Dungeon Making with Xara

[Gamerprinter]

I posted the Dungeon-Xara.pdf tutorial in the Tutorials forum...here...

GP

[yu gnomi]

I've decided to switch gears and make a map that I would want to use while DM'ing a 4ed adventure. I only have sketchy details so far, and map as it is reflects this. Even the planning stage is still sketchy.

So far I have Bert the Troll lives in his cave, and sometimes teams up with other local monsters to waylay wayfarers on nearby road. Bert's ambush hiding spot -underneath bridge (not shown) is not yet shown.

Joe, I can export higher quality bare versions of the three levels of my practice dungeon and post them in this thread, if you want me too. I will leave in immobile objects like doors and stairs, but remove other furnishings. Just post and tell me.

I've figured out how to export .pngs of higher quality than the ones I posted before, and I will also alter the fills so that all three levels use sensible fills- maybe just the fill I used on the entrance level for all three. I just don't want to squander Cartographer's Guild resources if no one is interested.

[Midgardsormr]

Bert's ambush hiding spot -underneath bridge (not shown) is not yet shown.

A bridge troll! I haven't used one of those in ages. Probably because the last time I dropped one in a game I had to put up with two hours of billy goat comments.

[Steel General]

Baaah! Baaah! Baaah! (sorry couldn't help myself )

[yu gnomi]

I made a tile for bert's lair. I had a little fun replicating it and fitting it together, and made a picture for posting.

Picture is of four copies of same tile, which I rotated and placed in Xara. The round black bits at one end of each tile are bevels, that indicate a steep slope. For two of the junctions, where the walls meet, the bevels should be ignored. Other two either a slide down, or a steep climb is indicated (depending on which direction you are traveling).

I am hoping it is obvious which bit is supposed to be higher than the other. I intend to do a whole set for this month's contest.

[yu gnomi]

Have finished most of terrain outside of cave itself. Rest of terrain will have to wait until I find/make good rock textures and rock/grass transition textures. I am also looking for foliage that can be placed on layer atop grass terrain layer, without completely obscuring details underneath.

Scale of map is 1 in = 20 ft. However the terrain tiles I used are 1/2 in (10' square), because this seemed like best scale to make terrain features like roads and trails appear how I wanted them to.

I have constructed most of the tiles I will use for the cavern complex, but they are still unfurnished. Completing the cavern complex will probably be my next step. On this scale of map, all cave tiles will appear tiny.

[yu gnomi]

I thought I attached this to last post. Here is current progress of map.