Well, contest is over and in total,11 maps participated. So, I just wanted to say great work everyone, I loved seeing all these new maps.
I am also particularly happy that we got four new submitter to the atlas during this challenge; Linda Böckstiegel, Relyt, Autumn Getty, and Basil Gass. Thanks for taking part in the challenge, thanks for contributing to the atlas, and I hope to see all of you contribute more maps in the future.
I also know that a few people started on maps that didn't make it in the time for this challenge, but I do hope you plan on finishing them for the atlas. The mega dungeon will stay open for mapping and will always welcome new maps whenever anyone feels like making a small (or large) dungeon level that can be added to it.
The atlas now contains 318 maps. Map 300 was one of JimP's dungeon floors for this challenge.
Thanks for participating everyone. Hope to see you all (and everyone else) participate in the next challenge too.
Now, as usual, let us hold our informal "Best Map" vote. This is just for good fun, and even if your map isn't picked here, all the entries where good maps, so you can safely feel good about yourselves.
So, here are the contestants. Please have a good look at them before voting. I'll leave the poll up for a week.
Yeah, voting for just one map from this selection is pretty much an impossible task, but it seems to happen every time that EVERYONE contributing should really be classed as winning when we come down to this point.
Very well done to all, I think. There's just so much inventiveness on show all-round both from the mapping angle, and what's been placed in the maps.
You can also just search for unholy, that will list the maps. One day I might update the search so you can get a direct link to a search result, but that isn't possible at the moment. I also notice I need to update the search page layout, those long names break the formatting a bit.
Well, it's been 7 days so I am closing the poll. I can only conclude that people hate voting on stuff, since we just got a few more votes than maps. Oh well, even governments complain about low voting attendance.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this. We received a nice list of great maps, and the participation is much more important than getting "Best Map" which is just a bit of extra fun with no real importance.
Hope to see you all for the next challenge, you and hopefully many more. I was especially pleased this time as several new faces participated, and I am very thankful that all of you decided to allow the maps to be used in the atlas as well.
It was a really tough decision. Maybe that was why the vote was so low?
I can make a bigger thing of it on the FB Group page next time if you like, Remy? I think, though, that there may be some confusion between the challenges here and the challenges there
Thanks guys, Monsen definitely helped me with the finishing touches.
It was a toss up for me between mine and Wyvern's. Wyvern just came out of nowhere at the end, I loved their design and theme. I thought Quenten might of had it at first though because his looks the best in thumbnail form.
It was a lot of fun, I loved seeing everyone's dungeon. Dungeons/battlemaps are my specialty so we will see how I do on future challenges.
Relyt, if dungeons are your specialty, what about doing some both for your own campaigns, and double them up with the Community Atlas? Just a plug for Artemisia, especially the Elen Daelarion map with plenty of cave entrances
I tend to use custom symbols, I purposely did not use any in the Diabolic Lock, normally I would have used Photoshop to upscale and apply filters to the large stone trap doors to make them look less stretched. However, I can try to get those that don't use custom symbols in the atlas.
Relyt commented that:Wyvern just came out of nowhere at the end...
Which is what you'd expect a wyvern to do, really
Well done Relyt; great looking map!
Not sure what the answer to low voter turnouts might be. Personally, and as I noted earlier, I thought it was an appallingly difficult choice, since I could easily see ANY of the final maps featuring in a published scenario on places such as DriveThru RPG. I particularly liked that we had such an interesting range of styles and designs. That though does make comparisons much harder to me, since while I think many of us are often captivated by artistic drawings with lots of detail, the simpler lines of other styles are frequently of much greater help to GM's running a story. The earliest published dungeon and surface location maps were all black and white (or some similar bi-colour - the paper and whatever coloured ink seemed to work best, commonly sepia ink on cream paper stock) with little more than stairs, doors and traps marked, for instance. What's often called now the "Old School Style", those blue or grey and white dungeon maps favoured by AD&D's originators, TSR, were very straightforward, for all they added extra information beyond the earlier basic level. (Worryingly, I STILL think of those blue/grey and white maps as the "new" style; which dates me rather more than them, I suspect...)
What's especially interesting in this respect is that the two most recent major hardcopy scenario books published by Wizards of the Coast to support the 5th edition of D&D, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage have both included ONLY black-and-white line-drawing maps for running the adventures (ignoring the pull-out poster-sized colour maps of Waterdeep city in Dragon Heist), very much in that earlier style. In general, this decision seems to have been accepted with relatively little fuss, though the VTT community has been involved in creating a range of more pictorial maps to replace the originals for VTT use - mostly because players, and possibly VTT GM's, seem not to be sufficiently used to coping with the simpler kinds of map in such an electronic setting.
Strongly suggests that all kinds of maps can be broadly accepted within the RPG community though; handy that CC3+ and its add-ons, especially with the Annuals, provide such a broad range of options already!
Just a note that even if the challenge is over, the dungeon itself is still open for new maps. I hope to have this turn into a true mega-dungeon one day. Levels can be tiny or huge, and visual design can range from simple line drawings to photo-realistic, anything goes.
Just stick to the main rule; one entrance in from above, one exit going down. This simple rule allow people using the dungeon to use exactly what maps they want, in any order they want, and let us also have a dungeon that can be added on indefinitely. I'll also allow variations of this, for example if someone want to design two (or more) levels that are tightly knit together (Perhaps getting to the exit means going up and down between the levels at different locations) as long as the complete set of levels you submit follow the general rule of 1 entrance to the set, and one exit.
@Wyvern: You make an interesting point here. In my eyes, the functionality of a map always trumps its looks. How "pretty" I make a map largely depends on if it is going to be used as a player illustration/battlemap or not. For the latter, I think a pretty detailed map kind of makes it easier to immerse the players, helps them visualize the place. On the other hand, for DM's only map, the simple stuff is often better. And if it is a player-handout, made by an in-game character, I always prefer simple stuff (unless said NPC is actually an artist)
I've done go up to go down a level in Dwarf Home and a few other maps like Sraa Keep.
I'm apparently making 35 dungeon maps for Quenten's surface maps. But I'll see what I can crank out for the Atlas megadungeon. I'm also working on Dwarf Home...
Some of the ones I submitted for this megadungeon were 500' x 400'. I'll stick to that size.
Comments
Here is my submission. I believe I am just in time.
I am also particularly happy that we got four new submitter to the atlas during this challenge; Linda Böckstiegel, Relyt, Autumn Getty, and Basil Gass. Thanks for taking part in the challenge, thanks for contributing to the atlas, and I hope to see all of you contribute more maps in the future.
I also know that a few people started on maps that didn't make it in the time for this challenge, but I do hope you plan on finishing them for the atlas. The mega dungeon will stay open for mapping and will always welcome new maps whenever anyone feels like making a small (or large) dungeon level that can be added to it.
The atlas now contains 318 maps. Map 300 was one of JimP's dungeon floors for this challenge.
Thanks for participating everyone. Hope to see you all (and everyone else) participate in the next challenge too.
Now, as usual, let us hold our informal "Best Map" vote. This is just for good fun, and even if your map isn't picked here, all the entries where good maps, so you can safely feel good about yourselves.
So, here are the contestants. Please have a good look at them before voting. I'll leave the poll up for a week.
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 01 - Monastery Of The Mad Monks (Thread)
Linda Böckstiegel
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 02 (Thread)
JimP
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 03 - The Diabolical Lock (Thread)
Relyt
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 04 (Thread)
JimP
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 05 - The Lost Temple Of The Screaming Stars (Thread)
Wyvern
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 06 (Thread)
JimP
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 07 - Necropolis Of Zarudalf The Mad (Thread)
Quenten Walker
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 08 - The Maze Floor (Thread)
Basil Gass
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 09 (Thread)
JimP
Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 10 - Shrine And Village Of The Edneim (Thread)
Autumn Getty
Hakon's Flame Lab (Thread)
Linda Böckstiegel
I think I will have to think about this for a couple of days
Very well done to all, I think. There's just so much inventiveness on show all-round both from the mapping angle, and what's been placed in the maps.
Or a search instead ?
I want to post to another forum on how to get to the dungeon. Thanks.
Be patient, Jim - its only the first day yet
I posted this thread link to Dragons foot's 'Maps and Plans' forum.
That's good
You can also just search for unholy, that will list the maps. One day I might update the search so you can get a direct link to a search result, but that isn't possible at the moment. I also notice I need to update the search page layout, those long names break the formatting a bit.
[OT] Free interactive atlas made by Campaign Cartographer 3+ in the Maps and Floorplans forum.
In any case Temple Of The Unholy Dungeon Level 03 - The Diabolical Lock by Relyt won best map for our little informal challenge with 4 of the 13 votes.
The complete list of participants is available at the Contests & Challenges page.
Thanks to everyone who participated in this. We received a nice list of great maps, and the participation is much more important than getting "Best Map" which is just a bit of extra fun with no real importance.
Hope to see you all for the next challenge, you and hopefully many more. I was especially pleased this time as several new faces participated, and I am very thankful that all of you decided to allow the maps to be used in the atlas as well.
Congratulations Relyt!
It was a really tough decision. Maybe that was why the vote was so low?
I can make a bigger thing of it on the FB Group page next time if you like, Remy? I think, though, that there may be some confusion between the challenges here and the challenges there
It was a toss up for me between mine and Wyvern's. Wyvern just came out of nowhere at the end, I loved their design and theme. I thought Quenten might of had it at first though because his looks the best in thumbnail form.
It was a lot of fun, I loved seeing everyone's dungeon. Dungeons/battlemaps are my specialty so we will see how I do on future challenges.
Well done Relyt; great looking map!
Not sure what the answer to low voter turnouts might be. Personally, and as I noted earlier, I thought it was an appallingly difficult choice, since I could easily see ANY of the final maps featuring in a published scenario on places such as DriveThru RPG. I particularly liked that we had such an interesting range of styles and designs. That though does make comparisons much harder to me, since while I think many of us are often captivated by artistic drawings with lots of detail, the simpler lines of other styles are frequently of much greater help to GM's running a story. The earliest published dungeon and surface location maps were all black and white (or some similar bi-colour - the paper and whatever coloured ink seemed to work best, commonly sepia ink on cream paper stock) with little more than stairs, doors and traps marked, for instance. What's often called now the "Old School Style", those blue or grey and white dungeon maps favoured by AD&D's originators, TSR, were very straightforward, for all they added extra information beyond the earlier basic level. (Worryingly, I STILL think of those blue/grey and white maps as the "new" style; which dates me rather more than them, I suspect...)
What's especially interesting in this respect is that the two most recent major hardcopy scenario books published by Wizards of the Coast to support the 5th edition of D&D, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage have both included ONLY black-and-white line-drawing maps for running the adventures (ignoring the pull-out poster-sized colour maps of Waterdeep city in Dragon Heist), very much in that earlier style. In general, this decision seems to have been accepted with relatively little fuss, though the VTT community has been involved in creating a range of more pictorial maps to replace the originals for VTT use - mostly because players, and possibly VTT GM's, seem not to be sufficiently used to coping with the simpler kinds of map in such an electronic setting.
Strongly suggests that all kinds of maps can be broadly accepted within the RPG community though; handy that CC3+ and its add-ons, especially with the Annuals, provide such a broad range of options already!
Just stick to the main rule; one entrance in from above, one exit going down. This simple rule allow people using the dungeon to use exactly what maps they want, in any order they want, and let us also have a dungeon that can be added on indefinitely. I'll also allow variations of this, for example if someone want to design two (or more) levels that are tightly knit together (Perhaps getting to the exit means going up and down between the levels at different locations) as long as the complete set of levels you submit follow the general rule of 1 entrance to the set, and one exit.
@Wyvern: You make an interesting point here. In my eyes, the functionality of a map always trumps its looks. How "pretty" I make a map largely depends on if it is going to be used as a player illustration/battlemap or not. For the latter, I think a pretty detailed map kind of makes it easier to immerse the players, helps them visualize the place. On the other hand, for DM's only map, the simple stuff is often better. And if it is a player-handout, made by an in-game character, I always prefer simple stuff (unless said NPC is actually an artist)
I'm apparently making 35 dungeon maps for Quenten's surface maps. But I'll see what I can crank out for the Atlas megadungeon. I'm also working on Dwarf Home...
Some of the ones I submitted for this megadungeon were 500' x 400'. I'll stick to that size.