Software Review – Campaign Cartographer 3
Created by: ProFantasy Software LTD
Do you have what it takes to create your own world?
I came across this gem of a program while doing some research work on the web, sometimes it pays to be lucky. After talking to the fine folks over at ProFantasy Software LTD I was able to obtain a review copy of Campaign Cartographer 3 (CC3). After many days filled with map making (and I curse you for making me so unproductive CC3), I felt I needed to share my thoughts on a program that is not only fun, but helpful for many different professions as well as hobbies. It is a software that draws out your imagination, no matter what your original intention was. Lets tackle the program itself, then delve into some of its uses.
Campaign Cartographer 3 seems to be a rather large improvement in ease of use from version 2 of the software, from looking at the website. I cannot comment on that as this is my first look at the program, but I was up and designing maps in a matter of minutes. The caveat that I do have is that the program is built around a CAD platform, which I am a bit familiar with. I think for the novice though the program will be just as easy to use, due to the good documentation, the help file, and the overall setup of creating maps that ProFantasy has come up with. They also have created a guided tour for you to get started. It is wonderfully done, teaching you the nuances of CC3 while catering to all level of designers. This program will probably not turn me of little art talent into one of the top notch artists, Keith Parkinson (R.I.P.), but it does give me the tools with some time and effort to make some really good maps.
We can create two different types of maps with CC3, the overland map and the dungeon map. I have some examples below but lets discuss the differences briefly. The overland map is what we first see in the beginning pages of every epic fantasy novel. It shows you the mountain ranges, the water bodies, forests, etc… Usually what you see at the beginning of a book though does not look as good as something that CC3 can create. The tools are available for you to create many types of vegetation and landscape, with a few button clicks. I really was impressed by what types of things can be created, from mountains, deserts, chasms, forests, decayed forests, rivers, cities, ruins, coves, etc.. you name it and they probably have included it. There are also symbols to mark any number of events or special areas that may exist in your world, including battles, sea monsters, lairs, and the like. Please note that I have only included a small taste of what CC3 can do. One of my favorite features is the ability to create text on a curve, so it flows with your landscape. A good example would be marking a road with a name and have it follow the contour of the road itself, very nice indeed. There was nothing I imagined that I wanted to do in CC3 that I could not do. I would constantly learn something new and then have to add it to my map immediately. If I am correct, they will also be adding symbols to CC3 in the future as well, you know the saying, the more the merrier.
Ah, to delve into the wonderful world of dungeon map creating. You have the same tools at your disposal as you have in the overland creation, but a lot of graphics and symbols that pertain to dungeon creation. This part of the software seems to cater more to the RPG crowd running a campaign, but other people, including authors, would find uses as well. This is the part of the program that I spent the least amount of time with, so my observations are shorter. What I did see though was the same careful and expansive amount of symbols and graphics to make the dungeon builder and evil overlord in everyone happy. I would guess that this could also be used to do castle layout and even some rudimentary town or village design. ProFantasy has a more expanded town and dungeon creation in their City Designer Pro and Dungeon Designer 3 software as well as some other very interesting programs for you to check out at their website.
or the RPGer’s CC3 is a very inexpensive way to facilitate creation of worlds and/or dungeons with a few mouse clicks. What this lends to the DM’s ability to create robust worlds and dungeons can not be measured by a simple price tag. This is A MUST for anyone running their own gaming sessions. I think even in the current shared worlds there are always corners of the lands that can be supplemented by a DM with a little imagination. For DMs working in custom worlds this software helps create everything you need from the ground up to get the world populated and on paper.
For the Author/Publisher CC3 is a tool that can be the middle ground on getting the authors vision of their world to the publisher, or it can be used by the author for general world building. I am sure many authors have scraps of poorly drawn maps on the back of napkins and kids cereal boxes, well no longer. By using CC3 you can have a nice simple map to keep your thoughts together and make sure that your party of adventures in that epic fantasy book you are writing do not walk right over the Deadly Peak Mountains because you got a coffee stain on that piece of napkin where you drew them. Really though, all kidding aside, this is a very powerful tool for the author to create their worlds. I can see authors creating their worlds with CC3 then handing it off to the publisher to make sure that the map in the beginning of the book comes out exactly as they envisioned it. Also, for many authors that have created huge worlds, the maps that they create can be used as reference pieces as they write their story, so they do not contradict something in an earlier book. As many fantasy reviewers will tell you, without a good world, why even bother to start writing. Ok maybe that is just me.
For fun, ah, this is where I get to step in with my experience, as I am not really a full time Pen and Paper RPGer and I am sure not an author if you couldn’t tell already. Campaign Cartographer 3 is a blank canvas where you imagination can creat worlds with little effort over and over again. Even though my map making skills were not up to that of others, I created map after map after map for fun. Hey, maybe I will put a cave up there next to those snow capped mountains. Maybe I could make this plain where a big orc vs human battle was held. A lot of “maybes” later I had worlds and worlds of stories, and I was probably talking to myself by that point as well.
Gallery:
Here are some samples of maps created in CC3. The first one being one that I created. I want to give you an idea of my art background, so we all know what we are dealing with. I am the kid in high school that made pottery that always ended up being an ashtray and whenever I drew anything it looked like Pablo Picasso’s cat got a hold of it. While using CC3, even I could create maps that looked good. Here is an example of Fantasybookspot Land:
Now that was done in a fairly short time (else I fall behind on my reading and reviewing) and it still came out good. Now let us see what can really be created by people with a little more time on their hands and probably a tad bit more skill.
I can not really write too much more as it is taking me away from creating new worlds in CC3. This is the bad part of CC3, where you waste away an afternoon creating a dungeon to go along with your new world of super coolness, and you realize that you are not an author or a RPGer. It really is that fun. Fantasybookspotworld continues to grow at the borders with uncharted land being discovered every afternoon in front of my computer!
Update Note: Pro Fantasy has released the Fantasy Overland Symbol Set 1. This adds even more wonderful symbols for your maps. Just go to the main ProFantasy page to be assaulted with the amount of programs that they have, that once you see you will not realized how you lived without.
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