Cartography

I've updated the Lerranshire map on my website; last night I added a map title, a compass, a scale bar, and names for regions which are on my hand-drawn version but didn't make it to the CC3 version. I added the region names in Photoshop because it is much easier to do it that way and the program gives you great control over text (which I learned when making GMod comics with it). The map still doesn't look stunningly good, perhaps I just planned for too large a setting when I started drawing it. At first Hydrobadi (the country) was too small, now it may be overweight. Ah well I'll just have to see. If the players start asking me why it's taking so long to get from one town to another I'll just have to remind them that they aren't adventuring in a modern setting and that settlements can only survive if placed in an area with sufficient resources. This isn't SimCity you know.

I've been thinking of getting City Designer but I'm not sure how much I'll use it. Currently most of my adventuring plans only take place in villages, hamlets, and one or two towns. It would be nice to be able to map out a city or large town but do I need to spend the money on it right now?

The most annoying thing about my maps right now is that my hand-drawn ones don't scan very well. And if they do, they don't resize very well. I'm sure there is a way around it, but that's something I have to hunt down.

I played the Bioshock demo last night. The graphics are top-notch, the game itself looks very interesting and I'd love to explore more of Rapture. The only niggling complaint I have is the accuracy. Okay it's not supposed to be a run-of-the-mill first person shooter but in Halo or Half-Life 2, when I find myself with Covenant/Combine between me and my objectives I generally point my arsenal in their direction and get results. The AI in Bioshock seems to be very jumpy and evades things without even trying thanks to its unpredictable movements. This may be something that I've just got to get used to but it seemed that the sudden, random movement of the AI was more accidental than deliberate. The game reminded me, strongly, of Clive Barker's Undying which was an amazing game.

Which reminds me, I wanted to try the 360 demo of Jericho as well.

I've been writing as much as I can about Windy Cross (the village, not this blog) for D&D. With all this feverish scribing I suppose the time of playing is drawing near and I need to start thinking about when and where the actual gaming will take place. I've still got adventures four and five to write before I can even start thinking about playing though, and after that I need a way to tie in the following story lines.