Bluerock

[Piscivorous]

Here is Bluerock. It was the first non-pencil and paper city/town that I constructed for my current campaign. It was constructed completely in FM8 with Dundjinni and Vintyri images. Although I'm happy with the overall look, there are little areas that make me a bit unhappy. Namely the hillsides/cliffs and the water.

I also posted this so I could use the attachments function and have a reference point for future town and city maps I will undoubtedly create with and without the help, support and ideas I find from all the great artists here.

Background for Bluerock:

Bluerock grew up from adventurers commisisioned by the King of Cragdowns to forge a trail from Cragdown through the Greywind Mountains to the city of Bluevale in the Theocracy of Piraden. After the trail was forged, known as the Stillmeadows Trail, the adventurers settled in the area of Bluerock, after a dwarf of the party by the name of Byam discovered the namesake blue rock in one of the caverns they needed to clear out. The town grew up around the blue rock mining and tile making, when royalty from around the realms took a fancy to the product. The dwarves, ever the capitalists, fashioned the Bluerock causeway [north part of the map], to help highlight both the stunning beauty of the tile and it's durability. The town is guarded by the Blackshield Wall [protected by the famed Blackshields] as well as the Green Guards, who patrol the Stillmeadows Trail and the Blue Guards who act as teh local constabulary and body guards of the town council. Finally, there is an established network of ranger stations set up and manned along the trail that act as guides for caravans, wardens of the forests and, when needed, scouts for the Blackshields and other Cragdown military forces in the area.

Bluerock.jpg

[jbgibson]

Bluerock looks nice. The trees work well, and the buildings are good, if a bit too clean and crisp, maybe? Yeah, the cliffs aren't the most successful part of the map. After staring at it a bit I think what seems "off" is that while you have elements shaded, ON the element, & the cliffs strongly so, none of the objects cast shadows. I bet if you put even a little bit of shadow beside buildings, etc, the whole thing would get more believable.

Unless some of those buildings are barracks, dorms, or apartments, you have a *very* small town, population-wise.

It does leave me wanting to know more about what's upriver, what's down the road -- a measure of success in fantasy cartography that you've successfully implied a world beyond map's edge.

[Piscivorous]

Unless some of those buildings are barracks, dorms, or apartments, you have a *very* small town, population-wise.

It does leave me wanting to know more about what's upriver, what's down the road -- a measure of success in fantasy cartography that you've successfully implied a world beyond map's edge.

Thanks for the kind words.

The towns population is a decent size. Each of the militias have barracks and teh dwarves who manage the mines have tenements. There is also some rich housing and the poorer quarter along the river at the bottom of the mapo represents their tents and ramshackle housing. During the spring to summer months the town size swells as itinerant and seasonal miners are needed in both the mining of the blue rock and the milling, sanding and polishing. In times of peace they set up camps along the river and outside the area depicted.

Indeed there are a lot of things I can do to the town and I will in the future. One of the reasons I posted was to get ideas from the members here. Well that and to see how to add attachments to my posts.