Jon, Author at Fantastic Maps

Pirates off the Starboard Bow!

The latest installment in the Fantastic Maps series takes us to the high seas with pirate ships! I’ve always enjoyed sailing and the tales of dashing captains and dastardly pirates, and when running my home game I decided it was time to get them onto a heaving deck. As Ben McFarland once said to me ‘nothing good ever comes from getting on a ship’. That turned out to be true, and the ship in question ended up on the floor of the bring deep (in this shipwreck map).

Now you too can have your players adventure on the high seas. This map pack has two ships. The first is a modest 35′ two masted pinnace (25′ without the bowsprit) suitable for green adventurers starting out island hopping in an archipelago, or for sneaking up on a larger vessel silent-like: Continue reading “Pirates off the Starboard Bow!”

Free Dungeon Tiles

Roll up! Roll up! Get your free dragon skeleton here! Profantasy are celebrating 50 annual styles by giving one away for free – and they picked my dungeon style! You can grab it from their website here.

Enter the Lost City and unearth its secrets

The Lost City has been found! Logan Bonner and Open Design have released their archaeological delve into the secrets beneath the sands this week and I had the pleasure of mapping the crazy locations that Logan and the patrons came up with. I’ve never before been given an art brief that involved drawing a deity – I’m just saying.

The Lost City takes place under the sands that hide the crashed remains of a flying city. As the PCs investigate they uncover the history of the city and must find out why the city fell from the skies.

A flying city is a wondrous location anyway, but the patrons and Logan pulled out the stops when coming up with fun sandbox locations for adventurers to explore. I don’t want to give away too many spoilers (but there are some – so if you’re a player you should look away now), but here’s a selection of some of the maps I created for the book: Continue reading “Enter the Lost City and unearth its secrets”

More Free City Tiles!

Wayfinder #5 is out in time for PaizoCon. It’s great to see this fan created magazine going from strength to strength. 5 is a good number – it shows that it has legs and it’s digging in for the long haul. The magazine keeps getting better and better, with this one containing 79 pages of adventures, monsters, variant rules and great art. The production quality is excellent and there are adverts by Paizo, Open Design, NeonCon and Rite Publishing (amongst many more). With that kind of backing, the magazine should have no difficulty continuing to grow. It’s a great place for people to try out their art or writing chops so there’s lots of new names in the contributor list as well as some familiar faces. You should definitely download your free copy to see who’ll be writing for Kobold Quarterly in a few months time!

I have some work in this Wayfinder as well. I created two more map tiles of city locations – to expand the set I created for the last Wayfinder. This time it’s a temple and a cathedral. Feel free to download these and use them for any non-commercial purpose.

Artism Exhibition – Autism and Art in SoHo

I’ve run two gallery shows of maps down at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art. The people who run it are fantastic. John Ordover – the owner – uses the space to put on shows and also runs charity events.

His son is on the autistic spectrum and on July 7th the gallery is hosting a opening evening for an exhibition of art by autistic artists – Artism: The Art of Autism. All proceeds from sales of prints will go to Reach for the Stars Learning Center for Autistic Children in Brooklyn, NY.

Artism: The Art of Autism is based on the book Artism by Debra Hosseini who’s also curating the show at the SGDA. The pieces in the exhibit are by autistic artists from around the world. All the art you see on this post will be on display, and you can check out more samples on the Artism Today Gallery.

If you are in New York, I recommend dropping by the gallery for the free opening reception on Thursday July 7th, 6pm-9pm at 138 Sullivan Street down in SoHo. The show runs until the 28th of July and is free admission. The SGDA is open Tuesday to Saturday 12-6 and opens until 7pm on Thursdays.

New Fantasy Maps from The Elusive Foe by Interaction Point Games

Fantasy map for the pathfinder adventure Elusive Foe by Interaction Point Games

This map was created for the Pathfinder adventure The Elusive Foe by Interaction Point Games which has just come out. The action takes place in Scotland and the route takes in rolling forested hills and ruined towers. The real fun here was in the icons, and the inset map. I’m from Scotland so it was great to have the chance to illustrate a part of the world I know really well. Continue reading “New Fantasy Maps from The Elusive Foe by Interaction Point Games”

The Bandit’s Lair

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:

Continue reading “The Old Stross Bathhouse”

The City of Redwall

The Dwarves of Redwall are builders. Their city stands on three great terraces carved from the side of a mountain, and the walls are grounded by massive octagonal cannon towers. As with any dwarven city, the overground structures, temples and railway stations are just the surface. Below the city, mines and tunnels probe deep into the earth.

Continue reading “The City of Redwall”