# Gallery > Finished Maps >  RPG Epic Encounter Maps  by The Red Epic

## TheRedEpic

Hey All,

SO i have decided to put together a 8.5"x 11" book of map encounters that i will get published, and hopefully will sell well at the Next Gen con. There will be 24 full color encounter maps of different locations and settings, and i'm toying around with including a couple 1x1 inch gridded battlemaps as well, (double page spread to fit). 

The whole idea being that a DM could buy this book (im toying around with 20-25$ resale), and have a whole range of different nicely rendered encounter maps at their fingertips to draw inspiration and/or incorporate into his/her adventure that they are running. I have heard that the encounter maps i have done for Paizo and Wizards in this same style are enjoyed very much, so i thought this would be a useful tool to those DMs that want good maps and/or story seeds to use. 

I will be updating this as i finish them, so please leave ideas, comments, and suggestions, i would really appreciate it! Thanks!

PRINTS FOR SALE: Get them while they are hot guys, Epic Cartography maps are on my FB Group page with prices and descriptions! 
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...50445191695492

SHOOT me an Email or PM for prints. They are all printed, cute, laminated, numbered and signed by me :Smile:  Maps go from 8$-15$ apiece + shipping. Let me know :Smile: 

#7 The Iron Mountain
The Dwarves in the high pass have suddenly ceased sending arms and supplies down the long and winding mountain road. Rumors abound that something has gone wrong, and the once prolific sounds of hammer and anvil have ceased drifting down into the valley below, replaced by an ominous silence. As the PC's approach, there are none there to greet them, and all seems quiet. Once inside, it has the sound and smell of a tomb rather than that of a once vibrant stronghold. What lurks in the deep shadowy halls? 


#6 Old Forest Road
The Pc's march through the Old Forest, a once well traveled and friendly route that has long since fallen into disrepair. Highwaymen, creatures, and worse abound, and many a soul has been taken unawares in the wilds of the world. Travelers who dare the road do so heavily armed, and pass through as quickly and as quietly as possible.
 

#5 The Mountain Pass
The mountian passes are passable but dangerous. Highwaymen, beasts and the enemies to all free races linger there waiting to ambush and kill the unwary or unarmed. The PC's have made their way up into the mountains, but trees and rocks bar their path. A natural occurrence, or someones evil purpose? who knows what lies in wait for them upon the frigid paths of the roof of the world.


#4: The Cliffside Fortress
After the PC's have chased cultist through and cave and a mountain pass, they emerge onto a flattened cliffside, carefully hewn from the rock, before them stands a dilapidated fortress dwelling. What lies within is not certain, though it can be sure the PC's prey have sought refuge from their pursuers there. A last ditch effort to save themselves from justice?, or perhaps a trap for the hunted to turn the tables on their hunters...




#3: The Sand Vault
An underground tomb hidden at the back of a cave, what lies within?



#2: The Ford:
This map is for those who want to have an encounter at a defended ford, tell me your thoughts!




#1: The Frozen Mansion:
For this map i was thinking that some rich lord or wizard who dabbled to much in sorcery has unleashed something that has frozen his/her home. Its escaped and taken its revenge. Or it could be a haunted mansion somewhere int he mountains, or just somebodies home :Smile:  Figured i would put in some clues as to what happened, but leave it open for the DM.

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## Ascension

If I could do encounter maps I'd do the same thing, man - so good luck.  I doubt that you'll need it, knowing your work, but good luck all the same, bro.  People _should_ pay top dollar for top notch work.  So from the bottom of my heart, I hope you make a million   :Smile:

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## Aegeri

Beautiful, if I can get a friend who is going to gencon or whenever you are selling these I will make sure he picks me up that book.

Plus if you make a PDF, I will totally buy that even if you are putting the maps here as well.

Edit: Hey that's one of the maps I suggested. _Excellent_ work.

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## TheRedEpic

Thanks Ascension, coming from you that really means alot, as you know i think your work is fantastic :Smile:  I hope i can get this thing going too!

Aegeri, thanks for the support man, i really appreciate it! I am planning on self publishing in book form but i may move to PDFs at some point, however if i do this too early, i'm thinking it might undermine the book i am trying to launch and i dont have a shop for people to buy from just yet!. But that will probably happen in time, or i may change my mind. And of course this is one of your ideas, you had some great ones. Mind if i take a couple more? I'll try to do them justice!

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## Steel General

This is quite nice, good luck with your book/pdf-thingy!  :Smile:

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## Aegeri

You're welcome to use any of my ideas. I run so many games that the number of different scenarios I think of/need is quite considerable. I was actually just thinking about an encounter in my Dark Sun campaign, where the players have to engage a group of monsters fighting in/around a huge "dinosaur" like skull in the middle of the desert. The creature had been felled by a defiler (maybe in the very distant past?), so much of the sand at the bottom was defiled black sand terrain (which is quite dangerous) and the skull was the actual safe place to walk/climb/fight on. Basically the skull of the creature forms the safe battle terrain, with the sand being dangerous in effect. Rather like the old schoolyard game where the ground is lava and you can't touch it - only black sand that kills you. Dark Sun has some pretty large monsters and the skull would be partially buried anyway.

Edit: Minding, this might be too specific to be useful for a variety of DMs.

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## Sapiento

Considering the quality of your maps, Jared, I can't think this could be something else as a success.

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## ravells

Best of luck with the sales Jared, and don't forget to post a link here to your book when it's done!

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## tilt

that looks great - perhaps some more frost/ice on the furniture - give it all a bluish sheen?  :Smile:   ... and good luck with the sales  :Smile:

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## Aegeri

I actually think the lack of ice in the house is a good thing. It means the map might just be someone house but it is in the winter, as opposed to supernaturally frozen inside and out. You can get away with either description to the PCs about the map based on the one in the OP.

Edit: There are snowy footsteps in the mansion though, if you look carefully at the second floor.

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## TheRedEpic

Update #2 : The Ford Crossing!

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## Aegeri

Another excellent effort  :Very Happy:

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## professorthunder

This is one of my favorite style maps.  Excellent.

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## TheRedEpic

Thanks Guys, the mountain pass is coming soon. If anyone has more encounter maps they would like to see, let me know, i'm always listening.

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## Aegeri

I am just keen to see what you come up with. Your maps are very creative and very pretty.

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## arsheesh

Wow RedEpic, these are gorgeous!  With the right advertising promotions I think these will sell really well.  Best of luck to you.  Oh, and +2 rep, for what it's worth.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

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## TheRedEpic

#3 is up! This time its The Sand Vault, a hidden tomb found at the back of small mountain cave, who knows whats lies within? I had fun with this one and i like how the color pallete worked out, enjoy!

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## geamon

Reminds me of the Cave of Wonders from Disney's Aladdin. I don't know if it's a flaw but there a hollow red/maron square on the map at the hexagonal room next to the display in the center. Mistake? Regardless awesome stuff as usual.

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## TheRedEpic

Hey Geamon, actually thats exactly what i used as inspiration for this map :Smile:  Thats my favorite part of that movie, and thought it would be a cool to do a map with that in mind. As for the square next to the display, i figured a GM could use it as a pressure plate for a booby trap or something. Thanks for the praise!

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## TheRedEpic

4th one is up finally, The Cliffside Fortress.

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## geamon

I think this is one of your best yet. Really dig the illustration attached to demonstrate the over all view of the towers. You sir have a special place in my inspiration folder!!

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## Aegeri

The cliffside fortress is an absolutely terrific map and a great example of a very inspiring setpiece map, that can still be used for a wide variety of purposes.

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## Sergei Zybin

Great maps! Looks like must have item for every fantasy-oriented DM.

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## TheRedEpic

Wow, thanks for the Praise guys, look forward tot he next couple. They should be forthcoming now that my pro work load is slackening a bit. Is their any specific map any body would like to see done?

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## Redrobes

Theres a thread by industrygothica talking about putting a guild commissioned module together. I don't know if its a free or paid for thing at this point but maybe lend a hand with that. It would be yet another little notch on your already heavily gouged CV of maps. There is always the CWBP world to plonk a map down into if your really feeling the need to make something  :Smile:

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## Aegeri

Who is doing the writing on such a module for encounters, monsters and such things? I have a lot of experience with 4E so if you want any help with that, I'd be more than happy to do some.

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## mearrin69

Thought I had commented on this thread already. This is pretty stuff as always!
M

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## Jaxilon

Oddly enough, I also thought I had posted on this but maybe I was just too stunned to say anything at the time. These are gorgeous and I really admire the way you enhance your maps with the flourishes and so on. Beautiful work.

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## TheRedEpic

#5 The Mountain Pass is up! Let me know what you guys think and if i should add anything to it, i was thinking maybe caves? 

~Jared

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## mearrin69

Have some rep. These are truly inspirational...love your style. I'm going to copy you someday.  :Wink: 
M

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## Ascension

Definitely caves and maybe some rubble or boulders.  Very nice.

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## Aegeri

Now that snowy mountain pass is one hell of a fine map and I think I've found the battlemap for some Perytons with that one (flying creatures and changes in elevation are a killer combination)  :Very Happy:

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## TheRedEpic

#6 The Old Forest Road is up. Check it out!

Acension- i will get on that but my work computer with this map and my huge map crashed and i am in the process of salvaging the hard drive :Frown:  Stupid technology. Still i will put them in when i get the chance!

Aegeri- Thanks for the offer but right now i'm just doing the maps and writing a few sentences about each to give the player a feel for the map :Smile:  I have never written and adventure and surprisingly rarely play DnD. I think it would be pretty cool to put out micro- adventures for DnD with me doing the maps and art,  and somebody else writing up the info and organizing it into PDF's or something. Thats a ways down the road though, right now i'm just trying to get these things done for Gen Con!

Everyone else- Thanks you so much, your comments and praise has really been an inspiration :Smile: 

~J

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## mearrin69

Very nice. The green bits on the road look scary. I would take the party overland at that point!
M

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## Port Paladine

wow, I really like your style. I'm diggin the The Cliffside Fortress, The Sand Vault and the The Frozen Mansion. The eye candy around your maps is right up my ally. It's just what I would do to dress up a map. Most of the time I'm just hand drawling them as I the PC's go along but having your maps would add the ambiance I would like to have in a game session. Top notch work. Added to your rep.

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## Aegeri

> Aegeri- Thanks for the offer but right now i'm just doing the maps and writing a few sentences about each to give the player a feel for the map I have never written and adventure and surprisingly rarely play DnD. I think it would be pretty cool to put out micro- adventures for DnD with me doing the maps and art,  and somebody else writing up the info and organizing it into PDF's or something. Thats a ways down the road though, right now i'm just trying to get these things done for Gen Con!


Actually that wasn't what I was thinking with my comment - it was more to myself than anything else as I had just statted out 4E Perytons for my recent adventure. Now that you bring this idea up though, if you need a dood (EG me) to help you write some 4E adventures you just let me know and I will *definitely* help. The kinds of encounters I could write with cartography as amazing as yours would be worth the time and effort alone.

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## lanceschaubert

i like the frozen mansion the best, though the clfsd fort caught my attn as well

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## Kolyana

Maybe also consider adding smaller pieces (such as trees, ice flows, boulders, etc) that can be 'cut out' as 'counters' and furniture ... when placed on top of one of the existing maps, they could change the landscape enough to be reused multiple times for different encounters.

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## TheRedEpic

Ah that is an excellent idea, though all the grids are not standardized...so that might be a bit of a problem. However, i am making 11x17 encounter maps with one inch grids...so that would work perfect. I would probably be able to created a laminated sheet that the player could cut out and place on the other laminated map. You think that would work well?

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## TheRedEpic

#7 The Iron Mountain is up!

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## Ascension

The swirly things in top left and mid right kinda give me vertigo but that's a very nice piece.  Makes me really feel the setting.

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## Sapiento

Absolutely stunning!!!

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## DarkSar_Chasm

Very detailed and amazing work!! I do have a question, do you use Photoshop for your maps? Or is that Campaign Cartographer?

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## torstan

Very pretty indeed. Are these going to be printed at 1 inch=1 square in the book, or is it just for DM reference? Are you going to offer jpgs for people to use in vtts?

I love all the extra decoration details around the maps and the grunge. Also love the style on the ice mansion walls - that's just gorgeous.

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## TheRedEpic

Thanks Everyone for all the comments!

~Dark Star- I use Photshop from start to finish on all my maps :Smile: 

~Tortsan- I will have normal adventure maps with the grids being smaller since these maps are going to be 8.5x11 for the most part to fit in the book i want to put out. But the Old forest Road, Ford Crossing, Mountain Pass, and others are going to be "Battle" maps which have 1 inch grids and are laminated for ease of DM and player use. I print, cut, sign, and laminated each one myself :Smile: 


PRINTS FOR SALE: Get them while they are hot guys, Epic Cartography maps are on my FB Group page with prices and descriptions! 
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?s...50445191695492

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## Aegeri

Hmmm, I am going to have to consider ordering the mountain pass map - though will you ship to Australia? In any event you have done fantastic work and I hope it gets the success it deserves.

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## TheRedEpic

Hmm, I think i can though i would have to find out how long it would take and how much it would cost, haha. I think its easier to ship out of the states rather than receive. Let me know if you make up your mind!

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## TheRedEpic

Hey All! Check out the new Redepic Cartography thread here!
#8 The Hidden Cave is up!

Check it out!
http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...680#post155680

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## J.Edward

I know this thread is older but I am curious. How were your sales? And all of those encounter maps are wonderful.  :Wink:

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