I'm not certain if that unqualified "5' Grid" label in the Annual issue's PDF Mapping Guide may not be a mistake, as looking at the sample FCW file map with that issue, there are only two five-foot grids in it, "5' Grid, 2 Snap" and "5' Grid, 5 Snap".

It doesn't really matter however, as BOTH are basic 2D rectangular grids, and that's actually all you need for drawing 2D maps. The snap setting just mean the snap points in the grid will be either every 2.5 feet (2 Snap) or every 1 foot (5 Snap).

The 10' Grid, 2 Snap is also a rectangular grid for 2D work, with snap points every 5 feet.

This will let you draw a plan-view = 2D vertical of your dungeon layout, and following the next part of the Mapping Guide will help you convert your 2D floorplans into 3D isometric forms.

The third Palace map was done using the Caves pack from the first year of the Cartographer's Annual, in CA7, though you might be hard-pressed to tell! After some experimentation, I opted for the Fog, Green Bitmap fill, as with a little colour tweaking, its texture has an interestingly ice-like look - to my eye, anyway! It's also slightly transparent as a texture, so the underlying Dirt, Grey 1 background has an influence on it too.

The Locations map continues to be tweaked and adjusted still. This is its form after I finished the Third Palace map:

I've just been using copy & paste versions of the floor designs for the "Palaces" list, since that way, you get an impression of the overall form of each, if in a very simplified/condensed way. It'll need further tweaking before this one's finished, of course, once the rest of the Palaces are filled-in. The "Places" list could probably handle a slightly larger font size, for instance. For now, I wanted to make sure I'd simply got all the key text there though.

Thanks folks!

@Fersus - Yes, I wondered about a hexagonal grid. However, over the past year, I've been involved in discussions about the use of movement grids in RPGs more generally elsewhere, and the consensus has been almost exclusively for square grids (or occasionally none at all). They're such a feature of most published dungeon maps, it's hard to break away from that, I suspect. Plus because hexes don't scale equally in all dimensions, a square grid works better for estimating distances for the GM by-eye.

Given the whole point about participating in the Atlas, and contests like this too, is to try different things, at least from time to time, my intention was to try to make each of the ten Palace maps different. So for the second one, I picked the Old School Blue style from CA12 (also known as the Create Your Own Style pack). Blue, ice, seemed apt!

For continuity, I've decided to stick with the Mason Serif Bold font that comes with CC3+, however.

Certainly worth considering using images of actual objects, like flames, leaves, etc., for mapping, I think.

If you're simply using the outline, and maybe some of the main features of the object as shapes to define internal built structures, it shouldn't be too onerous, judging from my experience with the snowflakes so far. I thought beforehand this first one was going to be one of the more intricate, and while to an extent it looks it, it really wasn't very difficult to trace-draw over the JPG original by-hand.

Along the way, I let myself get a bit distracted, and decided a CA3 portrait of the Winter Queen might be an interesting addition to the map set, with a hint of the SS2 Bitmap A Snow Frozen Lake fill texture for the border design, which thanks to the standard CA3 bevel effect, looks rather like fine marble now:

She's intended to be between 8 and 9 feet tall in (imaginary) reality, 2.4-2.7 metres.