Affinity Publisher

 I was really impressed with Homebrewery but I decided I wanted more creative control over my modules so I decided to buy the Affinity Suite which consists of Affinity Publisher, Designer, and Photo. These modules work together really well and if you are looking to design your own modules like me, and you don't want to pay for Adobe, I suggest you go with Affinity. I am glad I got the Affinity suite though because I don't think I would have gotten very far with just Publisher. Designer and Photo are pretty much necessary additions to this.

Maps for Homebrewery

 

D&D 5e Module Micro Reviews

• Hoard of the Dragon Queen (levels 1-8) Dragon cultists invade Faerun
• Rise of Tiamat (levels 7-15) No, you don't get to fight Tiamat
• Tomb of Annihilation (levels 1-11+) Chult sourcebook + adventures, Tomb of Horrors, Fane of the Night Serpent
• Ghosts of Saltmarsh (levels 1-11+) Saltmarsh region, sea travel, Salt Marsh series rehash, Lovcraftian
• Rime of the Frost Maiden: Icewind Dale sourcebook + adventures
• Out of the Abyss: Underdark sourcebook + adventure
• Curse of Strahd: Barovia sourcebook + adventure
• Storm King's Thunder: Against the Giants rehash
• Princes of the Apocalypse: Temple of Elemental Evil rehash
• Eberron: Rising from the last War: Eberron sourcbook sans adventures
• Explorer's Guide to Wildemount: Critical Role campaign setting
• Mythic Odysseys of Theros: MtG Ancient Greece campaign setting
• Tales of the Yawning Portal: Rehash of Previous adventure releases
• Guildmasters Guide to Ravnica: MtG combo cards converted to D&D
• Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Undermountain dungeon crawl
• Dragon Heist: Waterdeep map
• Candlekeep Mysteries: 17 One-shots
• Descent into Avernus: Baldur's Gate goes to Hell

My Current Map Sketch Process

In this post I will describe the process I am currently using to draw maps. I started with a Pangea type supercontinent for my world as follows. I decided that this would split apart and rotate indicated by the blue arrows. I indicated tropical and arctic regions for the continents.

Next I redrew them one at a time adding more detail and modifying the land masses a little since this is after many millennia.

Next I divided the map into a number of smaller parts to zoom in on.

Next I draw this region at high magnification. First I rough it in with colored pencil, blue for water, olive green for the edges of the hills. This is from the north side of the lake. Then I go over the edges of the water with a pencil and rough it in for example the small island on the right. Next I go over the pencil with a fine marker. I am leaving many gaps along the way as shown on the peninsula in the center. Then I can add more detail as shown in the shore on the left. Sometimes I may just connect the shore and leave it smooth. These gaps are also helpful if a river needs to connect to the shore or if you need to put docks or a city next to the shore. Next I look for a good spot for a city. When I want to put a city in I use a triangle to add some vertical lines and some 30 degree lines so I can draw an isometric city. The vertical lines are supposed to help my towers from looking crooked. 

Next I add more detail to the shore line. Look for natural structures and add small lines to make them look more like three dimensional objects. Choose a direction for the sun, mine is usually above and to the right, and use a larger marker to outline the opposite edges, for mine it is the bottom right edge of the shores, for kind of a drop shadow. Add some waves along the water. Next use a dark olive green to create some structure for the shoreline. I try to make it look kind of like hills or streambeds. Then color this in with light olive green. Finally I go over anything close to the water with a brighter green color. Usually I don't start coloring until all of the pen work is finished.

For cliffs start with a jagged line. Think in terms of isometric shapes and be sure to add quite a few zig-zags. Then draw lines coming down from the cliffs. Keep adding more lines and curve outward a bit, put in a few vertical jogs. Color in shadows with a dark brown in the corners of the cliffs. Add some color to the cliffs, purple, brick red, brownish orange, dark yellow, grey etc. Go over with a light yellow or white to burnish them in if you want.

For trees I start with fluffy clouds. Add about enough gap for coloring. Color the top edge light green and the bottom edge dark green. Fill in with a bluish green along the top edge and color with a nice tree green over the whole thing. Finally add some shadows below and to the right with dark green to make the trees look more like hills.

For the river draw single jagged line going up into the hills. Leave plenty of gaps. Add a second jagged line. Start filling in the gaps. Don't forget to add some bridges, foliage, islands, and lakes along the river. The two banks of the river will be similar but different.

To color in the hills I start with dark brown in the shadows and some pale yellow on the sunny side. Add light brown lightly to blend the other two colors, finally burnish with pale yellow or white if you feel like it.

To draw hills start with sort of a rolling ridge line in pencil. Then add some hills with pen and start shading the shady side of them. Add some forests next to the hills and some outcrops in the forest.

 

Back to School

First day of school.

 

Regnolit

This this picture I zoomed in on one of the areas in my other map. It is the shaded area in the middle.

Here is the updated world map:

 

The First Age

The First Age

1. The lithoids land on Moon 3 from Moon 4 in the crater shown. Their song raises the mountains on the SW continent. They migrate out raising additional mountain ranges before other life forms emerge. Through their slow songs they are able to pull the tectonic plates together over thousands of years to pull up the great mountain ranges of the southern continents.

2. The mulluscoids land as spores from the shallow seas of Moon 2 onto Moon 3. They begin to migrate out to different regions.

3. The plant kingdom emerges on a small island off the southern coast of the north west continent. They then spread to the entire southern portion of the continent. The plant supreme ruler grows as a great jungle and thinks life is good. During pangea the plants migrate to the north east continent and the south east continent. Note: There are other plants throughout the world so this mostly refers to the plantoids or “conscious” plants. The plantoids later become allied with the fey.

4. The insectoids emerge on the south east continent and sweep through it devouring the plants. During pangea they migrate to the island now off the coast of the north east continent.

5. The fungoids emerge on the northern end of the south west continent.

6. Fish, amphibians, and reptilians emerge in the southern part of the north east continent.

7. The dragons appear in the north of the north east continent.

8. The saurians and avians develop from the reptiles.

9. Mammalians and anthropomorphs emerge in the middle of the north west continent.

10. Giants emerge in the north of the north west continent. They migrate to the south west of the south west continent while they are next to each other during pangea.

11. The humanoids finally emerge.

12. The fiends appear in the south of the south east continent.

13. Horrors emerge from the seas in the south east of the south west continent.

14. The lithoids build the constructs and set them free in the middle of the south west continent.

15. Mystics of the occult begin to emerge on the south west continent.

16. Magic begins to emerge on the south east continent.