Ye Olde Inn

This is an ad&d type of map I’ve made for an HQ quest. I’ve post it to show how easy it is for everyone to make a custom map just for the needs of one quest.

The problem about premade dungeons is that you use them only for one quest, and the color printing is not cheap. That’s why most of us don’t use them at all, and this is not good.

I’ve made this board in about 1 hour with a piece of paper and a marker. It was as an expansion of the original board (the heroes open a door and then I put the map on the table), and you need sheets of paper just to cover the unexplored areas (as with ad&d).

You don’t need serious painting skills. The stone walls, the cave walls, the rivers have a specific way of drawing. Of course, some parts needs explanation to your players as the bridge bellow, or the fort with the stairs (the one at the bottom that looks like a barrel), or the pits.

So, if anyone is interested for how to make old style handmade boards this is an example.

I do a similar thing when we decide to have a quick game of something, I use an A4 squared pad, to make it even easier just for this stuff.

When I was playing HQ style Skylanders with my kids, I made a tonne of rooms and corridors like the AHQ maps (hadnt even seen it before though) from biscuit boxes, pizza boxes and any other large cardboard boxes.
I would mark the squares out on each piece. Made a O and X room, with a piece that could be placed in the middle if needed.

When playing the quest, I just took a piece and placed a corridor or a room. Very random dungeon. Why I had to take pictures if we did not complete so I knew what the map looked like.
Did enjoy that type of play. After I get my magnetic rooms done, I may even make some magnetic corridors and play the whole random dungeon thing again.

Patroclus,
Your style is reminiscent of Billiam Babble's b&w Inked Adventures.



Sjeng's contest featured some links you and others may be interested in.

If a Quest were drawn/printed on poster board, I imagine it could be colored with watercolors fairly easily. Probably have to flatten it overnight with books, I imagine. Marker rendering would look great, but that's a lot of work.