Map releases and musings (Patreon)

I will say, one thing I did not expect when creating maps was a massive warp of how time works in our world. I'm pretty sure I enter the Feywild when I start map making because one second it was Aug 1st and I look down and now it is Aug 20th! Where did the month go? I blame the Fey... must have been those cheeky Pixies again. 

With the hard work I've been putting in, I will say I'm pretty happy with being able to create a few maps of my favorite town of Krezk. This month we saw the Pool & Shrine along with the main gates and Burgomaster's Cottage. It was fun to work with a cold and snowy area for a change of pace from Vallaki. 

Additionally, I set off on an ambitious project with the Sanguine Rose. I had never written an adventure before and was super excited to share that with you all! I really don't know how awesome content creators like Pyram King do it, because writing (and re-writing) all that content was a heck of a lot of work. But in the end, I was happy with the release and hope you all get a chance to try it out. Creating adventures along with map releases will be an occasional treat if I can get the time to actually write it. I do plan on creating my own Mad Mage encounter in the future along with a series of map to go along with it. 

Speaking of a series of maps... I have some pretty awesome maps on deck for you all! This is what my releases are shaping up to be in the next few weeks:

Wachterhaus. I think you'll like this one! I tried to make each room unique and true to the module as possible and capture the juxtaposition of elegance and decay all together in this map and I think you'll like the results. I also was able to get the roof as a separate .png file (both day and night) which will be included in the download file (for my patrons only of course!)

Party Encampment. This was just a fun map I wanted to play around with some lighting techniques and deep (very deep) shadows. My goal for this map was to create a feeling of looming pines, darkness, and encroaching fog around their camp, in what is normally a sanctuary for the players. It will feature a forest clearing with a party camp, option without the camp, and plenty of creepy eyes hidden in the shadows (and of course there will be eye color variants!!)

Svalich Road Map. This is a generic, road map cutting through the creepy forest of the Svalich Woods. This map has no particular location and as I wanted this one to be as generic as possible for your road encounters. I plan on making these sporadically and want to hit all key road crossings, intersections, and bridges / rivers throughout Barovia. My goal is to be able to provide you with enough generic road / forest / camp maps so your players will never have to see a repeat! (might be a lofty goal but hey.. I'm ambitious!)  

And my last update for today... 

Fidatov Manor.  If you're not familiar with this, Reddit author MandyMod (u/MandyMod) had taken an adventurers league module and heavily modified it. You can find it here.  She had made a pretty killer map that looks just like an official publication and I think she has some great map making skills! Of course I wanted to put my own spin on it, so I have decided to create all the maps for the module. This one had been on my radar for a while but I wanted to carve out a good chunk of time for it. Not only is the map massive... but there are many locations here as well. This map will feature: 4 maps for the main manor (1st floor, 2nd floor, basement, roof) and 4 maps for the "night" version of the manor (which I cannot wait to do!).  Then there is a really fun mirror battle which will have it's own map and an awesome hedge maze and crypt encounter map. So all in all that is a total of 11 base maps!! Of course I will create rain versions, night versions of the manor, roof png, etc (you know.. al the bells and whistles). I'm pretty sure this map will keep me busy for quite a while but I think you'll find it worth it in the end and the adventure looks super fun to run! 

So there you have it! Looks like I have my work cut out for me but excited to keep plugging along and producing maps for all things Barovia and Grim Dark related!

Thanks once again for your amazing support. I am truly humbled so many of you have decided to support my crazy map making project and I'm excited for what the future holds. 

Until next time, stay safe from the mists. 

Cheers,

DM Andy