[WIP] Village of Buckenhurst

JoeyD473

So this is not the whole village. It is just a small part of the small fishing village near the shore.

I made the floor of the building partially transparent to show the stilts that hold these buildings off the grounds. I think I may have gone overboard on the stilts and could probably have few.The 3 square buildings are 50'x50' and each stilt has a 10' diameter. The other building is like a town hall style building with an area of ≈3926 sq'

I'm not putting objections in these buildings because I designed it for Roll20 and will have each building as it's own map so this way battles outside can happen under the buildings (Did I forget to mention the stilts are 10' high).

Did I put too many stilts? How many should I get rid of if any?

I feel like this map is also very empty. What else should I put to fill it out some more

[Deleted User]

I like the semi-transparent floor technique to show the stilt (and I don't think there are too many, from one who lived in 2 houses like that - we call the Queenslanders). You can always add some vegetation, seaweed mounds, sand and rubble.

DaltonSpence

Wow! Those are big stilts! I'd call them pillars myself. 10 feet in diameter? Do they really need to be that big? Where did they find logs that size? And why was the village built on a tidal floodplain? I could see this if there was only a narrow strip of land between the beach and the base of a sea cliff that the fishermen had to build on but there is no real reason to build on stilts unless the area floods regularly. And if the whole village is build that way, shouldn't the buildings be close enough to have bridges between them? Unless there is some other danger than high water; if so, access should be by ladders, not stairs. Is 10 feet tall enough?

Monsen

The stilts seem quite a bit out of proportion. I would assume these are made from tree trunks. Where do they get trees 10' diameter? Trees that size do exist, but it isn't exactly commonplace.

The buildings also seem a bit large to me. Now, I don't know anything about your world, but you've tagged it fantasy, so I assume the typical medieval-ish type of living standard. A modern house in my part of the worlds is usually about 80-120 square meters (861-1291 square feet) per floor. These fishing huts of yours are 232 square meters (2500 square feet). That's huge.

Why are the stilts that tall btw? They're standing on what looks like grass, so it doesn't look like an area that is normally flooded.

To add details to your map, I would normally think about placing some vegetation, but that brings me a bit to my previous sentence, vegetation doesn't grow within the tidal range of the water, or at least not land-based vegetation.

JoeyD473

I added some vegetation, but just a little. I also shrunk the stilts to 5' wide.

The buildings are so big strictly for easier fighting. Think like when a movie or T.V. show make interiors of buildings look bigger.

The stilts are so high is because they've had just enough storms in teh past that they decided higher was better. Its normally overkill, but every few years its come in handy being that high

DaltonSpence

I think the edges of the different terrains should be blurred a bit. Also since the buildings are elevated you should use drop shadow instead of wall shadow for them (and no shadows for the "stilts", they are already shaded by the buildings they support). The square buildings are old family homes, right? Single fishermen or couples would probably have ground level shacks because elevated structures would be expensive and time consuming to erect. The great hall would shelter them in emergencies and its curved side should face the sea to reduce wind resistance. While less convenient to access the boats the stairs down should face inland for similar reasons. How about storing the smaller boats under the buildings to keep them out of the rain? Except for the great hall there is no reason the access stairs can't be under the buildings as well. (They might even be hinged and roped so they can be pulled up out of the way when needed.)

JoeyD473

I added the drop shadow to the floor level of the buildings and took the shadow off the pillars. I decided they catch enough fish they are able to sell them to another village of loggers which is why they can afford the stilts.

Most of my decisions for the map for was the ease of players (and myself) not realism. Especially since this is going to be a complex fight with 4 different groups (Villagers, PCs, Koalinths (Sea Orcs) and an undead army)