Village of Albridge - Developed draft, need input

[Agatheron]

No worries about the critique. I am working off of an existing map which had the central portions of the map pretty much as presented. Albridge is one village in a community of several small communities in a small but gentle valley inside a much larger valley/watershed region. As I mentioned, the central parts of the map come with the original design flaws. The Lord of the region dwells in a keep in another village about 10 miles to the south of Albridge, but in this adventure, he has been taken captive by a large group of mercenaries. This village has become the centre of resistance, and the battle in question is intended to draw the mercenaries out of the stronghold... So oddly enough the village's lack of a Lord's manor makes sense. Each village is administered by an elder... As for a place of worship, I know that the village to the south has one, but I have to check the town layout again to see if one of these buildings is already designated as such. It'd be small regardless.

Points about having posts in the river and a small wharf are good, especially given that there is a family of halflings that transports goods up and down the river. Moorings aren't on the original map, but I can certainly add those.

As for the paved/cobblestone road, it is the remnants of an road built by an empire that fell approximately 100 years before the present day. The village has essentially grown up around this old infrastructure, maintaining it as they can, along with other villages in the region. I'd like for a way to show its overall age. Some Roman Roads still exist today, and I see it kind of in the same way, but maybe maintained slightly better.

I still have more fields to put in. This picture shows earthworks that I am not convinced I should keep, but I am happy to add in a lot more in the way of hedgerows. The village population is about 160, but the whole reigion is closer to 2000. The old market square is maintained for the whole region, as the village with the Lord's keep does not have one. It seems as if each of the six villages in the region its own special role, with Albridge being the trade centre.

I will add more in the way of fields... Although what should I do about pastureland? Should it be around the fringes of the map? I will also add moorings for the boat trade as well. I've been looking at historical information on medieval villages, and trying to incorporate some of that as it fits with what was already provided. If I get a moment, I'll post the original map so you can see what I started with.

[Lorgath]

Sounds like an interesting history to me, and pretty much explains away any issues I had. You know, assuming this village survives the battle I'd quite like to see a map of it 10 years on - by the sounds of it this place is going to explode in population and wealth very quickly.

Those little wharfs and moorings sound like a nice addition. As for the pastures, you'd need a chunk of common land near the centre of the village, which is already there in the space between the centre and the cluster of houses to the east. You could also recolour some of the existing fields to look like pasture, as they'd be part of the crop rotation anyway (I think, may be wrong). Otherwise, sheep and cattle are often kept where the quality of soil isn't as good and it's harder to collect the crop. The steep sides of depression north of the river may be a good place for sheep for instance. Dunno, just a couple of ideas.

[Agatheron]

They're good suggestions. It's simply marking it out. I've had no time today to make any additions or changes. I was thinking of making an old ruin of a farm/fields in the area to the south of the fields south of the river. The idea is that about 90 years earlier (after the Empire's fall), the entire area was ransacked by marauding Orcs... and as such residents had to rebuild once the Orcs lost interest. Much of it was rebuilt, but certainly not all. I'll have to check and see the history to see how much of this particular area was hit in that time period. If it was, earthworks from abandoned farms would make sense.

[jtougas]

That sounds like a good idea. Just remember that 90 years is a long time ( I don't know obviously how long it was after that the orcs lost interest. Probably after the last cow or sick orc was done on the spit ) My point is that there wouldn't be much in the way of ruins. Most likely a foundation (or a pile of stones that once was a foundation) and a lot of weeds. This is really turning out excellent and I'm having a lot of fun following along

[Agatheron]

That sounds like a good idea. Just remember that 90 years is a long time ( I don't know obviously how long it was after that the orcs lost interest. Probably after the last cow or sick orc was done on the spit ) My point is that there wouldn't be much in the way of ruins. Most likely a foundation (or a pile of stones that once was a foundation) and a lot of weeds. This is really turning out excellent and I'm having a lot of fun following along

90 year old ruins of farmhouses would likely be grown-over foundations that would appear as nothing much more than earthworks on a map like this. That's really what I'm meaning by that... aerial evidence of some old farmhouses that were never rebuilt after the Bloodspear War. There is the ruins of an older stone square tower just to the south of the bridge, but it's already on the map, and will be converted utilized as a spotting/signals tower during the battle. However, since the objective is to keep the invading force away from the bridge, the tower itself is not likely to see any direct fighting unless things go badly for the players.

Anyway, I won't get to any more developments until tomorrow... but that will include sheep pasture, maybe a few more fields north of the river, some docks and finally a few bits of earthworks and trees to round out the overall look.

[Agatheron]

Right. Update time. This is nearly finished, except for the labels:


That having been said, after I rendered this, I noticed that the wells throughout the map were on the wrong layer, and so cast a shadow as if they were much taller than everything else. Please ignore that flaw, I've fixed that now

Here's a bigger map:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v5...most-Large.jpg

Anyway, any pieces of input to add? I can almost call this one done and put it in the finished maps category

[arsheesh]

Nothing to add criticism-wise, this is coming together nicely.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[jtougas]

Looks Great !!

[Agatheron]

...and done. I've posted the new map over in the Finished Maps section.