2D Artist — Maps & Fantasy Cartography
ArtContractRemote, Hybrid, or In-PersonSt. Louis, MO
Posted August 2026
Quest March is looking for a cartographer to draw our world. This is ongoing retainer work, roughly six maps a month, not a one-off commission.
Every map a player opens comes from you: continents, regions, cities, dungeons. We're not licensing a look off the shelf. You'll build our visual language from the ground up, including your own brush and asset library, so a Quest March map is recognizable at a glance and looks like nothing else in the space.
This is an authorship role. You'll read our lore closely enough to argue with it, then put things on the map nobody asked for: a drowned city, a river running the wrong direction, a mountain range with a reason to exist. We care about maps that feel real. They should be dense, drawn to scale, and grounded in how geography actually works, so when we break those rules it's because the world has a reason and the map tells you what it is.
The one thing we'll ask you to hold back on is filling every corner. Quest March is a living world that players discover and settle, so the best maps leave room for the story to arrive.
If you're the kind of person who has opinions about where rivers belong, we should talk.
Responsibilities
The work
- Design and illustrate world & regional maps
- Deliver roughly six maps a month on a predictable cadence
- Update existing maps as the world changes through play
Style and system
- Establish and document the Quest March cartographic style: linework, color, typography, symbology, and legend conventions
- Build and maintain an original asset and brush library from scratch. No third-party or licensed map assets in shipped work
- Use of generative AI is strictly prohibited.
- Deliver production-ready files at the resolutions and layer structures our platform and VTT need, including layered source files
Worldbuilding
- Study our lore closely and contribute original geography, landmarks, and details that deepen it
- Keep maps internally consistent in regard to scale, distances, travel times, climate, and terrain that hold up across every zoom level
- Design with room for player-created locations
Working together
- Meet regularly with the founder & Creative Director on what the world needs next, and help set the map roadmap
- Iterate on feedback from playtests and live sessions.
What We're Looking For
Essential
- A portfolio of fantasy maps or illustrated environments. This is the first thing we'll look at, so lead with it.
- The ability to build an original asset library rather than assembling from purchased packs. Most map work uses Inkarnate, Wonderdraft, or Dungeondraft with asset kits; this role doesn't.
- Real capacity for ongoing volume, and honesty about what that capacity is.
- A working understanding of physical geography — why rivers run where they run, where mountains come from, how climate follows terrain.
- Comfort taking a brief and then going beyond it.
Bonus points
- You've worked on retainer or an ongoing contract before.
- You play tabletop RPGs, or you've made maps that got used at a table.
- You're in or near St. Louis.
Compensation
We'd start with a paid trial map, then a paid project to build the style bible and asset library, then move to a monthly retainer of roughly $2,500–3,500 for around six maps a month.
Exact numbers depend on scope and your rates — tell us what you charge and we'll work from there.
Apply
Tell us a little about yourself. Links to a portfolio, resume, LinkedIn, or anything else you're proud of are the most useful thing you can send.