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The Cartographers’ Guild is a forum created by and for map makers and aficionados, a place where every aspect of cartography can be admired, examined, learned, and discussed. Our membership consists of professional designers and artists, hobbyists, and amateurs—all are welcome to join and participate in the quest for cartographic skill and knowledge.
Although we specialize in maps of fictional realms, as commonly used in both novels and games (both tabletop and role-playing), many Guild members are also proficient in historical and contemporary maps. Likewise, we specialize in computer-assisted cartography (such as with GIMP, Adobe apps, Campaign Cartographer, Dundjinni, etc.), although many members here also have interest in maps drafted by hand.
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I'm positive nobody is reading this but that is okay. Ideal actually. I am just starting out in a new hobby which is obviously cartography. Instead of posting a new thread every time I draw a crappy map, I can just update my progress with a new blog entry. In addition I can kind of just think out loud about my thought process and whatever when I update it. I know nobody is going to want to hear me blab about this in my personal life; not until they see my epic super maps anyway. ...
So I've been playing strategic games since I was about 10-11 years old, the dad of some of the kids I played with introduced me to them, he also taught me to play chess. So the first "real" games where Chariot, Yeoman and other games metioned in the magazine General and Strategy & Tactics. I also played a lot of Blue & Gray (US civil war), which was always played on small 2xletter sized maps - hex maps of course. At the age of 11, when he was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons through some students ...
This first image is the original map, as penciled by my partner, J. E. Dugue. J. E. is an all around talented guy. Besides his natural born abilities in writing and music, he is also a natural born artist. He chose to pursue his first two loves, but this map will always possess a special place in my heart. This map was first drawn in the late 90’s when we were in high school. This is the continent of Sylvane where the first stories take place. Sylvane ...
Sorry, I've been off the map for so long. I've been meaning to get to my epic city map, but I just spent the last three months driving around the country on storm duty. However, I did chat with Arcana a while back and he had advised that blogs on this site are not limited to just map blogs, so I thought I'd post one of my none map blogs that has a lot of character and is not too long, so here goes: Meet Kishrub and Zulbash, a pair of “hug at your own risk” big dumb ...
Updated 07-10-2012 at 10:42 AM by jlficks
A lot of readers have noted that our towns possess as much character as our people. Jile is a seedy, remote swamp town located in the heart of the Ice Marshes. The men of Doljinaar have always stuck to the roads that wind far around the marshes, which transformed Jile into a breeding ground for criminals, night mortals, half-breeds and others in hiding. Of course this makes Jile a very dangerous and undesirable place to visit. That said, if you can get past the thug filled taverns, the back alley ...
Updated 04-23-2012 at 10:03 PM by jlficks