Gamerprinter's Map Emporeum

[gamerprinter]

Don't know where to post these, in this forum or the Art forum, not sure.

My name is Michael Tumey or Gamerprinter, though I run a business printing RPG maps for publishers and game masters, I spend most of my time creating fantasy cartography from World Maps to Encounter Scale Battlemaps. I do this for my own games, and on commission for both private game masters and publishers - I have maps published by Dog House Rulez and will soon have a Conan map adventure map published by Mongoose Publishing for a module. I have a variety mapping styles from hand-drawn work to completely digitally created using my application of choice, Xara Xtreme Pro 3.2 (a graphics app, not specifically a mapping tool.) I am a regular at http://forum.cartographersguild.com, I practically live there

I really don't have many thumbnails for my maps and my maps are big - 100 ppi to 200 ppi JPG and PNG files from 500K to several MB, some have grids some do not. These maps have CC License applied so you can use them free for personal use.

My most recent maps are for an upcoming home-brew campaign starting with a PC party of Pictish Barbarians (Warriors, Shaman-Druid, Runemaster Bard and Tattooist Sorcerer, and a non-barbarian hireling archer (for translation skills dealing with civilization down south).

The first map is Craefort - the hillfort of Clan Crae, an interlocking nest of long houses and roofed common areas for nine extended families leading to the innermost chamber the Chief's Great Hall. Really a clan village huddled together to better survive the Ice Age Winter outside.

http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/craefort.jpg

The next four maps, are four floors of a Pictish round tower, called Donal Broch and is home to the Donal clan, who has a feud with the PC's Crae clan.

http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/broch1.jpg
http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/broch2.jpg
http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/broch3.jpg
http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/broch4.jpg

The last map in this current series, so far, is Crannog Lake House, a lesser clan under Crae...

http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/crannog.jpg

Next, I'll be creating a roundhouse farmstead, a mountain cave used by a Winter Hag, an Ogre Den, and crossing over a frozen river with a break in the ice for a monster attack. I'm thinking of creating a swinging bridge over a chasm and a glen in a Spruce Forest to round this set up.

GP

PS: got a few more recent unrelated maps, so I'll post them separately.

[gamerprinter]

This next map has a thumbnail, only because I needed it to post on a different site, so I did.

This is my September Challenge Entry at Cartographer's Guild, it was the winning entry out of 30 competitive maps, my third Challenge Award at the guild.

I call this the Archean League - a colonial site for European type later medieval period setting with some pirate activity too. This is my hand-drawn style of map, though all the text, coloring and beveled effects are all digitally created and composites in Xara Xtreme Pro 3.2, my preferred all purpose graphics application and mapping program.

First the thumbnail...



Link to larger version (you need to see it need detail to appreciate the work!)...

http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/sept ... -final.jpg

GP

[gamerprinter]

Finally, for now - this is another contest entry, but winner not determined until Jan 31st, so it's not officially published yet for Iron Crown Enterprise's first map contest - Create a Temple Map.

I'm the only entry so far, but hopefully some competition will appear before end on next month!

Its a Greek agora-like temple, for a ficticious God of the Seas, I call Sargos. The temple is named the Sargoseum. Pardon the hex grid placed on the map, it was a contest requirement for use in I.C.E. RPGs

This is a big map, first a link to the full size map - its one of my best work so far. The second link is a PDF version of 24 pages of 8 x 10 slices, so you can print the map yourself!

http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/sargoseum.jpg

http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/sargoseum.pdf

Enjoy! I will post more new maps as I create them - game with them if you like.

GP

PS: Merry Christmas!

[gamerprinter]

Starting to feel lonely as the only poster to my thread...

I just created this in the last couple of hours as a Christmas Bonus: the Ogre Den - with thumbnail!

This is a continuation of the series with the Pictish forts at the top of this thread. My ogres, have annis hags for females, in a matriarchal society. The hags are druidic sorceresses as well who require sacrefice among human females as the core of their religion. This is a cave in the mountains.

Enjoy!

Thoughts, comments or critiques are welcome!

GP



Link to larger file: http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/ogre.jpg

[Treebore]

Wow Mike! I'll try and remember to pay attention to this thread and keep you from feeling lonely!

[DCCfan]

Great work! I really like the detail of the blood groove on the sacrificial rock.

[Treebore]

Dang it! I need to register with the Cartographers Guild to check out those maps!

[gamerprinter]

Dang it! I need to register with the Cartographers Guild to check out those maps!

Non members can view the thumbnails in the threads at the CG, but, yes, you need to register in order to view the full maps. But its worth it becoming a member. I have over 100 maps posted there just this year alone, as well as a 20 piece dungeon tiles set, plus everyone elses maps there, of which there are many, and some exceptional ones as well.

GP

[gamerprinter]

For the first of my wilderness encounter maps for my Ice Age/Pict campaign is Screaming Chasm bridge. A swing bridge connecting clans Crae and Epper lands. The bridge is about 100 feet above the river below. Screaming Chasm got its name from the constant howling winds that sound like screaming, said to be the voice of the Pictish princess who cast herself into the waters below when her husband was slain by a dragon, long ago.

Screaming Chasm bridge - enjoy!

GP



Link to larger file: http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/chasm-bridge.jpg

[goodmangames]

Very nice!

[gamerprinter]

Hey Joe, don't know if you remember me, I was the guy at GENCON 07 - my color maps were too expensive for your Dungeon Crawl tournament, but I met you at your booth anyway with some brochures of mine.

Anyway, I freelance now, do you need any maps? Although most of the above are wilderness maps, I do dungeons as well. I'd love to produce something for Goodman Games!

GP

[gamerprinter]

In my epic campaign of the Frozen North, the PCs barbarian clan is in a 67 year feud with the Donal Clan. 42 years ago the Donals stole the Crae ancestral sword, it is now interred with the Donal who stole it in the Donal Barrow. This is the burial place of the Donal chiefs, as well as the primary area of worship by that clan.

The PCs must risk their lives to sneak past the Donal guard, the Berserker Huscarls and the Shaman Watchers enter the Donal lands, skirt the Donal Broch with its host of spearmen, kill the defenders of the Barrow without alarming the rest of the Donals, enter the catacombs of the barrow and retrieve the Crae sword. The threat within however is of the undead sort, and shaman-druids can do nothing as a southlander priest might do. The danger is harrowing...

GP



Link to larger file (36" x 48", 100 ppi JPG 1.94 MB):
http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/barrow.jpg

[gamerprinter]

I may go a different way, than this, perhaps something more akin to hand-drawn styled map, but since the rest of my encounter maps have that photorealistic look, I decided to create a regional map in a similar way.

The North Lands - home of Picts, ogres and the Winter Hag...



Link to larger file... http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/northlander.jpg

GP

[gamerprinter]

I started creating subregional maps for the campaign setting and decided to go a different way. Even though the previous map's style works perfectly for many settings, I don't think it works for the barbarian world - looks too modern and realistic. I opted to begin one of my encounter subregions and do it in hand-drawn work, that is scanned and digitally finished in Xara Xtreme. I will continue to use the large map to site-out my subregions (Crae and Donal territories, the Frost Giant's High Vale, etc.) I plan to do the same to regional map once these subregionals are complete.

The following is the Isle of Eerie - site of the Barrow of the Cursed Pictish King, legend has it one of the lost Pictish artifacts lies buried with the mad king...

GP



Link to larger map: http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/eerie.jpg

[Treebore]

I think it still looks too refined. Maybe the color makes it look that way.

[gamerprinter]

Maybe the color is too saturated? Some of the extreme colors formed when I gave each layer a transparent mask to allow color beneath to seep through. The parchment color in the back is the overpowering element that's altering the color scheme.

As a similar style, I am currently working on a subregional map - this is the Lands of Crae. Which the island above is off this coast. I tried several renderings and finally the guys at the cartographers' guild helped me get to where the map below has become. The issue had been site icons and the hills. This is the final version.

Next I plan to work on the Donal Lands, similar to the above (Donals are the Crae enemy through Blood Feud.)

Maybe I'll go back and adjust the Isle of Eerie map to be more in sync with these.

GP



Link to large file: http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/crae-lands.jpg

[gamerprinter]

Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you guys, nor have I stopped creating maps. Rather I just picked up a huge commission for ProFantasy Software. I am basically creating most of the SS3 Modern Symbols set for Campaign Cartographer 3. Basically I've been tasked to create 300 of the 500 symbols for this set.

So other than a periodic visit over the next month, I'll mostly be busy creating stuff for Profantasy: operating rooms, to wrecked cars, broken glass to an Airbus you can stick in the Hudson River if you want. I've barely scratched the surface with vehicles, people and things to take up my time.

Plus I've got to add Wolfgang Bauer's Open Design maps into my Ecommerce store, as I will be the exclusive printer/distributor for Open Design large format maps... busy, busy month!

GP

[Treebore]

Cool! Good luck with all the work!

[gamerprinter]

I snuck in a Challenge map for this month at the Cartographers' Guild. Since I'm still working on my Ukiyo-e feudal Japanese map symbol set, I thought I'd incorporate those into an historic war map from old Japan. The map describes the major battles and the region where the final campaign occurred during the last year in the Genpei War 1180 - 1185.

This is still a work in progress, though I'm about 90% done. I need to place a compass rose, a scale description (1 square = 50 miles) and a by-line. I intend to place ukiyo-e illustrations of the major players in the war at the top of the page, and a legend to the map at the bottom. then place a reed mat as the background and frame.

I'll post the completed map, when I finish in a few days.

WIP Map: the Genpei War

Link to map - http://www.gamer-printshop.com/cbg/genpei.jpg

Enjoy!

GP

[gamerprinter]

Here's a map for a publication of mine, that I am working on, this will be an OGL PDF download available in a couple months.

Empire of Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story campaign setting...



GP

[gamerprinter]

Just completed my next Contest Map entry for the Iron Crown Map contest. The theme is create a crypt map.

So I created the unhallowed crypt of Katyana the Vampyr Princess.

Enjoy!

GP



Link to larger file...
http://www.gamer-printshop.com/kaidan/ice-crypt.jpg

[gamerprinter]

Sea Dragon Palace and Undersea City map for my Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting, because this is a Work-in-Progress, I decided to post it here. Using Xara Xtreme Pro 4.0, 3D generated plants, coral and gateway, and incorporating plants created in PD Particles - this map features multiple semi-transparent layers of blue stacked to simulate the feeling of depth and loss of white light.

This will be for an upcoming adventure that is scheduled for early next year.

The Sea Dragon City of Ryukyo - enjoy!

GP



Link to larger file: http://www.gamer-printshop.com/kaidan/dragon-palace.jpg

[gamerprinter]

My most recent map, something not from my Kaidan setting. I needed to clear my mind of all the Japanese styled work I've been doing, so just for fun, I created this regional map intended to show slave traders a new resource for the slave masters of Ambrathas.

Enjoy

Link to larger version of this map... http://www.gamer-printshop.com/kaidan/slavers.jpg



GP

[gamerprinter]

No map to post today, but just some news. As you should be aware, I'm working on a collaborative publication (with Dementia 5 Publishing) for the creation of the setting and adventure arcs for Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting for Pathfinder RPG. I primarily play 3.5 or Pathfinder, and never 4e, however, I'll be starting a new collaborative publication with a different publisher and he creates for 4e, so this will be my first work towards that system.

I will soon be starting an ongoing publication project with Johnn Four of Roleplayingtips.com and Yax of Game Mastery Blog. Each publication will feature three of my encounter scale battlemaps in a related association and 12K - 15K of text content focusing on them.

The first one (don't know when publication will be, but shouldn't be too long) will be three maps for 4e rogues. A beggar's guild, a thieves' guild and an assassin's guild - basically three playing levels of maps for rogues. Beggar = low level rogues, Thief = medium level rogues, and Assassin = high level rogues. I create the maps, include cool ideas for each, create a detailed map key for each, then produce sliced letter-size versions of maps for easy printing at home.

Johnn Four and Yax will then write appropriate flavor content and usage for getting these gems into existing campaigns. From there, it will be promoted and sold thru Roleplayingtips newsletter, the Game Mastery blog, associated blog partner sites and RPGNow.

Aside from creating the maps, I've been spared from having to "write" much content, so this project will be much less work for me than my Kaidan project. It might turn out to be one or two products every two months for the next year. That is, if sales are decent for the first try at this publication, then plans are to create other themed three map sets for many aspects of 4e adventuring.

This sounds like an exciting project for me, and another income stream - wish me luck!

GP

[gamerprinter]

This month's challenge at the Cartographers' Guild was to create "an Orcish Christmas Map", so I chose to create a "children's book" - I created a 14 stanza poem, then created 14 hand-drawn illustrations to accompany each stanza on its own page. The poem/story is prefaced by the following map which depicts the winter orc raids called: The Twelve Nights of Yuleblood.

Note the illustrative style, actually matches the illustrations and intent of the written content, which is "tongue and cheek".

Here's the map:


Here's a link to a larger file:
Yuleblood Map

Enjoy and Happy Holidays!

GP