WIP: Westwatch

[guntheory]

Hi all,

This is my first attempt at a local/town map. I will be using it in a D&DNext campiagn starting next week. Just wanted to gets some initial thoughts and advice.

Thanks!

Map3_small.jpg

[feanaaro]

It looks nice. I would think that walled towns would be denser, even if small. There has been to be a certain population/perimeter ratio to make the construction, maintaining, and manning of defensive walls viable.

[atpollard]

feanarro makes a good point.
Another solution is to lower the cost of the wall.
Dig a perimeter defensive ditch and pile the dirt into a defensive berm. Then throw a simple stockade atop the berm.
Add some small fences around the houses and gardens, and the large areas become common pasture to keep the animals safe at night.

But if you have your heart set an a town with a great stone wall, then land inside the wall is very expensive and not generally wasted on open space, so push those buildings and roads as close as practical and make the wall as short as possible.

The parchment is nice and the water is nice, but they are two different styles. I would suggest that if you want a map painted on parchment, then the water needs to be more of a transparent overlay - like it was painted on the parchment texture paper.

[rdanhenry]

Building and maintaining can be got around with magic. Manning the walls is another issue. Perhaps much of the town's construction is underground (if monsters can live in "dungeon complexes", why not humans in such super-basements?). Considerable grass inside the wall makes sense if the population is expected to move livestock into town for protection. The cost isn't so important if the wall costs are reduced through magic use... at least until population pressure drives construction on that available land... which is again less tempting if underground construction is possible instead.

[Larb]

They could be quite old walls and the region has depopulated somewhat since their construction. Or there could be something important enough in the city that a wealthy patron or a neighbouring city funded their construction.

[mftassano]

Larb makes a good point. There'd have to be a reason for so much open space between the buildings (as drawn) and the walls.
The walled cities of Germany and Italy are packed chock-a-block with buildings. The premium spots are city center (where all the business is conducted) and against the wall (where only 3 walls have to be built instead of four).
Maybe the open space is rubble from earlier iterations of the city's life?
Maybe the old walls fell, destroying much of the city. The survivors are now superstitious about living too close to the walls, used the rubble from old buildings to build new ones for the (now reduced) population?

But aren't we assuming things about the wall? What if it's more like a stone fence around a pasture, meant only to keep out snakes? I know of one town in California that has build a 2' wall around the town for that (claimed) reason...