Hand Drawn Fantasy Maps - For D&D Campaigns in Mind
Posted: Thu Apr 30, 2020 7:31 pm
I heard about map designing for D&D campaigns, so this is my attempt at drawing my own fantasy world in pencil then going over it in pen afterwards. I don't play D&D at all, but I do like to design things so I intend on developing an entire living breathing fantasy atmosphere out of this map. Through developing many maps for this world so it can be played through as an entire living world full of story and encounters. First come the maps, then I'll eventually if given opportunity work on an entire history / story of lore for the world. This chunk of land is but a small section of islands to what lays beyond it's creation. I admire J.R.R Tolkien and his abilities with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings novels. I would like to bring something that huge in history to life that can be both played D&D tabletop style with an alternate version of it's own design and possibly... even a board game with 3D printed models. With enough development on this project, I would even like to have novels written for it's alternate version with lore behind it.
This is just an image of my map done on the computer with some changes to the original paper drawn design. I have another version without location names placed for future purposes. Possibly start a Patreon page somewhere as I was recommended to do and give access to blank maps to members. I'm still working out details on how to handle it. I need to look into what all needs to be designed that also works for D&D campaigns, how it is normally dispersed and what is required of me if I do decide to use Patreons.
After finishing with the digital map, I decided to work on my first "Dungeon Encounter Map". I'm not sure what it will be used for yet. It's my first time working on something like this. All I ever done mapwise before was plan out my Warcraft II strategies while in class. I was thinking it could be a pivotal starting point for the story environment, or it could turn up being a random dungeon encounter in the world to be used with this map. I have one friend who's going to play test my maps for me and see how they flow. I'm currently working on this map still. I'll be going back to it after I post here actually.
This is where I'm calling the map finished. I added another room with coffins in the sewer dungeon area and left it mostly open for more combat encounter options. I'm not sure how the game works, but I'm sure dealing with traps mid combat isn't fun and I was just wanting to be finished with this one. I'm not an expert on any D&D related stuff though. I've got a friend already who wants to test the maps I design for me though, so I guess that's good for input! I'm not even sure I need to design traps, or if that's something DM's add in themselves and I just need to design blank rooms to let them fill in with tokens or other objects they may use. I'm very detail oriented and if I can help add in some features without DM's feeling the need to use other devices and it's both helpful and they like my art style, then I'll take the time to paint them in. If anyone here who sees this post run their own campaigns and could use these maps, feel free to and give feedback if you like. I know not many people come here anymore, but I still put things like this here just for those random people who might.
This map is now finished. I'm going to start working on the battle maps for it now. I would also like to design creature art with lore behind them, though I do suck terribly at drawing bodies and especially faces so it may take a while to produce some good quality stuff on this end until I practice enough on designing them. Once I put together an entire package however I would like to see about joining Patreon with my project intentions layed down.