We have a short interview with one of the RPG
industry’s leading map-makers, Steffen Brand.
Steffan has worked on the highly-acclaimed
Degenesis RPG game books Black Atlantic and
Justinian, and made iconic region maps for the
game The Dark Eye.DAL: Steffen, welcome to the Digital Art Live
magazine interview. You made the maps for the
upcoming RPG book Degenesis: Justitian, and
also the 2018 Degenesis book Black Atlantic?
SB: First of all let me thank you for this
interview! Yes, I was contacted while Black
Atlantic was in production, and asked to first
work on the world map for the game. But my
first maps of cities will be shown in print-form
within the new Justitian.
DAL: Great, I see. Yes, and your maps fit quite
well with the ‘deserts’ theme of this issue.
Could you introduce yourself to the reader,
please — when you trained, in what, what the
role of ‘freelance cartographer’ involves in the
year 2019.SB: I studied Communication Design with a
focus on Illustration. That was in Hamburg,
Germany. Cartography, however, started out as a
necessity for the Pen-&-Paper RPGs I ran. Over
time, this became a ‘niche’ that I trained more
and more in. Ulisses Spiele GmbH became my
full-time employer, but I appreciate that I am
still able to freelance in my free time in the
private and business sector.