This week I tried something different that goes back to when I first started DMing.

I tried drawing a map in pencil again after two years of working exclusively in pen.

The scanning is a bit rougher on a pencil map, as I have to significantly increase the contrast to make it pop like my usual maps. But I’m going to keep trying out this format for a while.

For tools, once again, it was a single-draft map drawn on plain white paper (with a grid on the page below it for use as a guideline to maintain some straightish lines). It was drawn with a plain old-fashioned HB pencil (that I occasionally had to sharpen during the process – going old school means no mechanical pencils for me!), then scanned into photoshop and contrast enhanced (75% increase in contrast), with no other cleanup or changes.

And yeah, Photoshop instead of the Gimp this time around. Trying this out on a new PC instead of the old Linux laptop.

The map itself is a family tomb that came up in a game involving wererat assassins impersonating some local well-to-do minor nobles and then slipping off into the night with the plunder of their family tombs and reliquaries.

Populate it with either twisted cultists, wererat assassins and grave robbers, or an undead overlord and it is ready to run.