Map Archives - Page 8 of 14

Pirate Ship Map: Keel Haul the Mutineers!

Piracy is in the air this year. Open Design is now well underway with Journeys to the West – an anthology of adventurers set in the exotic unexplored western ocean – and Paizo is set fair on a course for the swashbuckling adventure path Skull and Shackles. But what good is a pirate (or, ahem, privateer) without a trusty ship?

Well, to resolve that particular problem, this month I’ve put together a pirate ship map that any peg legged terror of the ocean waves can be proud of. After some feedback on my previous ship map pack, this one comes in a number of formats. The pack contains 2 maps of the full ship, one with the ship underway with sails billowing and the other with the ship resting at the harbour quay. In addition, the pack contains fully detailed maps of all three interior deck levels, with captain’s table, storage and crew hammocks. Continue reading “Pirate Ship Map: Keel Haul the Mutineers!”

Death and blood in the city of ice

You might have noticed something of a theme over the last few weeks. The map packs I’ve been putting out have had a decidedly frigid air to them. These packs come from the critically acclaimed Breaking of Forstor Nagar adventure I worked on with Rite Publishing (it’s swept 5* reviews across the board – I’m actually still a little in shock).

This month we finished the lot and released the full set as a map pack bundle, with all 8 map packs for the sale price of $9.99. Continue reading “Death and blood in the city of ice”

A Quick City Map Tutorial

Today I’m covering a quick way to layout a city and make it look pretty and easy to read. As with the previous post, this originally appeared on my G+ and facebook pages.

Fantasy City map design tutorial

3 steps to an attractive city map

The challenge with a city map is to lay out information on districts of the city as well as specific locations. The two can easily get confused, especially if you have a very detailed texture showing roofs and individual buildings. In this style I’m focusing on just showing the different districts. Individual locations of interest can then be placed on top by using icons, or something more elaborate.

1. Lay in the roads.

Here I’ve used a fixed width round brush, with a slightly wider width for main roads than minor roads. I’ve also used Photoshop’s layer styles to give the roads a dark outer glow to make it easier to read them. They’re white on a light background, but that won’t be an issue for long.

2. Define the city blocks

Here I’ve use the magic wand to select all the negative space where the city blocks are going to be. You can also use Select Pixels and then Invert Selection in photoshop. I’ve then shrunk the selection by 3px (though that depends on the resolution of your file of choice). The selection is then filled with black and this layer is set to overlay. I’ve also given the layer a layer style which is an internal stroke set to colour burn at 70% opacity. The result is that we can see all the city blocks, and the roads are visible as the negative space between the city blocks.

3. Delineate the different districts

Again we use the magic wand tool to get the selection of the city blocks in a specific district (you can also just get the selection by using the magic wand on the layer from step 2). Now, with one layer and one selection for each of the district, fill with the patter of your choice. Here I’ve used a striped pattern. I’ve set the stripes to a colour and used a combination of overlay and colour burn layer modes to create the effect.

Voila! An easy to read city map with clearly differentiated districts – all in less time than it takes to eat lunch. As ever, let me know if there are any questions in the comments section, or let me know if there are topics you’d like to see covered.

The Amphitheatre

Through December I’m releasing the remaining map packs from the Breaking of Forstor Nagar.

Today it’s the turn of the Amphitheatre. This stands as a testament to better days in the city, when people would come to watch performances, or stroll amongst the statues. But now that the city lies besieged and ruined it acts as the scene for a desperate encounter where the PCs must make difficult choices that will determine the future of a number of hapless souls. Continue reading “The Amphitheatre”

The 5 Room Dungeon

Ben McFarland, Clinton Boomer and Matt Banach have some strange ideas.

Coliseum Morpheoun came from their twisted minds – a demiplane of dreams and nightmares where teams in search of glory duke it out in a dream warped arena for the pleasure of the Khan of Nightmares.

(click through for a larger version)

This is a mini adventure that spins off from that, or works as a stand-alone in its own right. The PCs are sent down the rabbit hole into the dark chaotic underbelly of the plane of dreams. The adventure takes place across five separate locations – each a little weirder than the last.

I was brought on board to map their creation, and this is the result. I’ve removed any labels to avoid spoilers. I wanted to give a bit of a feel of the disjointed and chaotic nature of the realm, whilst also giving a bit of a feel of a journal of some hapless academic explorer. I like the overall look and feel that resulted. If you want find out what the locations actually hold, then check out the full adventure (currently at a reduced price for launch): 5 Room Dungeon on RPGNow.

Barricades and Bonfires – the Siege of the Inner City

It’s a new month, and that means a new map pack. Once again we venture to cold and wintery climes – unlike the current balmy weather we’re enjoying on the Eastern Seaboard. Today’s map pack takes us deep into the heart of a besieged city of ice, with the armies of the attackers camped outside the central compound. A moat, crenelated walls and sturdy gates bat the final assault. In the stalemate, the attackers have built a robust barricade of carts and wagons to fend off any counter assault. Buildings are shattered from artillery fire but calm reigns before the inevitable storm of the final assault. (map preview after the jump) Continue reading “Barricades and Bonfires – the Siege of the Inner City”

Charting the Unknown

Normally when a client comes with a map commission, they know what they want you to draw – or they have an idea of the major locations, or at least a landmass. But Open Design doesn’t always choose ‘normal’. Right now I’m mapping the unknown – literally:

Ocean map for Open Design's Pathfinder world of Midgard

The vast ocean will not remain unknown for long. Explorers will board ship in Barsella, the City at the End of the World, and traverse the uncharted waters off the west coast of world of Midgard. They will happen across strange and wondrous lands and populate them with fantastic and deadly beasts (such as the Nethysule). As they create the world, the map will evolve to show their discoveries. The Isle of Morphoi is already taking shape:

Ocean map for Open Design's Pathfinder world of Midgard

Who are the explorers? Well – anyone who chips in on the Journey to the West Kickstarter(it’s not a press-gang, crew on this voyage are entirely voluntary). This project, like many Open Design projects, is a community driven affair. If you contribute $25 or more, you’ll get to jump into the forums and help shape the lands beyond the horizon. The project’s already funded, but there’s no limit on the number of crew for this particular voyage. And, if the kickstarter hits the top goal of $6,500, the final version of this map will be printed out in lustrous glory to adorn the walls of those intrepid explorers that decided to jump the life to come and set out into the storm lashed waters of the Western Ocean.

The Arboretum

Remorhaz vtt token by DevinNight — Remorhaz token by DevinNight

Forstor Nagar is an icy city, carved out of a glacier in the frozen north. However not all things can be created from ice, and the city needs wood for building, and fruits and berries for nutrition. But how do you grow things in these sub-zero temperatures? Well, first of all you create greenhouses, and then you heat them with drugged remorhaz! What could possibly go wrong?

In this week’s map pack we find an arboretum in the heart of the frozen city. The remorhaz (or other burrowing creature of your choice) has escaped, and run riot through the quarter leaving destruction in its wake.

With each square representing 5 feet this is another large battle area, with both indoor and outdoor areas (notice the smokehouse to the west of the map). The trees provide places for PCs to hide and nervous adventurers can retreat to the icy roofs of the houses to the south to use ranged attacks. Continue reading “The Arboretum”

Free city and archipelago maps

So it seems it slipped my mind to post these maps up. They were created for Wayfinder #3 (a long time ago) and are free for people to download for their own use. I tend to stick to battlemap scale maps for my fantasy map packs as I feel those are the most useful. If you’d like to see maps like this as map packs – let me know in the comments.

First up – an archipelago:

Second – we have a small city (well, really a large town):

These are free for personal use. Feel free to download and share around under the CC-BY-NC-SA license. Who know, a series of islands and a fortified town on the water might be just what you need for the pirates in your Skull and Shackles game!

More IDW Maps! Now with extra Drizzt.

There’s a new IDW comic line out – the Legend of Drizzt. As with many previous comics IDW decided to do a special Module Edition of the first comic in the series, with an adventure for 4e D&D (written by Logan Bonner) included so that you can run sessions involving that most famous of the drow for your own players. I was very happy to be asked to do the maps for it. The module edition is a not-for-sale special edition, but might well appear in the compiled series, or in a special legacy edition as with earlier comics.

Continue reading “More IDW Maps! Now with extra Drizzt.”