Maps
Growing up the son of a geologist and outdoorsman, I have always been interested in maps and topography. I enjoy making maps that help the players understand the physical layout of the setting, especially when the map also feels like an in-world artifact.
T2K: CARPATO
I always found the post-apocalyptic setting of GDW’s game Twilight: 2000 to be evocative. The campaign arc was focused on the PCs as survivors in war torn Poland, trying to survive, and ultimatly make their way west to safety and eventually find a way to return to the USA.
I became interested in an alternate campaign journey, where the PCs travel south to try and find a way home in Trieste on the Adriatic Sea. I spent a lot of time studying the 1980s graphic style of the original 1st edition map, as well as researching older army survey maps in order to create a map that accurately matched up with the original. The result was the Carpathian Theater of Operations Map (or CARPATO).
T2K: TRANSCAUTO
After Completing CARPATO, I wanted to make a map that was a bit further afield. I settled on the Transcaucasia region, as its location on the southern border of the USSR, just north of Iran, and east of Turkey made it seem like an interesting sandbox setting. The oil pipeline crossing Armenian, Georgian, and Azerbaijan territories seemed to offer a lot of scenario hooks for the referee.
T2K: CENTKYTO
When Free League released the fourth edition of Twilight: 2000 and set up their community content program, I decided to switch from making maps in the first edition style, to ones matching the current editon, and release it through the Free League Workshop.
As I was not privy to Free League’s plans and didn’t want to step on any toes, I decided to make a travel map in midwestern USA, in an area Twilight:2000 had never developed. The Central Kentucky Theater of Operations Map or CENTKYTO covers most of the state of Kentucky, as well as parts of neighboring states.
T2K: Cincinnati
When Free League released the Urban Operations supplement for T2K, I wanted to try my hand at releasing a city map. Having lived in Cincinnati in the 1990s, I thought its downtown was well suited for an post-collapse urban sandbox. When creating Cincinnati: Ruins of the Queen City, I used 1990s reference maps, to get the old waterfront layout right.
Alien RPG Chartbook
When Free League first released the Alien RPG, there was a lot about it I loved. However, I was frustrated by the star map. On the one hand it was a fairly accurate depiction of actual stars near Sol. But the map was difficult to read, and lacked any easy way to locate a specific star system. Additionally it was made with lots of Sci Fi flourishes that looked cool, but didn’t at all seem like something the crew of the Nostromo would have used.
I thought a better solution was a chartbook, with a zoomed in view of the star systems on a clean white background. Combine that with a complete index of systems, and it would be a practical reference tool for players to have at the table.
Note: As I don’t permission to create works with the Alien IP or RPG, this was created only for personal use and not put up for sale or distribution.
Milton, NM
When our gaming group decided to try out the Bubblegumshoe RPG, I thought it would be interesting to use Ben Robbin’s Microscope tool to collaboratively create the town setting with the players. In the process of creating the fictional Milton New Mexico, we produced a stack of cards with lots of cool locations in the town, as well as interesting town lore.
I took that and made this town map or Milton for campaign.
Hard City RPG Mapback
On a different occasion we decided to try out Osprey’s film noir RPG Hard City. The game describes the neighborhoods of the city, but keeps things pretty abstract otherwise. I felt like an actual map of the city was warranted, and I got inspired by the idea of making a map that was an homage to the classic Dell Mapback mystery paperbacks. Naturally, I had to teach myself how to simulate the four color printing process effect for the map.
Early Federation
…and on another occasion my group wanted to play the Star Trek Adventures RPG. I liked the idea of setting the game about 5 years after the end of Star Trek: Enterprise, where the PCs are all members of the first graduating class from Starfleet Academy, and embarking on a mission of exploration on a Dædalus class starship.
However, there was precious little published on what whas known by the federation about nearby star systems in 2166. Using Star Trek Stellar Cartography for reference I came up with this map showing what was known to the PCs as they set off to explore and try to fill in the blank areas of the map.