Today's wildfires burn, on average, twice the amount of land they did in 1970. The reason? We've been working too hard to put them out. 

Sometimes you find inspiration in another map. Initially I started drawing this map based only on three corridors, and somewhere along the way I realized that it was starting to feel like Quasqueton - the dungeon from the classic module "B1 In Search of the Unknown".

So I went with it and stole a few elements from the classic map, and tried to compress the whole In Search of the Unknown experience into a single small dungeon map instead of a massive sprawling complex - complete with one-way secret doors, alcoves along the entry corridor, the kitchen and dining rooms, throne room, garden, storage space, pools, and a lower level of natural caverns.

Originally I drew the core of this map for the Exquisite Corpse Dungeon 2 project, and then added the additional material to make it into a fully self-contained map once I scanned the section being used for the Exquisite Corpse. I'll post the exquisite corpse slice when the Exquisite Corpse Dungeon 2 is finished and on display.

You can download the 300dpi versions of the map, with and without grid, from the blog post at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/01/tuesday-map-requasqueton/

Thank you for your support! You make these maps possible.

http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/pierre-packer/

Every time I've tweeted about packing, I'm always flooded with people earnestly asking why on earth that is something I, a cisgender woman, would enjoy doing. What is the appeal? So today's comic is not only a review of my new favorite packer, but I also try to explain some of the appeal that I personally feel.

This comic feels a lot more intimate to me, I hope you guys like it!

Temples, churches and religious structures tend to both be large (because they are built with the help of a whole community instead of a single person or family) and central to a lot of games (because in a world where gods have direct power over the world, it seems to make sense that their churches would wield significant power also).

Thus they make great game fodder.

This map is of a church and two nearby structures (although the northern structure didn’t quite fit on the page – you can assume the remainder is more dormitories and libraries).

The main structure is the temple proper, with some publicly accessible shelves of religious scrolls and similar on the right, a small chapel on the left, and various other chambers for priests, visitors and worshipers.

To the east of the temple are the office of the head of the temple and associates, and a dormitory for brothers in training, men at arms, and those loyal to the temple but too poor to offer more than their toil and bodies to the religion (and in some churches, a few paladins and low level clerics).

You can get the map at 300dpi from the blog post at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/04/friday-map-the-temple-of-marid-scurn/

While I have many a tower map on the blog, I seem to be lacking in ziggurats and stepped pyramids – wonderful constructions that evoke ancient civilizations, mysteries, and probably hidden treasures.

Dreaming Feather was one of the last rulers of the Dyonis Empire – shrugged off by most histories as a freak and sign of the end of the empire because she was a psionically gifted siamese twin who ruled for only nine years.

As one of the later rulers of the empire however, her tomb and temple remains in good shape to this day and the priesthood of the small city built up around it still conduct rituals and observances from the steps of the pyramid.

The pyramid has multiple entrances leading to different areas.

Area A is used for rituals and for private meetings with the faithful.

Area B is unknown to the priesthood and leads to the tombs and false tombs of the Dreaming Feather.

Area C is used as storage and emergency quarters for the priesthood and associates.

Area D is the crypts used by the priesthood. Originally the tombs of Dreaming Feather’s top 3 priests, the central crypt is home to the remains of a priest who was reviled after her death and is presumed by many to have been her assassin. As such, the new priesthood had no problems desecrating his crypt and digging a new set of crypts for their own elders behind it.

Area E is only reachable by a shaft that leads down 60 feet from area B above, and then bends and continues down a further 40 feet to area G. Secured by a massive stone portal, this is the tomb of Dreaming Feather’s chief adviser, and is well trapped and defended.

Area F is the actual tomb of Dreaming Feather, reached by a narrow chimney that climbs directly up 30 feet from the tombs below. The antechamber is still defended by a pair of psionic constructs.

Area G are the tombs of Dreaming Feather’s various stuff. Baskets of food, boats, chariots, mummified horses, glorious peacocks, golden monkeys and more can be found down here.

Thanks to the awesome patrons of the Dodecahedron, this map (and the companion map of the lower areas) is available for download at 300 dpi with and without grid for your personal or commercial use at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/tuesday-map-dreaming-feathers-tomb/

http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/form-5

Dang, this was a strange little toy! It's supposed to be good for all sets of genitals, from vulvas to wangs, but Matt and I found it to be... well. Read the review. Hmm! :-/

There’s a structure in the Forbidden City with five small pyramids poking out of the roof. It was once either a museum or a temple – definitely a place where people came to contemplate (their history, their gods, all of the above?)

The east side of the structure is partially collapsed, with one wing having almost fully given way and crashed down into the street.

The five pyramids in turn were taken over by the local dwellers as nests for their giant wasps – each pyramid is now a mass of mud and paper that held a number of giant wasps before the area was contested by the newest dwellers in the city.

The most recent dwellers in the city are also the weakest, but proved that they are not to be underestimated. When harassed by the grippli upon their giant wasp mounts, the latest arrivals (bullywugs) began a guerrilla action to wipe out the wasp nests closest to their homes. These ruins were the scene of one of these actions, and the long-dead exoskeletons of poisoned wasps still litter the area.

Again, I can present this map to you for free for your personal and/or commercial use thanks to my awesome patrons of my Patreon Campaign. You can download the map in 300 dpi with and without grid from the blog at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/11/friday-map-the-ruined-hatak-temple/

http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/defective-by-melanie-gillman/

Melanie Gillman created this very touching, thoughtful comic about a non-binary couple trying to get pregnant.

Once again it is not much of a secret that I have a love for towers (and a recent love for drawing lots of circles on a piece of paper and calling it a map). For this one I wanted a set of towers with no obvious entry (at least at ground level).

What it evolved into as I drew it is a cluster of interlinked towers that enclose a series of portals to other towers in other realms.

While the ground floor only has two portals at this point (the magic circles at the two end towers) and no entrances or egresses, the upper floors (to be posted on Friday) contain more portals and some open-air sections where enterprising thieves and persons with flying steeds could gain access to the complex.

The ground floor map can be downloaded at 300dpi (with and without grid) from my blog at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/15/tuesday-map-the-portal-nexus-ground-floor/

On Tuesday I posted the Portal Nexus – the ground floor and side view of a set of towers with no obvious ground-level entry that I picture as housing a set of portals from one place to another – a sort of portal clearinghouse or transit hub for busy teleporters. In many cases I would stop with the one level, letting it serve as a general layout for the upper levels as well, but I felt that this set of towers deserved a little more (and a few more portals). So here are the next three levels, from top down.

The top level is two towers connected by a covered bridge. I picture a single portal right in the middle of the bridge, so you can’t actually use the bridge to get from tower to tower without crossing through the portal.

The next level down is three towers, two of which are connected by an open-air bridge. The tower on the left I picture as having two portals, at the two dead-end regions of the c-shaped room.

Finally the level just above the ground floor is comprised of multiple towers, and also is home to the only open-air portal of the structure. There is a large pillar made of green stone sitting on the roof of one of the smaller towers and reached by a bridge – when activated it calls down a bolt of green lighting from the skies and is open for travel for ten minutes. The spike-sided tower to the left is also home to three more portals (and a balcony overlooking the stone circle on the main level), each embedded in the wall of it’s own chamber, framed in heavy obsidian blocks.

You can download the maps at 300dpi (with and without grid) from the blog at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/18/friday-map-upwards-into-the-portal-nexus/

http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/forest-friends-by-delidah/

If you were craving for some first grade exotic jungle shlongs, this week’s Oh Joy Sex Toy guest comic by Delidah is just what the doctor ordered!

I am an unashamed fan of the machinations of Jez Gordon who works as a layout and graphics god for a few small press releases every year. Among last year's masterpieces of his work we had Zak Smith's Red and Pleasant Land (winner of a fistfull of ENnie awards) which he laid out and added a few maps to.

Combining the inspiration from reading the book with my love of the black, white and red isometric map that Jez drew for it (if you don't yet own a copy of this awe-inspiring book, you can see Jez' final map that inspired me on this blog post about awesomeness from earlier this summer - http://goo.gl/NR4k2p ), I decided to finally draw the isometric map that I wanted to since forever.

The last time I drew a crazed isometric "cityscape" map, I spent a lot of effort keeping the geometry in line so it made sense. This time around I spent a little less effort on the geometry, but this time it was specifically to make sure it didn't make sense in certain areas. There are places where a path that remains level will link to areas above it, below it, and even pass over itself.

This map was drawn on a ledger-sized sheet of isometric graph paper. A page size that it turns out doesn't fit on my scanner... not even when cut in half. I had to scan three different segments of the finished map and then splice them together.

Items/encounters on the map include a flail snail, the Giant Chicken of Bristol, some sort of Jabberwocky, slimes, a tortoise and of course the Ace of Spades.

I hope you find some use for this - it took me over a week to put together when I should have been working on other things, but the whole thing makes me very, very happy.

You can download the gigantic 300 dpi map from my blog post at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/22/tuesday-map-a-red-and-pleasant-map/

Thank you, patrons, for making these crazy flights of fancy possible for me!

A companion piece to the Red and Pleasant Map I posted on Tuesday, this map was inspired by the gardens of Voivodja. A city block-sized chunk of city, surrounded by streams with a few bridges connecting it to its neighbours. While mostly covered in greenery and small trees, the remnants of the city below are more clear here than in most gardens, with a few entrances into the city itself as well as visible walls and towers.

When I was drawing this I pictured a group of adventurers encountering a hunting party here - teleporting in through the devilish face built into the wall near the top of the map (after all, the vampires among the hunting party cannot travel here across the bridges, so they need other routes to enter the garden).

They are hunting a wounded and grounded kirin that some believe has hidden itself here. If the party does not get involved in the hunt (on either side), when they return to the surface there will be a grand party underway, with various vampires enjoying the bloodied chunks of the once noble beast they have slain, while taunting the child in the well.

I hope to draw a few maps of interior sections underneath this map. We'll see if that actually gets done though.

This map was particularly challenging - like the Red and Pleasant Map, it was drawn on a ledger sheet of isometric graph paper which is too big to fit on my scanner plate. Unlike the Red and Pleasant Map, it is a lot more conventional so I had to keep track of proper geometry and I put a LOT of extra detail into this one.

You can download the (quite large) map at 300dpi from the blog post at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/25/friday-map-a-green-and-pleasant-map/

As my D&D5e campaign continues in the titular city at the heart of of the classic 1981 module “Dwellers of the Forbidden City”, I find myself drawing out maps of more and more structures from said ruins.

This particular set of structures is mostly in ruins, but also has a large section of the temple that has survived the destruction brought about by time, ancient calamities, and the gradual sinking and liquifaction of the land as it gets boggier. There are also areas in the more ruined buildings that have stood the test of time slightly better and also show signs of habitation.

The main building is split up into two-to-three separate areas under the same roof. The two doors leading out into the crumbling streets of the city lead to areas that are connected by a very small door, probably a servants’ door, which would otherwise keep the two areas separate. The area towards the top of the map is reached exclusively via the courtyard and was probably a nice home of someone of importance.

This map was made with the help and support of you, my patrons, and was drawn on an A4 sheet of 7mm graph paper from Squarehex with Sakura Micron pens and is available for download at 300dpi (with and without grid) at my blog at https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/2015/09/29/tuesday-map-temple-complex-ruins-of-the-forbidden-city/

http://www.ohjoysextoy.com/honey-by-ghostgreen

Today's guest comic by ghostgreen is extra sweet like sexy, smutty honey!