Fortified Estate or Small Keep

[Green-Pilgrim]

Howdy folks.

I'm looking around for an example of either A) a fortified estate or B) a small keep.

The idea is that there's a "manor house" on a hill above a coastal village in much the same way as there is in the old D&D dungeon, "Secrets of Saltmarsh". I like the idea of the house that's connected to caves that then connects to a sea-side grotto. However, I'm not a great fan of the Salmarsh Estate.

Any other ideas?

Thanks!
-GP

[Green-Pilgrim]

I have no problem with the cellar and tunnel level but the upper stories just seem oddly put together. It looks less like someplace where someone would live and more of a 'series of rooms where monsters can be found'. Granted, that's what it was built for but I like my maps to be a bit more 'realistic'.

Am I weird?

The ground floor's left wing is ok. You have basically two rooms that flank a central hall that leads to what I would think is a parlor of some sort with a study and a 'something' in that area. Makes perfect sense for someone's house. The only problem is that the fireplaces in the two side rooms don't align with anything upstairs. Got to move them around.

The long hallway to the right seems weird - like it runs down the length of that wing and then dead ends. If they put a door at the far end - give that hallway somewhere to go it would make sense. I could easily see that hall connecting to a tower room - something that would connect the ground floor to the upstairs. Perhaps a tower library? (hrmmmm)

The rear section is, presumably, where you'd have a kitchen, dinning room and such. I think I would just rearrange the location of the fireplaces in those rooms. They don't connect to anything upstairs.

Basic rule of architecture - align the fireplaces to share a common flue.

Unfortunately that's only the case for the fireplaces on the edges. This floor is all about bedrooms which, eh, ok. I get it, but the arrangement of where the rooms are located, where the fireplaces are and where they've tucked in the stairs doesn't make much sense to me.

Yup - going to have to redesign this thing.

Thank you all for listening to my brain unwind on screen.

-GP.

[Green-Pilgrim]

My rebuild of the ground floor. I moved around the fireplaces to put them on exterior walls, moved around some windows and added the library tower on the back, right corner with stairs that will go up to the second floor. There could easily be a hidden passage within the steps that would allow one to go to a secret chamber below the tower as well. Hrm... might add that.

-GP

[Green-Pilgrim]

Second floor keeping the stairs, fireplaces and such still aligned with only the occasional window or door moved. This does, oddly enough, create a weird space in the top, left corner. It's right over the house's kitchen so I can't see putting a bedroom there and it has access to the stairs down to the kitchen and up to the attic so I'm not sure what to do with that space.

Thoughts? Ideas?

-GP

[Green-Pilgrim]

Lastly the Attic. Keeping the fireplaces in the same locations as the ones on the second and first floor left me with only two spaces to house the servants. One smaller one on the left for the male servants and the longer, right one for the women.

The three rooms that have been carved out of the space have no fireplaces and few windows as they are used to store items when not in use. Conceptually you could install a micro-hearth in the two smaller rooms that would vent immediately to the roof and could be used for the male and female heads of staff. Add a small window and voila.

-GP

[Green-Pilgrim]

Like this.

[Larb]

It does look a bit more like a manor house now. Is that additional wing on the east side one room that is two storeys high?

[Green-Pilgrim]

Hi Larb,

yes - the corner room on the east side is two stories. The idea being that one could enter that room from the ground story and then climb up the stairs to the second floor. It's another connecting point. Conceptually that room could serve as a library of sorts with shelves lining the walls with maybe some kind of ladder on a rail to access them.

-GP

[Krazma]

Howdy folks.

I'm looking around for an example of either A) a fortified estate or B) a small keep.

Here's one example of a fortified manor.
Fortified Manor : Lýthia.com

[Gold]

Thanks for the Saltmarsh manor house maps, GP. I'm going to use them in a Roll20 game.

You ruined my former appreciation for the original maps in the module, with the whole fireplace bust. It'll have to be your maps from here on out.

Did you ever do the "cellar and caverns" level?