20years of play... some results
Morrgans
Traveler
Greetings. Back in 2006 I started with a new warhammer campaign. 2ed just dropped and I scoped it up and devoured it. After trying to get the jumbled ... stuff from 1ed to work (truth be told, I mostly converted it to Rolemaster 2ed back in the day for ease of play (!!) and consistancy) and some Dark Heresy Intermezzo here and there, the campaign finished with the conclusion of the Aftermath to the Enemy Within campaign for 4ed last september (2025) . Over the years I produced quite some maps in CC2, 3, 3+ and others. I thought I could share some of the maps and if possible .fcw files as well, so the next naive person starting a generation long fantasy campaign can benefit from some suggestions.
Note, that the maps are quite different in quality and tone. (looking at you "Opeferheim 3d... eugh!) but you can not always do a John Speed or Ferraris style because that would be boring.
With that out of the way, let's start with something simple. 2 strip maps for waterways. The first is the Weißbruck Kanal froom Altdorf to Weißbruck which the Pcs are traveling (maybe) to get to Bögenhafen. at the beginning of TEW.
The second one is a smaller, more obscure canal from Grünburg to Prieze. This one has the added feature of a "Seitenkanal" because of the locks. so that the traffic can go around if needed. Grünburg Kanal is from the End, when the PCs were investigating the extreme arm of the broken chain, which threatened the newfound prosperity of the PCs and the Empire after the Turmoil...
Also note that I took some liberties and renamed some things. There is no "Kotzenheim" (Vomit-Home) in my version of the Empire (:= Kaiserreich) and I genrally populate the map with way more settlements etc. The original maps (especially before 4ed) are notoriosly empty. IIRC adding up all the people from the Gazetters of known settlements is roughly 1.5 million or so? Even if it is 2million it is still only 20% of the Holy Roman Empire AFTER the 30year war and the 30-40% reduction to "only" 10million.
Comments
The figures at the top are from the miedival figures ttf, converted to symbols as per the Annual 30, Ornamentation, and then recolored by adding an extra sheet below them. Unfortunatedly I can not find any .fcw fro this map anymore.
The coat of arms has been done with the help of coamaker.com and then included as a png.
The last one for today is also something which, naturally evolved over time how I handle dungeons: Consider this map of the Barony of Hargendorf which combines the tome "frame" and mystic journey i guess:
I used it for a Hargendorf cross-over event (Hargendorf, the barony withoput a Baron after the Storm of Chaos) and the "Reward" for the group of hte first half after the conclusion of the "Forges of Nuln". The event was an attack by a neigbor (Dieter the Cruel had ousted his father Otto from Neues Emskrank and wanted to colour in everything up to Laurelorn). Note the "Tokens" for Locations. You can change the pictures from them and create you own (e.g. "Die Elster" or "Neuland").
This comes in handy when you are designing Dungeons. After I spent a month or so on a multilevel dungeon with multiple rooms, traps, "biomes" effects etc. the group stated after wards, that they didn't enjoy the "moving around tokens for four sessions". Badumm-tss.
Solution: Token Dungeon.
Combine something like this:
with something like this:
And you get your dungeon. I then just link the Tokens with lines and you have a "maze". Encounters and handouts can then be handed out and you do not have to manage THAT player who always moves around and reveals the map.... and is THEN surprised when the "trap" (unstable floor) gets him. (all VTT sessions in my games nowadays).
Added benfit: Prep-time is roughly 20% from doing it in the dungeons of Schley style for all the floors... (that would be the next installement: Castle Wittgenstein)
Those first ones are definitely interesting, have never seen anything like them.
@Don Anderson Jr. They are from the Strip maps annual, 2009, annual 3.
here is the video tutorial on it.
Live Mapping: Journey Maps (Cartographer's Annual Vol 3)
Love the strip maps, and the Token Dungeon is a great idea!
Thank you all for your kind comments! Apart from playing I have ot admit that mapping and preparing handouts became equally important for me. Soooo... Dungeons. I have had always a german nitpicking experience with dungeons (I am the German Nitpicker or as my father used to call it "Niggelige Ante") That is: IF you want to still have a sizable workforce in your Castle/Prison(read Dungeon)/Temple/Treasury you DO not have the bottomless pit in the main thorough fare and rolling boulders are out of the question. Just imagin your average cultist Kevin the blunder tripping for the 4th time this week the gas trap in treasury 4 and all the extra effort of cleaning up the coins (you do not want your bribe to kill the corrupt bureaucrat because of residual poison or so) ANYway, I mostly redo dungeons.
One of them was Castle Wittgenstein. For this I tried and used Dungeons of Schley. A style you can find in a lot of publications out there. Not all of them done by CC3 but the Schley style is very distinct and I have seen it in DnD, Savage worlds and other modules for various VTTs and others.
The eastern part of Wittgenstein. I had some issues with the fills and the patterns of the grass/dirt. But the session was coming up, so who cares. Also it was in the early days of foundry VTT and so Levels and multilevel dungeons were not feasible. That is why the second story of the tower is a separate entity near it - and no roofs. In the barn next to the stable was a "foreign" stamp of a carriage, which I could not find, so I removed it. In order to give it depth I modeled a silhuette made out of black polygons and added a drop shadow to it.
Fun fact, the group entered the castle via that tower of the skeletal champion at the top. That was the second hardest fight in the entire dungeon. Ah well. Good old times.
Here is the fcw. you need dungeons of schley for it.
And the western part:
Ah right... on thing I learned and forgot again how to rotate textures. Note that the main castle is rotated. If you use the texture of the floorboards without some tricks they are oriented from top to bottom. Lets see if I can find the post from back then. The den of evil was saved by LoopySue again!
By the way... if you want to visit Burg Wittgenstein in real life... it is a youth hostel in bavaria:
Burg Wildenstein. I used this picture for a similar map using the Annual 103 "Panorama View"
The last one I would like to share for today is also something I used similar to the token dungeon. Vertical Dungeon Annual. This lets you construct a map as a side view. For the caves, halls and layers below Middenheim, I used this style. POI where then fleshed out on separate encounter maps. This map also illustrates my solution to the "well problem" of Middenheim. In multiple adventures set in this town, wells are poisoned. One could ask, how on earth the people of middenheim were able to drill through ALL of the Faustschlag Mountain in order to find the ground water somewhere below that. I added old dwarven aqueducts and a near mysterius pipe/waterworks area below Middenheim, so that the wells function similar to the ones in Rome.
German Nitpicker at it again.
Of course this is a translated dwarven version, because the manlings don't bother...
Completely agree. Illogical dungeon design is a pet peeve of mine. Even if the dungeon is now an ancient ruin with completely new inhabitants, I always go in and look into the original design of the dungeon, why the builders built it the way they did, and what makes sense. (Also the reason for why I don't really like random dungeons all that much)
Here is the original discussion as I was building Wittgenstein with the help of Sue:
obviously I had some issues with the stairs as well, completely forgot. Cheers! Next one up is my passion and Nemesis: City Maps!
Even if the dungeon is now an ancient ruin with completely new inhabitants, I always go in and look into the original design of the dungeon
I agree! When I map, I ask myself two questions: (1) what was this originally built for, and (2) what is it used for now? They could be the same answer — it was built to be an inn and it’s still an inn. They don’t have to be — it was built to be a temple and now it’s a necromancer’s lair.
Also, what are the fixed architectural points? If there’s a fireplace, there needs to be a flue from foundation through the roof (unless it’s magical fire, I guess). If there’s a well above, make sure the shaft goes all the way through the dungeon levels to the water.