I made all of these D&D player handouts in about
15 minutes, and THIS map in like 5 minutes! This one took me a LOT longer because I
drew it by hand, but if you can’t tell, I’ve been really into making physical
props and handouts to show my players during our roleplaying game sessions,
because it’s way easier than I thought-- --if you don’t draw a whole world map by hand! And it takes almost no time from start to finish! Also because rather than using the classic
arts-and-crafts method of tea-staining the paper, I’m using a different liquid
also found in your kitchen, so you don’t even have to wait for tea to brew! Seriously, I was way out of practice when
it comes to crafting, so if I can do this, you can too, and it just feels great to be
creating these tangible artifacts for my game that I can’t wait to share with my players!
So I also wanted to share the process with YOU! Because I’m Bob, this is where we learn
how to have more fun playing RPGs together… And step 1 is to make your map! In a
minute, I’ll go over some incredibly easy techniques for drawing your own
dungeon maps and fantasy world maps, but the ultra easy way to do this if you
literally only have 5 minutes, is to just print off a Black & White, ideally hand-drawn
looking map, from your favorite RPG cartographer! I grabbed this free design from the Dyson
Logos blog, but there are a number of amazingly talented RPG cartographers out there making great
stuff like this video’s sponsor: Borough Bound! The Borough Bound Patreon is the ultimate
resource for immersive RPG cities! Providing urban adventure modules with intriguing
NPCs, new mechanics, captivating music, and of course, top-down battlemaps in multiple
variations! All of the key buildings in each city are mapped out making them perfect for
heists or killing rats in the basement! And all of the assets are compatible with Foundry
VTT! I think it’s great that the adventures are system neutral for use with D&D, Pathfinder,
or similar games. So whatever you’re playing, check out the Borough Bound
Patreon through the link below! Now we have our printed map, but I promised to
show you some simple tools and techniques for drawing your own awesome map! So first, if
you have only a bit of time on your hands, I recommend using Dungeon
Scrawl which is a free to use, browser based mapping application, pretty
much designed for that old school look! The default style is good for what we
want, but you can always change the colors, the line weights, really everything is adjustable
on Dungeon Scrawl! And I made a video tutorial for this tool several years ago using the original
version which I’ll link up in the corner. However, they have since made some changes,
and now the user-interface is slightly too minimal for my taste. Like there have
been some times where I know there’s an option to do a certain thing, but I can’t
find it. Maybe that’s just me. Anyway, we’ve got a pretty solid mini
dungeon map here! You get the idea. If you have more time on your hands, you
can use them to draw your own map! Yes! Even if you think you’re no good at
drawing, you can do this! Here’s how! You get a blank sheet of paper, grid paper helps
if you have it, but whatever. I’ll be using a fine point sharpie simply because it’s on my desk. To
start, you throw some dice down, you draw some lines around these dice, making some of em wiggly,
some of em straight. Those are our dungeon rooms, now we connect a few of them, draw some stairs,
and some doors, and we’re basically done! You can draw everything in pencil first,
but then you’ll want to go over it with ink, and after the ink is totally dry,
you can use any decent eraser--like a FRESH pencil eraser-- to remove
the pencil lines if you feel like it! Also, if you want the same detailed look
of that other map, you just make little diagonal hatchmarks along the outside of
each line. Three or four hatches one way, three or four hatches the other way,
repeat until you fill the whole thing up. And since this part requires zero
brainpower, you can meanwhile use your brain to think about “what’s the
history of this dungeon?” “what lives here now?” “what treasures do they keep and
where?” and “what kind of traps, puzzles, or other defenses do they use to protect
that treasure from thieving adventurers?” Please tell us down in the comments
what other questions do you like to ask yourself when preparing a dungeon
or really any adventure for your game? To be honest, I usually ask and answer
those questions BEFORE I start drawing, so the drawing can better match those
answers, but the order really doesn’t matter because your players are unlikely to
question whether or not the architecture of the dungeon matches its original purpose,
because they’ll be too busy trying to sneak past sleeping trolls and bargain kobolds and
all that weird stuff adventurers like to do! Then alternatively, if you
want to make a world map… You draw hills like this. Easy.
You draw mountains like this. Also easy! Whoa, a volcano! Every RGP map
needs at least one volcano! Grasslands can be like this. Super easy.
Rivers are just two lines next to each other. Oh! Maybe a little bridge going over it, cool!
Trees can be little triangles packed together, or kind of a cloud shape with little lines going
straight down beneath it for the trees’ trunks. You can even make cool chasms like this! Or cool caves like this, just a hill with a
hole in it, also a great place for a dungeon! And then towers and castles and what
not. Trust me, you can handle it. But if you need any more encouragement, go check out JP Coovert’s channel here on
YouTube! He’s an actual artist and who can walk you through all these techniques
with much more experience and style! Now one way or another, you got your map, and
you can just as easily write out a letter, or better yet, print off a letter that
the player characters can find during their adventure! But for help
writing that letter, or poem, or riddle, you can try having ChatGPT
write out the first draft for you? Let me know down in the comments if you’ve been
using ChatGPT for any parts of your game prep! I haven’t personally used it for RPGs yet,
but I’ve heard it’s great for tasks like this where you just need it to spit out something that
sounds okay, and then you can edit it, revise it, copy paste it into a Google doc, slap on a
cursive looking font, and print that sucker out! Then we’re ready to age this stuff! Take
your paper, and carefully tear off those edges. I’ve found that my printer
paper seems to have a grain to it, where tearing the long edge is usually very
clean, but tearing the short edge ends up more jagged. That’s just a heads up because you may
want to go a little slower on the short edge. The cool part is, you can’t mess this up! Because
you SHOULD rip off a chunk of your dungeon map! Think about it! This is an in-world artifact drawn
by some terrified dungeon delver. Not a survey team! So you should even feel free to deviate
from this map when playing the actual dungeon! Giving the party a complete and
fully accurate map of a dungeon would kinda break the immersion this
artifact is supposed to provide! Just be clear with your players up front
that the map is not 100% reliable! Also, it’s more fun if the map is in
pieces and the characters find its different sections as they explore
different areas of the dungeon! However you do it, be sure to make your tears
at this stage, BEFORE you add the color, otherwise your beautifully stained map might
have a clean white edge where you tore it! For the same reason, if you want to crumple
up your paper to make it even more ragged, you should do that now, because
after getting it wet and drying it, the paper will be much more brittle and
prone to tearing where you don't want it to. That’s how I got a hole in my
world map, but it is kinda cool! And you can skip this step! I didn’t
crumple these handouts at all because I was really pressed for time, and
I still think they came out great! Now after tearing up your map or letter, you want to place the paper in any oven-safe
tray and add our secret ingredient: soy sauce! Believe me, I tried using tea, but it
was taking FOREVER to get dark at all, so I just looked around my kitchen for other
dark liquids! I tried balsamic vinegar, I tried mixing in coffee grounds, I
even tried a little barbeque sauce, but soy sauce is cheap and has the exact
color and consistency that I was going for! So just splash some drops all around your paper.
Then even it out with a wide craft brush or a marinade brush like this one. And be kinda careful
while brushing because the paper could tear at this stage since it’s all wet, but you do want
to cover the surface so it soaks pretty evenly. "Pretty evenly" because whenever you’re designing
something to look rustic, you don’t want it to look too even. So whether it’s tearing the
edges or spreading your soy sauce around, be relaxed and don’t stress over the
details, those quote-unquote mistakes are just natural variations that will end up
giving your artifact a more authentic look! Then the main step is to COOK! THAT! MAP! Man, that really sounds like a game show tagline. I put mine in the oven at 350 for like 3
minutes. Then it comes out fairly brittle, but with that nice, slightly
charred edge, just looking amazing! Finally, the very important last
step is to carefully at first, but then adding some pressure, just
massage the paper between your hands, kinda twisting them back and forth. You’ll
notice almost immediately that this loosens up the fibers of the paper, making it
less brittle and more flexible again! And I’m not certain about this part,
but I feel like it probably adds some oil from your hands which might even help
protect the surface just a little bit. After doing that for another minute or so,
your paper will have a texture almost like a thin and crinkly fabric, which to me, makes
it not only look but also FEEL more authentic! And next thing you know, you’ll be wowing your
players when you hand them this actual piece of the game world, making the experience
that much more real and encouraging them to explore! If that sounds fun to you,
please remember to give this video a thumbs up and share it with your game group
so they’ll make some fun stuff of their own! Then check out this video about making
random tables for your own dungeon, or this one about Gygax’s worldbuilding
techniques! Thanks to the Bob World Builder patrons who support this channel
directly and get cool stuff like a monthly 5e one shot adventure, and more! But thank
you for your support, and keep building!
