Worldbuilding of a Different Sort

I'm sure many GM's feel the same type of frustration that I do... You have this crystal clear vision in your head of this amazing campaign world, but how can you convey all that to your players with just words.

Well you don't have to rely just on words.  I recently picked up Terragen 2 by Planetside.  This amazing software allows to create breathtaking landscapes, a real boon for people like me with no artistic ability.  I've only had a few hours to mess around with it (not nearly enough time to really get to know all the nuances of such a complex program) and I've done a couple of test runs with the program.

There are some downsides to this program.  The first is that it is fairly expensive, $399 to be exact.  It is also fairly complex and can be intimidating for first time users.  Luckily there are some great tutorials over on YouTube you can see to help you dive in.  Finally this program is a real memory hog.  It requires 1GB of RAM to run but recommends 4.  Rendering the above pictures took quite some time, and the setters were not pushed through the roof.  Yet another reason I need a new computer.

Sigh...

Self pity aside I highly recommend this software for GMs who want to present sweeping landscapes to their players and immerse them in a highly detailed environment.

Note: I didn't get into making videos in Terragen because I haven't explored that feature yet.  Like the Tutorials, you can see some pretty amazing sample terrain videos over on YouTube.