It’s been nearly six years since I posted my first geomorph to the blog as part of a series of 100 geomorphic posts (that since increased to who knows how many by the end). In the six years since then, my skills have improved dramatically. When talking to David Millar of Dave’s Mapper, I took him up on a request to draw a n...
2015-04-24 19:17:22 +0000 UTC View Post
(This message is only visible to patrons at the $1 and higher level) It's time for another backstage pass! Here are all the maps from the next four weeks of the Dodecahedron, minus one "super secret map" that will be posted on the day it is ready and can't be posted in advance because it might ruin the surprise.
2015-04-24 19:16:11 +0000 UTC View Post
I drew this weird little cave/dungeon for a friend. I think the best comment on it during production is that it looks like entrails splattered on the ground, ready to be read by some crazy old coot. It works for me because it feels like a classic D&D game – it has a secret underground lake with a small island in the middl...
2015-04-21 14:14:48 +0000 UTC View Post
I’m working with Kabuki Kaiser of the excellent Mad Monks of Kwantoom and Ruins of the Undercity on his latest piece – Castle Gargantua. The theme of this is a castle in the scale of giants. But not the giants of classical D&D that can be up to 21-24 feet tall. No, these are the giants of legend – the giants of Jack an...
2015-04-17 14:20:04 +0000 UTC View Post
Cratered plains of salt cover the land to the alkali seas, pierced like nipples by spikes of basalt, obsidian and glasslike metamorphic rock. The craters collect the rains and are home to base creatures and the snail lords. Sorcerer kings of the crater states, the snail lords watch over the salt flats, occasionally reaching out ...
2015-04-14 14:13:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Every now and again I go to my patrons at the $2.50 level and up and ask for ideas for upcoming maps. I don’t guarantee that they will get done or even incorporated into a map, but sometimes one just jumps out and grabs my imagination like a great big hand. Like this great big hand. How about a dungeon built into a giant sto...
2015-04-10 14:41:09 +0000 UTC View Post
Prince Eluwerr’s palace was still under construction, the marble of the great fountain still covered under the artist’s tarp when the invaders arrived. The prince was captured and put to the stake. The first to move into the palace were a pair of opportunistic merchants who began selling off the various stockpiles of constru...
2015-04-07 14:26:51 +0000 UTC View Post
Two updates for the Patreon Campaign for April. First of all, a huge thank you to everyone for getting us here. In the past 60 days we've seen over $100 in additional pledges which meant not only starting to produce maps under a full commercial license that anyone can use, but releasing three maps under that license last month ...
2015-04-04 18:22:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Ah, city maps. They are some of my favourites, and some of my most hated works. A good city map makes me want to run a game immediately when I see it, but takes me three times as long to draw as any other similarly-sized map (maybe due to all those little boxes I sit and draw for hours at a time?) Named for the massive wooden b...
2015-04-03 15:18:01 +0000 UTC View Post
And here we are with the final map of “The Upper Levels” of the Dyson Mega Delve. Added in on a whim when I was working on the Dwarven City levels, the Harpy Tower climbs up above the rest of the dungeon and seals the deal as the 31st map of the set. Climbing up over 2,000 feet above the dwarven city it watches over, this t...
2015-03-31 16:40:34 +0000 UTC View Post
This is a free post, not a "content" post that is charged to Patrons Now that the Dyson Mega Delve is just one map away from being complete, I took all 12 contiguous maps from the lowest level of the Delve and put them together into a single map that is almost exactly 3 letter-sized pages in size.
2015-03-28 16:39:20 +0000 UTC View Post
And we are back to the Dyson Mega Delve for those two last maps to complete “The Upper Levels”. This is map number 30 of 31 in the set, and once the last one goes up I’ll put together a page here on the blog that links to all of the maps as well as the node map to make it easier to navigate the whole thing. The ruins of B...
2015-03-27 14:35:55 +0000 UTC View Post
And here we go with another backstage pass folks! This post is going out to everyone backing at the $1 or higher level and if you look up there at the top of the post (under the Backstage Pass graphic) you will find the little blue boxes that are the maps themselves for this pass. While there are 8 maps in this backstage pass, ...
2015-03-27 00:55:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Not much is left of Crovet’s Tower. But the stairwell to the dungeons beneath was cleared of rubble by holy templars of the church seeking stolen relics a decade ago, and since then who knows what strange beasts (or worse – human cultists!) may have turned this into their home? This is my last isometric map for a while, a...
2015-03-24 13:19:47 +0000 UTC View Post
Ancient temples fallen to ruin hidden deep in the jungle. Sounds like the setup for any number of pulp adventures and one I haven’t drawn nearly enough of (although I’ve run a fair number of adventures over the years with this exact premise… or the “twist” of it being an ancient palace instead of a temple). I’m not ...
2015-03-20 13:29:38 +0000 UTC View Post
One of the first maps I posted to the blog was the Lair of the Frogs. Unfortunately I have long ago lost the original drawing of the map, as well as the hard drive that had the only high resolution scan of it (back then I was posting low resolution scans to the blog with the eventual hope of publishing a book with the high resol...
2015-03-17 12:02:42 +0000 UTC View PostThe nomad tribes are rarely united and even more rarely build anything resembling permanent constructions. The trade city at Leaping Falls, for instance, was entirely made of tents prior to foreign investment and construction in order to maintain trade alliances with the various tribes. Thus Jebbal’s Tor stands out on the pla...
2015-03-13 12:49:43 +0000 UTC View Post
"I have sent many adventurers to the Prismatic Fortress, supposed home of the Archmagus Mekeri. While some have returned, even bearing the partially completed map shown below, none can even explain the contents of even the first chamber of their explorations… It is as if the fortress defends itself not with traps or guard...
2015-03-10 12:07:14 +0000 UTC View Post
While there will always be wizards who are popular due to their fireworks and other magical manifestations, there are others who find no solace in civilized society. Necromancers, demonologists, witches and practitioners of foul arts. This small hillside excavation is the lair of such a wizard, witch or warlock. One who keeps g...
2015-03-06 13:31:31 +0000 UTC View Post
There is a stout tower along the Akkedis Trail that is decorated with massive white chunks of stone along its battlements. To those who pass through its shadow on the trail it has become known as either the Crown of Teeth, or the Titan’s Teeth. It is said that the “teeth” were pulled from the ancient corpse of a primordia...
2015-03-03 16:08:02 +0000 UTC View Post
And the Backstage Pass is back! Here are seven maps that will be getting posted to the blog over the course of March. The remaining two maps for the month are going to be the two last maps of the Dyson Mega Delve (which aren't drawn yet!) The goal going forward is the keep ahead of my cartography like this so I can not stress ...
2015-03-01 19:24:16 +0000 UTC View Post
Buried in the crypts and tombs under the ruins of Bryn Mynnyd is the Church of Silence (known be the few outsiders who know it exists as the Death Cult of Bryn Mynnyd or the Assassin’s Cult of Bryn Mynnyd). This group isn’t a “Mwah ha ha ha, look at my undead minions!” type cult, but are more the “heh heh heh… Murder...
2015-02-27 13:19:37 +0000 UTC View Post
We head back to the top-left side of the Dyson Mega Delve node map for the next three maps (although the last of the three may be delayed by a week or two as I post commercial-licensed maps at the beginning of March). The Crypts are carved out of old mines under the necropolis of Bryn Mynnyd. Many niches and alcoves have been d...
2015-02-24 13:46:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Today we return to (and complete) the Giant Citadel. There’s a valley in the mountains that is avoided by sensible people and even adventurers (who are notoriously not in the sensible category most of the time) because it is home to a Stone Giant warlock of immense girth and supposedly immense power. Regular trade caravans run...
2015-02-20 16:28:03 +0000 UTC View Post
Another break from the Mega Delve? How can this be?! Sometimes the need to draw a specific map rears its head and I have no choice but to allow the pen to draw what needs to be drawn, regardless of how it fits to my plans. I received four pads of isometric graph paper from my girlfriend for Christmas (three letter-sized and on...
2015-02-17 13:39:23 +0000 UTC View Post
To the east of the Hematite Mines and south of the Dwarven Outpost we arrive at the Giant Citadel. Originally listed in the node maps as a single map, I realized I really wanted this node to be about “big” – so large halls, large chambers… and thus more than one map. I’ve also got a love for little caves and cracks in...
2015-02-13 14:05:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Thanks everyone, it's been a ride and a half. In November of 2012 I was so poor I couldn't afford internet. Two years later I am one of the top 100 Patreon campaigns of 2014. Thanks to you, I pay my rent every month, and also manage to keep myself in food and drink. And this week we broke the final goal line for the campaign! ...
2015-02-11 20:27:10 +0000 UTC View Post
When the dwarves loaded up their Earthships and abandoned the city above, they intended to take all the clans that lived here with them. But in the months leading up to their departure there were disappearances from the city. Religious fanatics, young idealists, and some struck by pure greed from their time in the mines were amo...
2015-02-10 14:38:16 +0000 UTC View Post
A little bit down the river from the Home of the Muck Dwellers is the Water Temple – where the Frog Priests cultivate their mutant frogs and worship foul gods of the depths. Guarded by a few elite mercenaries of the fish-people, and only rarely visited by any of the strange jellyfish beings from the node to the north, this no...
2015-02-06 14:13:46 +0000 UTC View Post
(Because I suck at calendars, this Tuesday's map is up on Monday!) Now we head southwest from the Flooded Mines, along the Lost River to the home of the Muck Dwellers. The muck dwellers actually consist of a few different amphibian races who worked together to build these strange ovoid structures. Currently, four different rac...
2015-02-02 15:39:26 +0000 UTC View Post
