignore this, but it was the section just south of the Nyr Dyv. That’s a very important part of the map and I just couldn’t sit there and let it be wrong.

I spent a great deal of time trying to determine just what needed to be fixed. But this nagging voice kept telling me that I couldn’t just patch it; I had to verify the entire map.

I went back and redrew everything, hex by hex. It was tedious and annoying but I’m glad I did. It would have bothered me forever knowing I had a half-ass map. Now I know that it is 100% accurate and I’m much happier.

Moral of the story – Never trace scans.

Fonts

Darlene is exceptionally skilled in the subtle nuances of letterform design. Throughout the World of Greyhawk maps, each letter is drawn by hand. In addition, Darlene uses distinctly different lettering for different features (regions and cities for instance). Therefore, I couldn’t simply go out and find the font she used. First off, it would be more than one font. Secondly, the lettering is hand-drawn and (though similar) wouldn’t conform precisely to a pre-defined font.

It should be noted that Darlene did actually produce a font for TSR (Greyhawk Uncial) which was later purchased by Paiso. I haven’t attempted to contact them to see if they would be willing to make it publicly available, but I suspect that they would not.

At the suggestion of Anna at Greyhawk Maps, I went with the Carolingia font. Currently, all text is in this font. I think I may select a second font for town names in order to differentiate them more easily.

Darlene used all uppercase text for regions and lowercase for town names. I’m not a fan of either, so instead I capitalize each word of all text (with the exception of: a, the, of, with, etc).

Readability

Some text is quite difficult to read due to the black text blending into the background color (specifically forests and mountains). To offset this, I added a blur behind the text in either forest green or mountain brown. This worked well. However, some of the text has yet to be repositioned leaving portions of that text hanging out over the light green plains. This causes a terrible bleed effect that is glaringly noticeable. After a bit of testing, I determined that this is indeed a bug with the blur effect. Ralf responded later expanding on the problem, stating that it is a known problem with using the blur effect on True Type fonts. He describes a workaround in the thread listed above on the ProFantasy forums.

Symbols

As with text, Darlene did not use any pre-defined symbols. Instead, she drew every symbol by hand. I’m not going to do that, so I need to identify (or build) all the symbols I will need. The list that immediately comes to mind is: mountains, hills, swamps, forests (coniferous, deciduous, tropical), and towns/cities (about six different symbols).

Towns and cities are easy. They all use simple geometric shapes. I duplicated all the ones listed in the World of Greyhawk folio and defined them as symbols (first time I’ve done that). I made them all about twice as big as I should have but being a CAD-based package, it is a simple matter to scale them. Unfortunately, unless you are zoomed in quite close, the symbols devolve into small black smudges on the map. As a result, I made another symbol that is simply a filled black circle. I use this same symbol for all towns and cities and it looks good at all zoom levels. I’ll go back and create another layer with the proper symbols so that I can select which layer to display based on what zoom level I’m using.

Forests were even easier. CC3 has built-in symbols that work for all my forest needs. I’m a little annoyed with the shadows on these symbols. If it bothers me enough, I’ll go back and create another catalog based on those symbols but without the shadows. Where a river goes through a forest, I spent a great deal of time placing trees so that they partially obscured the river (thinking that this looked more natural). It was pointed out that this looked odd. Again, due to the wonderful nature of a CAD-based program, I merely changed the display order which placed the rivers over the trees. I have to admit that this is a much nicer effect.

Symbols for mountains, hills, and swamps will be a bit more involved. CC3 has built-in symbols for these features, but I want symbols that match Darlene’s map. Therefore, I will have to create my own. Many CC3 symbols are actually sets of symbols that randomly select one member of the set each time you place the symbol. This allows you to place numerous mountain symbols (for instance) and have each look different. I’ve just learned how to create symbol sets and want to practice more before I create my own.

What I Have Left To Do

As I said, I need to create a few symbol sets and place them. I need to create another layer and place the correct city/town symbols on it. I want to locate another font to use for city names. When I’m done with everything else, I need to reposition (and in some cases resize) all the text. Unless I’m forgetting something, that’s it.

I’m intentionally going slow here. I hadn’t used CC3 in some time so I had some relearning to do. Plus I have redone various bits numerous times (and probably will continue to do). Also, I get sidetracked by features of the program that I have never played with before. Symbol definition, for instance, can do much more than simply define symbols. Varicolor symbols, multi-layering, smart symbol features, etc are all pretty intriguing. I’m playing with them now and intend to research them much more fully in the near future.

All in all, it is a very interesting project and I’m quite pleased with how well it is turning out. I will certainly repost when I am all done. Be assured that there will be a .FCW (CC3 drawing file) download available when I’m finished.

Hexographer

Immediately, most people will think of Hexographer. Let me start out by saying that I have absolutely no direct knowledge of the program. I have never used it. I couldn’t even tell you, with any certainty, whether it is a vector-based or raster-based mapping program.

What I can tell you is that it has been around for a long time, has a very respectable reputation, and I’m told that it is intuitive and easy to use. There is a free, web-based, version that contains most of the features of the pro version. I’m not particularly impressed with the maps made from the free version, but that is largely due to the poor quality symbols. The pro version allows you to import additional symbols which, imo, vastly enhance the program.

Joseph Bloch, at Greyhawk Grognard, has been using hexographer to great effect. He has already created three beautiful maps that extend Darlene’s World of Greyhawk map (in accordance to the world map detailed in Dragon Annual #1) and states that he has plans to map it in its entirety.

• Southern Amedio Jungle
• Sea of the Dragon King
• Zindia & the Golden Jungle

Campaign Cartographer

When you think of hex mapping, you probably don’t think of Campaign Cartographer. It just isn’t the type of map you typically see from CC3 users. But that doesn’t mean that CC3 doesn’t excel at hex mapping.

In Campaign Cartographer, select the Draw menu and click on “Hex or Square Overlay”. Select either horizontal or vertical hex grid and make sure that “Set Snap Grid” is checkmarked (it is by default). Then (making sure snaps are turned on) start a polygon and click near one of the corners of a hex. Click on the remaining corners in order and CC3 will create a polygon in the selected color, snapped to the corners of the hex you selected on the grid.

Creating a single hex in this manner may be slightly more involved than doing so in hexographer. However, there are a number of benefits. First off, you don’t need to create hexes one at a time. Using snap-to-grid makes it easy to draw a large section with the edges constrained to the hex grid. You have access to the extensive CC3 symbol library. And most importantly, you have access to all the rest of CC3′s powerful features.

Being familiar with CC3, I knew I didn’t want to switch to another program and give up these features. But if I were new to mapping, or was intimidated by CC3′s learning curve, I would certainly give hexographer a shot. From what I’ve seen though, that ease of use does come at the cost of certain functionality.

CC3 Hex Symbols

As far as I know, there aren’t any pre-defined hex symbol catalogs for CC3. They aren’t particularly needed but I have toyed with the idea of putting one together anyway. I’ve only just started playing around with defining my own symbols so this would give me an interesting project. Since I never seem to have enough time to do everything I want to do, I don’t know if this will ever materialize, but the idea is certainly rolling around in there.

In the early 80′s, I attended a computer fair where, amidst many other vendors, a small company called Autodesk was introducing a new product. On the screen was a representation of our solar system, with the sun in the center and various rings indicating the orbits of the planets. Their representative showed me how you could zoom in on portions of the map. He selected a section of earth’s orbit and the program zoomed in to show a dot (earth) in the center of the screen with the moon in its orbit about the earth. He then zoomed in on the moon which now showed a small blemish on one side. Further zooming turned the blemish into a lunar lander with a smudge that later resolved into a plaque.

Amazing! A mapping program that can show a tremendous scale with resolution down to a tiny plaque. I was immediately hooked. With this software I could depict an entire fantasy world with each city, house, dungeon and monster lair described in minute detail. I knew this is how I wanted to map out my worlds from that point onward.

Of course, there were a few problems. AutoCAD was quite expensive. And, at the time, computers typically had 640k of memory, a 360k floppy disk, and (if you were extremely high tech and cutting edge) maybe a 2mb hard disk (2mb, that’s not a typo). Beyond that, computing power was such that even the most powerful home computer of the day could take hours to fully render a complex AutoCAD drawing.

Computers have progressed at a blinding rate since the early 80′s. The lowliest cell phone is far more advanced than the Apple IIe, TSR 80, or IBM PC (the technological leaders of the day). Even so, we are just now at the threshold of mapping worlds in the detail that I envisioned back then. It’s exciting to finally see the potential to create the kind of maps I’ve always wanted.

Campaign Cartographer

My desire for hyper-accurate zoomable maps is certainly at the core of my love for ProFantasy’s Campaign Cartographer. It is a fantasy mapping program built on top of a CAD engine. Not only does it support the powerful CAD features I want, but it is specifically enhanced to create fantasy maps. It is only natural that this is my program of choice.

However, there is one problem that I have never been able to satisfactorily surmount. As I’ve said, I prefer hyper-accurate mapping. CC3 supports this very well. But it still requires skill to produce what you want. I want hyper-accurate mountains. How do you do that? Contour lines depicting elevation is certainly one approach. But that is definitely not the look I want. I’ve tried numerous techniques but I’m just not happy with the results.

The common solution is to use symbols. This method can produce a very beautiful map. But it is representational. The mountain symbols tell you that there are mountains there, but they are not accurate representations of the actual elevations involved (this is true of many types of terrain with mountains simply being the most obvious example).

Fractal Terrains

ProFantasy makes another program called Fractal Terrains. I wasn’t very impressed with what I had seen from FT Pro (the earlier version). But when FT3 came out, the quality of the maps improved immensely! I was mesmerized by what it could achieve. This is a program that could give me the hyper-accurate mountains that I had always wanted.

After evaluating various approaches, I decided that the best method would be to create the terrain I wanted in FT3, export a PNG image of a section, and use that image as a background layer in CC3. I could then add the rest of my map features on top of this image. As long as the PNG was of high enough resolution, I could retain the hyper-accurate detail as well as the CAD-based zooming capabilities.

Something’s Missing

Now I had everything I wanted. So why wasn’t I happy with what I was creating? Something wasn’t right but I just couldn’t figure out what it was.

Usually, when I ran into such a problem, I would set it aside and let it percolate in the back of my mind for a while. Eventually, the solution would present itself and I could move on. Sadly, this time, that did not occur.

I looked at my map. I looked at other maps I’ve done before. I looked at maps other people have done. Nothing gave me inspiration.

Darlene’s Map

Darlene Pekul created the famous World of Greyhawk map. It consists of two poster-sized pages that make up a roughly 3′ x 4′ map of Gary Gygax’s World of Greyhawk. It is my all-time favorite map and I never tire of staring at it. I have the two panels framed and hanging in my bedroom (was there any doubt that I’m a nerd?).

Darlene’s map is about as far from “hyper-accurate” as you can get. Terrain is represented by 30 mile wide hexes. Obviously each hex actually contains all sorts of terrain within it, but each hex is instead representative of the dominant terrain within that area. Rivers are drawn on a scale that would make them five miles wide. You would think, from my stated goal of a hyper-accurate map, that I would detest Darlene’s mapping style. Instead, her map is my all-time favorite fantasy map. Maybe I should give some thought as to why that is.

Aesthetics Are Everything

As I said, I love to look at Darlene’s map. Other maps that I have created are useful. They present the information I need. But they are not evocative. When I look at Darlene’s map, I imagine the adventures I would have there. It’s exciting and fun. Now I realize that part of this sensation is the nostalgia I feel from a map that dates back to the time when I was just discovering D&D. Also, this is Gary’s World of Greyhawk. This is the world he gave us and it somehow ties us to him. But beyond that, it is a beautiful map. It is my favorite map.

I think I have to accept that I’ve been wrong all these years and THIS is the mapping style I prefer.

Up until a few years ago, I hadn’t paid any attention to the board game industry. Last I had looked, it consisted of risk, monopoly, scrabble, and such. If, like me, you hadn’t been paying attention, let me tell you that things have certainly changed. In the past, board games were made as inexpensively as possible. The boxes were flimsy, the cards were made of untreated cardstock, and the pieces were very simplistic pieces of plastic. Today, the manufacturing of most board games is a work of art. The quality of everything involved is top notch right down to the sturdy attractive boxes. I still don’t know which I find more surprising: the amazing quality of the products or the rise in cost (most games are now in the $50 range where in the past they were more like $5 – $10).

But enough of me showing my age.

There are probably hundreds of new amazing board games out there now. I’ve played a dozen or so and have really enjoyed them all. But by all accounts, two stand out significantly beyond the rest. These are the two we introduced the rest of our group to this past weekend. If you haven’t played them yet, I strongly recommend them!

Carcassonne

In Carcassonne, by Rio Grande Games, players take turns drawing and placing a tile. Tiles contain pieces of castles, roads, etc, that must be matched (somewhat similar in concept to dominos). Players score by completing castles and roads, with a few other twists added in. The strategies can be quite complex and devious, yet the rules are easy to learn and most people are able to jump right in with very little instruction. This is by far my favorite game.

There are a number of add-ons and I highly recommend getting them all. The “Big Box 3” contains the basic game and all of the most popular add-ons. For under $50, it is an exceptional deal.

Settlers of Catan

Settlers of Catan, by Mayfair Games has a number of hexagonal tiles that make up the playing board. These tiles are randomized each game so there are different strategies each time you play. Players build roads, settlements, and cities, collect and trade resources, and use a great deal of strategy to build their empire and earn 10 victory points before anyone else. There are various ways of winning which make this an interesting and compelling game.

It involves a little more luck than Carcassonne, but is equally challenging. It is easy to learn and a new group can be up and playing very quickly.

Other Games

As I said earlier, there are a great many amazing board games out there. I’m only seen a dozen or so but have been very impressed with each. D&D is by far my favorite pastime, but on occasion these other games make for a very enjoyable diversion.

This may be old news to many of you as she made these files available last August, but I have just discovered them recently. The works of HP Lovecraft are now in the public domain so these are completely legal downloads. What Ruth has done is to collect the stories together, arrange them into the proper order, format the text, and convert them into PDF and eBook files. In addition, she has created a linked index (at least in the MOBI file, I haven’t looked at the others) so you can go directly to each story.

Most PDFs and eBooks (even professional ones via Amazon and historical archives) that I have downloaded are riddled with errors from the scanning/OCR process. From what I have read so far, the text that comprises this collection is flawless. I greatly appreciate the time and effort that she must have spent editing this project.

Etzy Store

Ruth also makes some amazing Cthulhu crafts that she sells through her etzy store. Unfortunately, she is still recovering from an injury last summer that has been preventing her from producing these wonderful little guys. Keep checking back. Hopefully, she will be able to start making more soon.

I am very disappointed about having to do this. But since joining the RPG Blog Alliance, I have been receiving 100 or so spam comments every day. Another plugin, Akismet, has been catching these comments and tossing them into a spam folder. Each time I log in, I simply click “Empty Spam” and they all disappear. Akismet catches nearly 100% of them (over 5,000 to date) so they never make it through to the website, and to my knowledge there has never once been a false positive (no actual comments have been marked as spam). However, I can’t manually inspect over 100 spam comments a day and don’t won’t to risk having actual comments accidently removed, so I felt it was necessary to take this action.

I have some difficulty in using captcha systems that distort and otherwise attempt to obfuscate letters in order to fool spam bots, so I selected a system that asks users to answer a simple math question instead. I hope that you won’t find this overly annoying.

So far, the captcha plugin is working marvelously. There have been zero spam comments since it was installed and normal user comments are getting through just fine. Please let me know if you do have a problem. I’ll cross my fingers that this stops the problem without becoming a detriment.

Adventures in Odyssey – Castles and Cauldrons Part I

Adventures in Odyssey – Castles and Cauldrons Part II

It is truly amazing how much effort they put into making up their version of what they want people to think a FRPG involves. I have to say that they really did an amazing job making “Len” sound creepy.

I think it is ironic that the most supernatural occurrence was one of the adults having a premonition of doom.

I read quite a bit, but haven’t really made much of a dent in the “Appendix N” list of books. Many of those authors are becoming difficult to find, and I always seem to have a stack of other books to read anyway, so I just haven’t gotten around to many of them.

I thought it was important to read some of Jack Vance’s work though. I have been told repeatedly, since the 70s, that he was one of the most influential writers on RPGs. I started with “The Dying Earth”. I couldn’t find the second book in the series right away so I read “The Dragon Masters” next. During that time, I managed to locate “The Eyes of the Overworld” (the 2nd book in the Dying Earth series) and just finished it last night.

Out of all the books he’s written, three is just the tip of the iceberg. But, as the Dying Earth series is his defining creation, I think I’ve read enough to form an opinion: he just doesn’t live up to the hype.

Don’t get me wrong. I think it is worthwhile reading his books. He is amazingly creative and has a very unique outlook, allowing him to invent aspects of his stories that are entirely new and different. This is one of the things I read fantasy stories for, in order to find bits and pieces that I can steal and use in my own game. But as a writer, he just doesn’t do it for me.

I remember reading one of Stephen King’s books years ago. I had been riveted to the story, turning page after page as fast as I could. After tearing through 30 or so pages, I put the book down to go get a glass of water. While walking to the kitchen I thought back and realized that during those 30 or so pages, almost nothing happened. There was no action. Nothing happened that moved the plot forward. We weren’t given any information that was vital to the story. Really, it was an entire chapter that could have easily been removed from the book and no one would have noticed. But when I was reading it, I was completely lost in the story. Now that is the sign of really good writing.

That’s what I found lacking in Jack Vance’s stories. I was bored. He presented some amazing ideas, but he did so in a manner that completely failed to grab my attention. I will continue to read his other books, as they do provide tantalizing tidbits, but I must say that after years of anticipation, I was sorely disappointed.