Dungeon Making with Xara

[RobA]

Try PNG - it compresses in a lossless fashion... much nicer than jpg.

-Rob A>

[yu gnomi]

This is as far as I have gotten on other two levels. None of the levels are fully furnished, upper and lower levels don't even have doors yet. Quality of the export files is not as good as I would like, but I haven't played with settings in Xara's export manager yet.

I used a strange fill (called "rocks in moonlight" or something like that) for the surface of underground. I think it looks very neat, but will probably have to go.It seems as if it will obscure other features of dungeon level.

These maps are not really intended to be printer friendly, I am exploring the more "gee whiz" aspects of using Xara.

[jfrazierjr]

This is as far as I have gotten on other two levels. None of the levels are fully furnished, upper and lower levels don't even have doors yet. Quality of the export files is not as good as I would like, but I haven't played with settings in Xara's export manager yet.

For VTT play, thats usually preferable. For example, let's use a pile of sacks filled with x (flour, beans, whatever). Let's say the characters surprise a minotaur in this room and he is to far away from his axe (or his axe gets broken, or whatever) and he wants to start using the sacks as weapons. If they are hard printed to the map, then it looks a bit odd. If they are dropped onto the map from within the VTT as objects, then when they "move" in the VTT, they move. In generally, if you are targeting a VTT, anything that would be movable by a strong human should not part part of the map background. Personally, I am ok with stuff being on the underlying map, but other VTT players would really love you if you leave the moveablve stuff off or make a second copy (kind of a GM's placement guide) with the stuff on it.

I used a strange fill (called "rocks in moonlight" or something like that) for the surface of underground. I think it looks very neat, but will probably have to go.It seems as if it will obscure other features of dungeon level.

Yea, it's a bit much. Perhaps in a limited scene such as inside a teleport circle or something like that it would look cool?

[yu gnomi]

Each level of map has multiple layers. All furnishings have their own layer. Anything secret such room names, encounter numbers, secret doors, notes, has it's own layer.

Making maps that don't show furnishings is simple. Just hide layers, and export image.

[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.