Reply With QuoteOn to Step 1: I redrew the entire map in black at 300 dpi (since I no longer have the original file and don't feel like editing the PDF map copy). This is what I end up with:
Not a very fancy or interesting map.
Ties That Bind - Sewer Map Redux
Back in 2001-2004 I worked on the 3.5E version of Blackmoor. During that time, I wrote the included Ties That Bind mini-adventure (along with a great deal of source content). Since the adventure was one of the last inclusions into the book before it went on to print in 2004, the basic map I included was never handled by a professional cartographer and was included "as is" in the book. I earned one of my first cartography credits from that map, but (to say the very least) I am not proud of it. If I had known then that it was going to be included like it was, I would have tried to spruce it up a little bit.
Here it is, 10 years and a few months after it was initially printed. I think it's time I get this bugger up to snuff. Here's the original version, found on page 227 of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor Corebook from 2004.
On to Step 1: I redrew the entire map in black at 300 dpi (since I no longer have the original file and don't feel like editing the PDF map copy). This is what I end up with:
Not a very fancy or interesting map.
Step 2: Since it's a sewer beneath a major city in the world of Blackmoor, I think that some civil engineers may have spent a little bit of time on its construction. And, since water is fluid, let's make some of the major junctions have some rounded edges, dig out a channel down the center of most of the hallways, extend some of the locations off-map, and spruce up the entrance a little bit (after all, a 20' straight stairway into a sewer doesn't seem to be very logical or practical). We get this type of outline:
Step 3: Shade and Flow
Here I decided to get some of the base colors for the floor, floor grid, and wall backgrounds. Moved the modified layout from Step 2 into the wall background layer mask. Also added a Fade layer to make the extremities of the map just fade off into the edges.
Great work!
What fuction may some of the side rooms have had for the sewer? Could there be maintainance rooms? Or perhaps some of them were simply needed during construction and abandoned once the sewers were made available to the public?
BTW, I once made a map of what I assumed the town above would have looked like. I even made a city map with the sewers interposed, but it seems I never shared that version with the public.
Edit: Are you planning on upgrading other maps from the Blackmoor d20 line as well?
-Havard
Some were maintenance, cisterns, and city resource caches (after all, most of these sewers were built during the age of the Sorcerer Gangs).Originally Posted by Havard
Great work!
What fuction may some of the side rooms have had for the sewer? Could there be maintainance rooms? Or perhaps some of them were simply needed during construction and abandoned once the sewers were made available to the public?
BTW, I once made a map of what I assumed the town above would have looked like. I even made a city map with the sewers interposed, but it seems I never shared that version with the public.
Edit: Are you planning on upgrading other maps from the Blackmoor d20 line as well?
-Havard
As for upgrading other d20 Blackmoor maps, probably not. I don't technically "own" this map either, but it has just irked me for so many years that my name was attached to such a POS map in a published book. Making new maps, on the other hand, is well within the spirit of fan-created material (much like your Blackmoor fan forum).
But, I digress a touch. On to Step 4: Walls!!!!
In this step I added some walls to the foreground. I normally dislike using bevels to pick out the walls of a dungeon, but with adding this layer the bevel works pretty well.
With the walls done. The map is really coming together, but the devil's in the details. These are, after all not only a sewer system, but a shadow port as well. Smugglers and thieves use the sewers' winding passages and myriad of spider holes and smugglers' nooks to transport goods and slaves into and out of the city of Jackport. But this dungeon looks a little... dry. So it's time to open the flood gates and >poof<
Step 5: Details - Round 1
In this step I added the water for the sewer and the shadow dock, added the single door, portcullis, and a basic art-deco border. The PSD file is over 1/2 Gb at this point and using the "Save For Web" feature is beginning to tax my system's resources (I keep getting warning messages from Photoshop now). Thankfully, not much left to go.
Love your work to revitalize the old 3.5 maps.
Great job with the outline and beveled walls (walls for things like sewers and such always bug me. Do I bevel or try and fake stonework, etc.) and your use of rounded corners and water depth is very interesting.
I also like the decorative border element. It's simple but really frame the map well.
Good Job!
-GP
Larger copies of my maps located on flickr and can be used for your enjoyment.
I agree, Great map. Any chance of getting a larger/ higher resolution version? At this size it is nice to look at but to small for 1" = 5' battlemap size. You can post up to 4 MB size so there is room for expansion.
My Battlemaps Gallery http://www.cartographersguild.com/al...p?albumid=3407
Thank you for your nice comments.
Possibly. All depends on the final render. Currently, my working PSD file is 570Mb, 300dpi, 7050 x 5550 pixels, RGB 16-bit, with each 1/4" square being 75 x 75 pixels. These JPG samples I have been generating are cut down to 60% quality and 50% the actual size. However, I think the final PNG map would be fine to use as a VTT battlemap (though printing out a full dpi physical floor map may be a little big - 94" x 74").
Step 6: Details - Round 2
In this step I have added an entrance ladder, cistern grate at the bottom of the large pool, and 3 shaded and glowing areas to represent the area of the three main traps.
Since this is a page map (something for the GM to look at quickly to say "hey, there's a room with a door"), not so much an encounter map (with room furnishings and deeper decorations), I think the major elements have been covered and the "drawing stages" of the map are done. One or two more steps and this one will be done!
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