Maps for Grimm Tales by Pantheon Press

Not all the maps I get asked to do are full colour multi-page affairs. Pantheon Press contacted me back in the spring to ask for some black and white maps for their tarot card based game system – Fortune’s Fool. These maps were for their Grimm Tales adventure – I’m sure you’ll recognise a lot of the references:

There’s a special challenge to maps like these. Each map has been uploaded at 100dpi, so the size you see it on the screen is roughly the size it appears in print. That’s not a lot of space to get a lot of detail in, and when you can only use greyscale you lose more tools for differentiating different features.

The sites were fun to walk through, and I got to design the Manor house from scratch – which had some unique challenges due to the nature of the residents. It’s not often that I get to reference Jurassic Park in design discussions on maps – I’ll let you guess why.

The Bandit’s Lair

The Bandits' Lair fantasy dungeon map for Kobold Quarterly

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”

Dungeon Tiles

Dungeon Tiles image to illustrate a free fantasy dungeon map

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 Old Stross Bathhouse

Streets of Zobeck has been unleashed upon the world by Open Design this week. It’s an adventure anthology of 7 Pathfinder adventures for levels 1-10 set in the city of Zobeck in the Midgard world. But that’s not all, it details drop in locations and stand alone NPCs as well as feats, traits, spells and gear for your gritty inner city gutter rat. The majority of the maps are by Gill Pearce, but I got to work on one of the lairs of villainy – the Old Stross Bathhouse:

Fantasy map of the Old Stross Bathhouse for Streets of Zobeck Continue reading “The Old Stross Bathhouse”

Map Tiles! Piles of Treasure! Dragon Skeletons!

Dragon skeleton by Jonathan Roberts for Profantasy fantasy dungeon tile styleThe 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.

New Map Pack – The Sand Dragon Inn

Fantasy battlemap map pack of the Sand Dragon Inn for Dungeons and Dragons, 4e and pathfinderIt’s the first of the month – which means a new map pack is out! This month it’s the Sand Dragon Inn, once again in collaboration with Kobold Quarterly and the guys at Open Design. The Inn sits in the baking desert heat, a rare oasis of luxury amid the sand. The thick walls and some simple enchantments keep the air cool and the wine and meats chilled. Surely nothing bad can come from stopping here for a while? Continue reading “New Map Pack – The Sand Dragon Inn”

More IDW Maps – D&D #2: Hide in Plain Sight

Module edition of D&D #2 comic: Hide in Plain SightThe D&D comic series continues to go from strength to strength, with the adventurers led by Adric Fell investigating the source of a mysterious plague. In this edition they find out that an artifact is at the root of events and chase it’s bearer as he flees from Fallcrest. It features fireballs, explosions, pick pocketing and Adric being hit in the head by a rock. Certainly worth getting a hold of.

As with the previous issue #1: Bad Day, this issue was also produced in a limited module edition that contains an adventure module written by Christopher Perkins. I created the maps for the encounters and now that it’s out I get to show them off! Continue reading “More IDW Maps – D&D #2: Hide in Plain Sight”

Another New Map Pack – The Ruined Library

As with the last map pack, this one hails from the Coliseum Morpheuon project by Rite Publishing. In this case a library destroyed by meteors. Fun to create with the landscape torn and blasted under an aggressive sun:

Fantasy map pack cover for the ruined libraryHere’s a small preview of the full size map in the pack: Continue reading “Another New Map Pack – The Ruined Library”