Idea / suggestion for map pack - Early medieval

[DerSavage]

Idea for early medieval/village style map pack

Art packs are nice, good looking, mostly stone walls and yes there are some more dirty looking stuff, but I strugling to find early medieval times more historical walls and art assets for maps. Basic stuff like wattle and daub-wall, thatced roofs, basic windows with shutters, crops, vegetable fields, animals (pigs, sheeps, cows), etc. are mostly missing or in short supply.

I like to create maps with more early medieval style, few stone walls, not many wooden planks, less shiny things, no glass windows, etc. I suggest that maybe someday we got get village pack and more historical medieval style assets. This style is useful for Viking era campaigns and rural villages. Stone and current art packs are for larger towns or cities.

Here's couple links and pics:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wattle_and_daub


medieval village.jpg
peasant house.jpg
Early medieval house.jpg

[Geometer]

I totally relate to this. The D&D concept of the medieval European building is highly stereotyped and urban/monument-focused, and the vernacular and the ordinary are rather neglected; but then, the D&D concept of medieval Europe in general is highly stereotyped and romanticised, so it's not really surprising if the emerging graphical canon of D&D-world reflects that.

Playing around with stereotypes and cliches is part of the fun of D&D, of course, but I know where you're coming from. I suspect we both have the benefit of being European, so we're more familiar with both the diversity and the mundanity of medieval building construction than our West Coast counterparts may be, and I suspect, from what I've seen of your work, that we're both striving to introduce some degree of authenticity into our maps and finding it a bit of a challenge. As you say, there is material out there if you go looking for it - I've found usable examples of pretty much everything on your list - but it does take a bit of searching for and there's not a lot of variety yet.

There is certainly plenty of scope for something like you suggest, and there seems to be no shortage of talented artists producing such things, so I'm sure somebody will be willing to rise to the challenge of stepping outside the comfort of castles and cathedrals and turn their attention to the houses and hovels of the hoi-polloi. The bigger challenge, to my mind, for both artist and map-maker, is in conveying the idiosyncratic "organic" nature of medieval building construction that makes every medieval building unique, when you're working in 2D on a grid-based graphics system. I'm still wrestling with that one !

[johnecc]

DerSavage, its a good idea. Might I suggest that you bring it up with FG’s art specialist, Josh Watmough. If the time suits you, he does a weekly Saturday mapmaking stream on Twitch at 3pm EST, iirk. He answer questions and has taken suggestions on board before.

[DerSavage]

Nice to know there are others that like the older more medieval style too. Thanks for the support. I know there are many playing styles and nothing wrong with the DND fantasy style. But for me as a medieval history freak from Europe, it's nice to have other options too. I could share the idea with Josh. I'm still learning how to do maps and watched many Josh's wonderful how-to videos about mapmaking.

These are few my latest peasant houses in town and butcher's house. Still little bit too shiny, but something closer what I'm looking for. I do make cathedrals and castles too. They are looking awesome, because there are art assets available.

Peasant houses.JPG
Butcher's house.JPG

[Geometer]

I can see what you mean. I like the butcher's shop with just the counter at the front.

Did you know there's a rendered wood wall brush in one of the FG art Packs that makes a quite passable wattle-and-daub wall? There are better animal tokens than those pigs available too, I'll see if I can find them.

I'll post a couple of my own efforts shortly, just got a little job to finish first. I'd like to know what you think about them, we have very different styles and approaches to the same thing.

[Geometer]

As promised, a couple of mine.

The first is just a generic merchant's shop, I was aiming for atmosphere rather than authenticity. The second is part of a work in progress and more deliberately reminiscent of a traditional early med. longhouse.

I've just started work on my first castle, my project for the summer

[DerSavage]

Nice looking buildings. I've been making maps just over one month and if I look back my few weeks older design I want to remake those maps. Eyecandy is important too, not only functional maps.

I have GF art pack 2, but I havent looked first one. Need to buy that too. Thanks for the tip.

[Geometer]

They're not bad results for a month's learning. I've been making maps for nearly a year and I'm still not getting it right!

As well as the FG store, if you haven't already you should check out the DM's Guild and DrivethruRPG for mapmaking assets, and if you want a load of top quality free stuff see this page: https://www.forgotten-adventures.net/

[LordEntrails]

The Vintyri Project probably has the most number of free assets, that can also be used commercially, that I've found anywhere.