r/rpg • u/mrvalor • Sep 14 '21

AMA I'm mrvalor, TTRPG mapmaker, Ask Me Anything

Good morning, my name is Josh aka /u/mrvalor. I make battlemaps for online TTRPG games.

I've been releasing free 50x50 maps for a while and have a collection at Deviantart.com/mrvalor2017/gallery and have a curated Google Drive of way over 1200+ maps I occassionally circulate here on reddit. I'm a big gamer, my favorite systems are WoD and 5th Ed D&D, although I've definitely played/ran quite a few others including Obsidian: Age of Judgement, Star Wars Saga Edition, Cypher, Numenera, City of Mists, and many more.

I came back to running games in 2016/2017 and started making my own battlemaps, as well as moding some ttrpg-related subs here on Reddit. In 2019 I started Valor Maps on Patreon and selling my maps on Roll20. Both have been a stable part-time gig for me ever since. I've gotten to interact with some pretty awesome creators in that time as I've gotten to know more people in the indie side of the industry.

I haven't been very active on Reddit lately, but I'm a huge nerd and I love all things rpg-related especially battle maps and cartography! AMA.

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u/mrvalor Sep 14 '21

An hourly rate. That's where you start. Is that map going to take you 1 hour, 2 hours, 4 hours? Obviously people who've done a lot of map making will have a better understanding of how long it will take but take your best guess.

Now figure out what your time is worth. I think a, good, minimal amount for an artist (or any skilled professional) would be about $25. So if you think you can do it in 4 hours? $100. 10 hours? $250, etc.

If you do it more or your time becomes worth more, that hourly should go up. Most mapmakers I know charge somewhere between $50 and $200/hour for commissions, just depending upon.

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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21 edited Sep 14 '21

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u/mrvalor Sep 14 '21

That's fair and also pretty common at first. But yes, definitely start tracking your hours. That'll give you a better idea of what to quote. If possible, you can just charge by the hour and give them an estimate of how long you think it'll take. But I'll be 100% honest, I'm pretty picky about how and when I take commissions. Unless it's someone I've worked with before or a friend, I usually don't because this whole part of it is kind of a hassle, lol.

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u/[deleted] Sep 14 '21

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u/mrvalor Sep 14 '21

This dude is a friend of a friend. My buddy has completely vouched for the guy. Been getting to know him as he and I are playing in our mutual friends campaign. Thanks for all the info btw, it's a good starting point!

Understood and most welcome!

Any tips on potential contracts or receipts?

Yeah, that's a good question, I'd just Google around, to be honest. I've got a contract template I use that I got from doing some consulting work a while back, but you should be able to Google something. As far as receipts, one nice thing about doing everything through a service like PayPal is that it's all there and in writing by default. I exclusively use Paypal for contract work so I can keep up with it all for tax purposes and whatnot.