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Thread: My first map

  1. #1

    My first map

    Hi everyone,

    I've red some tips and advices over the web and tried to do my first map with Photoshop. I'd appreciate any opinions as what to improve next time, as I'd like to practice more.

    The map is a stone dias over a round pit with a stone bridges leading to magic portals - a battlemap for encounter with air elemental.

    I used pre-made stone texture from cgtextures.com and dundjinni objects found over the web.

    Regards,
    Piotr

    Attachment 7919

  2. #2
    dr_venture's Avatar
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    Great work for your first map. I don't have much to say, as the things I'd change have more to do with my personal tastes, as opposed to any practical reasoning. The only suggestions I'd venture to make would be, in the spirit of the map representing an underground space:

    a) darken the 'solid rock' areas on the map (you're the only one that is likely to ever see it, so it, and to my eye it helps to make the solid rock and passages more easy to discern), and;

    b) darken the pit, again, to just make it more immediately apparent as to what it is.

    c) To me, having the walls in an underground map have a dark 'glow' or shadow outside of the passages (basically, a dark outline where the solid walls are) is looks better and is easier to see.

    I threw together a quick example so you can see what I'm talking about. I didn't spend too much time tinkering, and I do have a bright monitor, so my map might look too dark to you... but you get the idea.

    So those suggestions are all just entirely critique for critique's sake -- I'm just tossing out ideas in the spirit of feedback. The map looks great, and I probably wouldn't have really thought much about it if you hadn't requested folks to critique. Good work -- if you're happy with it, I wouldn't change a thing

    Attachment 7920
    "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." - John Shedd
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  3. #3
    damned's Avatar
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    nice map - im with doc - if the glow is outside it should be dark - you have light glow so that either be dark or be inside...

  4. #4
    Thanks for the tips, based on @dr_venture's attachment I see what you meant with dark outer glow, it really looks more apparent and clear. Gonna have a go with some more maps. I hope to give sth back to the community when I get better with this

  5. #5
    Blackfoot's Avatar
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    Your post and the comments prompted me to try my hand at it as well.... here's what I came up with using some of the principles suggested here and making some adjustments to them.

    I don't much like Dr Venture's 'dark glow' although darkening the 'non-tunnel' part of the map seems to make things pop.

    How did you do your stairs? They look pretty cool.

    EDIT: Tweaked to use a more universal rather than directional light.
    Last edited by Blackfoot; November 16th, 2014 at 16:26.
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  6. #6
    Cool, @Blackfoot, the more maps the better for DMs

    The stairs are a simple trick, here is Dudjinni's shadow stairs overlay. I just put it over a corridor and came up with stairs.

  7. #7
    JohnD's Avatar
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    Nice map, especially if that's your first one.
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  9. #9
    Thanks, I took your thoughts into consideration and implemented in other maps. Here is Ice Elemental chamber - another map in series of this interplanar chambers my players will face. I think walls look much better when more exposed.
    Attachment 7948
    And two previous maps: Water Chamber and Lightning Chamber - I can see progress I guess
    Attachment 7949Attachment 7950

    The idea behind is sth like a "labirynth" of portals connecting small planar elemental spheres made by a powerful elementalist as a place to hide his knowledge.
    Last edited by kane280484; November 19th, 2014 at 12:45.

  10. #10
    dr_venture's Avatar
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    Again, these look great. I think in general, skilled map makers such as yourself are really blurring the lines between the store bought and home brew stuff. There's more than enough there to set the mood and allow for tactical play, and look good in the process.

    A personal, philosophical aside: For me, I tend to get really fussy about my maps and getting them to look just right... it's really kind of a fun art project all by itself. But I then I have to remind myself that the vast majority of the maps I've ever player with as a GM or player were hand drawn on graph paper or with a marker on a vinyl battlemat. And PnP RPGs being what they are, those maps were more than enough. Also, I find that when I spend a ton of time on a map to get it perfect, I feel like I've somehow "raised the bar" on myself and have to start putting out even *better* maps than before. and with VTT, the prep time for gaming is just so overwhelming that it is the limiting factor in my gaming: there simply aren't enough hours in the day to prep this stuff to my inner perfectionist's standards. At some point I'm going to have to find a better compromise. I wanna put out stuff of this quality, but if I keep trying, I'm going to simply start delaying my game more and more.

    Anyway, just figured I'd toss that into the thread, as I see this being a discussion more about mapping philosophy and approaches than quality at this point. Your quality is great -- as long as you're happy with it, you're good to go.

    Are there aspects to the map(s) that you're not entirely happy with, or don't quite fit your vision of what you wanted them to be? Maybe more eyes here can help you identify solutions for you.
    "A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for." - John Shedd
    "Why is it every time we need to get somewhere, I get waylaid by jackassery?" - Dr. Thaddeus Venture
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