Fantasy maps and mapmaking tutorials by Jonathan Roberts
A couple of weeks ago I posted the world map for Lannithir, for the Illfrost adventure arc for Illusionary Press. The first adventure for the world of Illfrost is out now and I created the tactical battlemaps for it – and now I can show them off!
(more maps after the jump) Continue reading “A Temple of an Ancient Evil”
This week it’s all about the dungeon, and I’ve been covering ways of creating dungeon maps without actually drawing anything. These tips should work whether you’re a natural doodler or you think pencils are the devil incarnate.
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!”
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”
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.
Any self respecting bandit needs a lair. This month’s Fantastic Maps release, in partnership with Kobold Quarterly, presents a cavern lair that any Bandit prince would be proud of. The cave system was carved from the rock by the waterfall that still run through the middle, cascading between the two levels. Continue reading “The Bandit’s Lair”
This month my second tileset for Profantasy has been released. The June 2011 Annual style is a dungeon tileset, with skeletons, treasure, lava, dark pits and sarcophagi. Your players can wade through fields of poisoned mushrooms or sit down for dinner on a red leather throne. This set has a solid core of all the things you need to build your villain’s evil lair. Continue reading “Dungeon Tiles”
The guys at Profantasy liked the March CC3 style so much that they asked me to do a tile set for a fantasy dungeon style. The pack contains all the standards you’d expect – tables, chairs, doors, stairs – as well as some that are a little more unusual – mushrooms, a corpse, and a Dragon skeleton (yes, I’m really pleased with that one). Some of you who follow my twitter feed may have seen a few sneak peaks from the Dragon Skeleton and now I can publicly admit where it comes from.
The dungeon style will make up the June 2011 Annual style and the guys at Profantasy have put up a great little preview for you to check out. They have a couple of higher resolution samples in the annual style gallery. I’m really looking forward to being able to show off all the elements in this pack, it’s looking great.
Today sees the release of The Ship’s Graveyard map pack released in partnership with Kobold Quarterly. The pack details a huge underwater map (25 square feet when printed out full size) with walls of kelp, schools of fish and shipwrecked hulks. The perfect lair for a kraken or aboleth and their dark designs upon the world. When I used this map the players found themselves in the deep after their ship was destroyed by a kraken. At 6000px square (25 square feet when printed out at 1 square = 1 inch) there’s more than enough room for an epic battle against the horrors of the abyss.
Here’s a low res preview of the map in the pack: Continue reading “What lurks in the shipwrecks of the briny deep?”
It’s the first of the month, and that means a new Fantastic Maps map pack, in partnership with Kobold Quarterly! This month we go dark and dungeon-y with a Necromancer’s Lair. The map shows a large underground room with spiked pits, rubble, raised platforms, gargoyle statues and magic circles. Continue reading “New Map Pack – Necromancer’s Lair”
