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Riverside Ruins

Hey everyone, I'm back once again with the next map in line: Riverside Ruins (30x24)! I've enjoyed going back to lush forested maps the last couple weeks, they're definitely my favorite to draw and I think they're usually my best work. I think it's time to move on to more diverse maps though, and thankfully the poll dictates that we'll be having a number of interesting ones in the weeks to come! 

The alternate version of this week's map is with a nice autumnal palette, something I ...

Autumn Riverside Ruins, Adept & Expert

Hello there Adepts/Experts! My alternate version for you this week is a color swap, this time with lots of nice oranges and reds for some autumnal vibes. I used to make this kind of alt version a lot, but I hadn't made so many forested maps for some time so I figured I was overdue. While this kind of swap doesn't change how the map plays out it does change the context somewhat. This palette makes me think of harvest time in a fantasy universe, setting up witchier encounters or battles against...

Forest Graveyard 2

Hello everyone and welcome back once again for another map, this time a complete redo of one of my previous maps, the Forest Graveyard (30x24)! It isn't just any map either, the original was my first map, the one I started Neutral Party with, posted on April 4th last year. To celebrate, I wanted to draw it one more time so as to see the progression. It's been a hell of a year, and as I mentioned last week I'm incre...

Subdued Forest Graveyard, Adept & Expert

Well howdy, Adepts/Experts! I'm back to basics, my bread and butter, forest maps! I tend to have a pretty hard time with urban/indoors maps, just because they take a lot more effort for me to make them look good, so I'm always happy to draw something verdant and forested; what's even better is next week I'll get to do it again when I make the Riverside Ruins map from the poll (I'm f*cking pumped). 

As you can see, your alternate version this week is with a different palette, my sub...

Brigantine, Free Ship Map

Hello everyone and gather around for a free map! This little boat map is free to everyone, including multiple items that only my $2 patrons would typically get: outlines-only files, Photoshop files, and isolated PNGs of each of the ship's levels. I hope you all like it, and if you're looking for islands to visit then check out my big island map I released last week and the many smaller islands I broke it up into for my $2 patrons, but otherwise if money's tight send me a message and I'll give...

Bullseye Island

Hello folks, I'm back once again with another map for you: Bullseye Island (35x35)! I decided to take a short break from the poll lineup to make an island, one of my favorite things to make maps of, and better yet this will work perfectly with the next map from the poll, the Pirate Ship. I hope you all like islands as much as I like making them, but even if you don't it looks like it will be some time before I get the chance to make more ;)

I think this is a fun layout that was very muc...

Scattered Island Maps, Adept & Expert

I hope you like islands, Adepts/Experts, because this week you're getting a bunch of them. Your alt version is a series of islands split up from Bullseye Island, enough to populate a small ocean with unique little encounters. Next week's Pirate Ship map might be handy for traveling from one to another, so I hope you're looking forward to it!

1. What I like about designing islands is that you ca...

Town Street

Hey everyone, this week's map is a bustling maze of cobblestone streets in a somewhat verdant little town, the Town Street (25x25)! Straight from the poll, and suggested a while back in the comments of another town map, this is a nice and simple idea that should prove to be very useful for your more urban campaigns/sessions. My personal homebrew campaign is set almost exclusively in a large city (and often the sewers or tunnels beneath it) so this is one of the rare times that I could actuall...

Market Street, Adept & Expert

Welcome back folks, your alternate map this time is populated with some more props that you might recognize, the stalls from Town Market! I've sized, posed, and shaded them into the map for you, giving the Town Street a more market-y feel and clogging the streets somewhat. This kind of thing can go both ways though, as while the stalls will offer lots of cover to your party and their enemies there will also probably be all kinds of civilians who can and will get in the way of ranged combat. G...

Forest Stream, Revisited

Welcome back, Adepts and Experts, for another installment of my Revisited series! Once a month I go back to an old map and change it up, usually by altering it to give it a new theme. This time however, I went back and updated one of my older maps, Forest Stream (24x27), giving it my current verdant color palette and tying it together with the rest of my Forest series of maps. Other than altering the colors, I touc...

Mage's Lair

It's been a hectic couple of weeks but I'm finally back, this time with the Mage's Lair (14x14)! While significantly smaller than my average map, this one's got a lot packed into it, and on top of that, it was one of my most difficult maps to make yet. It was good practice though as I haven't made many multi-level maps up until now, so hopefully this goes smoother next time. 

 Anyway, this squat tower in the forest can be home to all sorts of characters and not necessarily vil...

Forest Lair, Adept & Expert

Welcome back, Adepts and Experts! My alternate map for you this week is an unoccupied version of the Mage's Lair, so fill it up with whatever you like! 

1. The rough sketch was a little tough for this one. When I set out to make a tower map, I wasn't too sure what I'd do with it. The stairs turned out to be the trickiest part, as no matter where I places them I wasn't too happy with it (th...

Cultist Lair

Welcome back everyone, this week's map is the winner from the poll, the Cult Dungeon! I tweaked the name slightly, but don't think the change had any sway on the map. This compact 23x31 map has a nice mix of caves to dungeon, but this time with a somewhat more linear layout than I typically make my dungeons with. Sometimes it's nice to know the exact path your players will have to take though, right? 

If you've been around for a little while you might know that when I make dungeon ...

Cultist Lair, Adept & Expert

Howdy folks, I've got another map for you! Your alternate version this week is a handy propless version of the Cultist Lair. No longer will you be restricted by a bunch of props you didn't necessarily want, because you can fill this space with whatever you need! Also, I made a small change to my PSD this time, and it should be a little easier to toggle between props and propless now, just a small quality of life upgrade.

Anyway, let's talk about the map!

2019-02-23 16:07:34 +0000 UTC View Post

Desert Fountain

Welcome back, folks! You might notice this week's map wasn't in the lineup, but rather was a personal choice as we're between polls right now. It was brought it to my attention that I neglected to put any desert maps on the most recent poll, so it made sense to make this quickly before we started with the winners! And as a reminder, the poll is still open, so get in your votes before Tuesday the 19th!

I'm calling this week's map the Desert Fountain, a 30x30 map set in the desert among s...

Frozen Fountain, Adept & Expert

Hello Adepts and Experts! Welcome back once again for another alternate map, this time a rare wintery version of a desert map. I styled it after the Winter Ruins map from a couple weeks back, so they should work together fairly well, though purposely I didn't add any trees. I think without trees it has a more mountainous vibe, and actually this might be the most Skyrim-y map I've ever made (complete with dragon skeleton!). Hopefully this scratches that snow-map-itch that many of you have been...

Map Poll 4

Welcome one and all, to my 4th map poll! If you're a newer patron notice that you may vote on as many maps as you like, so vote for every one you're interested in. Starting Monday, February 18th, I'll lock this poll and start making the most voted-for maps, from top to bottom, though I will only be making the half that fared the best. This way, I can find the maps that have the least interest among all of you and focus on making what the majority of you want! 

Many of the entries i...

Village Square

Hey there! This week's map is the Village Square, a compact 30x30 map with all kinds of obstacles to make combat interesting. I like making these kinds of maps with jumbled layouts because it offers opportunities to fight at short, mid, and long range as need be, making sure that any player can use their full array of spells and weapons as long as they're crafty about positioning and cover.  

This one is actually based off of a little side quest I put together for my players while ...

Stormy Village Square, Adept & Expert

Howdy, Adepts and Experts! Your extra version this week is a stormy adaption of the Village Square. I haven't made an alternate weather version of a map for a while so I figured I was about due, plus I always like making stormy versions of my urban maps for those grungy noir vibes and dramatic combats. Another bonus is that you can add weather effects to your combats such as reduced visibility (easier stealth, harder ranged combat), difficult muddy terrain, or sudden random lighting strikes b...

Pagan Altar

Hey there everyone, my map for you this time is the Pagan Altar (30x30), it was from pretty far down the last poll but it's one I've been looking forward to. I made this one to mesh well with my other forested maps so it should seem pretty familiar at a glance; many of you have shown interest in maps with similar palettes and themes so I think you'll find this to be an excellent installment in my roadside forest series! 

I think I've mentioned this before but I sometimes like to ha...

Rocky Clearing, Adept & Expert

Hey there everyone, this week you folks get a little bonus content as I've got two alternate versions for ya: alterless and with subdued colors! Sometimes the obvious choice for the alternate map (alterless) is a little too easy so I feel I should whip something else up as well, and honestly there's something wrong about a creepy alter in the woods if there isn't a somewhat spooky palette to accompany it. 

2019-02-01 16:46:51 +0000 UTC View Post

Overgrown Caves, Revisited

Hey Adepts and Experts, welcome back for another installment in my Revisited series! This is an overhaul of the Infested Caves, this time altered to be filled with plants and water as requested several months ago. Additionally I've made several changes based on the feedback I received, specifically that the lighting and layout made figuring out the elevation a little too tricky to decipher. The end re...

Desert Tomb

Hello folks! This week's map is the Desert Tomb (28x33), perhaps the first map I've made that mixes both outside and inside environments and lighting. Otherwise, it's a pretty straightforward one with a simple symmetrical layout, every inch of which is begging to be filled with dart traps, swinging blades, and cracks through which scorpions can suddenly emerge and jump onto your cleric's face. As the prop/no prop debate continues, I went with a slightly prop-light dungeon, where every room ha...

Propless Desert Tomb, Adept & Expert

Welcome back, Adepts/Experts! As was highly requested recently, your alt version of this week's map is propless, though admittedly I chose discriminately what is and isn't a prop (meaning I decided to leave the sand piles, rubble, raised platforms, and columns in). If there's interest I'll go back and cut all the rest of the prop-like items as well, so let me know in the comments if you'd be interested in that sort of thing. 

Anyway, let's talk about the map!

2019-01-26 16:37:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Winter Ruins

Hello folks, this week's map is the Winter Ruins (30x30), my first winter map! It took a little figuring out as it's fairly different than my typical lush and vibrant map, but I think it came out looking neat none the less. At the very least I'll take what I learned from it and make some more like it in the near future (maybe as Adept or revisited versions)! 

The encounter I had in mind while making this one was of an ambush set up along a path that winds through an old abandoned v...

Snowy Winter Ruins, Adept & Expert

Hello my lovely patrons, and welcome back for another alternate map! I went into this week's map knowing I would make a more snow stormy version, though I wasn't too sure how it would come out. On one hand it definitely looks more snowy, but I'm not sure I enjoy the effect as much as I thought I would (maybe that's why I've seen no other mapmakers try it). I tend to change my mind pretty quickly about these kinds of things though, so you never know how I'll feel about it by my next wintery ma...

Flooded Dungeon

Hey everyone! My map for you this time is the Flooded Dungeon (28x28), a neat little map that I've had in mind for a very long time. I'm not too sure what kind of encounter I would set up in a map like this, but you can count on skeletons being involved one way or another and the water being filled with quippers. I'm interested in hearing how you would set up an encounter though, so let me know in the comments what you would do with this map!

Also, this map got me thinking about dungeon...

Cave Dungeon, Adept & Expert

Welcome back, Adepts/Experts! This week's map has been a doozy, I 100% underestimated how much more work it would take than my average grassy or dungeony map. Who would have thought that water + caves + dungeons (the 3 things I spend the most time on) would add up to a gauntlet of revisions? Yeesh. Anyway, it's done now and looking pretty nice if I say so myself, so let's get into how it came about. 

2019-01-12 16:45:33 +0000 UTC View Post

Forested Canyon

Hey everyone, I'm back! I hope you all had an excellent holiday and didn't get up to too much trouble over New Years. You can probably guess how mine went as I'm posting this a day later than I usually do.  My map this time is the Forested Canyon (28x40), which barely beat 'Small Flooded Dungeon' in the poll by a single vote! I'm glad it lined up that way for this week, as I don't think I would have had the time to give that tiny wet dungeon the love and care it deserves.

This litt...

Fall Forested Canyon, Adept & Expert

Welcome back, Adepts and Experts! Man, it's been a while. I don't know about all of you, but the holiday season is absolute madness for me, I feel like I haven't taken a breather for a month. I'm looking forward to getting back to maps though (it's weird how much you look forward to regular life after a long break), so let's talk about this week's one, the Forested Canyon!

1. As always, I like ...