January/February Lite Challenge Entry: The Caverns Of The Dragonqueen

[jtougas]

Thanks Torstan and SG I should have been a bit more specific. (I shouldn't assume that everyone has the obsession with the Abyss and the Blood War that I do )

[Savannah]

It looks really good! However, the torches look weird to me. They're really close together, in my opinion (remember that each torch casts good light in a 20' radius, so you don't need them every 5'), and they're pretty big (assuming that each square is 5', they're sticking out 1-2' from the walls!). In addition, it sometimes looks like their bases are floating on top of the wall instead of being attached to the wall. Other than that, though, it looks great (I love the dragon skeleton)!

[jtougas]

It looks really good! However, the torches look weird to me. They're really close together, in my opinion (remember that each torch casts good light in a 20' radius, so you don't need them every 5'), and they're pretty big (assuming that each square is 5', they're sticking out 1-2' from the walls!). In addition, it sometimes looks like their bases are floating on top of the wall instead of being attached to the wall. Other than that, though, it looks great (I love the dragon skeleton)!

Your 100% right about that. It's the Abyss after all and they have no real need for torches. I'm working on a more "sinister" version The Dragon skeleton I can't take credit for but since the Dragonqueen is now a animus and will live forever it seemed to fit. Thanks for the feedback

[jtougas]

Ok after being sick and staring at this for a few hours I decided I didn't like the original enough to keep working on it. SO I thought I'd take a walk down the hall to the tutorial halls and try Torstans' excellent old school tut. Now of course I had to mess with it by adding some textures but I kind of like it.

###LATEST WIP###

[jtougas]

Started to add some objects. To keep with the "old school" theme The first room is of course a library. How many times have your characters walked down the long dark hall and encountered a warm safe library at the end of it? It's a classic DM treatment to help build excitement. Now of course this IS the Abyss so it's going to be a little messy...

###LATEST WIP###

[jtougas]

Baril Gerean couldn't believe what had happened to him. One moment he was hiding on the deck of the strange ship moored in Stormhaven. The next moment he was floating above a strange landscape the likes of which he had never seen before. The odd man who was the ships master came out on to the deck and looked around. He no longer looked odd. He looked terrifying. The facade of humanity was gone replaced by the red skin and evil visage of something Demonic. Baril Gerean was deeply deeply afraid...

Working on some lighting effects and added a few more objects. I have to be honest and say that I'm frustrated by my inability to create these for myself. These maps while visually decent are starting to feel like I'm just stamping away with no real creativity of my own. (The objects themselves are awesome of course)...

###LATEST WIP###

[Jaxilon]

Regarding the objects, start small. Make a couple of them and save them to your personal library of objects. Eventually you will be able to use all your own stuff. I can't stand to use other people's objects myself so I have been just sucking it up and making them myself but I'm sure there are people who went to school for years in order to be making art and they are in an office some place being paid to do exactly what you are doing. Using art made by one of their fellow co-workers and pounding things out for the masses. At least you are doing it because you love it and not because you need it in order to put food on the table, eh? So you have the power to do whatever you want which is nice.

[jtougas]

That's a good point Jax. I think I'm going to pull out of this challenge. I'm struggling with this for multiple reasons. I went back and looked at the mass of hand drawn and hand written stuff I have and realized that I have NEVER drawn nor written a dungeon. It's kind of hard to believe. Also I'm making a commitment to using only my own stuff from now on no matter how long that takes for me to get where I think I need to be. I think the pre-made objects are awesome and if I was running a VTT and needed to put something together every week fairly quickly and easily it would be one thing. But since I'm really storytelling with these maps I feel more like the camera and less like the director at the moment..

[Gidde]

Aww, don't pull out. Use it as a learning experience. Take for example my ill-fated challenge attempt from last summer sometime where I tried to map the Department of Mysteries. I was way out of my depth and it probably showed, but OMG I learned a lot. So, if you want to use only your own stuff, I say strip this down to the outline and start adding tiny elements one by one. You may not finish, but if you pull out you won't have finished either! Being out of our depth is how we learn and grow

[Jaxilon]

Yeah bro, what Gidde said. I just re-read what I posted prior and it sort of sounds like I was bagging a little on the use of pre-made images. Not everyone can sit down and draw their own so that's really not a huge deal. If you can, and it sounds like you can, then you may want to just start building up your own library of stuff. I made a bunch while I was working on my Yurt challenge. I remember thinking I might use some pre-made objects to fill out the map but I ended up doing all my own. That's just how it worked out.

You can always make as many as you have time for and fill in with some pre-made stuff. I really hope I didn't push you over the edge and into withdrawing. I would feel terrible. Besides, you still have what, 20 days until the end? That's a long time to twiddle your thumbs, what else you gonna do? It is surprising how quickly you can create small items like these so you may be just fine. And finally, if you are using them for storytelling it's not the objects that really matter anyway. We want to hear the rest of the story!

I am doing this for the artistic outlet and to perhaps make some money with it eventually so I feel like I have to do it all from scratch. But that's just me.