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Zombie Dragon

It's so nice to work on tokens sometimes, they come together much more quickly and each one seems to look better than the one before! Plus I love using dragons in my games and this zombie dragon makes a great boss or villain :) 

There is not a stat block for this creature as you can probably use the Dracolich template in a game, however I imagine there might be a few interesting differences between a zombie dragon and Dracolich that might mean a few tweaks to the template :D <...

Cendar

I posted a few photos of this map yesterday which you can see below, but today I scanned it in, did some fixing up, added some names and here we are! 

This was for the amazing Cole who runs a game of Dungeons and Dragons over at https://www.twitch.tv/themerrymercs as well as some games and music every now and then ...

Sneak Peek: Zombie Dragon, Yuan Ti and Patron Tokens!

Here is the line art for the next two, three tokens that I have to finish up! A really awesome looking Zombie dragon that will have a bunch of different colours and glowy effects. Plus two versions of a Yuan Ti for jungle adventures :) 

These tokens were made for patrons and with these two done ov...

Vaasa & Damara

Another patron map all finished up! 

This is another of my attempts to map out the Forgotten Realms setting with the northern areas of Faerûn, Vaasa and Damara! This is the main setting of Dungeons and Dragons and it's been incredibly fun to draw some of these iconic and beloved places! 

This also uses the map icons i finished up and posted a few days ago so you can see what they look like in a full map now as well!

2019-01-18 23:50:41 +0000 UTC View Post

Map Icons V1

As I was working on my Vaasa and Damara map I realised I needed to have a nice set of custom icons for locations. Previously I had only a village, town and city icon but I wanted more unique buildings and thus spent the last few days working on this set.

These might be super helpful for anyone else working on maps themselves so I’ve put these on patreon as a “Version 1” There are plenty more to do as I work on more maps in the future so I'll keep adding to this. Things like, elven...

Another Blog Post!

https://www.blueswordgames.com/blog/mapmaking-geography-science/  

This is more of an article than a blog.. but this is a quick link for anyone that wants some tips for making a world or region map using science! Covering tectonic plates, temperture maps, weather patterns, rocks and rivers. 

These are questions I've been asked or seen floating around a few times and w...

Sneak Peek: Vaasa & Damara

One of my favourite maps from last year was my first attempt at drawing a map from a massive already established setting, the Sword Coast! It was a hugely popular map and I said at the time I would love to do the whole of the Faerûn at some point.

Until that time comes though, it would seem I’m just going to do small bits of the continent every now and then, and today I finished off the line...

Happy New Year, Feedback and the Next Year!

Happy new year to all of my amazing patrons! It's been a really wild year with a success here on patreon that I could only have dreamed about a year ago. Thank you all so much for the always amazing support each month, the kind comments and excitement for every map release... you guys are all amazing and I hope everyone has a fantastic 2019!

I've always trying to improve my mapmaking and the ways I communicate with people online (even if some don't work). A good way to do that is to get...

Lhodos

It's been a very slow month for releasing maps on my patreon but today after a few days of cooking food for family and enjoying christmas I’ve finished up the world map of Lhodos! 

This is another map for a patron that took my mapmaking in a slightly different direction with a disk/floating through the void type world! Some of the features were really nice to colour, like the giant dragon skeleton and the ravine which not only stand out but give me some great ideas for doing thin...

Sneak Peek: Lhodos & Updates!

I have been super super quiet this month and today I’m going to show off a sneak peek for another world map that I've been working on as well as some updates on other projects! 

So the above map is another patron map, it has some awesome details like a giant dragon skeleton and a “wall” a little like the one from game of thrones! This is going to be coloured this week and maybe even done be...

Pirate Abomination

Before I carry on and concentrate on patron maps for awhile, I managed to do some line art for a really awesome token to go with the pirate cove map I finished recently!

Yesterday I managed to colour it, and today I made a ghostly version as well!

This pirate abomination idea was based almost entirely on the Vampire Coast DLC for Total Warhammer 2. I don't have it yet but the trailer, the music ...

A Heartfelt Apology and More Patreon Changes.

I've been very hesitant to talk about this for a while but this post is going to talk about my patreon, how I do things and some more changes. The last time I made some changes to my patreon people were very supportive and understood that in order to make things work and to make a living I had to cut back a little and cap off requests and other aspects. 

I don't want to come across as ungrateful to any of the people that enable me to do this full time, which is every single one of my patr...

Dragonmeet!

Tomorrow I will be going to Dragonmeet! A convention over here in the UK that is focused on tabletop roleplaying games and board games. Not only will I be going but I will be selling map prints as well! This is the first time I will be selling prints of my maps to people in person and I’m really excited! 

Hopefully this will be a good test run for selling physical products in the future as well.

If anyone from my patreon is going, hopefully I will see you there, I will be at the W...

Pirate Cove

Todays map is the massive Caves of Gold, the pirate cove of many biomes and encounters! This map was also very much inspired by the Isla de Muerta or the "Island of Death" in The Curse of the Black Pearl, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie where the Black Pearl’s crew hides the location of the Aztec treasure that has cursed them and turned them into undead. 

One of the things I really like doing with my maps, is pushing the limits of what I can do and trying new ways of doing thin...

Sneak Peek: Pirate Cove

I've been a little quiet over the last couple of days, working on many different things all at once and one those things is a very large battlemap/town/encounter map I'm calling the pirate cove! :)

This map started out life as the lair for the sea dragon token I did and it can still be used as a lair I just decided to add some more pirate and humanoid details like piers, jetties, wooden structures, ch...

Buraq

To go with the Beastlands battlemap I finished yesterday, today's token is a celestial creature that you might find in the cave on that map! 

This isn't a creature from the normal Dungeons and Dragons line up, instead the Buraq is originally from persian folklore and legend. A couple historical texts mention the Buraq as a celestial steed, capable of traveling at great speed for long distances. Somet...

Beastlands

Todays map is my take on one of the Dungeons and Dragons neutral/chaotic good aligned planes of existence called the Beastlands. 

“The Beastlands is a plane of nature and animals. Peaceful alpine forests and a varied climate exists across the plane, providing a suitable environment for many species of animals and plants. The number of traditional settlements is very small, with most inhabitants living beneath the trees out in the wilderness.”

It's also a pretty decent take on a ...

Mapvember: Day 5

I didn't manage to get a hex done yesterday, but I think I’ll be able to do 30 of these maps in month if I keep it up, I’ll just have to do a couple more to make up for it when I can :) 

This hex was made with the following combinations: Forest + Mountains + Giant Tree!  

Elder Beholder

This now my favorite token I've done to date.

Following on from the super long lair map I posted a few days ago this is the Beholder monster token that goes with it! The main eye is of course the focus and really came out well, but the little eye stalks are also really cool as you can match a beholders abilities to each eye!

There are a bunch of different coloured versions as well so you can create characters and NPC’s to fit your own setting :) 

2018-11-05 17:07:47 +0000 UTC View Post

Mapvember: Day 3

Another post today! 

Two more of the region hex maps i've doing for the month of mapvember, inspired by the following combinations Coast + River Delta + Cliffs!

These are coastline hexes but I do realize I will need to do more in order to surround and make everything connect up once more tiles have been made :) 

Lair of the Beholder

Part of me loves these long maps but another part of me hates that you can't see much until you zoom in XD 

But anyway! Todays map is the Lair of the Beholder and has a really nice little self contained dungeon feel to it, including a really awesome trap corridor that has its own trap token for use online! There are currently no rules associated with the trap but if someone has an idea they want to share or something they used in their own games, share it in the comments! :D 

T...

Mapvember: Day 2

Todays map is kind of plain without a huge amount of detail (Gotta have some those!) I think this one took me less than 2 hours from start to finish :) 

Todays map was inspired by the following combinations: Grassland + Savanna + Corruption

As you can see, this one does follow on from yesterday's map but not all the hexes will, some will stand on their own :) 

Mapvember: Day 1

So am I going to try and do 30 of these this month.

Or.. well... I'm  certainly going to try :) 

I might miss a few but I would love to do 30 of these little region hex maps so that people can mix and match and create their own world really quickly. The goals is for someone to simply pick one and place symbols to indicate cities or villages etc so that you dont need to worry about creating your own world map for a ttrpg game. When the players want to explore just find another h...

Library Assets

I’ve already posted a sneak peek of a three part battlemap that I finished the line art for and these little books and scrolls are the assets i've made that will make the final chamber really feel like a messy library! 

There a few different colours and versions but I will be updating the pack as I use it with a few more options :) 

PS: The “Monster book” is more of an easter egg, some people might know where its from, maybe try not to use it for commercial work just in c...

Sneak Peek: Lair of the Beholder

It was pretty difficulty to get some good photos of these three maps, the quality is pretty bad but you should be able to see what I’ve been working on!

I wanted to make something really epic for a dungeon map and settled on a beholder lair, for various reasons and this is the result :) I'm not great yet at perspective work so you may be able to spot a few mistakes that I can fix in photoshop :) 

2018-10-29 17:17:00 +0000 UTC View Post

World Anvil, One Year Anniversary!

This month one of the most amazing and useful tools that I've ever found online is celebrating their first year anniversary! 

For anyone that is new to my patreon and has not yet heard of World Anvil, check out the link below! I could not recommend them enough to anyone that does world building for books, roleplaying games or just for fun :) 

https://www.worldanvil.com

As part of the one year anniversary,...

City of Glass (Patrons Only)

A few people asked if there was going to be another colour version of this map and I decided to spend a few hours going over it and making a night/pink verion to try and make something a little different!

This version is just for patrons, to say thank you for supporting me on here! As always you all mean the world to me and thank you so much for the kinds words, encouragement and support :) 

Oh! and there is also a night/pink version with names in the zip file below as well :) ...

City of Glass

After a good long while my version of the City of Glass is all finished!

I love how this turned out in the end even though at first I was very unsure about how to get the colours right. I think going for an overall more combined look and feel  was far better than trying to make each section or individual houses looks special. 

For anyone that isn't aware of the lore, this map is based on the City of Glass from the Plane of Water. Curiously there isn't a reference to the City of...

Sneak Peek: Thark

Its been some time since I posted a sneak peek but there are a few big maps that i've been working on recently and I wanted to show off the progress so far! 

The above is the world of Thark, a truly colossal map mainly done in photoshop but with a few bits done traditionally as well. It is hands down, the biggest map I've ever made clocking in at around A2 in paper size and about 14,000 x 10,000 pixels in photoshop. I showed off some of the final touches I was doing yesterday on stream an...

Building Pack!

Here is the link to the building pack that contains everything I've done recently in terms of buildings and rooftops!

Instead of going through every post and downloading individually you can get the pack with everything all in once place on my website instead :)

https://www.blueswordgames.com/product-page/building-pack