Thank you again for all the help, and here is a new page layout. Tried to improve on the Thillonrian peninsula without increasing the page count too much. Also added a page for the Rift Canyon area that was split up on four pages.
A couple of ocean only pages I adjusted so they now better cover coastlines or islands of interest instead. This way both the Saltmarsh area and the Olmand Islands got a good coverage.
There are a number of things I on the map I want to correct or add, so I plan to take a week or two to make a revision. This way it will be a much more accurate version of the map for the Atlas 2020 - Revision 1. What do you guys think is it worth delaying it a couple of weeks to get a better map?
Things to corect are the Kron Hills area belonged to Nulb back in 576 CY, Alhaster was not Red Hand and Perrenland hadn't expanded as much into the east among other things.
Time to take a look at my first proposal for how to divide up the Flanaess for a 11x17 landscape layout Atlas. Each page has an effective map area of 16x10 inches, which is the green squares. I've added in half an inch overlap on all sides, which is the inner pink squares on the layout image.
I'm also thinking about having a few portrait pages and here is a test of how a portrait page layout would look.
I've added a extra 0.25 inch margin for binding on one side in addition to the 0.25 inch bleed on all sides.
Below is a landscape pages with the added binding margin for left and right
For the real pages I'll try and either adjust large labels that are only partially on the page or remove them and use a bordern note instead. For example ocean and country names, if there are room I'll move them fully onto each page, otherwise I'll remove them and make a side note.
So is this a workable way to divide the Flanaess?
Thank you all for all the great input, really helpful and here is a new version that I hope is a huge improvement.
I have now spent time to work on the styling as well, since I have a hard time looking at things half done.
The map is now surrounded by a half inch border that that can take care of all the frills, keeping the map area free from other stuff. The example also includes 0.25 inch bleed.
The border is home to mini map that I hope is not too small, scale, a little north arrow, page directions, credits, page number and major labels from the map that are missing from the map.
Fiddling around with the layout of the atlas pages. I've decided to try an 11x17 landscape format this time and I'm trying to minimize the page "frills" like the scale.
Here I'm trying small arrows along the edges telling you want page the map continues to. I've also skipped the minimap. A minimap takes up a lot of page real estate and most of us are familiar enough with the setting so the need is not that great. What do you guys think?
Time for the first of my Gary Con - 50 Years of D&D bonanza, two heraldry compendiums and a bunch of more shields, 60 new ones all in all. They cover historic Flan and Oeridian crests, or more correctly my version of what they could look like.
I'm running short on time packing and getting as much as possible done before I jump on my flight in a few hours when this post goes live, so I will come back to what are behind the design of these but I hope you like them as much as I do!
Here are the Oeridians with a lot of familiar names from Greyhawk lore...
The shields used in the Compendiums are what the shields looked like in their prime. In the zip file aged versions are included as well when appropriate.
Here are the download links:
https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/Heraldry/Flan%20Heraldry%20-1.jpg
https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/Heraldry/Oeridian%20Heraldry%20-1.jpg
Zip file with all the shields (647MB)
https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/Heraldry/Heraldry%20March%202024.zip
Time for some housekeeping, here comes a very disparate selection of heraldry I have created for my own campaign, and some that have made it on the the Flanaess map that I forgot to add add to my heraldry folder: http://bit.ly/GHheraldryfolder
First out is the heraldry symbol I saw on the image on the cover of the boxed set, and I reused the banner of the knight to be the old shield of the city of Highport.
Next is Badwall, which is my own design. My thinking behind this is to keep it simple and geometric like many of the other settlements and especially Fax.
And another one from the Boxed Set cover image that I made into the symbol of Cantona, another of the Wild Coast town.
Next up is another one of my own design that was inspired by the map of the ancient Elven Realms described and mapped by Mike Bridges, the elven realm in Vesve Forest - Taaranalle that still exists in my campaign. The design is also inspired by the Lendore heraldry from the Living Greyhawk campaign.
Next is from my Rel Deven Campaign and is the heraldry for the Marchland of Chathold detailed in Ivid the Undying.
Below is heraldry from my upcoming Shield Lands 598 CY campaign for Axeport that in my campaign is now a seat of a new barony.
You can't play a campaign in the former Shield Lands in 598 CY without including Iuz, so here comes some of the Iuz related shields I created. First out is the humanoids of the Gensal Hordes.
Next is the infamous Black Death.
and the Shadowclaw.
and the Boneshadow..
and one of my favorites, General Sindol...
and the old Phalanx...
And here is one of my own design that is on the 576 CY map but I forgot to add to the heraldry folder until now, the viceroyalty of Ferrond.
Last but not least is another of my favorites inspired by the cover image of Ivid the Undying. I interpreted it as the symbol used by the Ivid Overkings.
A bit unorganized and most of it is straight from my own campaign but I hope this heraldry can be useful for you as well.
Stay Safe and thank you all for your support, it literally keep me online and the lights going here! 🙂
Here comes a quick "greyscale" version of the Flanaess 576 CY map.
You can get it here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ef1nu0bw8q7b0tc/Flanaess%20Full%20Map%20576CY%20Grey%20-%202020.jpg?dl=0
Create your own maps showing Politics, Trade, Religion or anything else You need for Your Greyhawk Campaign!
Blend with Terrain Map, Parchment or any color you want!
Layered PSD Format compatible with GIMP, and use Layer Styles and included masks to get the look you want!
Four sizes 800 pixels, 3K pixels, 8K pixels and full resolution at 20K pixels!
You can get them all here: bit.ly/GH-FlanaessSpreadMaps576CY
The goal of today's efforts is both to better model the coastlines of Oerth and also to refine the workflow. There are many ways to go about this, but I'm more and more starting to like using Photoshops ability to pain directly on a sphere. This way it is possible to work without distortion which is especially useful around the poles.
The first stage is to get all the coastlines and major islands in place. The the major mountain ranges that are on existing maps. Then I will move into plate tectonics and ocean depth, which will give me enough to start looking into climate and biomes.
I hope you are all safe and in good mood, and have chance to do some extra gaming. I'm trying to get as much as possible done before Virtual Gary Con kicks off in a few days. First order of the day is to get this one out of the door - The Rivers of the Flanaess Map, and this is good enough (I hope!) to be labeled as a Release Candidate.
You can get it here:
It is an non-hexed JPG version but I have both a 12- and an 30 mile hexed versions as well as layered PDF.
