Community Atlas competition: Kristol Caverns
Loopysue
ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
Hi guys :)
I think I have time to do just a small map of an ice cavern near Kristol Springs (hence the name of the cavern.
The basic idea is... well, it's an ice cavern... but I'm going to see if I can draw most of it with vector shapes and use no bitmap symbols at all.
There are no deities or beasties involved, and at first glance it seems like a pretty ordinary ice cavern. That's as far as I've got at the moment. I'm still at the thinking and dreaming stage.
Comments
Do you mean something like the DDPro vector mapping style, Sue, or just drawing shapes to create the map?
Just drawing shapes in solid colours blended onto a suitable background texture. Here are the colours I'm playing with at the moment.
I think I will probably import the parchment from Spectrum Overland (Land Neutral). It's bigger than the average texture, so I can scale it up larger and hopefully get rid of a lot of that redundancy.
Yes, that's better.
Version 1, after a lot of messing around and false starts. I'm starting at the very bottom and working up to the top, level by level. Haven't quite decided if there will be anything desirable or dangerous in the water.
Version 2. Already I have run out of space, quite apart from the problem with the hard edge at the top of each bevel. So it looks like this is more of a sketch than the actual map. But at least I am working out the sheets and effects.
I do like this type of "woodcut" contouring; it's almost as if you can reach out and touch it.
Thanks Wyvern! :)
I might just have gone and spoiled that very woodcut look by introducing surface sheets above each one with an edge fade inner to hide those sharp edges.
I think that even though I started without any backstory one is evolving in my mind. I'm thinking about why there would be an ice cave so close to the Yellowstone-like area of the Kristol Springs. I guess it would have to be magic, if that is ok?
Version 3 with all the sheets and effects worked out.
Now I have to decide if this is the right shape, or if I should redraw things. The map is 300ft square.
This is the "melted ice-cream" version of the cut-wood earlier ?
LOL!
I guess it is, Wyvern :)
Love the contour map feel. It's one of the things that is missing in the annuals for overland settings. Nice work!
Thank you AEIOU :)
I've done a bit more to it all in the last couple of hours. Where I was going to draw all the symbols as vector symbols I've run out of time to do that, so I'm using some of the Jonathan Roberts dungeon symbols instead.
The cavern needs a lot more rearranging. I want to have a field of stalagmites, and a larger lake full of ice floes for the living-dead dragon to fly out over when it launches its attack on visitors trying to steal it's treasure.
I've enlarged the map to 400 ft square to give me a bit more breathing space.
The City Cliffs are an experiment. I don't know if the resolution will be good enough.
I think this is as done as I can do it right now.
...
The Kristol Caverns are home to an undead dragon who is cursed to guard the bones of his rider, the Dragon King, for all eternity until the end of time, when it is believed he will rise again. There's plenty of gold just lying around, and intended to fund the King's last campaign (whatever that might be), but don't let the decomposed state of the dragon deceive you. If you look you can see that the remains of the man near his nose are far more recent than the bones of the dragon.
Smugglers have made use of an inaccessible part of the cavern closer to the entrance. Maybe they aren't even aware of the King and his beast, or maybe they found him, and that's one of them lying there in the dragon's lair.
...
Any suggestions for improvement (including to the story) that won't take more than a couple of hours to do are welcome :)
Thanks for posting these! I really appreciate how the WIP snapshots give some insight into the process and workflow on the map. I like the contouring effects here a lot, btw. I'd love to peek at the FCW someday and play with the sheet effects to get a feel for how they work.
Thank you :)
I will be uploading the final FCW to the competition thread once I am sure the map really is finished.
Will there be a grid for the subterranean part in the final version? Even if it's just a toggle option for the Atlas version, I know some folks find grids invaluable for running dungeon adventures. Just a thought!
There is already a grid present for that purpose, Wyvern. I find them slightly irritating and tend to hide them for display purposes, but here it is.
That's fine Sue. I know what you mean, but when you're running an adventure, you often need visual information really fast and on the fly, so grids can be very helpful.
I'm still playing with effects and toying with the idea of making the sides steeper (narrower transition bands) so that there's more cavern to actually play in.
And now I am wondering if a longer bevel would be better.
I'm also thinking about adding something to that southern end. It looks a bit bland.
Long bevel, or short bevel - what do you think?
Short bevel looked best to me.
I think you might be right, Remy :)
I've not done map notes properly before now - not like other people do for the Atlas maps. How are they done? Do you just write them in a comment like above, or what?
You don't have to write anything unless you want to, the main focus about the atlas is the maps themselves.
But if you want to write something, put it in a plain text file. I am embedding these inside a map note in the map, and those only handle plain text.
Thanks Remy :) I was thinking of adding those two very brief paragraphs above, even though they are more descriptive than helpful.
Bevel's one of those things that I seem to spend ages playing around with, and suddenly one last tweak and it looks completely different - and sometimes even right!
I know what you mean, Wyvern.
I also mess around with whether I want smoothing or not, and how much, but in this case the lack of smoothing gives the ice more texture.