let me preface this by saying....i am no artist nor do i claim to be. i'm not terrible, but i'm not good either. with that out of the way, check out my first attempts at drawing a town, over world map, and cemetery. the first map is the cemetery that's modeled after the Haunted Temple poster map from WoTC. it turned out okay i think. the second is my over world map. i've taken some names from the D&D world and coupled them with my own. this is an unfinished map on purpose as i don't reveal locations until the players actually hear about them or visit them. the last one is a town and was the first map i drew...it's modeled roughly after Winterhaven in the Madness at Gardmore Abbey adventure.

all in all i'm satisfied. they arent 't as good as they probably could be by someone with more skill, but it was fun to draw them, so that's the important thing. my group has said many times that they like the fact that i put different types of terrain and visual on the table. i've used WoTC dungeon tiles, homemade 3D terrain out of styrofoam, dry erase board (drawing as i go), and now pre-drawn maps.

one thing i'm debating is whether or not i need to use color in the future. i've seen some maps drawn by Chris Perkins and they are all black/white. they are much quicker to create, and can be very detailed, but i like color in my maps. the only drawback is that again, i'm not a great artist, so my maps may come out looking like an episode of Blues Clues. yeah it took a while to color all of my maps, but like i said, it's enjoyable so i don't mind doing it at all. i just want the end result to look decent even with my low skill level. SO...i need an honest opinion from you guys. if you were playing in my game, would you prefer the all black/white if they are to be drawn? or do you like the color as long as it's not all Rainbow Brite and stuff? i seriously want to know, so bring on the constructive criticism

Nicely done. Thanks for sharing. I like the color added and have never done that personally. I would suggest continuing to do so, as time allows since it adds something to it.

I see the point that bright colors would be obtrusive, but the light coloration definitely improves upon something that was decent to begin with. You did a nice job for sure.

Great maps

thanks for the comments guys! we played D&D tonight and i used these maps, and i got some pretty good feedback. everyone liked the result, so mission accomplished!

the only problem with all of this is that one of my players is actually a REALLY good artist. he drew the attached pic today as a request from one of our friends. seriously, i'm not going to be able to compete with that obviously although he said my maps looked good, so even if he's barfing on the inside, he thought they were passable

Yeah. But can he draw maps?

Maps are memories - tape your favorites on the wall like posters. You can look at them years later and smile.Notes on the edges can recall entire sessions.

Seriously - those are very nice maps. There is nothing to be ashamed about.

Those are much better than my first maps, let me tell you! (It wasn't until the eighties that I even thought about using easel pad paper - picture maps drawn with Flair pens on 8.5x11 1/4"quad ruled paper, then taped together....)

Later, in the late eighties, I started doing B&W technical drawings for my maps. A friend still has one on the wall. (The ossuary temple, if I recall.) The Companions had a line of furnishing decals, and there were also some very nice trees for architectural drawings available.

The Auld Grump

Very nice work. Keep it up and soon you'll have an entire kingdom to lay before your players!
Wish I could be that artistic!

remember how i said that there is a player in my group who can draw really well? yeah, so he decided to draw all of the players characters...wow....just wow. oh and fyi, the minotaur has a kitten on his shoulder because recently i had an npc in a town that was giving away free kittens. he took one and named it battle cat (of course). the little girl in pig tails is because the same minotaur has a ring that allows him to change his physical form. he always chooses a little girl with pigtails for whatever reason. anyway, there you go.

That looks awesome. I am envious. I wish one of my group or myself had talent with PC/NPC portraits.

Being able to draw freehand or via Photoshop is on my list of things to accomplish at some point in life. (right up there with learn another language and the various places I would like to visit)

That takes me back...

Top tip for that olde tyme feele: soak the paper in a shallow pan filled with very strong tea over night before you draw the maps on. Do it two or three times for extra parchmentiness (drying between soaks). Accent your maps by VERY CAREFULLY burning the edges.

Cool maps dude.