ProFantasy's Map-Making Archive

A Retrospective by Ralf Schemmann

The Forgotten Realms Interactive Atlas (FRIA) was—and is—a comprehensive collection of maps for the eponymous D&D setting. Its 800+ maps are all hot-linked together, forming a gigantic reference and resource collection for gamers wanting to explore the Forgotten Realms. The FRIA was produced by ProFantasy Software Ltd and its Campaign Cartographer users under license by, and in collaboration with, Wizards of the Coast.

I cut my teeth on the FRIA. I have never been a D&D player (other RPGs, yes, but not D&D), but I was an avid Campaign Cartographer 2 user at the time and very active on the social media of the era: a beloved and venerable mailing list. A stripped-down version of CC2 (called Campaign Mapper) was included in the digital tools for AD&D Core Rules 2.0, and the collaboration between ProFantasy and Wizards was going strong.

I don’t know who came up with the idea, but someone thought of converting ALL the wonderful Forgotten Realms maps into digital format, linking them together, filling in the gaps (or at least some of them), and compiling them as one big, wonderful atlas. A Herculean task, if I’ve ever seen one.

It quickly became apparent that this was nothing a single mapper (or even a few) could do, so ProFantasy approached its community to see whether this could be turned into a group effort. Lots of people volunteered—being the passionate fans they were—for the promise of a copy of the final product and lasting fame (or something like that) in the annals of RPG cartography. I was one of them.

The task of coordinating, prodding, and wrangling the horde of fledgling mappers (no less Herculean than the mapping itself) fell to Linda Kekumu and Ian Malcomson. They organized the workload by map types (dungeons, towns, cities, etc.) and assigned them to mappers according to their availability, skill, and the preferences they had shown in the community. I ended up being the guy to create the big overland map of Zakhara, the setting of AD&D’s Al-Qadim.

I vividly remember poring over bad scans of original maps, long lists of places and features to include, and many emails back and forth with Linda to compile all the information into one CC2 map. By the end, I even had the time and energy left to create a few more town and location maps for the region. I shudder to think that I was just one of many whom Linda, Ian, and the others at ProFantasy had to organize.

It is to their everlasting credit that this project did indeed come together, creating one of the most amazing cartography packages in the hobby. It wasn’t entirely complete or mistake-free by any means, but three major updates added the missing maps and corrected most, if not all, of the little errors that inevitably sneak into a project of this scale.

Everything got bundled into a single viewer software that allowed the maps to be displayed in their linked vector format without owning CC2. Furthermore, Joe Slayton added a wonderful globe functionality to the package, which shows the whole of Toril (the world of the FR) as a rotatable globe.

From there, you can drill down into continents, countries, and regions, right down to the cities and towns, and even further into blocks, buildings, and the dungeons underneath. One of the hidden gems in the package is the amazing city plan of Waterdeep, which features a myriad of building and location floorplans linked directly to it.

One of the most amazing things for me is that all of these maps are still editable in all versions of Campaign Cartographer from CC2 onwards. For example, there are ongoing projects on the ProFantasy community forum to re-map the Atlas in more modern styles and fix any remaining errors or gaps.

Of course, the Forgotten Realms have changed over the years, and the geography in the atlas doesn’t 100% match today’s FR anymore, but it remains an incredible resource for any gamer—if you can get your hands on it, of course, since it has only been available on the secondary market for decades. And I’m not parting with my copy any time soon.

Nor with the document proclaiming my everlasting fame as a cartographer of the Forgotten Realms.

Hereford Cathedral and its display of the Hereford map is on the list of placed I still need to visit – a wonderful example of medieval cartography. While looking at it online it occurred to me that we don’t have a dedicated style to recreate this kind of map, and so I went to work. The June Annual issue is the result of that work: the Mappa Mundi overland style. You can now create medieval-style maps for your games in a quick and easy way. Check out the mapping guide to see how it’s done!

The June issue is now available to download for all subscribers from their registration page. If you haven’t subscribed to the Annual 2026 yet, you can do so here.

If you have ever tried searching for maps in the Community Atlas, you might have noticed that there is an option for searching for text in the map. This option searches for text in the visible labels on the map itself, but also for text in the attached map notes. Since map notes are included in the search, it means that you can search for something like “Symbol Set 6” and get a list of all maps in the atlas that uses resources from SS6 (If you have looked at atlas maps, you may have noticed they all have a map note listing which products are required, which is why you can then search for this).

So, the interesting question here is how is this possible in the first place? FCW files are binary files after all, and not easily parsed by web server software, and the search would also be slow if it had to look through 1300+ files every time someone tried to search.

The solution here lies in a feature in CC3+ that can create a search index for a whole folder of maps. This feature was originally intended to use with the built in search feature in Campaign Cartographer, but as I’ve already reveled here, it can also be utilized by other tools, in this case my web server software to allow map searches despite the fact that the maps on the web server are just plain non-searchable images.

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CC4 News

• Simon announces the upcoming crowdfunding for CC4.
• Ralf previews the sidebar feature in CC4’s interface.
• CC4 will have an powerful new river command, which Ralf presents here.

News

• The May issue of the Cartographer’s Annual 2026 is available, bringing you an isometric floorplan style for sewer maps by Griffin Peak Productions.
• The free monthly symbols of April add snow-covered peaks and mountains to the Hand-drawn Fantasy style.

Resources

• Watch or re-watch the recent live mapping videos from our playlist on YouTube.
• Check out the community’s Maps of the Month for March.

Articles

• Remy takes a look at creating rounded and angled corners on polygons in his latest command spotlight.>.
• Phil “Secg” Benson presents his Alpengard TTRPG and talks about the mapping for the project where he used CC3+.

Reminders

• CC3+’s current version is 3.98. Check in Help > About and if your version is older, run Update 28 for CC3+ available from your registration page.
• Join our community of map-makers on the Profantasy forum and/or the Facebook group.

We’ll shortly be crowdfunding a new version of Campaign Cartographer 4, along with new versions of Dungeon Designer and City Designer. If you are an existing user, we’ll send you a link to a secret backer level with a modest discount if you are signed up to our newsletter.

The latest version of our legendary map-making software, CC4, features:

• An updated interface with improved dialog boxes, icons and a shiny new sidebar which gives you access to settings and information to assist your work flow.
• Virtual Table Top support which includes major VTT platforms, with full support for light sources.
• Entirely new map styles with symbols and fill styles handcrafted for overland, dungeon and city maps.
• Automated creation of dungeons, villages and towns, so you can get started on your map-making in minutes – not based on generative AI.
• Automatic river creation with natural flows and tapering width,

Your backing will mean more and better features – and we have an extensive wish list! More symbols, more styles, more features.

Rivers

The new river tool of CC4 creates meandering waterways and sprawling river networks for a whole continent or island with a few mouse-clicks. Rivers get wider as they flow from their source, connect in believable ways and run into the sea where you would expect them too.

Rivers have always been a topic that could vex the amateur cartographer, and to draw them realistically can be challenging. The new river command that comes with CC4 gives you a shortcut that can create a single river or whole river systems with the push of a button. You still get full control over the output, from colour shading and texturing, through setting starting and ending width, to moving individual nodes about.

To the left is an example of an island river system created with the river too, where you can see the intricate and natural looking result. Creating the same by hand would be extremely time-consuming.
You can also draw your rivers individually, setting their starting and ending widths, connect them to existing rivers and add them to your river network.

Rivers are a new type of drawing entity that have varying width along their length and specific properties like colour and fill style for each of their spans between nodes. This makes them extremely versatile and open to expansion and additional use cases in the future.

The Sidebar

CC4 adds a sidebar to the interface that makes much more information directly accessible. You can see which entities are selected, modify that selection and do command operations directly from there.

The new sidebar, which is of course configurable and can be turned on and off, is a new area of the interface which lists information on the current command and all the entities that you have selected. You can see whether anything is not supposed to be there and remove it with a simple click.

Say you want to delete several tree symbols, but they are all mixed up with other entities like roads, rivers and background polygons. You are not sure which layers they are all on and checking that to select by layers would just be time-consuming. You can now just select everything in the general area and de-select entities by clicking on them in the list in the sidebar. See the example on the right for how this appears.

The sidebar also lists the options the current command would give you for selecting additional entities, making those options much more quickly accessible. In the example on the right, once you are happy with your selected entities, you can click on the Do It button to execute the Erase command.

If you are placing symbols, the sidebar will display all the symbol options you are usually getting by right-clicking, making them visible at a glance while the symbol itself is also still visible.

The sidebar can also display the colour palette for easy reference, and more options will be added in the future to expand its capabilities.

By Phil “Secg” Benson

As an avid gamer and self-confessed “map guy”, I’ve enjoyed ProFantasy’s mapping tools for years. When I started creating the Alpengard TTRPG back in 2011, I knew I’d need maps to help bring the game to life.

It took some time for me to deep-dive into CC3+ and DD3, and I made my fair share of mistakes along the way, which were fortunately easily correctible thanks to the user-friendliness. I really enjoy the ProFantasy programs’ flexibility and tools, such as using different styles of water for freshwater and seawater, and generating edge-faded background layers for highlands and forests.

Alpengard: Tales and Adventurers, the game’s core rulebook, contains a richly developed primary campaign world—the World of the Stonemeres. CC3+ and DD3 were ideal as I laid out the landscapes for epic Stonemeres adventures. The super-cool mapping tools helped me release my imagination through meticulous attention to detail.

You can check out maps from the World of the Stonemeres on the Alpengard “Worlds” page, including battle-encounter maps that go with a challenging intro adventure found in Chapter 13 of the core rulebook: Rattling in Clatterbone Ravine.

Released in January 2025, Alpengard is an indie fantasy TTRPG that offers you a unique d30-based roll-high system along with dynamic gaming elements:
• Enjoy character flexibility—tailor your abilities to match your character’s personality (an intelligent warrior can be every bit as effective as a strong or quick one).
• Invoke pneuma—an energy pool that enhances your odds and fuels your powers (pneuma is a limited resource you must manage wisely).
• Entwine magic objects to your soul so they grow with you throughout your quests (you don’t have to ditch your favorite wand or cloak because it became obsolete).
• Use all your lifeskills, even cooking… fricasseed troll-nuggets might be crucial to your survival (non-combat-related talents can still be key for successful adventuring).
• All magic-users—druids, exarchs, monks, wizards—are considered clerics and can take healing powers (no single class is “stuck being the healer”).

Alpengard: Tales and Adventurers is a combination Player’s Guide + Gamemaster’s Guide + Campaign World Guide. Loads of prototype monsters are available for free on the Alpengard “Foes” page, and pregenerated characters can be found on the “Friends” page.

I want to give a huge shout-out to ProFantasy Software for creating outstandingly efficient, fun-to-use mapping tools—they’re ideal whether you’re building your own campaign world or just designing adventure maps for fun.

Cheers to Great Gaming, and Keep Questing!
–Secg

If you’ve missed any of the live mapping sessions we do on YouTube most weeks, showcasing a certain style or set of tools in CC3+, you’ll find them archived and organized into playlists on YouTube. Here are the most recent ones we did:

Let’s take a look back to March and examine some of the maps our community members shared that month.

Royal Scribe created another of his wonderful floorplans, this time showing a Royal Chapel. You’ll find several floors, the roof layout and – of course – hidden crypts underneath the chapel in the map’s forum thread. The maps were done with a mix of Dungeon Dungeons 3, Symbol Set 2 and Sue Daniel’s floorplan styles from the Annuals.

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