I have completed a digital restoration of the Darlene Map which includes making a more perfect unification of the map halves, a "scrubbing" of original hex grid and creation of new optional hex layers, a complete digital recolorization, and the addition of latitude/longitude layers as well as a hex reference layer.
The content package includes several high res jpgs of various layers, layered pdfs which enable navigation of the layers using Adobe Reader and other common readers, and the master Photoshop document from which everything else is derived. It is provided so others may build on or customize my work as desired.
I believe I have taken the necessary steps to bring my content into compliance with Wizards' fan content policy so that the project may be freely shared by the community. Please see the included "Read Me" file for a more detailed description of the history, purpose, and current features.
Legalese: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. This is unofficial fan content permitted under the Fan Content Policy and is not approved / endorsed by Wizards of the Coast. Portions of the property used are property of Wizards of the Coast.
Note, according to the terms of the Fan Content Policy, my permission is not required for you to host and share this content in other places. If you are able, consider creating your own share links elsewhere. I am not allowed to place conditions on the manner in which you share, but including my Read Me file will satisfy Wizards' requirement that a description of changes to the work be provided.
Creating links independent from mine will increase the availability of the project and relieve the demand which caused my initial link to crash. I will do all that I am able, but my resources are limited and I cannot guarantee the reliability or longevity of any of my links.
All links should currently be functional! Downloading the complete content package now requires following two links. I’d like to even the demand between the these three Options.
ROLL 1d3 TO DETERMINE A DOWNLOAD OPTION
If you arrive at a broken OPTION, roll 1d2 to determine which of the remaining Options you will use. Please limit downloads to only one Option. Thanks and enjoy!
I've always loved the Darlene map, but I have always felt that the colors and hexes detract from that hand-drawn look - it doesn't look like a hand-drawn map when they are overlaid.
I always wanted to be able to present the map as an in-world document that the players could view.
And the unwieldy size of the original was also always an issue.
Now I can print off a beautiful black and white hex-free map on a couple of 11x17 sheets, tea-stain it, and I'll have exactly what I've always wanted!
(I thought about doing this myself years back, but decided it was far too daunting a task.
Instead I did create my own vector SVG map using Tolkien-like symbols. I always meant to post it but was always thinking of refinements that I should do first)
Thank you very much. A "hex optional" map and the ability to carve out crops at 11x17 and other common print sizes were initial goals. I'm working on producing just such a crop now- with a custom coordinate border for the region and an alternate coloration. I'm aiming for a more hand-painted look (watercolor most likely). I'm neither a trained artist or Photoshop expert. Working on a smaller map will be useful for learning new tricks, settling on the look I want, and developing a plan for applying it to the entire map.
I haven't heard back from admins regarding permission to post direct links. I suspect some of you have already found the project, which is posted in several public places, including here.
Along the way I've attracted a collaborator. Robert Conley over at the Bat in the Attic blog has been working to produce a vector version of the map. His work will be invaluable for my goal of enhancing the sharpness of text and city icons in my raster based map. The unveiling of his project-in-progress may be found here.
Hey, I saw Robert's map, over at the Greyhawk forum at The Piazza and then heard about your map, from a Greyhawk artist.
I think you are also on the Flanaess Geographical Society (Anna Meyer's Facebook group for Greyhawk cartographers).
I'm sure that Canonfire would love to have your map here.
TheCartographer wrote:
I haven't heard back from admins regarding permission to post direct links. I suspect some of you have already found the project, which is posted in several public places, including here.
Admins of websites with forums, do not routinely read every topic looking for someone talking to them and asking questions. That's probably why you have not gotten an answer.
I've mentioned this topic over in the Discord server for Canonfire. (There is a special channel there for discussion of the Canonfire website, called #theworkshop.
I'm not 100 percent sure about the scope of your remastered Darlene map yet, but I am thinking it is going to be something that could potentially assist multiple Greyhawk fan-projects in the future. So thanks for posting this topic. It might take a while to get you an official answer, but I'll get you one.
As for getting your forum name changed, I am not an admin here, but I am an admin on another forum.
That should be possible, but you are going to have to decide on what name you want your account to be changed on.
On the forum I help out on, people can choose to store their login information, but that information actually gets stored on a cookie on their computer. So it's possible that, if your account name is changed, that might "break" the cookie on your computer (which will still have the old user name) and stop you from being able to log in automatically.
If that happens, you might need to go to the login page, look for the "Lost your Password?" link at the bottom of the page, and then type in your new user name and the forums will email you a confirmation code that you can use to reset your password.
(I'm just giving you the head's-up on that, as we have had a few people vanish, on our forums, due to their cookies not being able to handle a username change on the admin side. You don't want to get your username edited and then be locked out. )
I'm trying to see if there is an official forum, where requests like username changes are supposed to be raised. I'll chase that up on the Discord too.
TheCartographer wrote:
Along the way I've attracted a collaborator. Robert Conley over at the Bat in the Attic blog has been working to produce a vector version of the map. His work will be invaluable for my goal of enhancing the sharpness of text and city icons in my raster based map. The unveiling of his project-in-progress may be found here.
I remember bumping into Anna Meyer, when she was about 5 years into her project. I'm looking forward to seeing what Robert's vector based stuff is going to let you do with raster based stuff. _________________ David 'Big Mac' Shepheard<br />My Greyhawk links: http://www.thepiazza.org.uk/bb/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=9355<br />(If I am not here, you can find me at the Greyhawk or Chainmail forums at The Piazza.)<br />
I'm looking forward to seeing what Robert's vector based stuff is going to let you do with raster based stuff.
@bigmac, I'm well into the phase of using Robert's work to replace the scanned calligraphy- which was decent before but is now much sharper and uniformly inky black.
The biggest improvement is in the replaced city icons. Robert's are very clean. They weren't exceptionally sharp in the original paper prints and suffered further through my decolorization step. Some of my early technique was heavy handed. If I knew then what I know now I might have found a kinder, gentler way.
I'm also tinkering with adding a couple of new options. One is a CY 576 political borders layer. I'm going through the 1980 Folio with a fine tooth comb to ensure my placement doesn't contradict the text. Some guesswork remains so I'll advise folks to take my interpretation with a grain of salt- or modify it to their own ends.
The other is a heraldry layer. I've reached out to Anna Meyer and she's given her blessing for me to use some of her work. Her newer "realistic" heraldry is breathtaking, but I believe her older completed set is a better fit for the Darlene map. It more closely resembles the hand drawn heraldry from the original Folio but is a bit more finely detailed.
Including heraldry on the map will involve shuffling and resizing some of the text to make room for the images. I'm closely following Darlene's work to create new fonts based on the map's calligraphy styles. If she has some of these finished, particularly the political font by the time I reach the stage I believe my results will be much improved.
I've made massive strides with this project in the last month and I expect work will slow down as real life obligations call. But I'm going to keep plugging away at it.
Thanks for taking the time to reply and Happy New Year!
Last edited by KaelanSummermoon on Mon Jan 03, 2022 8:55 am; edited 1 time in total
It is bad timing at the moment as we have lost two of members recently. For posting a link to your map, yes go ahead. If this becomes a problem later on we can remove it.
As for your name change, I do not have access to that Admin option. Like David said though, Gary will need to know what name you want instead. Did you join the CF Discord? If so, send a private message to PSmedger on the Discord as he is the site owner and has access rights to change your username. _________________ Richard Di Ioia (aka Longetalos)
... It is bad timing at the moment as we have lost two of members recently. For posting a link to your map, yes go ahead. If this becomes a problem later on we can remove it.
I had heard of Jason Zavoda's passing and only this morning made the connection he was the moderator charged with overseeing this forum. I did not know Jason but my understanding is he was a great man and tremendous asset to this community. My deepest condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew him through his work.
***
Thank you for the official nod. I figured it might take time for the right eyes to see my post- especially during the Holidays. Also, thanks for clueing me in to the existence of the Discord server. I'll look it up!
I've edited my initial post to include working download links and deleted much of the text for the purpose of brevity. It may all be found in the Read Me file included with the content.
The name change is a minor matter and Cebrion has offered to help me so I'll pursue that route. I would like to get in touch with Gary for his thoughts on my longitude / latitude layer. One of his early articles was a primary source for my placement / scaling of the lines. So thanks for that
Beautifully vibrant and hi-res Darlene map? Yes please! ...
My version isn't infinitely scalable like Robert Conley's vector version, but it is fairly hi-res. The aim was to make it worthy of printing at the original size of roughly 35 x 45 inches. 300 dpi seems to meet the goal. This was about the upper limit my 2013 Macbook could handle for such a large multilayered image See my edited thread starter for working links.
Also, message seen. Thank you. I'll be sending a reply shortly. I'll give it a little time in case the name change causes temporary problems with my account. I'd like to maintain the ability to reply to this thread in the very short term.
OMG! I had to register here to be able to reply and THANK you for this!
I only have an old CS4 Photoshop, but I will try to grab a newer GIMP soon to check out the cool layers etc.
This might just be the most amazing thing - something I can in the future put my own markers on for adv locations and added cities (Sanctuary...Carse...etc) Thanks so much!
First off, as is it great! Let me be clear on that.
Looking at it, I noticed the cities are "large" but that is simply because they are in the the original proportions to the Darlene 30mile hexes., the same for things like hill borders.
I was fine with that but it got me to thinking, something I enjoyed from Lost Lands psd maps. That you can make filters based on Cities/towns etc. A future thing to consider for those of skill and interest, is perhaps making different layers for things a GM might want to hide on a "world map" like smallers points of interest. But unlike LL map, there are less such I think to worry about on WoG. It is a much "grander scale" vs details map. Not knowing the memory issues, perhaps a related idea might be to creat layers based on "countries" or regions and allow details for them and outside of them it's only the big world features like ranges and large forests/deserts? This way, someone can be shown a map based on where your campaign starts?
Again, not that great a thing on this sort of only big-details map to begin with vs a busier Lost Lands type map with more local info on it. But I mention it in case someone sees other advantages in splitting out some things into layers. The problem is WoG is VERY well known vs someone new to LL. Most will already have familiarity, so its maybe less value to do it. OBVIOUSLY, on my "gm map" I'd add a layer for my dungeons etc, that makes sense. Nto sure my "player map" layers makes much sense.
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See my edited thread starter for working links.