The Blacksmith WIP

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

I'm still hard at work/play on a "town pack" that will hopefully include all the standard RPG town structures (village home is here and the WIP general store is here if you want to take a look).

This time I am working on the blacksmith's workplace and abode. I want this place look a little more run down, a little more faded than the other two. I am particularly proud of the actual furnace, which I think turned out nicer than I expected it would. Still filling in his (or her?) living area with furnishings, but the basics are there. Haven't done the outhouse yet. Would love comments and criticism, and if anyone knows more about how an old-timey blacksmith's would be laid out than I do (which is to say anything at all) I'd welcome the guidance.

Made in PS at 300dpi, using genetica for textures.

Still on my list to make: temple, healer, inn/tavern, town square. Maybes : stables, gatehouse, outlying farm, poor person's shack.

[Xyll]

Looks pretty good.
Kind of bright in the house. Maybe needs a storage unit or shed of some kind.

[tilt]

nice look, but once again I will note that tools usually don't lie on the floor, no matter how apropriate they are for the setting ... you need some barrels/shelves with raw material for the work. And a lot more horseshoes, plows and such and I'm guessing even though he's probably the biggest guy in town - a door to close of the smithy for when he's out

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Xyll- you're right, it is a bit too bright inside. A shed is a good idea! I'll see what I can do.

Tilt- You're probably right about the fireplace stuff that's on the floor. Maybe I can prop it up against something or add another shelf/table.... Doors will be separate stand-up cut-outs, so yeah there will be doors, though I thought I'd leave the workshop area open-front. I guess I assumed that since ren-fairs always had them out in the open (and because of the heat) this is normal, though a little more google-ing makes me think this might not be the case. Hmm.

[Mark Oliva]

If you're interested in real world prototypes, you might want to take a look at the free PDFs that go with our five symbol sets. They're loaded with photographs of the real thing from the Middle Ages. If you're interested, go to:

http://www.vintyri.org

and click the cartographic collection option.

[tilt]

If I had a smithy, I'd make sure I had big doors for opening, perhaps more than one set, so when the blacksmith is open for business, they'd leave a big opening indeed

[Aegeri]

The best thing about this map is that it looks like I can take your general store map, stick them together and end up with a couple of nice looking buildings on a street.

I can't help but approve.

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

That is the BEST thing about it!? I'll have to work harder!

When I'm finished, I'll have all the buildings you'd need for a town: So far I have blacksmith, general store, a house, and stables. Next up is the healers, the temple, the poor house, the gatehouse, the tavern/inn, the guildhall, and the town square. It's a big project.

[Xyll]

I would like to encourage you to continue to build these as i have often thought about doing the same thing but am lazy or I have two kids and no time. I think you have a good style and would love to see more.

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Xyll, I really really appreciate the encouragement. I am certainly continuing. I have all but finished the stables and will be moving on to the next one shortly--either the healers, the tanners, or a couple more houses next--This project is turning out bigger than I'd planned, and I've thought of lots of other stuff I wanna do with it now... I just got distracted with experiments in overland mapping and doing a few of the freebee requests from the request forum.

I'm aiming to release them all as one big pack on RPGnow when I'm done. Basically, rather than tiles, they will be one or two A4 pages per building, and you can align them however you please around the center road tiles. I am currently trying to figure out if I can release them in some format that will allow for more control over alignment and placing (diagonally for example). I have considered having each building be a png with transparency so they can be rotated and placed easily. I know that would make the download-file size really really huge though. Oh well, I'll map now and worry about presentation later, I suppose. It will be my first big publication for "D20 Cartographer" so I am pretty excited.

Mark Oliva - I hunted around on the site for the blacksmith diagrams but didn't find them: you have a lot of really nice materials up there though!