You can get all the 50 maps, legend, overview, index and political here:

https://bit.ly/GH-Flanaess-Atlas576CY-2020REV2

This concludes the main part of the Atlas, but I have a couple of appendixes planned: heraldry and module locations. I'm going to take a week off for Virtual Greyhawk Con, and get back to the Atlas again after the convention.

Here is an ad for my seminar:

Thank you again for making this possible!! 🙂

Here comes the first take on the Atlas cover. I made two versions, one more colorful and one more minimalistic. I want to hear your thoughts and then create the pdf's

Worked on the Legend today, done a couple of prints, adjusted and printed again. Here is a new version that I think will work.

Full quality JPG here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h8nb8a93blyd0n6/Legend-3.jpg?dl=0

I've made the border and travel parts a bit larger, and increased the size of the borders and roads t make them a bit bigger.

I made a PDF of each of the pages so you can try and print one to see if they look good.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/alxss8agjr2ni40/Legend-3%20left.pdf?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wbje54dbbfkq4ee/Legend-3%20right.pdf?dl=0

Thanks again for your input making this project better!

The Atlas work continues and here comes a look at the legend, please take a look at it and tell me what you think should be changed!

I opted for a "expansive" legend covering two pages, including a quick guide to how to read the index location info. I'm not sure it's needed or the right way to do it, but there was room for it so I added it. Anything missing that should be there?

I will also make a blank page that can be used to print a filler page, for note taking or as a base for your own custom page. 

Here is the Atlas Master Index, and it is thanks to amazing job by Duane Costa it was possible to compile a list of all the names with their location on the maps this quickly. The index fills 28 pages each 11 x 17 with two columns on each page.

You can find PDF and JPG versions in the Atlas Dropbox Folder:
https://bit.ly/GH-Flanaess-Atlas576CY-2020REV2  

Next up is index and credits!

Here comes the overview maps for the Atlas of the Flanaess 576 CY, they come in the standard "satellite" and political, each of the with or without the map layout squares.

You can get them and all the other Atlas maps here: https://bit.ly/GH-Flanaess-Atlas576CY-2020REV2 

This should have been ready a week ago, but there have been an unusual amount of "real life events" making life a bit more difficult around here lately, temperatures above 115F, two large fires within 20 miles with massive amounts of smoke causing power outages and the still ongoing pandemic. Thankfully the temperatures are now back below 100F and power is stable again, one have to try and stay positive 🙂

The index is now ready for formatting and page design, so I'll work on that as well as legend, credits and covers next. After that it's time for the appendices, heraldry and module locations.

I hope you are all safe and thank you again so much for making it possible for me to work on this, in times like this that means extra much!!

An essential but often overlooked part of mapping are symbols, the little bits of art that are put on maps to convey all sorts of information. The symbols I use on my Greyhawk maps are over two decades old now it was one of the first things I did when I set out to map the Greyhawk setting.

More detailed maps would need way more symbols and also more variation, to indicate various aspects of the feature the symbol indicated. My design was based on the symbols of the Darlene map, with a lot of additions and a few tweaks. I shill like them and thing they work, for the most part, but my design skills and the tools I used back then where not much to brag about, so an update is needed.

The Atlas will mark the end of a generation of maps made using Illustration tools like Corel Draw and then the last ten years Adobe Illustrator. Future maps will be made using GIS, various 3D software and still some Illustrator, so a solid set of symbols is needed. Several sets in fact, my intention is to give my existing set of symbols a work over making sure they are less scruffy and look well even in large sizes.

Two new symbol sets, at least, will be needed. Larger scale maps that will move in closer and showing much more detail will need and new set of symbols for things like urban areas, city walls and more. All the symbols I've used so far have been very useful for reference maps mainly used by the DM to who what the world actually looks like. Traditional RPG maps are more of the type of map the characters would use to navigate the world, handout maps. These maps need a whole new set of symbols to depict things like towns and cities, of a more illustrative tradition found on fantasy maps.

Getting all this done is a long term project that will take a year or two to get done, but the first step is to the existing symbols ready for a round of edits to get improve them. I did most of the symbols on an early version of Corel Draw back in the 90's and then imported them into Illustrator and added some more. There a number of inconsistencies that become painfully visible when you enlarge them, but its a necessary step to see what can be kept and what needs to be redone from scratch.

So I have enlarged all my exiting symbols and saved them as PNG's with a transparent background to make it easier to use them as a reference image. They are all available here: http://bit.ly/GH-Symbols-Folder

Future symbols sets will be available here as well when they are ready.

Here is a first Overview Map test. The page size gives a format that is not the best for showing the Flanaess in its entirety, so I'm trying here to compensate by cropping a bit at the top and bottom. The landmass is a bit skewed to the left, which is unavoidable when no landmass is available to the west. This is a compromise that I hope is acceptable.

The other issue is image resolution and detail level. When you reduce the size of an image there are inevitable loss of quality, but how to best deal with it and is the result good enough.  

For this test I have removed all the text and settlements symbols for things smaller that metropolises and capitals. Only major roads and national borders are shown and heraldry are removed as well.

Please download the full quality image here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/etg7nnnh95w88qo/Overview%20test%201.jpg?dl=0

Thanks to the hard work of Duane Costa we now have a raw form of the Master Index to go with the Atlas. Here is a first version of it in Excel format: https://www.dropbox.com/s/2dyh4kts0e1jcrx/Master%20Index%20RC1.xlsx?dl=0

Take a look at it and please report any issues to me using my contact page. The final formatting of the Index will start next week, so it can be added to the final Atlas in October.

Next to do on the atlas are the overview and political maps.

I'm proud to report that all the 50 area maps are now ready, on time even!

You can find them here: https://bit.ly/GH-Flanaess-Atlas576CY-2020REV2

This doesn't mean that the 576 CY Atlas project is done, far from it, but it is an important milestone.  There are crucial parts left to do, the index needs to be finalized, covers, overview map, political map, legend and heraldry appendix needs to be made as well. The plan is to have it all ready for Virtual Greyhawk Con, October 2nd.

Some of this work is already well under way. Thanks to Duane Costa's hard work on indexing that he has done in parallel, a master index will be ready soon. As a part of weeding out errors a raw version of it will be coming soon, so those who want to help can verify spelling and data so we can make it as good as possible for the release. 

In the meantime I will work on the covers, legend, political and overview maps, and finally the the appendix. So far I have only the heraldry appendix planned, but I'm open for more ideas. The appendixes might not be fully done and ready for the VGHC, the priority is to have the main atlas ready. 

Now I'm going to take a few days off from the Atlas and delve into Oerth Climate, my Shield Lands Campaign and QGIS.

Thank you so much everyone for making this possible!!! 🙂