Manual of Mennara maps – Behind the scenes

UPDATE: The maps discussed in this post are now available for FREE at this link: Terrinoth Map Pack on DrivethruRPG.com

The prolific Mr. Chris Markham gave me the opportunity to draw some maps for his wonderful supplement, “Manual of Mennara – a Guide to Terrinoth and the Surrounding Lands“. Chris is probably the most qualified person in the world for this writing job, having zealously studied the land of Terrinoth and its world for years, drawing information from board games, books, fan lore and much more, all to produce a truly essential gazetteer for anyone adventuring in the world of Mennara. You can see Chris’s many other Terrinoth products at his Genesys Foundry page and make sure to visit his free encyclopedic treasure of Terrinoth lore at his scabbard site.

But what about the maps? An official comprehensive world map of Mennara has never been published and only Chris has all the information required to piece together an encompassing functional map, with a consistent scale and all proper location names. I offered to help Chris, knowing that this was a great opportunity to test drive my upcoming product – The RPG Mapping Kit for Photoshop (*working title). This add-on is a set of brush presets, layer styles and actions for Adobe Photoshop, all wrapped up in an easy-to-use interface, that will allow you to draw land, city and dungeon maps for roleplaying games and more — without actually knowing how to draw. All you is need is Photoshop and basic knowledge of how to move a mouse.

Drawing the Land Maps

Drawing the world map of Mennara required gathering information from various sources and was sort of like constructing a puzzle, only without a clear picture of the final image. It was a process of trial and error and Chris’s input required a dynamic workflow that allowed quick edits and adjustments. We both have day jobs after all. The RPG Mapping Kit for Photoshop (*working title) was the perfect tool for the job!

Using the RPG Mapping Kit to draw a land map is very simple. Every map already starts with a water layer. Then, using a custom-made brush included with the kit, you draw the land masses. Then another custom brush is used to sprinkle in some islands. This stage is so intuitive and quick that instead of trying to adjust an existing section of the map, it was usually much faster to erase and draw it again following Chris’s feedback.
Next stage is using a custom brush to draw in the mountains. God, how I’m obsessed with drawing mountains. I’ve spent months(years?) of my life obsessively hand-drawing mountains for roleplaying maps, one after the other, reveling in the authenticity and appeal of such maps. But now, there’s no need to wast… err, invest all that time anymore. Mountains are now just a few mouse strokes to place, with as much appeal and style as a hand-drawn map.
Then came the forests, canyons, rivers and borders – all drawn with specific custom brushes in a wave of the mouse (or WACOM if that’s your thing). Finally, I added some color to differentiate climates, location labels, scale and a border frame. To finish the hand-drawn look, I ran a custom-made Photoshop Action to give everything an even more sketchy style.
Chris and I both wanted the map to be as canon as possible. Since everything was so easy and quick to draw, there was no stage in the process that it was too late to go back and rework some areas, adjusting it to fit the various lore sources.

Drawing City Maps

Drawing a city map is a completely different thing. No wait, actually it’s exactly the same thing. You start with a blank water layer and follow these steps:

1. Use a custom brush to draw land. In this case I used a thick setting for the brush since most of the map is covered in land.
2. Use a custom brush to draw the city walls. It looks nicer if you do it in a single stroke so some clicks on “undo” and redrawing might be needed. Of course you can also draw in specific wall parts like gates and towers later.
3. Using another custom brush, you fill in the city walls with buildings.
4. Now comes the fun part. Using a custom eraser brush, you erase some buildings, making room for roads and streets. I started with wide streets and then reduced the size of the eraser brush for smaller and smaller streets, randomly drawing connecting lines. I was actually somewhat surprised to see how well just random streets ended up looking.
5. Draw in the forest and roads, using their own custom brushes.
6. Finally, run a Photoshop Action to give everything a hand-drawn style (see final image below).

I intend to work more on the buildings texture and add more custom brushes for different buildings and additional city elements. But the map above was literally drawn in only 5 minutes! Think how it could look if you spend 30 minutes or more on it. I already have plans to draw some city maps for one of Chris’s future projects so you’ll have a better preview of the available mapping features.

Drawing a Dungeon Map

Need I say more? You get the idea, the Mapping Kit will also have custom brushes and presets to draw dungeons — Fast! It will have additional brush presets for elements like elevations, ditches, doors, columns, etc.

The RPG Mapping Kit is designed to be the perfect tool for Gamemasters wanting to quickly draw a beautiful map for their next session, or for RPG writers and publishers wanting to add hand-drawn style maps but are on a tight budget.

I will keep updating my Facebook page and Twitter account, posting more sample maps and tools, so make sure to follow if you’re interested. The first version of the product should be available in a couple of months. What features would you like to see in this Mapping kit? Let me know in the comments or on the social channels and I’ll try to work them in.

Thank you Chris for this opportunity! It was a joy!

Roy Altman

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