MAPS Spelled Backwards Is A Monty Python Sketch

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I finally caved in and got myself Campaign Cartographer to help me figure out how the hell I can get my created worlds committed to some kind of accurate system. While I retain a fondness for my hand-drawn maps, I have been having an absolute blast with the program. I may still be faily at maps in general, but at least now my failure has snappy graphics!

However, while it is a great program and fulfilled some of my fantasy type needs, I still felt I needed more data.* So I turned to my own local map nerd: Dad. Mapping is one of Dad’s hobbies; many is the family hike or bike trip that has been plotted out extensively with Dad’s GPS systems, computer programs, and of course hard copies. And like me, when Dad gets a new hobby, it means we are going to need another bookshelf.

So when I showed Dad my work-in-progress map of OGYAFEland, it went like this:

ME: So I’ve got this mountain range, and you can tell I’ve been working on the coast. I’m going to have a desert over here …

DAD: OH MY GOD YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT MAPS

ME: Yes! On this program!

DAD: I KNOW THINGS ABOUT MAPS

ME: That’s why I came to you!

DAD: HERE ARE LOTS OF BOOKS ABOUT MAPS

ME: Great!

DAD: AND HERE ARE THE REST OF THE BOOKS ABOUT MAPS

ME: This is a lot of books!

DAD: MAPS

ME: MAPS

So then we taked about how to keep the clouds off my desert, and what the hell “basin and range” means, and how CC3’s horse clip art is the worst drawing of a horse ever, and Dad pointed out that OGYAFEland looks suspiciously like the southwestern US and I was like I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT and then I went to read the 10,000 books he had given me.

In summary:
Finding something to help me worldbuild: Accomplished!
Quality Family Time With Dad: Accomplished!

Double Accomplishment! I am winner today.


*I will never have enough data. My gravestone should probably read “Hang on, let me look it up.”

Comments

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

While this was a fantastically amusing post, I would like to point something out.

In summary:
Sharing your bibliography with your flist: Not Accomplished!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

What, you want a list of Dad's books?

[dormouse-in-tea.livejournal.com]

Indeed! Annotations or it didn't happen! :P

[neintales.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a lot of fun!

I still somewhere or other have all my worldbuilding maps from when I was GOING TO BE THE BEST DM EVER FOR GAMING, YO!

But I didn't really go all scientific and research for them...should I ever do it again, shall have to crack more books open.

[allamistako.livejournal.com]

CC is a great tool - but I found it to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much for what I wanted to accomplish, and ended up just drawing my maps again.

However, may I point you to this website here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

It is a lot of fun for me--I think I will continue with the hand-drawn maps, too, but for someone who needs Remedial Cartography, it is indeed a good tool.

[kadharonon.livejournal.com]

"Dad pointed out that OGYAFEland looks suspiciously like the southwestern US and I was like I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT"

See, this is a current trend in YA fantasy that I'm really excited about - fantasy lands that are NOT clones of England/Europe, and instead draw on the landscape the author grew up in/lived in/whatever. EXCITEMENT.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

I agree! I decided to make it somewhat US-ish for a few reasons. First, I'm familiar with it, so I can get the details of living in it right. And second, I was bored with not!Europe as a setting.

It's interesting to note that a really simple change like that actually keeps me from falling into some of the assumptions that come along with a standard Europe fantasyland, too. Of course I started out trying to distinguish this world and its people from some of those assumptions (I really want it to look like they have their OWN history, art, architecture, fashion, government, technology, etc., rather than stuff derived from this world), but it's funny how just disengaging from the normal "This is Europe" standard shakes things up.

[beccastareyes]

Awesome. Also, maps.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Dude. When I was playing D&D all the time in my teens, I wanted Campaign Cartographer so bad it hurt. Now that I could actually afford to pick up a copy, I don't really feel the need for it.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Heh, well, it's still a lot of fun for me. I like to have computer programs for things like this so I can actually EDIT my bullshit mistakes. I waste a lot of paper otherwise.

[westrider.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'd still think it was cool, but I'm not doing maps like I was back then. Even most of the fiction that I'm picking away at is the sort that doesn't really need a map.

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

Every time you post about your father, I swear to God you are my twin from some sort of alternate universe... Though my dad was more electronics and science fiction than cartography.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

My dad is computers, electronics, maps, and brains. I have yet to get him into video games, though. And he likes science fiction movies, but all the books he reads are by and about boring old white guys.

[marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com]

Daddy liked video games quite a bit. He's the reason I had a Colecovision before we got a Nintendo. His sci-fi reading was mostly the classic old white guys, too, since that was the canon. Dad also liked gadgets, horror movies, golf, and roller coasters. And acting like a five-year-old on a sugar high. :)

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

MAPS! That program looks really cool. I've been doing a bunch of fantasy world map-drawing lately, too, as some brain-relief between essays. Wish I had a local map-nerd around to help me figure out climate and things.