July/August 2011 Lite Challenge Entry: Glandred's Hollow

[Tigon]

Aye, I have to agree with Arsheesh, it's a really nice border you've got there. The whole thing looks so much better with the elevations being more pronounced too.

As for what to add: maybe a legend or some places labelled...

[anomiecoalition]

Wish I could take credit for the border (it was listed as free to use without restrictions on Deviantart.com). Haven't learned how to make them in Photoshop yet.

[Korash]

Yeah, gotta like that border. Kinda passes on the kind of mood for this place...dark and brooding, which matches the over all color skeme.

The smaller scale also makes the streams blend in better, and the hills look smoother (unless you worked on those recently - in which case ... nicely done )

A legend and labels would not be out of place either...but not nessesary in my mind.

Good work so far.

[ravells]

It's looking great so far. One suggestion: All the buildings are currently oriented exactly North / South or East / West. Rotate them a bit. Generally buildings which are built near roads are oriented to the direction of the road.

[anomiecoalition]

Thanks for the suggestions and encouragement. I've fixed the building orientation (now that I've learned how to rotate objects) and tooled around a little bit with some of shadows/strokes. I also redid the map label background.

I would like to do a legend, but I'm worried that it might make the overall map look too busy...i'll probably try it and post it at some point.

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[Tigon]

...I would like to do a legend, but I'm worried that it might make the overall map look too busy...i'll probably try it and post it at some point.

Good point, it may well do. A small compass-rose for orientation purposes?

[anomiecoalition]

So...this map is suppose to depict a small village which sits in the shadow of a Dwarven stronghold located in the mountain. Because I like to have a back-story for my maps to use in future DnD games, I decided that the name should reflect a myth among the Dwarves of that stronghold. After playing with a random Dwarf name generator (http://grey-starr.ca/Tools/random-male-dwarf-name.htm) I arrived at the name "Glan-Dred Hollows" which would translate into "Forgotten/Lost Maiden". The myth I came up with states that long ago, a brave warrior left on some epic quest and was never heard from again. His wife waited for him in the hollow desperately hoping for his return and the dwarves now say that her spirit remains in a perpetual state of longing (Protecting or tormenting the residents...haven't decided yet).

So, to reflect that story...i created a short little lyric to go around the border. Not sure if I like the way this looks compared to my last post, but I figured i'd post it and see what others think.

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p.s. Yes, I know I have way to much time on my hands to come up with this stuff....I'm just trying to avoid getting back to work on my dissertation.

[Thurlor]

Wow, this looks great. A bit darker than I would have gone for but it still works out good.

I really like the compass rose you are using.

I like the border text but I'm not sure it would make sense if someone just had access to the map without the back-story.

[LindaJeanne]

Nice! I love the way you used the required shape as a change in topography, rather than going with the more obvious shoreline that most of us chose .

[anomiecoalition]

decided to darken up the village part a tiny bit and add a brown tint to the walls so they better match the mountain (where the material would presumably be coming from.)

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