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It also includes a number of symbols suitable for maps of towns or buildings (such as pieces of furniture). For those who want to create a map of a town or settlement rather than a world, you can scale up symbols to match your need. Similar processes can be used to create a forest or track the route of a river. Put down a line of mountain symbols and you have made an entire mountain range. These overlays come in the form of bitmap symbols which can be placed on your map with a mouse click. Just as you create various layers in a graphics package, so with Campaign Cartographer do you start with creating an outline of your coastline, upon which you overlay mountains, rivers, towns and forests. This piece of software is specifically designed to create fantasy and science fiction maps, and whilst its primary focus is to aid the creation of your RPG campaigns, it’s perfect for the budding fantasy writer looking to create their first map.Ĭampaign Cartographer is essentially CAD software and in practise has a similar feel to graphics packages such as Adobe Photoshop. One such answer is Campaign Cartographer 3 by Profantasy Software. Somehow it’s hard to create a map that matches both the level of detail you have in your head and the professionalism of the maps from your favourite novels. The problem is, whilst you might have grand ideas of what the map for your world should look like, the initial result always seems to disappoint. This might have been done by hand on graph paper or drawn with your favourite graphics package on your computer. It’s likely, therefore, if you’ve ever attempted to write a fantasy novel, or create a campaign for your favourite RPG, that you’ve also attempted to create a map of the land. Who hasn’t got lost in the maps of their favourite books, wondering what parts of the world only mentioned in passing look like? For many, that idle wondering has led to the creation of their own imagined worlds, spawning stories and novels of their own. Whether it be Tolkien’s Middle-Earth or George RR Martin’s Westeros, fantasy fans have poured over imaginary cartography since a map of the Land of Oz was first included as part of L Frank Baum’s Tik Tok of Oz back in 1914. The map has been a feature of many a fantasy novel for over a hundred years.
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