Adventures of six-guns and sorcery for old-school roleplaying games.
Our first session playing Old-School Essentials: Classic Fantasy in the Northern Territories was quite enjoyable. One of my players opted to do a session report like a period newspaper article. I thought it was so good that I decided to typeset it, and will likely do so as long as he’s willing to write up the reports.
There’s a PDF below for your own personal use as a prop in your games.
When I was a kid, choosing a fantasy novel was easy. I ignored the author’s name, the title, and the cover art, and opened the book to see if there was a good map in the first few pages. If not, I put it back on the shelf and went to the next selection.
I’ll admit, I’ve done that with games too.
The PDF I’ve made available below contains my initial thoughts on a supernatural western set in some cold northern territories. I imagine these lands look like an alternate-Earth Canadian wilderness. You’ll notice there are markers for abundant game, mines, lumber and logging camps, and even megafauna. Those indicate locations where prehistoric creatures still claim dominance.
I’d suggest dropping your characters off at Fort Vigilance, which is truly the only safe place on the map. You won’t be adventuring there, but it’ll be the one place you can find supplies, rumors, missions, the beginnings of storylines, and a place for your characters to recuperate.
In future posts I’ll share what my gaming group and I have created at these locations, along with suggestions for storylines, one-shot missions, and mysterious rumors that you can use to get your players out of the fort and into the wilderness.
The PDF below contains both color and printer-friendly versions. The image below is at web resolution and suitable for your virtual tabletop programs.
I hope you enjoy the maps!
PS. I’m typically asked how I made the maps. I’ll explore that in a future post, but I use a combination of Photoshop and Illustrator over a rough hand-drawn sketch.
