Rob Lazzaretti
| Rob Lazzaretti | |
|---|---|
 Rob Lazzaretti at PaizoCon 2012. | |
| Nationality: | American |
| Born: | Illinois |
| Notabale works: | Lazzaretti map of the Flanaess |
Rob Lazzaretti is an artist whose work has appeared as a cartographer for many maps in the World of Greyhawk™.
Biography
Rob Lazzaretti was born and raised in central Illinois.[1] His father was an avid wargamer, and introduced him to role-playing games; while they were at a hobby shop, Lazzaretti discovered the AD&D 1e books, and as he puts it "was instantly hooked".[1] Lazzaretti was really drawn into the RPG hobby through the game Call of Cthulhu: "In 1984, my father and I went to the Gen Con Game Fair in Racine, Wisconsin. There I met Sandy Petersen, and he introduced me to the game. I was really drawn to the imagery."[1] His interest in the visual elements of RPGs led him to consider a career as an artist: "Everybody in my gaming group had me drawing sketches of their characters. In high school, I was the kid drawing all the weird stuff for people I knew, like Iron Maiden album covers on the backs of their jackets. Art always seems to win people over, even if they think you're a geek."[1] Lazzaretti went on to study fine art at Illinois State University, but then switched over to design.[1]
Lazaretti worked as an intern at Game Designers Workshop for a year, helping produce products such as Dark Conspiracy, Dangerous Journeys, and Traveller roleplaying games.[1] TSR contacted him after seeing his cartography work on Dangerous Journeys, and he took a job with TSR in 1993.[1] He immediately began working on the Planescape campaign setting: "It was a big responsibility. I hadn't done posters before, and suddenly I was doing a ton of them. Huge poster-sized maps. I couldn't believe how many there were. [TSR artist] Dennis Kauth was kind of my teacher and showed me the ropes."[1] After working on numerous TSR products, Lazzaretti became the Art Director of Cartography for Wizards of the Coast, overseeing the production of maps for all Wizards of the Coast role-playing game products.[1] This work included the Dark•Matter setting for the Alternity game: "I had a blast doing the cartography... I read Wolfgang's initial text and started doing conceptual stuff right away. It didn't even seem like work. I think Dark•Matter will be one of the best things I've done for years to come."[1]
He was instrumental in establishing the look of D&D throughout the 90s during 3rd Edition.[1]
Works
He has also worked as a cartographer for other roleplaying game companies such as Green Ronin Publishing and Paizo Publishing. Though he has many other projects now and doesn’t do much Greyhawk these days, his is a very recognizable style and even fans who aren’t familiar with his name know his artwork. Perhaps most significantly, the “Paizo Map” of the World of Greyhawk™ which established so much lore. Many places are now part of an officially published source due to inclusion on that map. The map is arguably one of the greatest resources of the "PaizoHawk" era. Based on the original Darlene maps, the Lazzaretti map doubled the physical print-size of the map.
Because Greyhawk was the “default” setting in 3e, many Dungeon magazine adventures ended up being set there, and there are a considerable number of maps of villages, towns, canyons, mountains, castles, etc. for which there are maps by Lazzaretti set in Greyhawk. Erik Mona and Lisa Stevens of Paizo, didn’t hesitate to put a plethora of Lazzaretti's work in Dragon and Dungeon magazines.
Greyhawk Cartography
- The Flanaess, four-part poster map in Dungeon magazine (#118-#121), and also in the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer
- Hardby (and the "Leaning Lighthouse")[2]
- Alhaster
- Exag
- Istivin Hinterlands/Sterich
- Midnight’s Muddle in the Free City of Greyhawk
- Diamond Lake
- Ehlonna’s Scar
- Isle of Dread
- parts of Maure Castle
- Worm Crawl Fissure
- Land of the Black Ice (Blackmoor), and Tonnsborg
- Whispering Cairn
- Fireland
External links
- Official website
- Greyhawk Maps by Rob Lazzaretti at Greyhawk Online.
- Rob Lazzaraetti—Pen & Peper Database archived from the original on 03 January, 2009.
- Flanaess poster maps at Paizo.com. Accessed 06 September, 2002.
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
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