The Crossing - Now with More Fort!

Well, what started as a simple underground crossroads has become an exercise in Dwarf paranoia. I'm about three-quarters done with the layout now, here's the revised map with some very quick and dirty floors and backgrounds layered in.

As you can tell, I've added a few arrow slits. "But wait!" you say. "I thought you said there was a central tower overlooking the crossroads." Oh yeah, that:

Now with more murder holes! The gray on the above map corresponds to the visible lower level areas (there are still a few missing bits in that layer).

As I said, this is a quick and dirty fill job on the map. Both these layers are currently built out in Inkscape, and the above images were pulled into Gimp for pattern fills and some color work.

• The final version of this project is now available via DriveThruRPG as Koslac's Crossing.

The Entry - V2

This is a revised version of the map I posted earlier. I've reworked the area around the balconies, rebuilding the shadows, adding a railing, and cleaning up some issues with the floor fill. I also tweaked up the nearby stairs. I think that area looks better now, but I'm not 100% satisfied with it.

As you can see, I've also added a bunch of damage to various floors. This is my first attempt at this sort of thing, and I think they came out OK.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with this map, and I think I'll call it done. It's not perfect, but for something that started as a quick test project, I'm fairly happy with the end result.

The Crossing

This is a work-in-progress look at my current mapping project. This is the intersection of four major routes in an underground complex. I'm envisioning it as a high-security area, with temporary warehouses, guard quarters, side-tunnels with arrow slots covering the main passages, and a central fort that covers the actual intersection.

This is a look at how I lay things out in InkScape. As you can see, the colors are nothing like the final map. Instead they're chosen to be easily seen and distinguished from each other. I just dropped a background texture behind the whole thing in Gimp so it's a bit easier to make out. I'm also testing out creating both a 70px / five-foot square, full-color map for roll20, and a pdf-friendly gray-scale map for print. We'll see how that goes. I've been doing most of my test maps in 30x30 five-foot grids, which is a bit confining, at least for me. This is a 60x60 five-foot square map, or 150x150 feet vs. 300x300 feet. A bit more elbow room!

• The final version of this map is now available as Koslac's Crossing on DriveThruRPG.

The Wilds - Dangerous Wall of Text!

Lots of details in this turn, including some info-dump on the various things found by the party on their last trip to the Cold Caves.

tldr: Left the Caves. Went back to Auslaug. Told their story. Got paid. Learned some stuff about their treasure. Split up loot.

The Entry

Another mapping project, this one is the entrance to an underground complex. The main hall includes guard rooms, waiting areas, a ballroom-type space, and a bunch of additional rooms for staff and waiting supplicants. I'm pretty happy with this one except for the short stairs leading up to the balcony area that overlooks the main reception area and the stairs down on the east side. I'm not sure they hold up, nor do I think the balconies are quite right.

The Wilds - Bring Out Your Dead

Had a bit of a low-response turn this weekend, so the corresponding turn is short. The good thing about play-by-email games is that everyone can participate on their own schedule. That bad thing about play-by-email games is that it's easy to push things off. My players and I seem to run through a cycle of ups and downs in this regard. Anyhow, here's what's going on...

Dungeon?

In a fit of madness last night, I pulled out an ancient D&D map and copied it into InkScape room by room. This was the first level of a small dungeon I created back in 1978 or 1979. There are about 30 levels total in this monstrosity. This particular level was originally drawn on two sheets of four-lines per inch graph paper. There are some details missing, like a bunch of scribbled markers for puddles, moss and mold, but it's mostly intact. The original was also rotated counter-clockwise 90 degrees, but this fits the page a bit better.