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Thread: April/May Lite Entry - Troglodyte's Lair

  1. #1

    Default April/May Lite Entry - Troglodyte's Lair

    Really like the challenge theme this month - just hope that real life doesn't keep me too busy to finish it. I've decided to map a small cavern that houses a small tribe of Troglodytes (around 30 excluding hatchlings). The cavern is situated beneath an Inn on the outskirts of a coastal fishing village. There are actually 3 entry/exit points - The first is through a well on the surface which drops about 50 feet into a larger pool of water (top right of the map). The second is a small dock (bottom left of the map) where you would sail into an alcove on the side of the cliff. The 3rd is a secret stairwell that runs from the basement of the inn to the top right of the map (not sure how to actually depict that yet). Ultimately, I plan on having a small trickling stream of water running through the map from the pool of water in the top right to the sea in the bottom left. I have a number of traps planned for this adventure (but, haven't figured out how i'm actually going to depict them - i.e. when you step on certain false steps you will break a jar of Trog Musk which will alert others of your presence.)

    Backstory - The cavern is an entry and storage point for a smuggling operation run by the Inn Keeper. He has found a way to manipulate the Trogs into protecting it and often disposes of meddling adventurers in the well (If all goes as planned - PCs would be drugged by the Inn Keeper and wake up falling into the dark cavern - they will need to fight/sneak their way through the lair to the safety of the dock).

    Made with CC3. I still need to work on the bevel effects so they are more gradual and cut down on the darkness of the stairs. I'm also not completely sold on the textures i'm using. Having said that - looking forward to any comments, suggestions, and criticisms you guys may have.

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    Last edited by Diamond; 04-20-2013 at 09:55 PM.
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  2. #2
    Administrator Facebook Connected Diamond's Avatar
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    Cool so far! (I edited your title to reflect the correct month/s.)

    I would say, so far, the thing that's standing out the most is the fuzziness of where the walls meet the floors compared to the crispness of the stairs. The contrast is jarring.

  3. #3

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    Thanks - yeah, the original goal was to try to do the walls so that there would be a smoother transition to the floors in a way that looked more natural (so the fuzziness would almost look like rubble or smaller rocks)...but, it wasn't very successful my first pass through. Won't have time to work on this again for a bit - so quick export with the stair shadow reduced and edge-fade effect on the walls taken out.

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    Community Leader Bogie's Avatar
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    Good start Anomiecoalition. I like the stairs better in the second version, and I didn't like the fuzziness of the walls in the first version. But, I did like how the shadow from the floor went part way up the wall in the first map. Also, very good storyline.

  5. #5
    Guild Artisan Jacktannery's Avatar
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    Looks great anomie. I also like version 2 the best. Your pool of water is not entirely convincing, however - perhaps give it more defined edges?

  6. #6
    Guild Novice Allerion's Avatar
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    version 2 looks much better anomie. The only thing that jumps out at me with version 2 is that the walls in the middle look somewhat like floating clouds above the floor. It may be because they are all separate from each other, but joining some up would lose you some access paths...2 cents

  7. #7

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    What Allerion said. This version looks better, and I like the textures you are using for the cavern. However the entire cavern appears to me to be floating over the floor. I think this is in part due to the fact that you are using different (non-blended) textures for the cavern and for the floor, and also in part because the lighting isn't consistent. Judging from the bevel you've placed on the caverns the lighting appears to be coming from the northeast, but you have shadows at the base of the caverns where they meet the cavern floor, making it appear as if the lighting is coming from directly above (in which case the lighting settings for the bevel don't make sense). Hope that helps.

    Cheers,
    -Arsheesh

  8. #8

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    Haven't had as much time to work on this as I'd like...but I have been playing with it when I can and have tried to incorporate the many useful suggestions you guys have provided. I think I'm happy enough with the cave walls (for now) to start thinking about throwing some symbols in. Probably keep it rather minimalistic - they are troglodytes after all...

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    I've also been thinking about the traps. My thought is that most of the sets of stairs will contain one of those hollow-floor-spikey-type traps with the twist that the weight of your foot going through the steps will crush a glass bottle filled with the juice from the Troglodyte musk gland (which in addition to alerting the trogs within the cavern of your presence will also cause severe nausea and discomfort). I figured that I would try to actually draw it from the side view and then incorporate into the side of the map somehow. Problem is...I can't draw...and I have no idea how to convert my hand drawing into a more useable image through photoshop or CC3. So, that's something I'm going to have to try to learn over the next 2 weeks (unless anyone has some helpful suggestions.....)

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  9. #9
    Community Leader Bogie's Avatar
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    Nice work Anomie, the cave is looking very good!!

  10. #10

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    made a few small adjustments and started adding some dungeon dressing.

    ### LATEST WIP ###
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Name:	Troglodyte Lair - v3c.JPG 
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    *Most of my Maps can be seen in full resolution on my blog*

    *I've made some of my maps into full adventures available for download at DriveThruRPG.com or Paizo.com

    This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License unless stated otherwise in the thread.

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