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Any hints on battle map rivers?

FiordhraoiFiordhraoi
in Show and Tell
Hey guys,

Doing my first attempt with DD3. Figured I'd start with something slightly different and have a mostly open outdoor map that would be good for fairly generic encounters. I'm pretty happy with most of it, but the one glaring thing that's kind of getting me is the river down the middle. It's not HORRIBLE, but it kind of jars. If people wouldn't mind taking a look and giving suggestions, that would be great.

I tried using the water tool, but the polygons wouldn't come out right whether I was doing straight/curved/etc. I ended up using the road tool and changing the texture in properties, then moving it to the Rivers sheet. That's how I ended up with what I have here.

I think the uniform width is the most problematic, but when I tried to do different fade/blend layer effects it still ended up too regular, as well as giving the impression of extreme shallowness.

Thoughts? Other tools I might be overlooking?
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Comments

  • ShessarShessar 🖼️ 33 images Surveyor
    This is a nice map with a lot of area for combat.
    I just posted a battlemat with a stream that you might get some inspiration from. Your map covers a much larger area and so it will be difficult to compare the two. Still, it may give you some ideas.

    My Battlemat
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  • FiordhraoiFiordhraoi
    Thanks for the compliment! Yours is pretty awesome as well. Smaller, yes, but that's not necessarily a bad thing - I just tend to lean toward larger maps since a lot of my players tend toward battlefield control, retreats to draw in enemies, etc.

    The cliffs especially were done really well on yours, I'm going to have to steal that at some point. :)
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  • ShessarShessar 🖼️ 33 images Surveyor
    Thanks! I'm glad you like the cliffs. They're easy to do and give a reasonable representation.

    My battle maps are usually small because I print them out and, well...toner costs a lot. :D

    Do you print yours to scale or do you use a VTT? I'm always curious to know how other people do things.
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  • khalestinekhalestine
    edited September 2015
    Have you tried fractilizing the river a bit or tracing some river bank areas? You may want a two to three area transition from grass to water instead of just water. Try looking at some real life river pictures to get a sense of what I'm talking about. One layer for water, one layer for mud/river bed, and one layer for the channel. Try adding some white water/foam using various translucent polygons :)
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