June Entry: Druid's Tree

[MysticMagellan]

Here is Level 3, the Master Bedroom.

And yes, that's a chamber pot on the bottom left.

[Still_Pond]

I love the comic look to your items/decor. Are you drawing those yourself? Great work if you are, great colors too! Bold and clear. The details of these maps are excellent. The ferns and plants, the muddy beach, the font...all are awesome.

I feel unqualified to offer suggestions, but I will anyway. They are more optional ideas than suggestions because they may be lame.

Maybe add some shelf fungus on the inside walls. If not there, maybe on the outside of the upper levels, just to help reinforce that it's a tree. Maybe a branch too, possibly with a little birds nest in it?

The bed looks a little normal, not so druidzy. maybe make it a bit more organic, as if built from branches or even grown into shape.

Maybe for light, the druid uses phosphoressent fungus or summoned fireflies, rather than candles or torches.

The first thing I thought of when I saw the bear skin was, "What! The druid kills animals for fur? That doesn't seem right." But then, why not? I don't have a suggestion here, just sharing my first thought - that the hide was somehow inappropreate.

Also on the hide floor, the stairs look like they both lead down, not one leading down and one leading up.

[Map Vandal]

Here is Level 3, the Master Bedroom.

And yes, that's a chamber pot on the bottom left.

Looks great! Only suggestion I have is for a lid on that chamber pot.

[MysticMagellan]

Great suggestions Still Pond and Map Vandal. I played around with moss effects, but personally felt they were distracting (or maybe I just wasn't able to incorporate them to my satisfaction). I'm of the thought that too much in a map can lead to important aspects getting lost in the mix, but I'm also fairly new to this, so perhaps finding the right balance comes with experience. I'll most likely modify the bed, and I thought about extending the third floor out onto a limb balcony, and still might do that (and if there's a bird nest there, you will get credit for the idea), but time is catching up with me. Currently, the interior is lit by magical faerie fire (the purple-blue fires). I might add some faerie fire torches to the walls, and I thought of putting some will-o-wisps outside, but I'd rather include them as pngs for VTT mobility.

About the bear skin - I think druids are more like practical Native Americans, rather than PETA tree-hugging Hippies. Every illustration I see of druids has them wearing animal hides or bones, so I don't see anything wrong with a druid who tans his own skins.

[Still_Pond]

Every illustration I see of druids has them wearing animal hides or bones, so I don't see anything wrong with a druid who tans his own skins.

I thought of that, and I agree. I just told you my initial reaction so you could have it for what it was worth. Don't be surprised if your players, (assuming you use this in game), react the same, that's all.

And I totally agree about keeping things simple. I wouldn't over clutter it - the cleanness and clearness you have going here are part of what makes your map great. I was mostly suggesting one or two small embellishments of fungus or limbs around the exterior of the tree for a bit of flavor. However, your map hardly needs more flavor. good job!

[MysticMagellan]

Created a Composite with exterior separated from interior levels. Drew up a new bed and put a lid on the smelly chamber pot.

### Latest WIP ###

[Still_Pond]

I'm not wild about the tree where you filled it in in the center trunk part on the larger image. It kinda looks odd, like a rock or big shapeless hump. I'm not sure how to fix it, and it doesn't look bad really, just off. Also, the tree's shadow seems like it would be longer. You have shadows for the roots, but not the body of the tree it seems. Maybe it looks better that way though, *shrug*.

When you have the floors stacked that way, I had the thought that wouldn't the ones on top be slightly smaller in diameter than the lower floors? That might be more work than is worth it. Maybe it is the broken stump of a once large tree, so the rooms don't change size much as the base taper is very slight. You could also show moss or ferns growing from the broken top of the stump on the main picture, instead of the vague filled area that I mentioned above. Also, this would explain why there were not any lower branches as usually tree branches start higher up.

Am I being too much of a nit-picky pest? Maybe, but keep in mind I think this map is great! Full on professional looking, so take my comments for what they are worth. I like the leaf background paper as well as how you've organized it all on one image with the floors to the side.