Drawing a Map

[alhoon]

I haven't realized Nova Vaasa had so much flat land. Why they are hungry then?

[Jester of the FoS]

I haven't realized Nova Vaasa had so much flat land. Why they are hungry then?

Owned by ranchers and/or grassy land with thin top soil.

[Jester of the FoS]

Here's an early glimpse of the Shadow Rift, which is currently kicking my butt.

[alhoon]

what are the gray things? They seem to float over the land.

[Jester of the FoS]

They're plateaus. I'm trying to use a drop shadow to emulate cliffs. A big part of the Shadow Rift is the varied terrain, both high and low. Which is awkward to show from a more top down perspective.

[Algaris]

And to keep this post on topic, I've included a map of Hybreni, my Ireland analog....

Of course I'd include many Fey aspects - I have many resources for fey knowledge already.

Link to full scale map of Hybreni



Here's an illustration I had commissioned for a Fey Portal:

Michael do you have any links to your fey resources? I'm fascinated by all things relating to Faerie and the Fey.

[MichaelTumey]

Most of my resource material is actual printed books and not online links - Katherine Briggs Encyclopedia of Fairies is my best resource bar none, look for that...

Andrew Lang created a series of Fairy books at the turn of the century, organized into color books (ie: The Red Book of Fairies). However, these are a mixture of Chinese, Indian, Iranian, and other cultures in addition to Celtic fey mythos. Below is the only decent link to these books...

Andrew Lang Fairy Books

And to keep the thread on topic - @ Jester of the Fos. I know you don't use Xara Xtreme, the software I use to map, but one Xara's features I use a lot, are the beveling tools. The gray area to the left side of the mapped section below uses the Chisel bevel which I think best emulates a plateau. You might try to emulate this effect with whatever software you are using.

On the right side in the green area, I have a plateau with the chisel bevel in green, but below that I have two identical hills, one is given an edge feather (at bottom) the other is not (middle.) Notice how the middle hill looks like it kind of floats over the ground. Notice the one below it seems to blend in with the ground. Applying some kind of feather effect on the edges of your rises in elevation is important to prevent the "floating mountains effect".

[HuManBing]

Michael do you have any links to your fey resources? I'm fascinated by all things relating to Faerie and the Fey.

I just bought the GURPS Faerie PDF rulebook, and I like it a lot. Plenty of good information regardless of your ruleset. Here's a link - the download costs about $8 not including tax.

[MichaelTumey]

Michael do you have any links to your fey resources? I'm fascinated by all things relating to Faerie and the Fey.

I just bought the GURPS Faerie PDF rulebook, and I like it a lot. Plenty of good information regardless of your ruleset. Here's a link - the download costs about $8 not including tax.

I have GURPS Celtic setting, (not their Fairy book, though), AD&D 2e Celtic Handbook, Bastion Press Faeries - as additional resource material, but I prefer to go directly to the authentic resources, then make mechanical designs of fairies based on that, rather than another game developers point of view. I'd rather not be influenced by someone elses creation, as I might go a different way.

I also have links to Brehon Laws, Celtic Mythos, Celtic weapons with names, but you were asking fairy lore sources, not Celtic in general, so I didn't post those.

[alhoon]

They're plateaus. I'm trying to use a drop shadow to emulate cliffs. A big part of the Shadow Rift is the varied terrain, both high and low. Which is awkward to show from a more top down perspective.

Well, the shadows make them seem more like clouds than plateus on a cliff.

[HuManBing]

I have GURPS Celtic setting, (not their Fairy book, though), AD&D 2e Celtic Handbook, Bastion Press Faeries - as additional resource material, but I prefer to go directly to the authentic resources, then make mechanical designs of fairies based on that, rather than another game developers point of view. I'd rather not be influenced by someone elses creation, as I might go a different way.

Fair enough. I will say that the thematic supplement book for GURPS tends to do a good job of presenting the literature separate from the game mechanics, and they're usually pretty faithful to the source material when converting. I've found both these elements somewhat lacking in the 3/3.5 ed WotC books, for example.

Of course, you said you have GURPS Celtic, so this is very likely something you're already familiar with. Just pointing this out for you or any other readers who might not know the "reality-checking" editorial discipline for GURPS splatbooks.

[Jester of the FoS]

They're plateaus. I'm trying to use a drop shadow to emulate cliffs. A big part of the Shadow Rift is the varied terrain, both high and low. Which is awkward to show from a more top down perspective.

Well, the shadows make them seem more like clouds than plateus on a cliff.

Hence the "kicking my butt" comment.

I use Photoshop CS3, but it does have bevelling, which looks a little better. More "photoshopped" but less like floating mountains.

[alhoon]

Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. We all appreciate what you do.

[HuManBing]

Yeah, this is a better map than any official map, that's for sure - anything you do is already improving the resources available to other Ravenloft fans! Keep it up!

[MichaelTumey]

They're plateaus. I'm trying to use a drop shadow to emulate cliffs. A big part of the Shadow Rift is the varied terrain, both high and low. Which is awkward to show from a more top down perspective.

Well, the shadows make them seem more like clouds than plateus on a cliff.

Hence the "kicking my butt" comment.

I use Photoshop CS3, but it does have bevelling, which looks a little better. More "photoshopped" but less like floating mountains.

I was just offering a tip or suggestion, not trying to tell you you're doing it wrong - I've run into these same kinds of geographic issues myself, and this was just how I handled it.