Time to reveal what I have planned for this Christmas (or Needfest!) Handout Maps!
This is a type of maps that have been sadly lacking in my arsenal, so it's being given some extra attention right now.
I'm working on a number of different styles some more mysterious than others, and those with lots of details will come in both Player and DM versions.
There will be maps covering the whole Flanaess, regional maps and a whole slew of countries and other areas of interest. Hopefully it will cover your adventurers every need in order to get into trouble.
Each image will be up to 6000px for the largest and in JPG format. My Cartographer backers will get my Photoshop layered templates so they can create more as needed. Adventurer backers will get my personal Campaign maps as well with some additional variants.
They will be available for free on my website and hopefully in the Realm Works Content Market spring 2019!
Have been doing some secret flying...
Actually this is a test if it is possible to create realistic aerial photography, and this is the result after a couple of hours. What do you guys think, something to spend more time on next year?
With number of Legends & Lore Shows in the Greyhawk Channel on Twitch, it is now time for me to also do some more map focused Twitch live streams on my own Twitch Channel at https://www.twitch.tv/anna_b_meyer
This week will feature my Spread Maps, and I will try and create a number of historic maps covering various empires and nations of the Flanaess throughout its history.
As a test I will be on the patron-talk channel on my Discord server. so those of you who are on it can use the voice channel and chat with me live during the stream.
Just a little extra, a Greyhawk Calendar ready to be used in Realm Works or separate.
You can download the original here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/msulpfnn017lz22/The%20Common%20Year.jpg?dl=0
After a lot of hard (well if mapping can be seen as hard!) work the flanaess 2018 Edition is ready, here is the Release Candidate 1. The first major Greyhawk work I've done in nearly five years, thank you so much for your help. I couldn't do this without your support and encouragement!
Here is a list of all the changes made since last years map
Terrain Map Edits:
- Overall Colors adjusted
- Refined Coastlines
- Baklunish West overhaul for variation
- Baklunish coastal areas and islands are now home to forests and way more variety to better
match text sources
- River systems added in the horned Lands and Land of Iuz
- Meteor Crater added in the Abbor-Alz
- Rivers added in the Abbor-Alz
- Ocean depths are slightly blurred
- Hundreds of minor corrections
Added Tal Aska in the Vesve
Added Fairdells area in Highfolk
Greyhawk Heraldry - removed a chain link
Settlements near Tringlee - Harrington, Glodnen, Dariax and Loradden
Brannigan's Farm - Highfolk
Island names near Dyvers
Village of Bracken
New Iuz Heraldry
New Heraldry for the Knight Protectors of the Great Kingdom
Added the Provences of Greyhawk
Added City of Bureis
Added sea lanes to Bureis
Changed icon for Kongen-Thulnir
Added Gnomiskillin
Added Rigodruok
Changed symbol of the Zagig Bridge
Changed Keaton to Keaford
Changed Ice Giant Caverns to Hold of Grugnur
Added Fort Critwall
Added River Taal
Added Town of Rawlins
Removed Forgotten City
Moved Xuxulieto to the location of Forgotten City
Added Hraak Pass
Added Mt Vroom
Corrected Artonsbruek spelling and placement
Added Hands of Light Heraldry
Added Dunrealta Keep
Added Black Rock Tower
Added Small rivers in Bandit Kingdoms
Added Firewatch Island
Added Minor rivers
Corrected Hellstone Tower label
Added Csipros Erd
Added Ruins of Baklarran
Added a Crater in Abbor-Alz
Added the Great Meridian
Added Sasserine Heraldry
Added Janasib Pennant
Added Ataphad Pennant
Added Bakhoury Coast
Added Heraldry of Bakhoury Coast
Corrected Hardby is a Large City
Corrected placement of Pits of Azak-Zil
Added Star Cairns
Added Salakesh Cove
Changes in the RC1
Added Demonskar Crater
Corrected the missing symbol for Sarndt
Added Far Banks
Added Near Domain local border
Corrected Duchy of Tehn Heraldry color
Added the Town of Synford
Added the Village of Hommel
Added the Village of Flanhome
Added a Small Site near Groucester
Added the Village of Talloc
Added Charging Boar Inn
Adjusted Western border of Bissel
Added Kwalish
Added Daoine Gloine
Corrected Labeled Hardby Mariners heraldry
Added Heraldry for the City of Hardby
It is now up to your critical gaze, so please pour over it and tell me what needs to be fixed and we have about a month to do so before it goes on out in the world.
You can grab the PDF (255MB) here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ogthl9exs22in5v/Flanaess%20Full%20Map%202018%20Edition-RC1r.pdf?dl=0
JPG version here (252MB):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/14k9sofze73wh6z/Flanaess%20Full%20Map%202018%20Edition%20RC1.jpg?dl=0
9-part JPG here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wcxfy945nyltwuu/AADINGQxzMj5f3EYNtcldf58a?dl=0
A I was going about placing the locations from WotC's new adventure Lost Laboratory of Kwalish when I saw this..
Seems like there are endless number of special places in the Barriers Peaks.. 
😮
This wraps up the development of 2018 Edition!
The Release Candidate will be in your hands, well hard drives at least, tomorrow. You will get a month of exclusive scrutinizing, then it will go on a public release mid December.
After the holidays when I have had a look at incoming reports of errors, I will create all the various variants of the map, like online 12 parts, Realm Works etc.
This has been a tough slog, but I'm happy with the upgrade 🙂
Big thanks to all my Patrons who make it possible for me to invest serious time and effort into Greyhawk again!!!
The 2018 Edition have drowned out most other activity here, something i'm very well aware of and truly sorry for. Higher tier rewards have been very scarce lately which means that for a while going forward there will be an emphasis on higher tier content.
Video's and streaming is something I'm setting up for, and co-hosting the Legend & Lore Show for the Greyhawk channel have taught me a lot about how to do things like this.
Work on the Lendore Isle is also back on the agenda again with a new version of World Machine and a new improved way of doing things.
Those pesky rivers will have another work over...
A deep dive into Photoshop will be the main focus for December with video's, Hemponaland mapping and tips and tricks.
My experimental time will mainly be spent on learning QGIS and Gaea, two new tools in my box that will hopefully make for better maps and more fun making them.
Thank you again for your support!
Once day every week I set aside for "experiment & learn", it is an important part of my weekly routine. This can be both a fun and often highly frustrating, but today I must count as one of the more successful and rewarding sessions in a while.
I set out try try and create a top down map that could be useful on a continental scale, using only Photoshop. To test this I choose, like usually do, to try something not that easy, and match the style and look of my Flanaess map. Hepmonaland was a great target. It extend out from the map and have some good reference material to try and match.
After having spend around five hours on this I must say I'm pleased with the results. With a bit more tweaking the results will be a perfect extension of Hepmonaland. At least half the time today went to figuring out how to go about things. Things could go alot faster once I have the workflow set up and can concentrate of producing results.
This technique clearly has some potential, so now comes the question where to put this on my to do list... 😉
First a shout out to all of you who just joined, thank you so much helping out mapping Greyhawk!
To all of you I need to make an apology for the single minded focus at the moment, the Flanaess Full Map 2018 update is a major undertaking with hundreds of hours invested the past 4-5 months.
Now only the home stretch left, with pre-release version 4. This is a major update, the biggest so far with lots of terrain edits and a number of things added and corrected. Here is the update list:
Terrain Map Edits:
- Refined Coastlines
- Baklunish West overhaul for variation
- Baklunish coastal areas and islands are now home to forests and way more variety to better match text sources
- River systems added in the horned Lands and Land of Iuz
- Meteor Crater added in the Abbor-Alz
- Rivers added in the Abbor-Alz
- Ocean depths are slightly blurred
- Lots of minor corrections
Added the Provences of Greyhawk
Added City of Bureis
Added sea lanes to Bureis
Changed icon for Kongen-Thulnir
Added Gnomiskillin
Added Rigodruok
Changed symbol of the Zagig Bridge
Changed Keaton to Keaford
Changed Ice Giant Caverns to Hold of Grugnur
Added Fort Critwall
Added River Taal
Added Town of Rawlins
Removed Forgotten City
Moved Xuxulieto to the location of Forgotten City
Added Hraak Pass
Added Mt Vroom
Corrected Artonsbruek spelling and placement
Added Hands of Light Heraldry
Added Dunrealta Keep
Added Black Rock Tower
Added Small rivers in Bandit Kingdoms
Added Firewatch Island
Added Minor rivers
Corrected Hellstone Tower label
Added Csipros Erd
Added Ruins of Baklarran
Added a Crater in Abbor-Alz
Added the Great Meridian
Added Sasserine Heraldry
Added Janasib Pennant
Added Ataphad Pennant
Added Bakhoury Coast
Added Heraldry of Bakhoury Coast
Corrected Hardby is a Large City
Corrected placement of Pits of Azak-Zil
Added Star Cairns
Added Salakesh Cove
You can get the PDF version here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ribj428e2yy1di4/Flanaess%20Full%20Map%202018%20Edition-A4r.pdf?dl=0
JPG version here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/zikd2szhm6ugita/Flanaess%20Full%20Map%202018%20Edition%20A4.jpg?dl=0
I compressed this file a bit more aggressively to make it more manageable, please report any quality issues!
Here is a 9 part PNG:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wcxfy945nyltwuu/AADINGQxzMj5f3EYNtcldf58a?dl=0
I plan to have a final Pre-Release version out next week, which will be for you to find issues with. In first week of December I will try and fix all the issues you find, and then it will be a Public Release mid December. After I have had all the critical eyes of the Greyhawk community pouring of over it for a few weeks, it is time to create all the other variants of the map.
This will unfortunately consume most of my time, which means not much else to be published the coming month so again I'm sorry for this. But I think it is for a greater good, we will have a better version to use as a base for future work.
I have received a couple of reports of problems with loading the map. PDF's are notorious for being a resource hog, and the full JPG is large enough to bog down even the best of computers.
As a temporary fix to this here is the JPG version in 6 parts:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ag6lxn9q8mxkk9n/AACM9pGkC1Kr8ji-exT7mME7a?dl=0
Due to the election and upcoming PatreCon this weekend, there are less time for me to devote to my Patreon and Greyhawk. I'm so sorry for this and hope that you will forgive me for being a bit absent this week. I feel l have to as a permanent resident help a couple of my local candidates get elected. I hope you all do the same, which is as political I want to be, this patreon is not about politics!
PatreoCon is a gettogether where I hope to learn others and be inspired to try and do more, and it is in LA so close enough for me to drive daily. Really looking forward to this!
Today is my Greyhawk Day of the week, and working on the 2018 Edition. The list of changes grows and there are new heraldry in the making as well. My goal is to have a release candidate done by the end of next week, so you guys plus a select group of Greyhawk experts can scrutinize it for a month to tell me what needs to be fixed. In the meantime I will go over the terrain one more time to touch up the last annoying bits.
This is a screenshot of what I'm working on for the moment, the Hands of Light, a fighting order of Pholtus of the Gran March.
Thank you again for your support!! 🙂
