A few months ago, I began speaking with some of my co-workers about the prospect of beginning a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. I has been waiting for an opportunity to begin one with a fresh group of people so that I could actively practice in the role of being a Dungeon Master (DM).
Well, a short month later, we were off exploring a brand new fantasy land of my own personal creation. Knowing how tedious home-brewed campaigns can be to design, I decided on a relatively simple yet awesome solution for this; make the world an uncharted frontier!
So, I devised a backstory about an ancient continent (think Atlantis) which had “risen” from the unknown. All the worlds inhabitants knew about the place was in myths, passed down by ancient scripture about an elder race of fae/elvish creatures.
At once, the civilizations of the world set sail to colonize and explore this continent, only to be met by terrible challenges posed by the untamed and unforgiving wilderness. Therefore, they colonized the top of the continent, and named the region Valenith.
People thrived, cities were raised, politics brewed, factions arose, and unknown secrets were yet to be uncovered! A place where the players can truly make a name for themselves, and name things as they discovered them.
“Welcome to the Risen World”
Of course, what you are seeing is a bare skeleton of the area that the players get to explore it. This was the first drafts of the map that I can created for the game.
You’re probably curious about how I came to make these maps, and that was performed… not with a world generator, or a map making software, … but with the magic of Photoshop!
The methods are taken from this Award Winning guide on creating maps in Photoshop, brought to you jezelf of Cartographers Guild!
- https://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2557
My map has been expanded upon and developed since the time I created it in August 2017. There are an assortment of mountains, trees, landmarks, roads, additional rivers, and other features.
Still, the amount of work that I put into the initial design of the map is something that I am certainly proud of, and something that I highly encourage trying if you are a wiz at Photoshop!
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