Month: September 2020

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Spells and the Jamming Thereof

I was asked to make a couple of minor changes to the Leviathan of Tyria to make it work better as a sci-fi vessel, but I ended up getting carried away and removing the boats, anchor and bilges, changing the background and recoloring a few things. It’s still not wildly futuristic, but it looks a lot more ready to cruise the void than it did before.

This could also work as an airship, but, more than anything, I think it’d make an excellent spelljammer, if anyone’s still out there jamming spells in the 21st century.

I also made another, somewhat less mainstream version for someone who’s been asking for something like it for a long time. Of course, if anyone else has a use for it, work away.

As with the regular version of this map, all the patron content for this is free and you can download it from Google Drive or from this post on my patreon.

Alright, back to work on Brazenthrone!

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The Leviathan of Tyria – Everyone’s Edition

I’m making all the patron content for this map free for everyone. I’m pretty proud of this absolute monstrosity of a ship. I made a ton of stuff for it and I want you all to have it. You can download everything from my Google Drive here.

So, let’s talk about this gigantic boat. The Leviathan of Tyria is a catamaran (two-hulled) warship which is powered by both rowers and sails. Armed with rams, artillery and a complement of marines, it is dangerous both up close and at range. In addition, the Leviathan carries four gunboats on board which it can deploy in battle to surround and distract enemies.

I made three versions of this ship to help it fit into everyone’s game. The first is armed with gunpowder weapons, the second is armed with ballistas and the third has neither, allowing you to customize the ship’s weapon loadout as you see fit. There are artillery tokens included to customize it on VTTs, as well as copy-and-paste-able artillery to modify the print versions of the map.

The pre-armed versions have around 25 guns/ballistas each. You can add more if needed, but before you turn the Leviathan into a 120-gun ship-of-the-line, let me suggest that you count how many D20s you own. I’m not saying you shouldn’t arm it to the teeth, just shop around for a dice rolling app before you have to start making hit rolls.

Here are the DM notes and the annotated version of the gunpowder Leviathan. Everything else is in the link above. Have fun with it!

There’s one more thing I wanted to mention: my wife is raising money for a charity called LauraLynn Children’s Hospice and I told her I’d post a link on my site in case anyone wanted to donate. I know this has been a tough year for most people and children’s hospices are kind of a super depressing thing to bring up, but they do important work and, if 2020 has been merciful enough that you can afford to donate, I’m sure they’d appreciate it.

I can’t think of a way to transition from that back to maps without it being awkward, so let’s just do it. Next up is Greenstone Hall, one of the four remaining chambers of Brazenthrone. It’s a small residential district which shouldn’t take long. After that, I’ll be drawing draw last month’s Cartographic Congress winner, a hanging wizard’s tower built into a stalactite. Or a stalagmite? The one that points down.

Anyway, hope you like the ship! If you’ve got any questions about it, just ask!

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The Floating Fortress is Inked

Yeah, there are boats in that boat. They’re called gun yawls and they look like this. They’re basically large rowboats with a single cannon. The idea is that they’re maneuverable and hard to hit. Apparently they were very popular in Scandinavia, which is something you might have guessed from the picture, in which there’s a Danish flag that is almost as big as the entire vessel itself. Presumably, this is meant to be used as a sail in the event that everyone’s arms get tired.

I’m going to make three versions of this: one with cannons, one with ballistas and one with no armaments. I’ve got a ballista and five different cannons you can copy and paste onto the map or use as VTT tokens to arm it as you like.

There’s one other thing I wanted to point out. I drew a ship called the Ebonclad about two years ago. You can fit that ship into one of the floating fortress’ hulls. You can almost fit two into each hull. This thing’s pretty big.

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Floating Fortress Warship Sketches

These are some sketches I did while planning out the floating fortress warship I’m drawing next. I played around with some other designs, but they just ended up looking too normal. They were big ships, but nothing about them said FLOATING FORTRESS. I think this one does.

Let me break this ship down for you. It’s a catamaran, which is a ship with two hulls. This gives it stability and a wide deck with a lot of space. The primary means of propulsion is rowing, but it also has a single mast with a Bermuda Sloop sail rig. There are rams at the bows of both hulls and other armaments will be included as well. I’ll probably do a ballista version and a gunpowder version.

This is a flagship with a crew in the hundreds, including oarsmen, sailors, officers, marines and other support staff such as medics, mages, a chaplain and so on. It’s a castle on the sea. I can’t promise you’ll like it or that you’ll have a use for it, but I can tell you it’ll definitely be something different.

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Brazenthrone – The Mushroom Farms – Ground Level

Here’s the non-annotated version and here are the DM notes, which I’m giving out to everybody because there are some unintuitive things about the Mushroom Farms and I want everyone to understand why they are the way they are.

One of the buildings here is Meard’s Dwarven White Whiskey distillery. White whiskey is a thing I came up with while thinking about dwarven liquor. I thought, “Dwarves are known for drinking really strong ale, right? So what is their liquor like? How strong is that?” This was my answer.

I introduced white whiskey to my players at a tavern once. The bartender told them it’s too strong for anyone but dwarves, so, of course, everyone HAD to try it. He put a tiny metal cup in front of each of them, filled them up and backed away. When the players threw their drinks back, I told everyone who wasn’t a dwarf to make a CON save. Those who failed vomited immediately, violently and copiously.

Later, they came to find out what’s in white whiskey: alcohol. And nothing else. It’s just a bottle of ethyl alcohol. That’s dwarven liquor.

The second (and final) level of the Mushroom farms is close to being finished and I should have it up later tonight, tomorrow at the latest. It’s just roofs, but that’s part of the protocol.

After that, I’m drawing the floating fortress warship that was voted on as an honorary Great Vote winner several months back. It’s been a while since I’ve done a ship map and it’s about time for another one. Unless the half a ship in Whiskey Point counts, which it doesn’t. Okay, I’m gonna go finish up the mushroom farms!

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I’m an idiot. Here’s the actual alternate version of Whiskey Point.

The previous “alternate version” of Whiskey Point was identical to the regular version. I guess I saved the wrong file without noticing. Sorry about that. I especially apologize to anyone who was staring at the two files, trying to figure out what the difference was.

Anyway, I just noticed this, so I’m posting the actual alternate version. The difference is at the top floor of the lighthouse. If it still doesn’t look different, reload the page. You may have the old file cached.

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Whiskey Point

Here’s an alternate version (explained below) and a ballista token I made for no specific reason.

Whiskey Point is a ruined fort and lighthouse which has been reclaimed by pirates, who patched it up and now run a black market from inside its walls. Other pirates come here to fence their loot and have a few drinks before getting back to work.

The alternate version only has one difference: at the top of the lighthouse, instead of a pyre, there’s a crystal. In this version, the idea is that the lighthouse is actually an arcane weapon that fires powerful beams of light. Should you use this version of the map? Look, I’m not trying to tell anyone how to run their game, but I just want to say two words to you, okay? Just two. Laser pirates.

Next up is Brazenthrone‘s Mushroom Farms. It won’t just be a cave full of mushrooms. It’s also where most of the city’s breweries are. And it’s where all the city’s funerals are held, since it’s the farthest downriver and the dwarves of Brazenthrone do Viking-style funerals. That’s where the deceased is placed on a boat, then the boat is lit on fire and sent down the river. Dwarves aren’t known for their love of boats, but they do live under a mountain and they can’t have dead people stinking up the place.