The Creepy Crypt project
Loopysue
ProFantasy 🖼️ 40 images Cartographer
Hi Everyone! :)
I'm hoping to create an annual style that will be pretty similar to DD3, but concentrating on the needs of the crypt mapper.
I guess we would need lots of bones and tombs, and suitable wall and floor fills, but what else would you like to help you make the perfect creepy crypt?
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Graves, gravestones, gravestone ornaments like vases with dead flowers,, angel statues, statues of people and pets, like Roman gravesites.
Slabs, sarcophagi (with and without lids half-off), ossuaries, urns, statuary (cherubs, avenging angels), pits, and maybe a pool of water / slime oozing from a wall. Things like niches in a wall are hard to show from an overhead perspective. Protection circles and wards (both active and inactive) might also be appropriate. A smudged summoning circle might be a nice touch.
Stacks of bones.Pillars and pillars of skulls. Iron gates and grates. A drawing tool or some easy way to make spider webs, the symbols I've seen just never line up the way that I need them too. Decorative floor inlays. Cracks and debris symbols to place on floors and walls. All of the things already mentioned.
Swarm of rats, half-decomposed/eaten corpses. Body parts.
Thanks all! :D
Some useful ideas there.
Here is the rapidly growing poll list from the FB Group page so you can see all the other suggestions too.
While dungeon implies below ground, there are above ground crypts to keep in mind. New Orleans has a lot of them so you should look at those and keep them in mind. I think in places like Hong Kong where there is little space, they also have family crypts that are shared.
Now, I also think you need to keep in mind catacombs. I think some in Paris have it such that it looks like the walls are made of skulls. So that is also a possibility to add.
There is already an Ancient Egypt annual, so I would stay away from things involving that. Stick with tombs, crypts, coffins, iron fences, iron gates, tombstones, moss, dead trees, bats, skeletons, vampires, blood, melted candles, occult symbols, corpses, half eaten corpses, shadows, and roots. People forget that tree roots grow underground. Pools of water can be found.
This might be asking too much, but your styles of late seem way better than anything that comes stock. So I hope you do not copy the bland DD3 base style that much.
I think a crypt is usually imagined as being underground. I checked just now, and it seems the term has been confused in recent history with the word 'mausoleum', which is definitely an above ground construction. I could do above ground fills and symbols as well, but not in this project. There is more than enough work to be done on the underground variety of burial chamber if the combined wish list from the FB Group page nad right here on the forum is anything to go by.
However, this is a useful contribution, and will probably be one that I revisit later in the year ;)
@JulianDracos - Oh dear! I came back to this after a couple of hours and realised a friend who whispered in my ear that I had rather put a downer on the idea of mausoleums was right. I have, haven't I.
Sorry - my bad!
The tombs I will make for the set should double as above ground mausoleums, and should also be reasonably compatible with existing DD3 stuff, if that helps?
I'd like to see some small prayer shrines for inside the crypts in various cultural styles. Mausoleums need small, high windows that are oriented on cardinal directions for both moonlight and sunlight. Mists and fogs of various colors would be nice too. 🤤
Where I am from, the word crypt can be above or below ground. Hence, the use of the phrase, underground crypt. I think because a crypt can be used to refer to one of the burial chambers in a mausoleum. So it just sort of refers to above ground tombs with one chamber or sometimes an entire mausoleum because it is just faster to say crypt. But we will say above ground crypt.
I understand that now, Julian. I had an over-simplified view of the world of burial styles, and I have to admit that I've only ever attended 3 burials in my entire life. The rest have all been cremations. All 3 were simple holes in the ground, and as is the nature of such occaisions I wasn't really looking at my surroundings when I was there, so I don't have a lot of experience to draw on.
In areas like New Orleans, Louisiana, the water table is so high that burials are in the ground rather than below the surface.
I have heard those burials called being placed in a crypt and a mausoleum. Rather interchangeably.
The edges of the two terms are very blurred, Jim.
In areas like New Orleans, Louisiana, there is a tendency to demonstrate that coffins float. And that is a reminder nobody wants.
Surprised to see nobody's asked for a cat yet. After all, the cat crept into the crypt...💩...and crept out again 😉
The Creepy Crypt style is taking shape, thanks to all your suggestions for appropriate symbols (both here and on the FB Group page). However, I find myself making grass... of the variety that cows eat... for above ground crypts. The question is - should I bother with the grass textures, or leave it to you to import the standard DD3 grass fills to your above ground crypt maps? Here is a sample of one I drew this morning on the left, against the default DD3 grass on the right, - both with standard DD3 symbols for scale and appearance.
Well, whether they get used or not, I've 10 new grass textures to start the collection off for this style, most of which can be mixed and matched with DD3 grass textures (probably not the dry grass ones, though).
Next job are the dirt textures.
I meant to type.
On the ground instead of in the ground.
Please include the grass, Ms. Sue.
They're just awesome.
They're in the set, Calibre :)
Yes, your art is far superior than any of the basic styles so you should add as much as possible - that includes grass.
One other suggestion to add - fungus! These would be useful both above and below ground. Different types would be appreciated if possible.
Fungus is on the list Julian.
Thank you! I think it's probably just that a change is good every now and then.
I'm not doing an entire dungeon style - just the crypt aspect for now.
How about some of the above ground items having moss/fungi growing on them as well
Do we have any semi-transparent overlays of things like blood spatter, mold, or sludge that can be put on surfaces? Is that possible?
It's possible to make symbols semi-transparent if you switch DELAYDRAWSYM to zero and add a Transparency sheet effect to the sheet you want to put the transparent symbols on. There can be drawbacks, though, which is why the default state is 1.
However, I can make some semi-transparent symbols if that is what you would prefer.
Long time without any visible sign of progress, but I can guarantee there's been a lot of work going on behind the scenes. The hardest part for me isn't the symbols as much as getting the textures to look right. Here is a sample of the textures I've made so far - an extract showing the various rocks, stones, dirts and a bit of water. The sample covers a range from formal tomb to creepy catacombe. I'd be interested to hear what you think.
Remember, this isn't about the symbols yet. It's just the fills. You will have to imagine all the spider webs, fungus and mummies, though I have added a single tomb from DD3 to show the scale of these fills.
I love the wall and fill texture. I can see this replacing my normal dungeon style.
Thank you :)
That's the cobble used as a wall, and one of the two stone textures used as a floor mask.
I like most of the textures. However, the two textures used for the path that runs into the large circle on the bottom left that has the same colors, I am not a fan of. I am not sure if it is the colors or the colors combined with the texture. My mind is thinking this is supposed to be marble, but the pattern does not look right. I think it just comes off as too blue in my mind.
The stone floor in the smaller circle looks OK. Not sure what you are going for. It looks like concrete with a lot of stains on it rather than stone.
Speaking of stones, the squares and rectangles on the bottom right look good. This may not be possible to do, but I think if you could give the grout an indent between the stones that would give it a three dimensional look. It looks a little flat at the moment.
Different stone color options would be nice.
I like the walls and the filler in the walls. The water looks cool as well. Maybe some mud or green color water could be useful for that texture.