Castle of the Bloated One Megadungeon....

[Bogie]

Cool site, thanks

[Silverleaf]

Hiya Guys,

I signed up for this account long before I decided to create the Bloated Blowfish Blog, but I should probably change my name to match at some point. That said, many thanks thebax2k for posting the link, and for the very generous comments from both of you.

The Blog really gained it's focus and identity once I started working on recreating The Castle of the Bloated One, which comes from my haphazard collection of remaining notes/maps from my original 1978-2012 campaign. The focus for me was to ease into the recreation process by doing the maps first - and using some newer technology available PC wise to make the process easier, and simpler, but most importantly more cost and time-effective.

1) I start backwards in my (re)design process, first laying out the complex in Google Sketchup:

I like Sketchup because I can import a PNG Map (or any concept drawn on paper), scale it to match a 10 foot square grid, and then redraw the layout with very accurate tools. I've went both ways to be honest, i.e., drawing both with (and without) a map reference and the software is flexible enough to allow me to do flat overhead maps, to Isometric/Perspective style.

2) then doing the follow up common overhead map in Dungeonographer by Inkwell Ideas Dungeonographer | Just another WordPress site. I love Dungeonogrpaher because it gives me full control over laying out dungeons quickly and precisely. I would love to see a few more controls for creating shapes within the program, but the base tools (I bought the offline version) are solid.

Not trying to sound like a paid employee of either product, but they work well for me. So I'll finish by saying your mileage will vary ..

Once finished, I export as PNG from Dungeonographer (at 4 squares per inch) pull it into Paint Shop Pro and add on the simple graphic additions (if needed).

***
thebax2k,

You mentioned:

ruin?/town?/evil stronghold?

The whole environment is part of an aging Castle system, which has a small surprise in that the castle proper can fade in/out of this time and move to a different environment. A secondary site was never drawn up map wise, but I always envisioned the castle phasing in to a mostly destroyed secondary ruin - this one in the midst of a war that has swept the nation. I speak of that a bit on the blog - making hints to a Geomancer War (a class I created over 30 years specifically for my campaign) that caused this alternate area to have been decimated.

Thanks again for the shout-out both here and on my Blog, and I hope I can continue to produce.

Cheers,