Pinterest and Dungeons & Dragons
Maps, Character Art, and Homebrew Content
Pinterest is a goldmine for Dungeons & Dragons players and dungeon masters alike. The D&D community is both extremely creative and generous. Here are a few ways you can use Pinterest to find and organize content for your game.
Pinterest allows you to organize web-based content into subject boards using pins. Pins take the form of images with a short description of the content to which you are linking. So, basically, Pinterest is a giant photo gallery with images that link to other websites and web-based content.
If you already have a Pinterest account, jump down to the Organizing Your Content section below.
Getting Started on Pinterest
Almost everyone has either a Facebook or Google account. Pinterest makes it easy to create and login to your account using either of these existing accounts.
Go to https://www.pinterest.com/ and click on the Continue with Facebook OR Continue with Google button. If you don’t have one of those accounts, you can use your email address to set up the account. If you don’t have an email, Pinterest is probably not for you.
Pinterest will walk you through the account setup and help you find some boards you might be interested in following.
Organizing Pinterest Content
You will want to create a series of Pinterest boards based on specific topics, and then start hunting down and collecting web pages, images, and other content to add to the boards. We will come back to that in a minute.
Creating Your Own Pinterest Board
From your Pinterest home page, click the + at the top left of the screen, just below the search field. Give your board a name and description. Now you have a board to where you can save your pins.
Collecting Pins for Your Board
Next, you will want to start collecting and organizing pins into your own boards. To get started, I recommend searching Pinterest for phrases like “Dungeons & Dragons”, “D&D Characters”, “fantasy character art”, and “fantasy map” to get started. This will allow you to add pins from other people’s boards to your board(s). This is far easier than scouring the internet looking for images and web pages to add to your board. Honestly, we are trying to save time and effort, so why not take advantage of someone else’s hard work.
When you find a pin you want to save, select the board you want to save it to and click the Save button.
DMingDad's Maps Pinterest Board
Here is an example of one of my Pinterest boards where I have collected various maps that I use as inspiration or when I need a quick map for a game. It is so easy to log in to Pinterest on my phone or tablet in the middle of a game, click on the maps board and just choose the map that I think best suits the current situation.
DMingDad's Character Art Pinterest Board
Likewise, I often need NPC artwork in the middle of an adventure. Honestly, you never know which NPC the players will take a liking to and want to engage with. This Pinterest board has lots of fantasy character artwork that I can bring up on my phone or tablet and show to the players. More than once I have had a player say, “Oooo, I what that to play that character.” I have tracked down some fantastic art from some of the best artists out there.
Finding New Content
So, you have scoured Pinterest and still not found that perfect image or map and you want to know where to find great maps, character art, and other content. Here are a few great places to start.
A word of warning before you run off to these sites, some of their content is inappropriate for younger viewers. Parental discretion and supervision are recommended.
Saving and Printing Content
Saving images is fairly easy. In most cases, all you need do is right-click on an image and choose Save Image.
Printing an image is just as easy. Right-click on the image, choose Open Image In New Tab, then print directly from your browser.
A Word About Copywright
You should respect the creators’ copyright and intellectual property. In general, you can view and share Pinterest pins using Pinterest. Pinterest provides a way for copyright holders to request the removal of their copyrighted materials. In general, you should not download, save, print, modify, or publish any materials unless you can verify you have permission to do so.
For example, this image has the following usage statement from the creator, “My stocks are only free to use if you are using it for private practice. if you are using them for any paid commissions, book covers, merchandise, any form of commercial work you will need to pay a royalty fee.”
I also recommend that you take a few minutes to read about Fair Use. I see many people abuse and misrepresent their use of copyrighted materials as “fair use.”
Support Your Favorite Artists
Much of the art that I have collected in my Pinterest boards is available for purchase from the artists. If you like the art enough to use it, consider purchasing prints of the art. Many of these artists are very talented and need your support to keep producing these awesome pieces.
