Ongoing project to map...everything.

[Askren]

So I already had a thread months ago for my Tomb of Horrors map, which was really my first foray into the do-it-yourself world of making better maps than the ones provided. It was kind of janky, low-quality, and overall I learned a lot, but had a lot to learn.

You guys may or may not know, I run a lot of modules and adventure paths, and I come across the same problem for most. Maps not suitable for use, gotta make my own. So that's what you'll see here; my ongoing project to make a homemade version of pretty much every map I will need for the various games I run. Some I use once and never again, but I like the process of making them and if nothing else, they come up on a future google search of someone like me looking for these maps to use in their games.

These first three I would consider "game ready" in the sense that they are done enough to be used, though I will probably do more work on them at some point.
-Thistletop Outside; Rise of the Runelords
Thistletop.jpg
-Thistletop First Level; Rise of the Runelords
Thistletop Level 1.jpg
-Thistletop Second Level; Rise of the Runelords
Thistletop Level 2.jpg

These are some maps from the second book of Curse of the Crimson Throne, both of which have other floors I'm still working on. I'll get around to making the maps from the first book at some point.
-Carowyn Manor First Floor; Curse of the Crimson Throne
Carowyn Manor low.jpg
-Temple of Urgathoa; Curse of the Crimson Throne (WIP)
Map (2).jpg

Obviously I have more I'm messing around with right now, but as they're for games I'm not currently running, they're not high priority. This includes Carrion Crown maps, Jade Regent maps, Rappan Athuk maps, and some others. I apologize if some of them are not very good, I'm learning more and more about the process each attempt, and hopefully getting better each time, but that's debatable. And yes, I'm aware I use the same floor-tiles for everything. I'm trying to get away from that.

Anyway, thanks for checking my junk out, I'll be back in another month or so with more things finished.

[mthomas768]

The room of corpses in the Temple of Urgathoa is... disturbing.

[idendoit]

These are very well laid out. I like the artwork very much.

[Jacktannery]

Great maps - well done.

[Bogie]

Excellent battlemaps, thanks for sharing!

[Askren]

Thanks for the positive feedback, guys. I really appreciate that people like my work.

Here's some more I've been working on, or just got through using in my own games.

Curse of the Crimson Throne:
Carowyn Manor First Floor
Carowyn Manor size.jpg

Carowyn Manor Second Floor & Basement
Carowyn Upper.jpg

Hospice of the Blessed Maiden
Hospice.jpg

Hospice Catwalk overlay PNG
catwalks.png


And onto some more work on the Jade Regent maps, where I'm practicing a lot more of using real photo textures, which is not as easy as it seems it should be.

Licktoad Village
Licktoad Village.jpg

In Progress Brinewall Castle
Brinewall.jpg

[madcowchef]

These look like they would add a lot to the tactical quality of game play, as well as the fun. Have you learned a lot about the actual layout as it relates to game play by having your players go through these? Sometimes I wish I'd remembered to take notes about what I liked and didn't about the map design after an actual game session. Keep up the good work.

[Askren]

These are all my own per-pixel rebuilds of maps that come with published Pathfinder adventures, so I can't take any credit for designing the layouts. Paizo buys and publishes their maps at a very low resolution, meaning when scaled up to something useable, they pixelate and get ugly. So all I do is scale them up and then start laying down shapes and textures to make the map, which I try and fill, as closely as possible, with what the rooms are described to contain. I can't say whether or not the full-detail maps contribute to the enjoyment of the games from the part of the players, but I know they certainly assist me, and I know that when you have a map that's just walls and floor and nothing in it, the players are in a bit of a struggle to visualize things you describe to them and how they would impact movement/combat/investigation in that room. But when you have a visual representation, they can actually see what things are there and they have more engaged interaction and movement with respect to those objects. Plus it helps me remember to point out details.

[Askren]

Last piece of the Urgathoa Temple from Curse of the Crimson Throne. The actual temple map is still getting last-minute tweaks, I'll edit this post with it tomorrow.

UrgathoaTempleEnd.jpg

[Blinded]

Hello - I did an account recovery & password reset so I could log in and thank you for these. My game tomorrow will be far, far, far better for them