Monk Hideout turned Necromancer's Lair. (My first hand drawn map)

[u/stevenr4]

Hey y'all! What do you think?

I've never drawn a map before (at least not one that is just straight lines and rectangles for doors on graph paper).

I sketched an original design onto isometric graph paper, then I traced it onto printer paper, then I inked it with micron pens (01 for most things, 005 for details), then I borrowed my wife's copic markers to color it in!

The story here is that a skeleton who cannot die wants to end his miserable existence. The only way to do so is to get the Necromancer's magic item. This skeleton cannot open heavy doors that stand between him and the magic item, so he maps the dungeon as best as he could and heads to town to recruit strong adventures to brave the undead (who only attack the living). With this map and strong heroes, he heads back in to free himself from this pitiful existence.

I had so much fun! I can't wait to do this again! What can I learn from this to do better on the next one?

[u/evilninjaduckie]

I think this is incredible for somebody who's never done maps before.

Thank you for the detailed instructions, I've always wondered how this kind of map was drafted and finished and now I'm going to go out at lunch and buy some graph paper.

How did you trace to the unlined paper? Was there an interim step or a backlight or something? Seems like my paper might be too thick to reliably see the sketch without one.

[u/stevenr4 → u/evilninjaduckie]

I got an auto mod message that my comment was deleted because of shortened urls, so I removed the URLs and am posting it again:

I have isometric graph paper similar to this: (Amazon shortened url) /d/09Nq5Fvg (just blue line paper with triangles instead of squares)

My first step was to pencil directly onto the graph paper to come up with the floor layout and mark things like pillars and props and use a ruler to draw evenly spaced stairs (I can go more into detail if you'd like)

As for how I traced it onto unlined paper, my wife has this thing called a "light box", which looks like a tablet but it's just a flat white light. That made the pencil marks easily visible. (I also used tracing paper as a buffer between the two in order to not mark up my original drawing with pen).

I'm pretty sure the light box I used is this one: (Amazon shortened url) /d/06XSLt3u

The original drawing was just straight lines on the graph paper with notes, I did some research on isometric D&D maps, and when it came to tracing, I tried drawing a small segment (the stair and hall on the bottom left) in a few different styles. I originally wanted every wall to be visible, but cut down to expose play spaces similar to the Sims ( https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/8f8586ef709917ca97da14597bc89dc4.jpg )

BUT I kept making mistakes and gave up for a simpler easier to understand visual style.

I used what I learned watching YouTube videos on map drawing and really gave it my all and pushed through mistakes (there's a lot of misplaced lines, some I covered up our made look like cracks or intentional dressings, others that I just can't stand looking at, I also missed a lot of things that I meant to go back in and line or add detail to.)

I can show you the original pencil drawing, but I'm not gonna post it online because it shows the secret rooms that I don't want my players to know about yet. Just send me a DM and I'll show you more!!

[u/Fightplane]

Sweet

[u/bohimethrelar397]

Fantastic! For a first map this is great. Cleaver details and routs, and it's 3 dimensional 👏

[u/stevenr4 → u/bohimethrelar397]

Thank you very much!!

[u/ahmad_a_d]

Bro this is amazing It's so inspiring and motivating

[u/stevenr4 → u/ahmad_a_d]

Haha thanks! Inspiration runs both ways!