Jon, Author at Fantastic Maps

Map Tiles! Piles of Treasure! Dragon Skeletons!

The guys at Profantasy liked the March CC3 style so much that they asked me to do a tile set for a fantasy dungeon style. The pack contains all the standards you’d expect – tables, chairs, doors, stairs – as well as some that are a little more unusual – mushrooms, a corpse, and a Dragon skeleton (yes, I’m really pleased with that one). Some of you who follow my twitter feed may have seen a few sneak peaks from the Dragon Skeleton and now I can publicly admit where it comes from.

The dungeon style will make up the June 2011 Annual style and the guys at Profantasy have put up a great little preview for you to check out. They have a couple of higher resolution samples in the annual style gallery. I’m really looking forward to being able to show off all the elements in this pack, it’s looking great.

Work in Progress – The Kingdom of Thulaan

I’ve been keeping up a game with a couple of friends from university (using maptool as we’re now on different continents). We take it in turns to run sessions, and in one Pathfinder game we’re exploring the manifold intrigues of the Kingdom of Thulaan and the royal court of Orphaleson. There are scheming Dukes, warring religious factions and dispossessed sons of nobles, along with a looming orc threat and some unwholesome undead raised by forbidden necromancers.

It’s great fun and we’re starting to get a feel for the world. The GM has managed to create a great suspension of disbelief by keeping most of the foes human and the plot lines believable – no mean feat in the fantasy world of dungeons and dragons. I suspect his PhD in Mediaeval Polish history has come in very handy whilst building this campaign.

A map of the fantasy kingdom of Thulaan for the pathfinder campaign I'm playing in

But this is a cartography blog rather than a campaign journal – so it should be no surprise that I’ve been playing with putting together a map of the lands of Thulaan. Continue reading “Work in Progress – The Kingdom of Thulaan”

What lurks in the shipwrecks of the briny deep?

Today sees the release of The Ship’s Graveyard map pack released in partnership with Kobold Quarterly. The pack details a huge underwater map (25 square feet when printed out full size) with walls of kelp, schools of fish and shipwrecked hulks. The perfect lair for a kraken or aboleth and their dark designs upon the world. When I used this map the players found themselves in the deep after their ship was destroyed by a kraken. At 6000px square (25 square feet when printed out at 1 square = 1 inch) there’s more than enough room for an epic battle against the horrors of the abyss.

Here’s a low res preview of the map in the pack: Continue reading “What lurks in the shipwrecks of the briny deep?”

Pre-orders are up for The Breaking of Forstor Nagar!

Savage battlecries and screams of pain echo through the streets and off the raw sheer walls that make up the carved stronghold of Forstor Nagar. The cannibalistic troops of The Hungering Legion have breached the gates, and the defenders have been routed. Continue reading “Pre-orders are up for The Breaking of Forstor Nagar!”

Midgard’s Frozen North

Fire and ice – the northmen have come.

The map of the northlands of the fantasy land of Midgard for Open Design — The Northlands of Midgard

Open Design has released Frozen Empires, the first regional supplement since the announcement that the world that holds Zobeck would be the world of Midgard. The christening of the world was a good opportunity to change the style of the world maps a little, and this is the first in the new style to be released. Here’s a low res version of the Frozen North (you can click the image above to see a larger version). The full size version appears in the Frozen Empires pdf, and print versions. Check it out!

New Map Pack – Necromancer’s Lair

It’s the first of the month, and that means a new Fantastic Maps map pack, in partnership with Kobold Quarterly! This month we go dark and dungeon-y with a Necromancer’s Lair. The map shows a large underground room with spiked pits, rubble, raised platforms, gargoyle statues and magic circles. Continue reading “New Map Pack – Necromancer’s Lair”

City tile ideas

After showing off the city map tiles for Wayfinder #4 (previous post) it got me thinking. The square format is repetitive and blocky. Also, the directional lighting means the tiles can’t be rotated for variety without it looking like there are 4 different suns. So, whilst they are pretty, they have their drawbacks when trying to create a large map. I also feel that creating a whole city at this level of detail is a bit of a fools errand. That’s a lot of tiles to build a district, let alone a full city.

So I’ve been playing around, and because this is a personal project rather than a commission, I can make my mulling public. So here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

free city tile for fantasy city maps - sketch and ideas

Here’s some of the logic behind the design: Continue reading “City tile ideas”

Wayfinder #4 Map Tiles

Wayfinder #4 is out – the latest iteration of the excellent free Paizo fanzine. You can grab your free copy here – and I recommend that you do, it’s 92 pages of great free content.

Now that it’s out I can show off some of the art I did for the magazine – the map tiles that appear on p85. Here they are in all their glory – free to use (for non-commercial purposes) for anyone who would like them. Let me know what you think, and whether an expanded set would be useful.

Click the thumbs below to see the large versions of the image and download them, or just right-click save as to download each one. Enjoy!

Annual Style for Profantasy

I talked a little earlier about the upcoming Annual Style for Profantasy. It’s out now as the March Annual style so I can show off a little more of the work.

The guys at Profantasy used the style to recreate the world of Caera map for the Dungeonslayers free RPG. It’s surprising, and flattering, to see my work in some else’s map. Click the image for a larger version:

Edit: Looks like the image is no longer available.

I’m really pleased with the results they’re getting with this tileset. If you download the annual style let me know how you get on!

GM’s Day Sale

March 4th is GM’s Day and RPGNow is running a GM’s day sale until the 7th. For this time Fantastic Maps are (almost) all $0.99. Dropping your players in lava has never been so cheap! Check them out here.