My Dungeon Maps

[Hoel]

umm.. our GM just dumped us in a large-ish dungeon.... I'm warming up to th idea of dungeons as a concept. Never thought of them as serious rpg locations before. How do you explain a gelationous cube living next door to 1d10 goblins?

[Turgenev]

umm.. our GM just dumped us in a large-ish dungeon.... I'm warming up to th idea of dungeons as a concept. Never thought of them as serious rpg locations before. How do you explain a gelationous cube living next door to 1d10 goblins?

It obviously depends on your DM, but I like to think of dungeons as a living environment. That means its inhabitants interact with each other and not always on friendly terms. Perhaps those goblins give the gelatinous cube a wide berth because they know it moves around and cleans up the crap in the corridors (perhaps they like to follow it and pick up the odd trinket that falls out of it - the odd unfortunate goblin gets too close and gets eaten by the cube). Perhaps the goblins might have various defenses (barricades made from cast away furniture?) in place to protect their lair from the cube's midnight raids. A DM will have to take the dungeon ecology into consideration when making a place that seems plausible.

I also like to have various political/racial/power factions within the dungeons that smart players might take advantage of. Players might learn that the gnolls that inhabit one section of the dungeon have a grudge against the nearby orcs. A party might be able to take advantage of this and play the two groups against each other - at least for a little while until some other power comes into play.

My dungeons are never static. When the players leave to regroup at the local town, some things will probably change. New inhabitants will show up or old ones will gain in strength (from new arrivals) or perhaps the power structure will change completely - i.e. the players wiped out the goblins so the nearby gnolls have claimed their territory.

[Turgenev]

Here's a quick dungeon. The shaded area of 7a is a weak floor that might/will collapse should anyone walk over it. In areas 2 a - 2c, T stands for Trap.

Colour Version:


Black & White (Printer Friendly) Version:

[Turgenev]

Old School Blue is in the air. I went with a less neon blue (it was easier on my eyes).

[torstan]

That really does bring back memories. Very nice indeed.

[Turgenev]

I did another Old School Blue map.

[Turgenev]

Glad to been of service, wormspeaker. I really have to go back and finish those underground water city maps one of these days. Same with my latest town map. I have a few things keeping me busy at the moment.

I should use part of your post for my tagline: "Paratime Design cartography - making maps so you can pull adventures out of your butt at the last minute." (just kidding)

[jaerdaph]

Blue is the new black.

I went with a less neon blue (it was easier on my eyes).

Heh - in CC3, I've been using a darker color to work in too, then changing everything to the old school neon blue when the map is done!

[Turgenev]

Blue is the new black.

It seems that way doesn't it. I know the blue maps were a hit at the Dragonsfoot boards (where Old school is King).

Heh - in CC3, I've been using a darker color to work in too, then changing everything to the old school neon blue when the map is done!

I have to admit that at first I was not really interested in blue maps since they don't hold any appeal to me either way (I find some blues are hard on my eyes). Once I drew a few, I had so much fun that I became a convert. I plan on doing a few more blue maps to help fill out the folder on my cartography site and then I will mix things up here & there.

[Turgenev]

Here's a maze done in Old School Blue:


Yes, there is no exit. If you want to be really evil, the exit could be via an underground stream that feeds the pool or some sort of teleporter (to a new location even more dangerous?). Or it could just be a place with no exit where the condemn are sent to be killed by the occupants.

Okay, back to work for me.