Esoteric Curio Shop

Dimensions - [14 x 9] squares
Image resolution - 2800 x 1800 px
DPI - 200

"Stepping off the bleak streets of the city, you find yourself in this strangely warm and cozy little shop. Soft amber light fills the space, casting deep shadows across the varied merchandise weighing down the shelves.

You feel a deep sense of awe filling your chest but as you spend longer surveying the wares, a slight wave of anxiety itches your neck. There's so much unknown here, things and stuff and pieces that are completely foreign to you.

The shop owner shuffles out to the counter from the back room, the door swinging shut smartly to block out the pulsing green glow emanating from inside."

~ SlappinFace

Hi all!

I hope everyone is well. Here is the final map for June. I hope you all enjoy this one. Shoutout to "Unknown_User" who is a regular over at the Frag Maps Discord server for seeding this idea.

An esoteric shop is a place where you’ll find unusual and rare objects, often understood or appreciated by only a small group of people with specialized knowledge or interests. These shops offer unique items, such as collectibles, historical artifacts, or curiosities - hence "curio".

The store also stocks plenty of products related to the metaphysical/mysticism: gemstones, incense, candles, tarot cards, essential oils, crystals and the like.

Even in the age of Cyberpunk, there are going to be superstitious people. Runners that count on their lucky charms, or pray to their deities in hopes that they live to see tomorrow.

Your players might want to come to such a place to get some lucky charms of their own or to find out what happened to the last runner who died mysteriously whilst couriering a historical religious artifact from this store. There are just so many curious pathways the players can go down from curio store like this one.

Map Chaining

The Esoteric Curio Shop is yet another addition to the growing list of battle maps under the occult-based category. I've linked the category page here for you all to peruse.

Map Variants

Asian Themed

This variant is a tile that gives the store a bit more of an Asian theme.

Kidnapped Owner

Your players enter the shop but the owner doesn't seem to be around. They go around back and there are signs of struggle. Shelves have been ripped out, glass shattered. A massive trail of blood can be seen on the floor.

There is no body so one can only assume that a kidnapping is at play. But why?

Basement Stairs

I planned for this side door to be generic, so you guys can deem it to be whatever you choose. Be it a door to a back alley, a closet etc. But this tile variant creates some visual interest for your players, inviting them to check out the basement below.

Off the top of my head, I have created two other basement maps that you can chain this to:

• The Red Room from the Braindance Lounge

• Basement from the Auto Shop series

In Need of a Helping Hand

Those of you who have been supporting my work for a while, would have noticed that this map looks a little different from my usual art style. So let me explain.

Since I started Frag Maps almost 4 years ago, I have been going hard at it, pedal to the metal working 7 days a week. I think the total amount of time I've had off was about 3 weeks (within those 4 years).

Everything was going fine until a few months back where I finally hit a brick wall and suffered a burnout - there were other external life issues at play that contributed to it but that was the straw that broke that camel's back, for me.

My core principles for Frag Maps have always been: provide as high quality art as possible to my subscribers and be as consistent as possible with battle map output. I think I have managed to maintain that balance well over the 4 years.

I was consistently striving to get better with painting, faster, just so I can have more time to create even better looking art. I was trying to push the barrier of what was capable of with every map. No one has mentioned the difference in art style from my very early maps to my 2024 maps - but there has been huge changes.

I had learnt and progressed a whole lot. But it was this relentless chasing to becoming a better artist that really led to this burnout I feel. I decided that I needed SOME time at least to recover, mentally and physically. I have ignored this aspect of my life for way too long and acknowledged that I needed help.

All this time, I had massive OCD when it came to my work. I wanted my maps to look a certain way and I flat out refused to outsource any of it. But a few weeks ago, I came across a very talented artist who I felt would be able to more closely emulate my art style and help me cut down on the workload and produce final pieces of art that to a standard I was happy with.

I am still heavily involved with the map sketching and planning, ideation, colors and general art direction. The artist's part is really to come in and render the baseline sketch to final - that's the part that requires the most amount of time.

This is all still being trialed, but my plans are to still release two battle maps each month as usual where one of them would be created by me, and the other by the hired hand. Those of you with a keen eye and who are attuned to my art style will easily be able to tell which maps are done by my hand and which by the artist.

It was very difficult for me to write this post to you guys and I hope you all will be okay with the path I have taken. Anyway, I will update you guys if anything changes. Let me know how you feel, what you think, in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you, my supporters.

Much love,

Frag

Patreon Supporter Downloads

Bronze

• Curio Shop - base map (watermark-free, full resolution, grid + grid-less formats)

Go to Bronze downloads section

Silver

• You'll receive everything above plus...

• Kidnapped Owner (tile)

Go to Silver downloads section

Gold

• You'll receive everything above plus...

• Basement Stairs (tile)

• Asian Theme

Go to Gold downloads section

PS: This cyberpunk battle map was only made possible because of all the wonderful folks here that support my artwork via Patreon. Thank you all so much!