After reading the Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica, a setting book for Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, I wanted to draw a map of a ruined undercity block. So, I made this map with a river running through it. There is also a small boat dock that could be ran by smugglers, for example. I would imagine this map works with post-apocalyptic worlds, and other settings that have the concept of cities built in layers on top of each other. At least the WH40K hive cities, like Necromunda, and urban worlds, like Nar Shaddaa or Coruscant, from Star Wars come to my mind.
The Undercity River
Deep under the streets of the city lies the Undercity that is a city of its own. It is busy as the Overcity, but not in the same way. Strange creatures roam the streets, tunnels and underground canals of the Undercity. Many of these are mutated aberrations, undead horrors, or abandoned experiments.
This block fo the Undercity is no exception. The underground canal runs through the Undercity channeling garbage, bodies, and stormwater into underground lakes and reservoirs. Clever and dauntless smugglers use the Undercity’s winding canals to transport goods and people unseen. After reaching the destination, the goods are carried or hoisted up to the upper city.
Making This Map
I wanted to draw an undercity map with a few points of interest and some tactical opportunities. The Undercity of Ravnica was a strong influence on this one. As a final touch, I wanted to add a clear spot of light at the center of the map over the broken bridge. This would give the impression that something huge might have fallen down through different levels of the city. From the opening left by this impact, faint sunlight can still reach down to this level deep underground.
The map was drawn with felt-tip ink pens (Micron and Copic) on a regular stock graph paper. After the line art was done, it was scanned for coloring in Photoshop.
This map was made with the support of my patrons on Patreon and released under a Creative Commons license. A high-resolution version with multiple variants of this map, including a Roll20 optimized version, is available to my patrons exclusively on Patreon.
Ultra
Nicholas Butta and Sergeant Zeno !
Paragons
James Armstrong
Masterminds
Anthony Joyce, GeoQuester, Joker D. Frei, Martti, Morgan Lean, Otso Ollikainen, Scott Aronoff , The Dungeon Booth, Ville Vuorela
Heroes
Bossregular, Christian Häusler, Christopher Robin Negelein, DW, Ethan Kinsey, Hugh Gordon, Jamball, James N Blevins, Jason Eberly, Jon Björkqvist, Leland Gross, LictorSivas, Martin Blake, Matt C., Matt Leonard, Misteradd, Mr.G, Peter Young, Ralph Holland, Roberto Corsini, Static Vagabond, Timo Liimatta, Tom Tompkins, Tony Perkins, ZealZaddy
Adventurers
Brad, David Andrews, David Ross, Jeremy O’Donnell, mmaamm, theWrongBard, Thomas Heinig,Ailana Dallocort, Albert Savick, Andrea Walter, Antti Kumpulainen, Antti Lax, Ayesyn, Benjamin Edger, Carl, Chad Owen, Claude Weaver, Collin Brooke (0verwrote), Dean Magill, Drew Beeman, Emanuel May, Eri, eric, Erredest, Esa Elo, Jay-Jak, Jens Alm, Jim, Joni Ahonen, Jonne Kuokkanen, Joshua Starkey, Justa Nutherguy, Kaleb C., Kevin LaCroix, kirin, lunafaaye, Mark Wilkins, Matthew B, Mike S, Mikko Kojola, Mikko Parviainen, Nighty_KG, NP, Numbbie, oceanicsurvivor, Oscar Nissin, OuyehMeow, Patric Nuttall, Paul Rivers, Petri Wessman, Qwertronix, Rachel, Raven Cannaide, Robert Fulkserson, Rotem Cohen, Sami Sorvo, Samuli Kesola, Schawang, Sean Vincent, Shaine Argentael, Stevie, Thierry DOISNEAU, Thomas Circenis, Ungrateful Munchkins
…and all the Explorers!
This work by Miska Fredman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.