Let’s set the wayback machine for 7 years ago. Just like now, the One Page Dungeon Contest is taking submissions, and I figured I would give it a shot. I tried and tried to draw a decent isometric map for the tomb idea I had, but I just couldn’t get it to work. So instead I finally surrendered to my lack of cartographic skills and drew a simple overhead map.

I topped it off by using a horribly derivative name for the dwarf entombed therein (I hadn’t read the Hobbit since I was ten or twelve or so, and only re-read it in 2010, where my embarrassment over this naming faux-pas became acute).

Having improved my skills slightly in the seven intervening years, I finally pulled out the old tomb map and redrew it according to my original vision in a proper isometric view that really shows off the way the upper chamber looks down over the entrance room and the platform therein.

I’m REALLY quite happy that it turned out so well – it took seven years of practice, but I can finally get pretty much exactly what I want (cartographically at least) to transfer from my mental image to the final map.

This map was drawn in a single draft (well, mostly… I guess if you count the original version seven years ago it took me a total of four tries to get here, as it took me three tries to get the original version to a level that I was willing to use) using Mitsubishi Uni Pins on isometric drafting paper from http://www.squarehex.co.uk