Dungeon Maps

[squeen]

I am book-marking these two amazing posts about dungeon map design by Melan (written 17 years apart!)

• Megadungeon Mapping (on Dragonsfoot)
• The Anatomy of a Dungeon Map (on Beyond Fomalhaut)

Brilliant insights (loops, accelerators, choke points, etc.), and something to keep in mind when generating new maps.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Further required reading, from the Alexandrian (though if you're here, I'd be surprised if you haven't come across these already):

Jacquaying the Dungeon
The Three Clue Rule
Don't Prep Plots

 

[squeen]

I've read the "Don't Prep Plots" post quite a few times, but it never really clicked for me.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

I've read the "Don't Prep Plots" post quite a few times, but it never really clicked for me.

It kinda riffs off his Node-Based Design concepts, but I believe he doesn't effectively link the pair of articles (as they should have been).

 

[squeen]

Also a nice tutorial on drawing maps

• How to Draw a Map (Fantastic Maps)

And the tool Grutzi pointed out

• Dungeon Scrawl

 

[TerribleSorcery]

I've read the "Don't Prep Plots" post quite a few times, but it never really clicked for me.

That article changed my whole approach to gaming. I didn't even know what a railroad was until I read the Alexandrian and discovered that's all I knew how to do! (this was like 12-15 years back)

 

[squeen]

That article changed my whole approach to gaming. I didn't even know what a railroad was until I read the Alexandrian and discovered that's all I knew how to do! (this was like 12-15 years back)

That makes sense. I missed the whole "railroad/plot" era of D&D, so that's probably why it went over my head.

 

[Beoric]

I am book-marking these two amazing posts about dungeon map design by Melan (written 17 years apart!)

• Megadungeon Mapping (on Dragonsfoot)
• The Anatomy of a Dungeon Map (on Beyond Fomalhaut)

Brilliant insights (loops, accelerators, choke points, etc.), and something to keep in mind when generating new maps.

I don't agree with Melan's assessment, or diagram, of Forge of Fury. There are three entrances/exits to the dungeon, four if you count the underwater tunnel in the Dark Mere, which go to three different levels of the dungeon. The Mountain Door level has three potential entrances and three loops, most of which he leaves out of the sketch. The Glitterhame has two potential entrances (three if you used the underwater tunnel) and four loops, of which he depicts only two loops. The Foundry has two entrances to the level and three loops. If you ignore the water entrance, the Black Lake might be considered a railroad (there are two other very different paths to getting there, but they both deposit you in the same general area) until you realize it is just one big room; in my book having a single practical entrance to a room doesn't make the room a railroad. The only linear part of the dungeon is the Sinkhole, which is a small, six-room area with no loops and only one entrance (although there is a trap in the Glitterhame that will drop you there unwittingly if you are not careful).

When I ran this the party entered through the orc tunnel, which effectively meant they were starting on level 2 of the dungeon (Glitterhame). It took quite a while for them to get the lay of the land for the Glitterhame, and they didn't hit all of the encounters in it before they ended up going up to level 1 (the Mountain Door) through the back way. They used the loops in the Mountain Door to their tactical advantage to defeat the orcs, then went back down to the Glitterhame and finished clearing it. They couldn't pick the lock for the door to the Foundry and didn't find the alternate sinkhole entrance, but did discover the key in the Sinkhole - after getting their asses kicked by picking a fight with a roper they were supposed to be talking to. Then they went to the Foundry through the door in Glitterhame, missed eight rooms completely (which was possible only because the dungeon is nonlinear), lost several of their party fighting the duergar, went down the sinkhole to the Black Lake and survived the dragon encounter by agreeing to become its agents.

 

[Beoric]

I've read the "Don't Prep Plots" post quite a few times, but it never really clicked for me.

My take on this is DM's shouldn't have plots, but villains can.

 

[squeen]

Bumped into this later in the Dragonsfoot thread: Lechuguilla Cave

The cave system is 138 MILES long (and only the 4th longest/2nd deepest), but look at this image---it's straight out of B1!
Note the person in it for scale---wow.

 

[Malrex]

My take on this is DM's shouldn't have plots, but villains can.

I like that.
Plots are mostly a timetable for me--guidelines...completely changeable depending on what the players do. Changeable as in--it might not happen.

 

[TerribleSorcery]

Those caves make me think of the Time Machine movie, or maybe something from the original Star Trek. The colours just scream '60s to me.

 

[squeen]

The colours just scream '60s to me.

Now in Technicolor!

 

[TerribleSorcery]

Also a nice tutorial on drawing maps

• How to Draw a Map (Fantastic Maps)

And the tool Grutzi pointed out

• Dungeon Scrawl

Well, this map tutorial definitely helps. Mine isn't as deep as what that guy does (I skipped the shadows, and some tools I didn't have) but it's a big improvement for a first try. A few things were a lot tougher in GIMP than photoshop - but altogether, more than good enough for my players, and good clean fun on a Thursday night!

 

[squeen]

Wow! Nice job. I think it looks professional.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

Wow! Nice job. I think it looks professional.

The only criticism I have is the heavy use of Clouds as an overlay on your parchment - personally, clouds are a very obvious filter to add grime, and it's so obvious when someone is using them that it detracts from the realistic look of the product. The effect is less jarring and more natural looking if you mix some grunge brushes into the cloud layer to break up the pixel clustering/distribution a bit. It's also adds to the realism of "dirt" stains if you can see signs of smears and spots, rather than the uniform blanket of haze that is a Cloud filter.

Also, for aesthetic-sake, you should probably put a blank rectangle under your key legend, just to make it more legible. I prefer to use a white one set at ~50% opacity, so it's less conspicuous. Stroke outlines on your map numbers wouldn't be a bad idea either, for legibility.

 

[TerribleSorcery]

What are clouds?
That tutorial had suggestions for brushes to use (and how to create your own), but it seemed geared towards photoshop so I didn't look into it too much. I improvised based on the brushes that come with GIMP. Some kind of 'splatter' brush, and one called 'texture cannon 3' which seemed to produce the most varied effect I could manage.
I did use a light-coloured kind of shadow effect around the numbers, but I suppose they could pop more.

 

[DangerousPuhson]

What are clouds?

That's the cloud filter, as its own layer - in essence, you set it to blend with the layer below to make things look less mono-color and give depth of light. It's a very overdone tool in Photoshop work though, very easy to notice and considered a little lazy. I use it to break up uniform color, but almost never without some further filter being added afterwards that makes it hard to notice.

 

[TerribleSorcery]

Oh, it does look just like my map. In my case I guess it's a combination of that parchment underlay, plus the brushes I used.
Also, using strokes around the numbers looks way better than the drop shadow filter I was using, so thanks for that.

 

[squeen]

You should also play with using a layer in Overlay Mode in GIMP --- it's magical. There an explanation of it on the map-mapping site, but playing with it is more intuitive. It basically allows you to paint light/dark shadow without losing the underlying detail.