Live Mapping - Lava Caves & Virtual Tabletops
Monsen
Administrator 🖼️ 51 images Cartographer
I need a cave with some lava for an upcoming encounter. You know the kind, those with open lava pools that only appear in fantasy and isn't particularly realistic, but makes for an interesting gaming scene. I'll be playing around with getting started on this map, as well as show you how to handle exporting it for Virtual TableTop use.
As usual, you can check out the video on YouTube, or watch it in the embedded player here. See the sidebar to see the scheduled time in your time zone, or visit it on YouTube where you can also see the schedule, as well as set a notification for when I go live.
Comments
Hot stuff, Remy! :D
30 minute shout! :)
I didn't finish the map during that video back then (Nor did I really expect to, since I spent a lot of time talking about map usage, scale, and other VTT considerations), but as the session where I need this will be this weekend, I have finally finished it.
There are still several things I am not too happy about with this map, in particular the transitions between the different levels, and the symbols doesn't flow with the terrain nearly as well as I could have wanted, but I had to balance several considerations, among them making the map clear and easy to read when loaded into a VTT, how much time and effort I could reasonably use for a single encounter, as well as for the fact that while I am a master in the technical side of mapping with CC3+, the visual arts is not really my strong side. So I guess this is what I consider a "Meh, good enough for it's purpose" map.
I could have made the map a bit more atmospheric by making it darker, and perhaps used some dungeon lighting to make a nice glow from the lava, but I am using it on a projector in a lit room, which means it will be far more usable if it isn't too dark, and have a good level of contrast.
Note that this map is pretty huge for a battle map, 500 by 500 feet, which means 100x100 squares if using the standard 5' battlemap squares. A standard human character (movement 12) would need 4 full rounds just walking in a straight line from one side to the other, before considering any terrain movement restrictions.
I've put links for larger versions of each image.
Here's the finished map in CC3+ (Larger version [7500x7500 pixels])
Here's the CC3+ file for it.
And here is the finished map in MapTool, ready to play (Large Version [2544x2248 Pixels])
So, the map was put to good use this weekend. Not just for one bossfight, but two, heralding the end of our 11 year long campaign on Virana.
Most of you don't know my campaign, but the the main idea was that the players would play through one of the most important formative periods of the world. And we did that by basically playing two interwoven campaigns. In the standard campaign, we played a rather "standard" AD&D campaign where the players discovered something was wrong with the biggest church in the world, and that an evil entity was behind it, while also playing a campaign set about 5000 years in the past where the player characters played as dragons (Council of Wyrms rules). Basically, actions by the dragon characters would end up having consequences in the current world.
So, the players learned that the evil entity behind the problems where the evil dragon queen Tiamat. She had tried to enter the world several times throughout history, so basically the campaign ended this weekend with first the Dragon characters driving back Tiamat in the past and temporary driving her from this world, then switching to the current world where the standard AD&D characters had to drive her back again, with her power level being affected by what the dragons managed to accomplish, but this time finish the job, thanks to certain artifacts made in the Dragon timeline.
So, two fights, same battlemap, same enemy, but with different character sets with hugely different skills and abilities.
It was two hard fights, and a close call, but the players did manage to win the day and save the world, and they seemed to enjoy the fights. So, mission accomplished I guess.
That sounds terrific. I wish I had partners to play DND with - not online, though. I have yet to investigate whether there are players in Geraldton.
Many gaming stores have notice boards where you can look for others needing players, or advertise for players yourself.
Yeah, just got to find a gaming store here! 😈
Wow, an eleven year campaign! That’s so impressive. Love the idea of simultaneously playing in the past and present.