Free Map Rejects

Normally Monday is our day for maps, but today I want to discuss the dark side of Cartography.  A sad secret that every map maker knows is that not every map that is started is finished.  Inevitably you get to a point where you just give up on a map for one reason or another, chalk it up to a loss, and move on to your next project.  Trying to do a free map every week kind of presses me for time so I'm always hesitant to drop a project mid way though, but it has definitely happened. 

Here are three of those stories.

Root Wyrm

When I started making maps I love Satellite Style mapping.  Those of you unfamiliar with the term need only go to Google Maps and click Satellite Map to see what I mean.  However, the more I made those maps the more I felt that less is more.  I found more and more than I enjoyed looking at old maps where you got a sense that all the information wasn't necessarily correct.  At a certain point I all but gave up on the style and moved on to a more antiquated look.

A couple of weeks ago I decided I would try to get back to my roots and create a map in Satellite style for a change of pace.  I just figured I just right back into it figuring that it was like riding a bike.  It wasn't.  I had a lot of trouble with the map and things got irritating quickly.  Finishing the map became a lot like trying to slay a Dragon; a fun challenge but not always worth what it costs you.  In the end I gave up on it and moved onto other projects, but you can have a look at where I was when I finished.

A Hex on You!

I've been messing around with Hexes a lot lately.  I've found them to be both useful and a fun change of pace from a standard square grid.  I was looking at some Hexographer maps and wondered if I couldn't do the same thing in Photoshop with more detail and in a globe form.  

To make a long story short I did get the map going.  I got a hex map into globe form and was well on my way to a fairly interesting map when my power went out.  Save early and often, folks, or suffer similar heartbreak.  After cursing my computer, power company, and own foolishness I had to walk away.  I did have an early and more or less blank version of the map which I will share with you.

Ah, Frack It!

Campaign Cartographer is a pretty popular program among Gamer cartographers and for good reason.  It is a powerful program that can do a number of cool things and certainly is a boon to anyone who can't draw particularly well.  Profantasy, the company that produces CC also makes another program that I've actually come to like better called Fractal Terrain.  The reason for that is because I can do a lot of CC things in Photoshop or Illustrator, but I can't do what FT does.  

Anyway I took one of the maps I had generated in FT and was determined to improve on it using Photoshop.  The map I made was pretty massive so I just focuses in on one area, a large lake, and started creating the massive watershed that flowed into the lake.  I was at it for a while, but had seemingly no end of problems with this map.  Eventually I cursed and just gave up in frustration.  

Beautiful A Song of Ice & Fire Miniatures

Check out these pictures of these beautifully sculpted and fully painted miniatures.   In order they are Varys, Bron, Benjen Stark and Maester Luwin.  All of these are from Dark Sword Miniatures A Song of Ice and Fire line and are available on their website.

Mercenary Company Map

I've been having a really hard time with the map I've been making for a mercenary campaign I've been designing.  I posted a previous version and have since updated the map by making a number of changes.

Check it out.  Feedback is welcome as always.

Free Map Mondays - And Now For Something Completely Different

When it comes to our weekly free maps I try to make them as generic as possible, but they usually have a decidedly fantasy-esc feel.  This isn't much of a surprise as it is my favorite genre, but I love Sci-Fi as well and as I promised a little while ago, Sci-Fi fans are not forgotten here.

This is the first shot I've taken with something like this and I went about things a bit differently.  For starters I reused a map that I made previously, specifically this one.  I messed around with it a bit, made it look like the burnt out husk of a world that had endured a nuclear holocaust.

Here is the end result.

No Call of Cthulhu 7th Edition at Gen Con?

I've really grown to love Call of Cthulhu.  I enjoy the game more than enough to buy the core rulebook from Chaosium.  I held off from buying the 6th edition rulebook because back in February word spread that there would be a 7th Edition which would be available at Gen Con this year. 

According to what I've been reading lately it seems that that will no longer be the case.  Rumors say that 7th Edition will be pushed back to 2012, but that there will be an Anniversary Edition available.  To celebrate 30 years of Call of Cthulhu Chaosium has decided to release a hard cover 320 page leather bound book... but with the 6th edition rules.  

I'm really torn here.  On the one hand I'd like to get the new rules (though with CoC there are very few changes between editions), but on the other hand I really like well made hard cover books and am willing to pay extra for quality.  Those who aren't interested in paying a premium probably won't be interested as this book costs $64.95.

I think this is all going to come down to whether the book is available at Gen Con or not.  I'm going to want to get myself something cool at the Con, and a leather bound Call of Cthulhu book certainly qualifies. 

The Avengers Gets a Second Villain

This according to Latino Review.  Major spoilers... be warned!

Here's hoping that the Avengers doesn't suffer from having too many villains without focusing on any of them.  That seems to be one of the major pitfalls of making a comic book movie.  There is this desire to cram in extra characters, especially villains, and no one get's ample screen time and the movie sucks.  

Still, in Joss Whedon I trust.  I fully expect (and hope) that he succeeds and the movie is good. 

The Best Worst Movie: Troll 2

When I was a young lad I saw a terrible movie called Troll 2.  I didn't really understand a lot of what was going on, but I figured that was because I was a kid.  It wasn't until years later when I saw it again that I realized the reason I didn't understand what was going on was because the movie was fricken insanely bad.  It is so bad that there is a documentary about how bad the movie is. 

In the most recent episode of Half in the Bag, Red Letter Media did a review of both Troll 2 and the Documentary about it.  Check it out!


(Note: Like most Red Letter Media productions this is NSFW due to language)