Thread: [Rite Publishing] Fantastic Maps: The Temple Mound

hmmm... well, we all now Jonathans great work - but I tried to click the link - and after reloading the page actually loaded - although slowly - the preview function didn't work though - whatever happended to good old jpg previews ... so basicly I only have the very non-descriptive cover to go from. So even knowing Jonathans work - I would like to see more before buying

Thanks for the note Tilt, I'll get on to getting that updated.

Here's a preview of the maps. The ones in the map pack are without labels or text:

cool... so the is the shadow of the tree representing the tree - or is it some mysterious magic at play... shadow of a time past

It's a spooky tree.

For maps with trees I tend to just place the trunk in the map. If you put the canopy in then it looks odd when you have tokens on the map as it looks like they're standing on the tree. Also, the trunk is important for line of sight and cover, but the canopy tends not to be. And you're right. It is a very spooky tree.

Originally Posted by torstan

For maps with trees I tend to just place the trunk in the map. If you put the canopy in then it looks odd when you have tokens on the map as it looks like they're standing on the tree. Also, the trunk is important for line of sight and cover, but the canopy tends not to be. And you're right. It is a very spooky tree.

Hmm.. for the MapTools maps, have you ever thought about creating the canopies as png's that can be shown/hidden as needed? Cools stuff btw!!!

Yep, I have. It tends to slow down play as the DM spends time fiddling with objects to make them look correct for tokens that are visible and not visible - and then a player inevitably says - there's an enemy over there! - because the DM has left a canopy off because there's an enemy token under the tree. It's more hassle than it's worth.

I thought about doing semi-transparent canopies for a while, though that still looks a little odd with the tokens on top of them. What maptools really needs is layers...

Originally Posted by torstan

Yep, I have. It tends to slow down play as the DM spends time fiddling with objects to make them look correct for tokens that are visible and not visible - and then a player inevitably says - there's an enemy over there! - because the DM has left a canopy off because there's an enemy token under the tree. It's more hassle than it's worth.

I thought about doing semi-transparent canopies for a while, though that still looks a little odd with the tokens on top of them. What maptools really needs is layers...

I guess I was more thinking of it as perhaps having multiple canopies on a single png and just turn on/off the whole object... For me, it would be more a matter of having them "on" during the initial approach for the ascetic values and then turn them off when it's time for actual encounters or close up movement....

So.. for example is to put all the canopy stuff on their own layers/layer groups and then export only those layers as a png and move it into place over top once you import the map itself.