I’m really interested in talking to other folks who are making maps, sharing maps and learnings with other folks and doing learning community type stuff. Who else is making maps? What kind of maps do you make?
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What exactly do you mean with “learning community stuff”? My apologies if it’s normally obvious, English is not my first language. I’m a teacher using games, so if that’s what you mean I might be able to help. If that’s not the case I’m not sure.
At the moment I’m experimenting with hex maps as a past time, but I don’t feel confident enough to share anything I’ve really learned yet. With my kids I’m experimenting with Electric Bastionland’s node-based map design, for which I still need to adjust and write things in English before I can share it.
I’m dreaming about adapting the map design in “Fall of Magic” to teach about Mozes and Israël’s journey through the desert, but it might not be for this school year. Who knows though? Maybe I can find the time.
If you want to read more of my teaching/playing experiences you can find some of them here. (It also has my latest post which is about what I’m doing with hex-based maps.)
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I use this method, modeled after Electric Bastionland to create large adventure sites/hex crawls. You can see a video example of it on Map Crow. Alternatively I use this method for collaborative worldbuilding. You can see a few examples here as well.
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I’m very interested in what kinds of projects folks are working on for their various home games or projects. I am especially interested in science fiction or more modern maps at the moment because of my Spelljammer game.
I just like seeing and chatting about other folks projects/resources they like. I wasn’t familiar with that EB thing Yochai.
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By learning community stuff (sorry it’s not your fault I was being whimsical and a little confusing) I meant: something I like about NSR spaces is that everyone is always sharing what they are working on and how that ends up being a fun learning tool for others.
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I can pitch in, did an isometric dungeon map recently that I ended up fairly proud of. It was inspired by Dirk Detweiler Leichty’s work in Silent Titans. Here’s the original linework:
And here’s what I ended up with after colour and adding text. The room key goes on the back of the sheet:
I had never worked with isometric paper before so I was pretty happy with the final result. It’s more of a conceptual map than an incredibly accurate rendition of the dimensions of the space, but I prefer that in all honesty.
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I love this! This is so cool! What kind of iso paper do you use? I don’t know what to google to buy.
I did my first side view map. I haven’t been brave enough to do coloring yet 
(Real map is a png but I screenshot this on my phone to post)
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I can no longer find the isometric paper that I bought on Amazon, however as it isn’t a very good drawing surface that’s probably no great loss. I’m unsure what a good brand of iso paper is, if anyone has one they like please chime in!
I like the verticality in your side-view. A good place to start if you’re unsure about colour might just be a dark base colour for the earth and then a lighter complementary base for the rooms. Then you can kind of build up from there.
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This is helpful, thank you! Yeah, I’ll get around to doing some iso maps eventually.
Holy hells this is gorgeous. 
I love this. For some reason it reminds me of the old Hyrule map in super smash bros.
Now I want all the maps I make to be Super Smash compatible. 
I make classic dungeon maps and sometimes some isometric or more illustrated kinda ones.
From this kinda thing:
To this kinda thing:
I like playing with creative uses of maps like puzzlesque stuff, and also designing them like I’m creating Quake 3 Arena multiplayer maps.
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I really like the second iso-view one, your colours are really nice. What software are you using for them?
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I hand drew the map and then coloured it using Krita and a tablet, which I actually hated the whole time. Nowadays I use ProCreate and an iPad.
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There are some sweet maps in this thread!!! What’re people’s favorite ways to draw mountains? I like to go for densely nestled, soft curving triangles, maybe lining them up in more of a chain like on old medieval maps.
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For overhead, yeah I like to nest them. I haven’t done a ton of hex maps though I Should.
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I draw some maps. Sometimes.
What’s the call of the question though?
I think maps serve two purposes: A) allowing procedural/measured navigation of the fictional space B) Giving the viewer aesthetic information about the locale.
The amount of importance to A or B is dependent on map purpose.
This is the last map I got project ready
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You always have really good keying one your dungeon maps, do you have any particular trick to it?
This is beautiful! I love this map thank you for sharing
I love making maps! I usually hand draw them and then color them up on my computer. I think @GusL’s two points are really spot on. The aesthetic purpose of maps always appeals the most to me as a player. It also helps me when I’m making things. I always “discover” new things about a place when I make a map. Seeing the space in different ways helps so much in fleshing out those imaginative landscapes.
This is a new map I made for Nate Treme’s four map challenge thing on Twitter.
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