24 Amazing, Homemade Dungeons & Dragons Maps

November 19, 2018 6:50 AM

Does what it says on the tin. These Dungeons and Dragons maps are absolutely astonishing.
posted by josher71 (26 comments total)

Worth it for The Paraelemental Plane of Ooze.
posted by Artw at 6:57 AM on November 19, 2018 [23 favorites]

I was about to make the same comment! That's some next level creative thinking.

I so very wish I still had a group to play DnD with. Alas!
posted by Kikujiro's Summer at 7:06 AM on November 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

This game saved me. School did nothing for me, but I'd go home, make maps, learn the names of monsters and spells, do all the math needed, read all the books and background info for campaigns, etc. When the tide turned and everyone decided you were a nerd if you played D&D, I was all "Guess I'm a nerd."
posted by xammerboy at 7:08 AM on November 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

This is relevant to my interests.
posted by darkstar at 7:12 AM on November 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

Some of these are amazing indeed, and some are just, y'know, nice maps. I'll toot my own horn and self-link to this world map of Midworld - a campaign setting I created for a game that never really materialized. I used a really helpful tutorial that I... can't find anymore. Oops!
posted by Rock Steady at 7:16 AM on November 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

These are some really great pieces of art (The Maze of the Blue Medusa is astonishingly dense), but my favorite homebrew maps are done by one of our local Pathfinder GMs, who does up 3D maps; he builds them out of corrugated cardboard, with cardboard stacks to indicate different levels, and really goes the extra mile WRT scenery and buildings.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:17 AM on November 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

The Maze of the Blue Medusa is amazing. The map is only one part of it---they've done an art book/adventure module to go with it. It's just as surreal and awesome as you might expect. I'm prepping for a campaign in it this winter.
posted by bonehead at 7:17 AM on November 19, 2018 [3 favorites]

> I so very wish I still had a group to play DnD with. Alas!

I have used roll20.net virtual tabletop to play D&D and other roleplaying systems, and I just used their looking for group system to find a new 5e campaign to join. Finding a good fit might require careful interviewing, but the application itself is quite good.
posted by I-Write-Essays at 7:50 AM on November 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I don't really get to do a lot of this in Call of C'thulhu, so it's always nice to see these maps.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 7:51 AM on November 19, 2018 [2 favorites]

My god, I wish I could draw maps like these. My world maps/battlemaps for my DnD game are about as basic as you can get. Though the interest thing about pre-drawn battlemaps is that they immediately focus the players attention & expectations that an encounter is about to happen, as well as potentially limiting that encounter - this past Friday I had a player deliberately place a figure outside the pre-drawn map to indicate that he wanted to be in a position that was there, but not depicted on the map; it's interesting to me that something that is intended as an aid also sometimes acts as a limiter.

I so very wish I still had a group to play DnD with. Alas!

As mentioned about, systems like roll20 or Fantasy Grounds make playing online very possible (it's how I got back into it, and then I got inspired to get a local game going with some neighbours/friends). So it's a very viable possibility.
posted by nubs at 8:30 AM on November 19, 2018

My husband is a big tabletop gamer, but I've found that I actually hate the act of roleplaying. I'm intrigued by every other element of RPGs--the maps, the mechanics, the stories--but I just cannot get into the part where I have to sit around a table and say things like, "I put on my Cloak of Secrets and cast a spell of Protection!" I think I'm too much of an introvert. I do all my fantasizing on the inside and it feels weird and invasive to make it public. I would happily, blissfully, just create maps like this all the livelong day, though. Someone else can play them. I just want to make the maps.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:35 AM on November 19, 2018 [6 favorites]

I'm in a Blue Medusa campaign! Sadly we only get to see the map occasionally, for obvious reasons.
posted by tavella at 9:14 AM on November 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

Sadly, Illustrator of the Blue Medusa is the known G. Gator & transphobe, Zac Sabbath.

The above is a twitter link, and it's first link that I found; I'm sure there's more documentation elsewhere.

I only found out about him this year. Made me sad because I do like some of the stuff and people with which he's associated.

/back to fun nerd shit
posted by wires at 9:40 AM on November 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

"You sail east through the Ocean of Naught an enter the straits of...Mengele? That can't be right..."

Edit: Also, I feel like "The Fabled Fury of the Lich Brothers" is a real missed opportunity.
posted by The Tensor at 9:47 AM on November 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I think I want a campaign where the Lich Brothers are just the fantasy Property Brothers: they find rundown dungeons, do basic repairs and cosmetic improvements, and flip them for a profit. Your players are hired by their pissed-off former clients, who want their money back. But their homebase is a lot more dangerous than the shitty builder-grade dungeons they've been passing off as 'luxury renovations,' and they aren't giving any refunds without a fight...
posted by nonasuch at 10:22 AM on November 19, 2018 [17 favorites]

Isometric maps are my favorite! Something about them is so satisfying. Mike Schley does fantastic ones.
posted by Emily's Fist at 10:44 AM on November 19, 2018

Sadly, Illustrator of the Blue Medusa is the known G. Gator & transphobe, Zac Sabbath.

ah. AKA Zak Smith, previously on the blue.
posted by Halloween Jack at 10:47 AM on November 19, 2018 [1 favorite]

I want a Zorn Cartographer.
posted by clavdivs at 12:00 PM on November 19, 2018

Dyson Logos' maps are extraordinary and could be a post by themselves.

I particularly like:
Mapper's Challenge.
The megadelve
The Tekumel-style undercity
posted by xiw at 12:18 PM on November 19, 2018 [4 favorites]

ah. AKA Zak Smith, previously on the blue.

yeah for anyone who hasn't clicked through, the previous thread on this topic indicates maybe this whole thing is a bit more complicated that one might assume. Definitely not trying to derail this discussion of cool maps, there's more than enough discussion there for anyone who wants to dig in.
posted by Emily's Fist at 12:39 PM on November 19, 2018

These maps are awesome! Apparently table top gamers are pretty creative and artistic when planning a campaign -- my boss builds tiny houses and terrains for the games he DMs.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bpt9B6VlvBB/
posted by palindromeisnotapalindrome at 4:32 PM on November 19, 2018

My eyes lit up at the map for Westpeak. I used to make maps in this style for campaigns. Twelve year old me would sit for hours drawing little buildings, walls, gates, and guardhouses. As I drew each city section, I would tell myself little stories about the people who lived there, what they did, and how that area grew up around some feature or event. From the main keep to the outer farmlands, every part had a unique history, a cast of local notables, and some lore about a how a street or shop got its name.

I hope Jeffry Gabert of Edmonton, Alberta had at least as much fun creating his map.
posted by Avelwood at 12:23 AM on November 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

There's a couple of subreddits with quite good signal/noise ratio, if you'd like to regularly have some new maps to gaze at: r/dndmaps and r/battlemaps.
posted by Harald74 at 3:14 AM on November 20, 2018 [3 favorites]

The Wizard’s Tower map felt very much like one that would have accompanied a Dragon Magazine module in about 1985.
posted by Chrysostom at 10:25 PM on November 20, 2018 [1 favorite]

I realized that I read this article and post all the way through, saved a few pngs. And then came back to it to share a few days later, yet I never +'d it. Seemed rude. Thanks for sharing this!
posted by es_de_bah at 6:32 AM on November 21, 2018

This discussion makes me think of the cutaway maps found all through the Tom Wham game Mertwig's Maze:
here

There's a long tradition of cutaways going all the way back to the first D&D books. It's interesting how evocative cutaways and other illustrated maps can be.
posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 8:29 AM on November 25, 2018