Abandoned Wagon, Adept

This one is the Abandoned Wagon (16x11), a simple road ambush map! Would you believe that I hadn't made this map before, it feels like one of those quintessential RPG maps that surely I should have drawn years earlier. Well, better late than never I suppose, here's your waylaid wagon with room for goblins to hide in the bushes.

1. So, the concept- a nice and wide road winding through a somewhat sparse wood, which I wanted to feel fairly remote. To try to build on that vibe I put in more bushes and boulders/rocks than I normally do, so that it felt like an area in the middle of the woods rather than just out of town. If that doesn't come across, at least all those extra props will make for good cover, so no worries.

   

2. The wagon and rock walls made up the bulk of the work here. In the Rocky Peninsula map from a couple weeks ago I tried out this new method for drawing rock walls where I only lightly contour them with few additional details. It's a good look, I think, but it comes with some disadvantages, mainly being that I'm not used to drawing them this way so it took a bit more effort and more time drawing/redrawing to get them right.

   As for the wagon, I first had to decide which kind it would be. A wood-topped wagon would look right for a merchant cart but maybe wouldn't be the most appropriate for your average travelers. A simple wagon without a roof would be good for a farmer but, again, not for someone traveling distances or for sleeping inside. This canvas-topped wagon felt like a nice middle ground, feeling rustic enough for heading into town but hardy enough for long-distance travel. That'll make the map more usable for DMs with different stories in mind, which is just what I'm looking for.

   3. I've been happy to be making forest maps again but my time away from this environment has left me coloring them a little inconsistently.. or maybe the inconsistent palette is because I'm painting them according to the vibe I have in mind rather than making them all conform to the set palette? Either way, these forest maps are a bit all over the place these days but that's not necessarily a bad thing, their palettes are fitting for the content (in my mind) and that's all that matters, I think.