I did a thing. I bought Campaign Cartographer 3 years ago via Humble Bundle or some other deal. The process of making maps with the software is not intuitive to me. This has led to ne not using it that much.
When the Coronavirus pandemic started, my Deadlands game moved from in-person to online. I alternately used Campaign Cartographer and Photoshop to create town and territory maps for the game. The process would go like this:
1-start map in CC3
2-try to remember how to make it look not god aweful
3-get super frustrated with CC3
4-make a map in Photoshop last minute
Now, years later, I think I’m making headway. I’m somewhat determined to make the software work for me. After all, I spent money on it and several supplements.
My friend Tim Brannan is doing a “dungeon room a day” exercise over at his blog. The Other Side. You can find it here: http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/?m=1 Tim is working up a Temple of the Vampire Queen dungeon.
The other day, I decided it was time to try using CC3, again. I don’t need it for my current game (Fallout 2D20). Instead, I took Tim’s first level and plotted it out in CC3.
It worked, but wasn’t great. However, I couldn’t get the map to export properly. Cue frustration after hours of work. I shut down the old laptop, moved on to learning how to play Azul, and taught the wife how to play.
Today, before losing 2 of 3 games of Azul, I had an idea for re-making the map in a way that might work out, i plotted out the structure and came up with this:
Then, I went through and added creatures, treasure, and other bits of scenery. That resulted in this map:
They aren’t great big awesomeness, but they are s heckuvalot better than what I was makinh back in 2020. Maybe, just maybe, I can make this program work for me.
