D&D 5E Is there a market or any interest in something like this

[Joe Congleton]

So I am just curious. As I've gotten older (not quite a grognard yet) I've come to really enjoy illustrating my games. Not as in character illustrations or sketches but overland maps and dungeons, cities, ect. ect.

My question is this. Is there a niche for people who would want custom maps and dungeons (this would be large enough to move mini's on as I used a 1" scale)? Would people pay for something like this for their games? Perhaps as tools for their games or even gift ideas to commemorate an adventure or place.

Please be honest.

Game on
Joe

 

[Morrus]

Certainly. It would depend on the price.

 

[rgoodbb]

Can you tell us more?

 

[bedir than]

About half of the things I support on Patreon are mapmakers. I would support more, particularly those that enable "creative commons for commercial use" after reaching certain support levels that resemble freelance pay.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I've bought some of Paizo's GameMastery Map Packs (little cards with 5':1" scale, I've specifically got the ships, shops, wizard tower, and graveyard sets), and re-use poster maps whenever I can, and have also purchased one of Paizo's flipmat things (forest).

So yes, if the subject material is appropriate and the price is competitive with other similar products, I'm likely to be interested in purchasing that sort of thing.

 

[dave2008]

Yes, I have no idea of the market size, but I love a good map!

 

[LordEntrails]

Cartographer's Guild

 

[robus]

Patreon's definitely the way to go, if you want to have some steady income. And that could then be a launchpad to commissioned works.

Post a sample here so people can get an idea of what you're talking about.

 

[Morrus]

Patreon's definitely the way to go, if you want to have some steady income.

That's the opposite of what he's suggesting.

There's lots of places to get premade maps. Hundreds on DTRPG or RPGNow or various Patrons, or free websites. What Joe's suggesting is *custom* maps. A different beast altogether.

The price will be the killer; and as a publisher I know what it costs to have a cartographer do a specific commission. That won't work for the general public, so there needs to be a tweak to the model. I think it's a great concept, and lots of people will be interested, but the price has to be right for casual usage. After all, anybody can hire a freelance artist to make a map - there's no shortage of artists (just look at the number of pitches I get in my inbox every hour!)

Perhaps if the custom job was done, and the artists retained all rights (so the work was for private use only) and was able to sell it separately, it might work. But then, many companies allow their artists to retain the rights and sell their work separately anyway. I've been doing that for years, and even WotC does it these days.

 

[Joe Congleton]

I don't necessarily care about making money. I mean it does take a little time. But I'm not out to turn into a traded corporation or anything.

As far as price I'm not sure. Depends on the size of the what you want. So for an overland campaign map of 24x36 maybe bundle that with another 24x36 city or the campaign map and 2 dungeons(again size is an issue) for 20 dollars plus shipping and handling?