Winning Maps of Our 11th Birthday Build-Off!

Over the month of August 2026 we ran a competition to see who from our community could furnish the 2-Minute Tavern the best — today we announce the winners!

There were 24 contestants in all, and all of them delightful in their own way, but by team vote we whittled them down to these favorites. Let’s jump right in…

Click on an image to zoom in, and find the full-res Download button at the end!

Technical Excellence・Carson Stringer

2-Minute Tavern - Build-off - Carson Stringer 4 Preview

2-Minute Tavern - Build-off - Carson Stringer 3 Preview

“Map title: Party Crasher. A disoriented passerby passes out and into the tavern! Is the beast dead, or soon to wake?”

“Assets are from 2-Minute Tabletop, with the exception of Krager’s Shadow and Light Pack and AoA FX Clouds and Water for enhancement details only. Dragon and related drawovers are by me.”

– Carson

It’s no small feat to install a dragon into a tavern, and that’s why Carson’s impressive maps took this prize!

We are treated to both an interior and exterior, with roof tiles and scattered debris surrounding the collapsed patron, naturally embedding them into the maps. Underneath their scaly hide, a feast appears to have been taking place — the survivors are going to talk about this day for the rest of their lives…

Most Creative・Sarah Ross

2-Minute Tavern - Build-off - Sarah Ross 1 Preview

2-Minute Tavern - Build-off - Sarah Ross 2 Preview

“The Tavern in the Sky! The best views anywhere in, or on top of, the world.”

“When I make maps for my home D&D game, I use Adobe Illustrator to layer 2MT pieces – probably not most efficient platform, but I’ve gotten used to it. For the Tavern in the Sky, I decided to try a pie-in-the-sky idea by designing a pub literally in mid-air. I knew I wanted a day and a sunset variant, so I pulled the ravine background from the Rickety Rope Bridge (Clouds) map plus added gradient. Then I used lots of pieces from the Lofty Airport Pack, including some propellers, aeronauts’ landing platforms, (recoloured) clouds, etc. to make the Tavern reachable… skyward. (Subconsciously, I think I also took inspiration from both D20’s “Cloudward Ho!” steampunk season and CR’s arcane airships.)”

“Details abound to celebrate the magic of flight, winds, and a buoyant party atmosphere. Some easter eggs, just to entertain myself: Cats who run the inn, and who play musical chairs throughout the day (and sometimes take cheese or cake as their salary). A magical armchair which reflects the sky outside. A kids’ playroom at bottom-left, full of toys and treats and chaos. A secondary landing ramp at top-left, via the mudroom, for individual flyers (be they spellcasters or just daring/steampunk enough to climb down a rope from a hovering ship). Staircase inside because some travellers who make it all the way here are going to want to stay the night, so rooms (and loos) must be downstairs. I even used the Canary Familiar token to show a natural winged creature enjoying the perch of the Sky Tavern – but no cage, because they might want to re-join the migration of birds seen travelling East by day and back West at dusk. Or the airships going in the opposite direction.”

“In the end, I just went for broke to make a tavern that I would love to go to. I hope it inspires flights of fancy from any other map-makers out there, and I look forward to next year’s competition!”

– Sarah

Sarah’s entry transplants our tavern into a whole new setting and replaces the staff with cats, a bullseye for Most Creative!

This is one of those welcoming taverns that I could see a party of adventurers falling in love with and protecting with their lives — and that’s before you introduce the cats! It’s unique, homely, and even has an excuse (flying) to follow your party around on their adventures.

Wildcard Pick・Marie V

“You can’t have a birthday party without balloons. Happy birthday guys!”

– Marie

We set a whole award aside for a map that made us chuckle, and Marie’s map took the lead in that category!

The little semicircle of space around the cake really makes it, as does the thought of grizzled adventurers pushing through the rainbow-colored balloons in search of something important… What a perfect time for assassins or bounty hunters to lay an ambush, too! 😉

Special Mention・Mikkua

“Hidden away between moss and clover lies a small establishment that wandering creatures travel far and wide to reach. Today, it is celebrating its 11th birthday, meaning everyone who visits gets a big slice of cake! Relax in one of the many plush armchairs, play a game of billiard and cool off with an cold drink, or why not pet the tame ladybugs who grace outside. Keep out of the storeroom basement though, something’s not quite right in there…”

– Mikkua

One map placed in the top three of every category, but never quite snatched a first place. In my opinion, that’s worthy of its own prize!

Tiny worlds are always so charming, and Mikkua’s tavern pulls it off perfectly. The clovers set the scale, and the dark soil suggests a damp, quiet place. The interior alone is worthy of a prize though, with its color coordination, rugs, pennants, and confetti! It’s very much a tavern I’d travel to see, if I were the size of a ladybug.

I want to sincerely thank everyone who entered this competition and took the time to make and send in their entries! It was a joy for our small team to see them all, and there are already murmurs of another Build-Off next year…

What’s more, we all get to enjoy these prize-winning maps! Here is where you can find the full-res versions we have available:

Download: 2MT 11th Birthday Build-Off Winners.zip

Curious about the base tavern map? Worry not, we’re putting together a proper release for that! It’ll be out early next month.

That’s all for now though. Another big thank you to Connor Johnston and our team for running this Build-Off, to the winners, to everyone who entered, and to everyone who will enjoy these maps in the future. 🙂

About the author

Ross McConnell

DM, aspiring artist, and founder of 2-Minute Tabletop! I love drawing, writing, and worldbuilding, and this is the website where all of it comes together.

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