It's good to see some of the older symbols being used.
Interesting that you use a wall shadow in the dungeon rather than a glow effect to sink the floors - not that there is a right or wrong way of doing it. It just looks a bit strange after I've seen so many dungeon's with dark glows sinking the floors in.
Well, for that map, I haven't tweaked effects yet, they're all using the defaults for now.
But I've always enjoyed using wall shadows though. It is not really logical from a lighting point of view, but I still like the aesthetics. I'll see what I do for the final version.
As for realism, don't look to close on the shadows and shades in the perspectives map either. I've used shadows in a lot of places to highlight features, like ruined walls, and things sticking out from the walls below, and I've focused on enhancing the features rather than accuracy, so from a lighting point of view, there are a couple of things in there that contradict each other.
I'd recommend blurring the outside stone wall of the dungeon a bit. The pattern of the bitmap fill is too repetitive. It needs to be obscured or broken up somehow.
Much better! Another issue: interior walls that aren't exposed to external light should probably be defined by a dark glow effect rather than a directional wall shadow. (Dungeon lighting is a whole topic in itself and others have covered it better than I ever could.) Finally the spider webs: just a visual effect to show age and abandonment or actual traps for players to encounter?
I often like to use wall shadows despite it being kind of illogical, because I feel it better conveys the feeling of a wall. I often use effects more to convey meaning rather than trying to be visually accurate (There are no lights down there at all, so technically it should just be a black square ).
For the webs, I guess that is up to the GM. My players immediately started burning them upon discovering them, and since there was no reason this particular dungeon should be trapped, I just let them do that without any additional consequences.
If anyone is interested, I did a blog entry about how to create those ruined walls in Perspectives 3. There's even a video there if people prefer that format and can stand hearing me talking for 30 mins.
Going to call this complete now I think. Added glow to the wall, and fixed up the shadows on the symbols to make things a bit more consistent.
The main rooms in this dungeon are the prison, the tomb, the well room (which also handles the wine stores), the mystic ritual room with the 5 elemental pillars (decide for yourself why there are 5 elements), and the main storage room. The basement was originally segregated into different sections, each only available from the stairs of a single tower, but the walls have weakened over time, and they have now crumbled in several places, allowing access to the entire basement, which is helpful, since two of the stairs down have been lost under the collapse towers above.
I've already implemented the keep into my own campaign and figured I'd keep the creature Lorelei named the keep after the main villain here as well. She has set up her throne room in the old store room (upper right). Her army/minions lives in the ruined keep above, where is also where things like kitchens, barracks and latrines are found.
Comments
It's good to see some of the older symbols being used.
Interesting that you use a wall shadow in the dungeon rather than a glow effect to sink the floors - not that there is a right or wrong way of doing it. It just looks a bit strange after I've seen so many dungeon's with dark glows sinking the floors in.
But I've always enjoyed using wall shadows though. It is not really logical from a lighting point of view, but I still like the aesthetics. I'll see what I do for the final version.
As for realism, don't look to close on the shadows and shades in the perspectives map either. I've used shadows in a lot of places to highlight features, like ruined walls, and things sticking out from the walls below, and I've focused on enhancing the features rather than accuracy, so from a lighting point of view, there are a couple of things in there that contradict each other.
These are awesome dungeon maps Remy!
For the webs, I guess that is up to the GM. My players immediately started burning them upon discovering them, and since there was no reason this particular dungeon should be trapped, I just let them do that without any additional consequences.
Otherwise, A beautiful map. I like the webs! No more burning webs, ok?
The main rooms in this dungeon are the prison, the tomb, the well room (which also handles the wine stores), the mystic ritual room with the 5 elemental pillars (decide for yourself why there are 5 elements), and the main storage room.
The basement was originally segregated into different sections, each only available from the stairs of a single tower, but the walls have weakened over time, and they have now crumbled in several places, allowing access to the entire basement, which is helpful, since two of the stairs down have been lost under the collapse towers above.
I've already implemented the keep into my own campaign and figured I'd keep the creature Lorelei named the keep after the main villain here as well. She has set up her throne room in the old store room (upper right). Her army/minions lives in the ruined keep above, where is also where things like kitchens, barracks and latrines are found.