Castle Jacktannery

[Jacktannery]

This is a series of encounter maps I created for myself as a personal challenge. It had intended to do a full set of interior maps to go with it, but I found myself very busy so this is mostly external. I started this in October 2012 and now, almost a year later, I'm calling it done. There are quite a lot of errors (in particular with the shadows) but I'll never fix them all. The WIP thread is here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/bu...ig-castle.html and has some of the objects as transparent-backed pngs.


My intention was to create a series of fun encounter areas in a fantasy castle with a terrain backdrop I could swap out (forest/ice/tundra/mountain etc.) as required. I wanted encounters to include a dramatic bridge to the castle; courtyards in front of a keep with towers and battlements; secret entrances and terrifying walkways suspended by dangerous ropes; a wizard's tower; a dungeon; a chapel with buttresses overhanging a cliff; and a sally port with a cliff-side staircase/back entrance. I never did the dungeon but I managed to depict the rest, I think.


I decided to use shadows to depict the fantasy-castle I had envisaged. This can be seen on the chapel map and in the front courtyard - the main keep's shadows are based on the fantastic Disneyland Sleeping Beauty castle.


My favourite map is the one of the inside of the chapel - I based it on a real cathedral in Italy and I think it looks like a lovely jewel-box.


I made almost everything myself on GIMP except the well (no ref!) and fountain (no ref!). The round tower roofs are a modified version of a roof by Kegron in 2004 (no link!) and (no ref!), and the house roofs are by Aegean 2007 (Dundjinni Mapping Software - Forums: House, roof, tavern - variations). For the stable interior I used hay by Bludragn 2005 (Dundjinni Mapping Software - Forums: Hay or straw anyone), bales by cdenham 2006 (Dundjinni Mapping Software - Forums: Bales or bundles) and a wooden column by Greytale 2006 (Dundjinni Mapping Software - Forums: Art request). For the interior of the small office I used some generic furniture from the Dundjinni forums (no ref!). [reminder - go back and find links and refs]


All the map sections (apart from the reduced overview map) are uploaded here at a scale of 100 pixels = 1 inch = 1 grid square, ie 100ppi or 100dpi and were created using the Gimp. All maps are for non-commercial use only. If someone wants to add a grid to any of these maps follow these instructions:

1) download the GIMP for windows or mac at GIMP - Downloads
2) use it to open the required map below.
2.5) [optional - advanced] make a new transparent layer OVER the current layer and select it.
3) FILTERS > RENDER > PATTERN > GRID to open the grid dialogue box.
4) Change SPACING to 100 pixels X and 100 pixels Y. Change OFFSET to 0 x and 0 y; choose a good colour - eg. black. Press OK.
4.5) [optional - advanced] if the grid is on its own layer as per step 2.5, you can lower the opacity or delete part of it.
5) Export your image to a JPG or PDF and print it out with a grid!

Overview (not to scale)