The Cartographer's Annual 2023

January

For the January issue of the Cartographer's Annual 2023 we start with a redo and expansion of the 13th Age overland style, tentatively dubbed 14th Age Overland.

The iconic style by Lee Moyer is expanded significantly with more than double the number of symbols and and more bitmap fills than it previously had. It will also be updated with the latest sheet effects and symbol placement drawing tools.

The style pack 13th Age Revisited includes

1 expanded and recreated drawing style "13th Age Revisited" by Lee Moyer
68 new drawing tools
2 new templates (imperial and metric)
38 bitmap fills
139 bitmap and vector symbols in 8 catalogs
1 6-page mapping guide
1 example map (FCW and JPG format)
1 effects setting

February

Pär Lindström has created a new town and village style for the February issue. It lets you draw beautiful oasis settlements with serene palm trees lining refreshing pools of water in Pär's iconic handdrawn style.

The style's symbols buildings, tents, trees, wells and pools, along with ancient and mysterious ruins of civilizations long vanished under the sands of the desert.

The style pack Desert Oasis includes:

1 new city drawing style "Desert Oasis" by Pär Lindström
73 new drawing tools
2 new templates (imperial and metric)
17 new bitmap fills
150 bitmap symbols in 6 catalogs
1 5-page mapping guide
1 example map (FCW and JPG format)
2 effect settings
2 new city street settings
2 new city house setting

March

For the March issue of the Annual 2023 Sue Daniel is back with a glorious new battle map style for those wintry excursions. See how her forest paths of 2022 turns into new winter trails.

Compatible with Sue's Forest Trail style form last year's Annual, Winter Trails contains everything you need to draw snow-covered outdoor maps for those encounters in the woods.

The style pack Winter Trail includes

1 new drawing style "Winter Trail" by Sue Daniel
25 new drawing tools
2 new templates (imperial and metric)
6 new bitmap fills
153 bitmap symbols in 7 catalogs
1 4-page mapping guide
3 example maps (FCW and JPG format)
2 effect settings

April

In the April issue of the Annual 2023 we present the work of a new artist contributing to the Cartographer's Annual: E. Prybylski. Their hand-drawn, watercolour-based artwork has been converted into digital assets and allows you to produce maps in this unique and beautiful style.

The style "E Prybylski Watercolour" is easy and fast to use, but doesn't compromise on the beauty of the results. Beginning mappers will find it just as rewarding as the veterans.

You can find more of E. Prybylski's work on their page here.

The style pack E Prybylski Watercolour includes

1 new Overland drawing style by E. Prybylski
36 new drawing tools
2 new templates (imperial and metric)
11 new bitmap fills
234 bitmap symbols in 7 catalogs
1 5-page mapping guide
2 example maps (FCW and JPG format)
9 new Symbols In Area settings

May

The May issue of the Annual 2023 presents a map pack by new contributor Jimmy Medina, showing floorplans for a whole city block of buildings mapped in high detail.

The map pack "City Block" contains floorplans for 8 different buildings with four levels each and a 10-page mapping guide including adventure ideas for their use.

The map pack City Block includes

1 new floorplan map pack "City Block" by Jimmy Medina
4 new floorplan maps, depicting 8 buildings with 4 levels each
8 PNG exports (with labels and no labels)
1 10-page mapping guide

June

The June issue of the Annual 2023 contains a new set of Steampunk symbols by Jon C Munson, including trains, tracks, vehicles and lots of strange machinery.

Designed to match Mike's Dungeons of Schley style from Symbol Set 4, the "Steampunk Streets" symbols can also be used in any other floorplan style to add a spice of weird science and steam technology to any map.

The symbols pack Steampunk Streets includes

198 new steampunk-themed symbols by Jon C Munson II in 5 catalogs
1 new drawing style "Steampunk Streets" based on SS4 Dungeons of Schley
2 new dungeon templates "Steampunk Streets" (imperial and metric)
8 new drawing tools
2 new effect settings
1 example map (FCW and JPG format)
1 5-page mapping guide

July

The July issue of the Annual 2023 brings you another overland mapping style by a new Annual contributor: Monkey Frog Studio.

The style "Money Frog Overland" is based on beautiful symbol artwork combined with a strong color scheme to produce beautiful regional or continental maps. Look for a second issue to expand it with more symbol option later this year.

The style pack Monkey Frog Overland includes

1 new Overland drawing style "Monkey Frog Overland"
32 new drawing tools
2 new templates (imperial and metric)
4 new bitmap fills
213 bitmap symbols in 7 catalogs
1 4-page mapping guide
1 example map (FCW and JPG format)
6 new Symbols In Area settings
1 effect setting

August

In the August issue of the Annual 2023 we return back to some (visually) simpler maps in black and white. Draw ruins, floorplans and dungeons with faux-inked lines and easy to use black and white symbols.

Related to and compatible with 2020's Inked Dungeons, the Inked Ruins style allows you to build surface ruins and outdoor areas that can be easily printed and comfortably read even at relatively small output sizes.

The style pack Inked Ruins includes

1 new dungeon drawing style
48 drawing tools
2 new templates (imperial and metric)
98 vector symbols in 7 catalogs
9 hatch styles
1 4-page mapping guide
1 example map (FCW and JPG format)
1 new effect setting
1 new master filter
16 new symbol catalog settings

September

The September issue of the Annual 2023 extends April's "E Prybylski Watercolor" style with another 50 symbols for non-human settlements, more mountains and other artwork.

The accompanying mapping guide takes a look at the new symbols, and details additional methods to decorate your maps.

The style pack E Prybylski Watercolor 2 includes

48 new bitmap symbols in 4 catalogs
4 new drawing tools
1 4-page mapping guide
1 example map (FCW and JPG format)

October

The October issue of the Annual 2023 expands the Monkey Frog Overland style with a large set of structure symbols and new terrain fills.

95 detailed bitmap symbols from huts and campfires to castles and walled cities allow you to properly populate your Monkey Frog style overland maps, and a set of new terrain fills gives you more options for the natural landscape.

The style pack Monkey Frog Overland 2 includes

1 expanded overland drawing style by Monkey Frog Studio
7 new drawing tools
2 updated templates (imperial and metric)
7 new bitmap fills
95 bitmap symbols
1 3-page mapping guide
1 example map (FCW and JPG format)

November

The November issue of the Annual 2023 brings you a huge city map in the SS6 Isometric Cities style, depicting a coastal city under siege. Additional tools for Symbol Set 6 help you draw ridges and cliffs in the perspective view.

A 13-page guide to the city accompanies the map, describing the city, highlighting important locations and seeing adventures ideas. Even if you don't own Symbol Set 6, you have access to the map in CC3+ as well as in PDF and PNG formats.

The map pack City Under Siege includes

1 large city map in the SS6 Isometric Cities style
5 large-scale PNG exports of the city map
PDF collection of the map and detail views plus the city index
1 13-page pdf mapping guide to the city and the new tools included

December

The December issue of the Annual 2023 presents a set of templates, tools, and instructions to create a basically unlimited set of tiling wilderness maps that you can print or export for use in virtual tabletop environments.

The issue also comes with a set of pre-constructed tiles that you can use out of the box. The accompanying 6-page mapping guide details the process of creating many more tiles like these using the Forest Trail style by Sue Daniel.

The tool pack Wilderness Tiles includes

2 new templates (imperial and metric)
15 new drawing tools
24 Wilderness Tiles (Symbols, FCW and JPG Format, gridded and ungridded)
1 6-page mapping guide
4 example maps (FCW and JPG format)

Further ahead

To be announced.

This is our 17th annual and many of our customers have repeatedly subscribed from the beginning. Every year we balance the content so that the Cartographer's Annual is excellent value no matter how you use CC3+.

Cartographer's Annual 2023 Content