Have you ever wondered why some apocalyptic worlds feel like cheap movie sets, while others feel like they have a real, breathing history? Like you could actually step inside and feel the grit of the dust, and hear the strange quiet of a world that moved on without us?

This is our 10K YouTube subscriber celebration, Maps Traps, and Mishaps! For it, I'm looking making a dungeon crawl!

In this tutorial, we'll discuss the style of the old Japanese Edo Period, and how we can make our maps visually stunning like theirs.

This week on the Red Quills, we're going back to the Mappa Mundi of old - making a Venetian map based on their styles and priorities.

In this tutorial, in which we go over the concepts of how to map like the Maya, I'll be unpacking the mesoamerican empire's ideals...

In this week's tutorial, we look at Roman maps, and how we can emulate them for a fantasy role-playing game. What can Rome teach us?

Today, we’re diving into one of the oldest traditions of world-mapping: the sacred, symbolic, and incredibly evocative maps of Ancient Egypt. And more importantly - we’re going to talk about how you can use this approach to make your own maps feel alive with myth, magic, and mystery.

When people ask me what the most important map for worldbuilding is, I always have to pause.Because the answer, really, is: any map that helps you run your game. Not a world map, not a regional map, not a city map—just the right map for the next session. And that looks different depending on where you’re at in your game and how you run it.

You have only just started on your fantasy journey: perhaps this is the first page of a new novel, or the crinkled parchment handed to you as you set out over the wild hills and dales. On its surface, scrawled in a spidery hand, are the secrets and civilisations of your fantastical world, all there for the exploration. Let's get to creating a D&D map.

Welcome, adventurers, to this latest episode of the Red Quill's Guide to Fantasy Lands. Welcome to a realm where the very fabric of reality is woven from the threads of thought and emotion, where the laws of physics are but fleeting whispers in a starry wind.

Imagine a vast underwater city, once the pinnacle of an ancient civilization's glory, now lying in eerie silence beneath the waves. Schools of fish dart through crumbling archways, and the occasional glimmer of light catches on ancient, forgotten treasures. Welcome to the world of the Ancient Sunken Ruins, a place where history, mystery, and adventure collide.

The ground beneath your feet is uneven, with hidden pits and treacherous drops waiting to ensnare the unwary. Welcome to the Underdark, a realm where danger and wonder lurk in every shadowed corner.

Today, we’re looking at How to Draw a Druid Enclave. I’ll be drawing the map below, which is a map of the ruins of Rostivale and its inhabitants, the Druids of Firn-na-Bolg. 

If giving your world and players a coded map, something for them to puzzle over and sweat over, is the direction that your quest needs, here is our latest special: How to Draw a Coded Map.