[map] Kingdoms of Aeris

[NymTevlyn]

https://www.jaderaven.com/koa_map.jpg

This is the working map for a campaign I am beginning to build within FG2. I got down to the naming the last forest and drew a blank. Rather than spend a lot of time thinking about it, I decided to take suggestions from other people. Can't guarantee it'll be used or used 100% as suggested, but I'll take them all into consideration and give it thought.

The ?? Forest/Wood is filled with all manner of dire sized creatures. Even the trees seem bigger in that area. Pioneers and settlers from across the sea first settled at Raven's Landing, spreading east along the river after establishing a port in the bay of Kalimnor. So the forest/wood's name will be similar in style to the other town/village/forest names already used in Bastia.

p.s. Aeris was used because it means air/sky in latin... not because of some Final Fantasy VII fetish.

[acmer]

If you have some ancient cultures, you could base the name on their names, like Illefarn forest. Then that would be an ideal place to hide Ruins of the Illefarn Empire...

Other names:
Angoncau
Woods of Hadramyr
Sunless forest/glades
Forest of Coryal
Kalimwood
Howling Woods
Ravenwood

[Honduras]

Quite a good looking map. What program did you use to make it?

[NymTevlyn]

Campaign Cartographer 3

I downloaded it yesterday afternoon and finished the map later that evening. It's got a steep learning curve though and that's just learning the basics. My biggest gripe with it is trying to select the symbols to move/place/erase them. It's just not easy to do.

-edit-
"The Howling Woods" is a contender. I am throwing "The Direwood" in as one as well. Anyone else have any more to add?

[Sigurd]

If its truly wild the forest might have a description rather than a name.

Treacherous Wood
Beware!

Or you could give it several names depending on who's talking about it. :)

- nobody said that even accurate maps are going to be right.

You could make it part of the 'Black Forest' just diffent from the western half.

s

[NymTevlyn]

The Black Forest is different though. It's an uncharted, wild and dark, twisted forest that very few dare go into. The ruins just west of it in the small river vale, are a testament to the strength of the primal force that dwells within and its hatred for humans. No one survived to tell any tales from that attack.

[Sigurd]

But how different would it be in the minds of the mapmaker. Chances are he\she\it has never been to the center of the map in question. If your maps are too precise they become predictable.
I always start with a few curveballs and allow the players to come up with better names for them as they go along.

Many, many maps simply show North America and pictures of whats within. Go ahead and do whatever you want but if you ever want to share the pictures with your characters in game have a few mistakes that the players can 'correct' as they adventure. It gives them a way to change the world and you an excuse if there are other imprecise elements later.

I guess it depends if you are going to to do a political map as well as a geographical one or combine the two. Its one big unbroken wood but if the characters of the two sides are well known then I guess it should have two names.


Sigurd

[NymTevlyn]

I make these maps not as the characters would see them, but as the players and DM would. Thus everything has a name that is most commonly associated with that geographical feature. Local flavor is provided in descriptions written later. For example, the people of Hereford also call Whisperwind Woods, the Banshee's Thicket. Most travelers and people of Bastia however know it as Whisperwind Woods.

[acmer]

And you know those bards. Have you ever heard a story of a terrible monster living in Happyglade? Or the ancient ruins of Candycastle?

[NymTevlyn]

No... but I have heard of Candy Mountain... (https://youtube.com/watch?v=JPONTneuaF4) ^_~

[Tokuriku]

I'm using Campaign Cartographer too and it does indeed have a steep lurning curve.
My gripe with it is the same.
By the way, don't want to steel ideas and such but I'd really like to use that map if you don't mind.
Biggest problem is my group plays in french so I'd like to rename the stuff if possible.
But to do that, I'd need the CC3 file rather then the image.
But I would trully understand if you where not up for it, it is your work after all.

[NymTevlyn]

I don't have a problem with you using it for personal use. ( link (https://www.jaderaven.com/koa.fcw) ) Just all the usual yadda yadda yadda about it being copyrighted and what not. -edit- Updated the finished map at my website. You can see it by clicking on the pic in my signature or on the link in the first post. No changes to the geography or terrain, just finished labeling things. =) Now to write descriptions for those locales.

[Valarian]

Very nice map. I too use Campaign Cartographer, and have done for years so the learning curve is back in the days of DOS. The program is based around a CAD package. I've heard that people more familiar with CAD rather than graphics packages like photoshop get on with it better.

As a suggestion for improvements, perhaps do an "Outline in Black" around the main landmass. This will help define it from the sea.

[NymTevlyn]

I prefer to leave the black outline stuff for B&W or Sepia Toned maps. I used to have CC1, way back in the day, but it was way over my computer nooby head at the time. Of course time passed, computers got better, and I'd learned much more about cartography in general.

Then I saw some CC3 maps... looked at what I was doing in other graphics programs and by hand and laughed at my stuff in disgust. CC3 is easy to use once you get the hang of placing things in the proper order so you don't have to delete anything or try moving them around on various layers.