Greetings to our amazing community, and welcome to the twentieth edition of our Stars of the VTT Galaxy interview series. In this series, we illuminate the already bright stars that make up our community of Bazaar Creators.
In this edition, we have the pleasure of talking with Gabriel Pickard, a prolific creator of stunning maps and modular tile sets. Gabriel Pickard is one of the longest-running artists in the space, and it shows in his vast library of content. His detailed environments, ranging from fantastical dungeons to serene countryside towns, are more than just visual assets - they’re tools for storytelling, immersion, and adventure.
We are happy to present our interview with Gabriel, whose work has helped bring countless GMs' and players’ imaginations to life.
Our sky consists of many stars. Each of them illuminating our planet. As you can guess, the stars are you. Yes, it's you, the great content creators who, in your own unique way, shine on our worlds. Thank you for being part of our heavenly sky and weaving the fabric of our Community.
Let's meet today's star.
Introduce yourself, for those who don’t know what you do, what would you describe yourself as doing for a living?
Gabriel: Currently, I'm a full-time asset creator for (mostly at least) online TTRPGs. I work mainly in maps or map assets through a smattering of other random art.
In a previous life though, I was a chef.
So, you are currently making this stuff for a living. How did you get started creating these maps and map assets?
Gabriel: I got my start in "the standard way", which is to say I started creating for my own group, and then slowly developed my skills in Photoshop while working in Second Life, if anyone remembers that virtual world. I eventually looped back around to TTRPGs with the explosion of new VTTs online.
I do remember that back in the day. What were you designing/creating for Second Life during this period?
Gabriel: Mostly weird monstrous/humorous avatars, as what GM doesn't want to make monsters?
So, I actually remember using your content back in early 2019, but I know you've been around for a bit longer. What does the evolution of this work look like between Second Life and the increased emergence of VTTs for online play? Like, how did your work and content change as this happened?
Gabriel: I got started in late 2016. I'm not sure what I did on Second Life was closely related, but it did give me the tools I'd come to use.
The online tabletop spaces have probably evolved more than I have in that period. It's a bit of a game of catch-up to make assets that use all the features VTTs now have while still making material backward compatible with honoring the folks who have bought previous work.
In what way/what issues have you faced in making your content VTT compatible/work with the features that VTTs have nowadays?
Gabriel: In the beginning, most of what was available were simple static maps, and sometimes some fog of war features. Nowadays, VTTs have layers, dynamic lighting, line of sight walls, and a bunch of other stuff, meaning designing for all these possible amazing elements on offer takes a good amount more planning than just single 2D images. That said, if the challenge is about improvements for everyone, you can hardly complain.
How did you begin marketing your content and sharing/selling it back in the day? I know that back then, online TTRPG communities definitely existed, but online play wasn't nearly as popular as it is now.
Gabriel: At first, I was just doing small commissions on some social media sites, but as the first VTTs came online, someone recommended I try selling there.
By the end of 2015, I was doing it full-time (what I started in late 2014 not 2016? I've been doing this for just shy of a decade?).
Yeah, I know there were many others creating assets at this time but I remember you being one of the really big ones back in the day. You still are a lot bigger than a lot of popular hobbyist mapmakers.
Gabriel: There's so much talent out there these days, you love to see it!
How did you go about creating content when you first started? What did that look like, from conceptualization and drafting to full-on creation? And how has this evolved over time, especially (as you acknowledge) the offerings out there for VTTs have evolved?
Gabriel: My first works were very random, with no planning, just diving in each time. The earliest was just practice and not intended for sale, so it was more about learning to create quickly enough that I could hope to have a reasonable output. It was ok for some natural terrain, but a terrible way to build a castle.
Eventually, I got more organized in the planning stage and did full plans for anything too complex.
After that, as VTTs allowed for very large maps (who is going to put a 12' long 6' wide map on their living room table), I started doing a lot more modular series that catered better to the play-styles and requests I was getting from the online spaces.
These days, I try to separate layers more, though that has an upper limit as you don't want the VTTs groaning under the weight of far too many transparencies.
That's an interesting point. Do you typically try to make your assets work for most VTTs? What kind of market/user base do you typically try to reach with your assets?
Gabriel: Thankfully, most support similar file formats, so everyone has made that part easy at least.
I'm not clever enough to have a specific target audience, though I think the one that gravitates to my works are those who love to have a single consistent art style throughout the entire game, as I've been able to cover a lot of terrain and setting types by now.
I'm always aiming to keep my maps simple enough with a focus on tactical features, hopefully leaving plenty of room for the GMs to fill in the rest with whatever fine-grain features the game they are running requires.
How do you decide what to make next? What makes Gabriel Pickard make waterfalls one week, and arctic trees the next?
Gabriel: I have three main criteria when deciding what to work on next:
- Have I got a request for it?
- What do I feel like working on, or did I see something that inspired me?
- Am I still weeping from the last city set, and need to do something more organic?
Cities are a beast! Hats off to any creator who tackles them well.
Cities are hard! There are some creators I know who make large city maps with fully furnished interiors, and I wonder how they find the time to sleep.
Gabriel: That makes me shudder. When they find me writing on the walls in my own blood, that's what I'll be making, but until then...
You've been making assets for a long time, and have built up quite the library. Yet, it doesn't seem like you're on Patreon, which is a popular business model among other creators today. What drives this decision? Why have you chosen a model of selling individual asset/map packs instead?
Gabriel: I've considered it, but what it came down to was the fact I have more than enough material to purchase if you want to support me. Taking time away from making more of that to make special material that makes a subscription worthwhile didn't feel like the best way to serve the folks supporting me.
If I had a clone though, I'd have been over there yesterday churning out cool variations on existing maps!
Do you ever use feedback from fans to guide your creative process?
Gabriel: Absolutely! Folks are pretty great about sparing their personal time to give me feedback and suggestions, and are often extremely polite in approaching me to do so. Good for finding blind spots in my catalog as well.
What is your favorite map or project?
Gabriel: Whatever I'm working on next!
Looking back at old pieces, even if I like them in general, I'll notice all the things that could be better, or see a way to apply a technique I hadn't developed yet when I made it.
If I had to pick a past favorite, it might be Jungle Temple. It's recent enough that I haven't looked it over too much yet while running games on it, and it's going to be my excuse to run a pulp/cliffhanger-style one-shot at some point.
In that vein, do you have a least favorite project?
Gabriel: My Dirt Paths set is extremely practical, quite useful, and really extremely boring to work on. It's literally about as exciting as dirt.
Do you still get the chance to run games? And if so, do you use a VTT? Do you have a favorite VTT?
Gabriel: I do run, and we actually meet most weeks despite adult schedules, much to my surprise.
I've run on a couple of different VTTs in the past, whichever the group was most comfortable with, but currently, it's exclusively voice and posting pictures as I don't feel like dragging my old high school buddy and friends screaming and kicking into the age of VTTs.
Even if I occasionally gesture over there at my massive set of resources to do so.
What is your opinion on AI, especially in the TTRPG space?
Gabriel: Pretty much all of it is unethically sourced, so that's a poison pill for me from the get-go. If that wasn't the case, I still don't have that much use for it.
Everyone making things, whether writers, artists, or musicians are making choices and have reasons, something AI isn't currently capable of doing and it shows. When I make an encounter map intended to be an old part of the city, I include some very stupidly designed spaces, but ones that are there for a reason. The buildings have clearly been repurposed. There are occasionally doors that lead out to silly small places, just like in a real city as that was once a courtyard. If there's a big bad final encounter map intended to bring a lot of tactical excitement, I have height variations, choke points, broken lines of sight, and cover to make the map exciting to play on. AI might do that by accident, but not with the intention and understanding a person brings to it.
I've heard it said if someone else couldn't be bothered to write it, why should I be bothered to read it? I'll be sticking with human creators for the foreseeable future.
Where do you see yourself in ten years as a mapmaker/tabletop creator?
Gabriel: Sipping an old-fashioned next to a river while a robot does the dishes for me?
Barring that, hopefully right here, creating fun things and making maps that give people ideas for encounters. The technology changes and improves to make it easier for new folks to enter the hobby, but the fun of RPGs remains the same and as high as ever!
Do you have anything you want to say to the greater TTRPG/VTT community?
Gabriel: Get plenty of sleep and remember to always help everyone at the table (virtual tables included) have fun if you can.
I'm only taking one of those two points of advice myself.
What advice would you give to aspiring map makers who are looking to break into the VTT space? Are there skills, experiences, or resources you believe are essential for success in this field?
Gabriel: Do your research and look at what is available, and its quality and the price points it's available at. Make something great first, and figure out marketing from there. Rushing out and trying to sell the first thing you make isn't going to do you or anyone else any favors.
Find a space with other creators you can chat with- they are amazing, often incredibly helpful, and the best ones will be rooting for you.
Thank you, Gabriel, once again for your willingness and time for this conversation.
Gabriel: Thank you for having me!
You can follow the image links below to learn more about Gabriel Pickard, and follow him on various social media:
