Gamerprinter's Map Emporeum

From a thread in the Tabletop Gaming & General RPG Discussion forum... I'm currently working on a set of 50 - 100 photo-realistic map symbols for the theme: gothic horror. I've got a little less than 30 created, and some of the large, more complex pieces will come whole, and broken up into sub-symbols for use as not part of that whole (like in the vardo below, offering the tarot card reading and crystal ball as stand-alone objects, in addition to being detail for the vardo.)

So the first one is a tarot reading, using the standard Celtic Cross display with an Edward Waite deck.

A gypsy fortune-teller's vardo wagon.

A girl in a glass casket - this could work for an eerie Snow White as well.

Enjoy!

Here's a Victorian/Steampunk-ish necromancer's workshop and undead making device, the Necropilizer... enjoy! I might add a few more details though. This is almost entirely done in 3D, except the floor and walls. The box o' limbs from the Necromancer's operating room was included in this one, for "firewood" for that adjacent furnace, and instead of purely water based steam. Body fluids and water is the liquid source, thus necrotic gases are the steam.

Xara is the software company that creates the vector graphics application I use to create most of my maps and map objects, Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 9. Each month Xara releases a newsletter called the Xara Outsider to its user base, and this month, my fantasy maps thread posted in the Talkgraphics.com (Xara user forum) has been featured. Also Xara.com has an art gallery featuring 32 Xara artist's works, and I am being added as the 33rd featured artist - which is very cool, and an honor.

Its nice when a graphics software company recognizes and features your own art to showcase to their user base!

Here is a link to their monthly newsletter, Xara Outsider May 2014 issue. If you go halfway down page, you'll see this mention in the "Talkgraphics" part of that newsletter. It points to my Fantasy Maps thread on their user forum - its one place I have very many of my maps posted. Although many of those maps are posted here in this thread. I started the thread in Feb 2010 and it is still going strong!

Great maps as always Gameprinter. Nice to see a familiar face from the Cartographers Guild.

Cheers,
-Tad (aka Arsheesh)

Welcome to ENWorld, Arsheesh - good to see you have a map thread going!

Well to inspire me to create more gothic horror icons, I decided to begin work on a small gothic castle, using some of what has already been created and some direction for things needing added. So far, hardly furnished, but I've got the great hall as the first floor, and several chambers I intend for library, study, conservatory, and parlour. With intentions of a third floor with the private residencies there. I will also create a wine cellar, masoleum, spring and catacombs level, as well as top down outside of castle, castle grounds, wall, and surrounding area. I wanted a place to put the pipe organ (which is what got me started on this...) This is a work-in-progress.

Here's the final castle with the grounds sitting on a cliff. I've created 6 floors for the keep completely furnished, including a great hall, cellar, dungeon, palace level, residential level and the roofplan. I've opted to release this as a gothic castle map set on DTRPG, still waiting for it to become available following a review of the product by DTRPG staff.

Qashya Mal, the hobgoblin town of the arid deserts. A natural amphitheater and oasis springs made this the ideal location for a regiment of hobgoblin raiders and an elite unit of siege engineers called the Diaballistae. Wealth gained through gambling of the gladiatorial games and mercenary work as engineers for other hobgoblin hordes has civilized this community of hobgoblins, more than most. Enjoy!

Frost giant lair - top left is the larder (life food...), top area is the sleeping chambers with a raised floor, center is the chiefs hall and dining/work room. Doors consist of a wheel shaped slab of ice to roll across doorways. A glacier with crevasse lies outside the lair. A winter wolf guards the lair while the giants are away. The wolf, axe and hammer are all 3D objects, everything else in vector, using Xara Photo & Graphic Designer 9.

Like my previous gothic castle map, the purpose was not to create a map, rather to provide inspiration to create photo-realistic map objects for my upcoming Gothic Horror Map Icon set. I went for something more modern...


The 7th ward of the, now abandoned, State Psychiatric Asylum which is said to be the most haunted location known. Unknown to the paranormal investigators this is what can be found: (top left) padded cell inhabited by shadow people, (top 2nd) a patient room with active poltergeist activity, (top 5th) elevator shaft with a victim's spirit, (top 3rd) invisible spirit sleeping in bed, (top 4th) diembodied spirit, (bottom left) lobodomy/electro-shock center with an aberration serving as entrance to the "other side", (bottom right) office with a pool of ectoplasm serving as the exit from the "other side". Why is there a ghost dog at the top of the stairs? One of the patients believed his was a dog and is so in the afterlife... Enjoy!


Created in Xara Designer Pro 9, the floating chair and book in the poltergeist room are the only 3D objects, everything else is vector work.