Fantasy RPG Town Map

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Originally Posted by Ascension

I always add in a sandy brown river bank as an outer glow or gradient stroke (set to shape burst in PS). Lastly, the bridges are a bit orange, maybe make em more tan-brown. Minor nits on my part, I know, so please disregard if ya feel like it ;) Lookin swell overall tho so keep on truckin.

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What's a shape burst? Sounds interesting - never heard of it!

In PS you can have your stroke be a gradient. The default is Linear but there is Radial, Angle, Reflected, Diamond, and Shape Burst. Say I have a 10 pixel stroke with a black to white gradient...linear will put the white at the top and black at the bottom, radial will create something circular where the black is like a black hole with white at the edges forming a ring, angle works like clocks hands going around starting with black at midnight and going around getting lighter until white at 11:59, reflected will have white at top and bottom with black in the middle, diamond is like radial but instead of using a circular shape it uses a diamond shape, shape burst runs the gradient from black to white from outside in (similar to radial but in the opposite direction) but it keeps the shape of the object...this is sort of like increasing a selection size 1 pixel at a time...so that the stroke itself is white where it is closest to the object and black furthest out. This is very handy for making beaches (not as good as outer glow though) or black rings around a landmass on a parchment-style tan and black map. The stroke can also be applied outside or inside the object as well as centered on the edge. Lastly, you can also use a pattern as a stroke instead of a solid color or a gradient. The only downside is that the stroke does not fade out like an outer or inner glow. The following pic should explain it better.

I may be new... But I don't feel like the ruins are ruins... they are way too clean to be ruins I feel. they look more like incomplete wall segments...

To me they need some harder changes in their coloring to show major holes in the walls like; whole section, then 30 feet of nothing but the last few feet of height left, then the rest of the wall complete again.

Take a BIG bite out of a piece of toast, then stand it up with the bite you took at the top, then look strait down at that and you will see what I mean.. Cannonball? lol

peace

Terry

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Originally Posted by Nickadimos

I may be new... But I don't feel like the ruins are ruins... they are way too clean to be ruins I feel. they look more like incomplete wall segments...

To me they need some harder changes in their coloring to show major holes in the walls like; whole section, then 30 feet of nothing but the last few feet of height left, then the rest of the wall complete again.

Take a BIG bite out of a piece of toast, then stand it up with the bite you took at the top, then look strait down at that and you will see what I mean.. Cannonball? lol

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Thanks for the comment, Terry. I know exactly what you're saying. I had considered adding rubble/additional shading to the walls but I decided against it several reasons. First off, I don't consider these walls be in complete ruins. Maybe the word 'ruins' wasn't the right one (I do sometimes find it hard to find the right words to express my ideas). In my mind, the walls are still in use but not in the best condition (they are showing their age).

I basically saw the fortification walls as being a relic of the town's past (perhaps a hundred years old or so). The town once suffered raids/attacks from the enemy, but the area has been peaceful for some time now so the old protective walls have deteriorated with the passage of time and neglect. I do envision the interior walls probably being used more often than the outer walls though (mainly because the centre of the town is the administrative heart of the town). Perhaps the thieves' guild is using the outer towers for nefarious purposes since they are so close to the shanty huts.

I also decided against the idea of including rubble because I figured the local townspeople would have snatched any loose, usable rock for their own purposes. I picture some of the older stonework would be incorporated into the various buildings/bridges/road markers/etc.

For the generic map, I'm leaving the status of the walls and their ultimate use up to the Game Master/Dungeon Master to decide. My original idea was to produce a series of generic maps that a DM could plug into his game and use without too much alteration. As for the Greyhawk version, I'm working on the background details behind the history of the town of Ardkeep and those that call it home.

Very cool, thanks for the explanation. Looks like a very handy tool for the armoury!

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Originally Posted by Ascension

In PS you can have your stroke be a gradient. The default is Linear but there is Radial, Angle, Reflected, Diamond, and Shape Burst. Say I have a 10 pixel stroke with a black to white gradient...linear will put the white at the top and black at the bottom, radial will create something circular where the black is like a black hole with white at the edges forming a ring, angle works like clocks hands going around starting with black at midnight and going around getting lighter until white at 11:59, reflected will have white at top and bottom with black in the middle, diamond is like radial but instead of using a circular shape it uses a diamond shape, shape burst runs the gradient from black to white from outside in (similar to radial but in the opposite direction) but it keeps the shape of the object...this is sort of like increasing a selection size 1 pixel at a time...so that the stroke itself is white where it is closest to the object and black furthest out. This is very handy for making beaches (not as good as outer glow though) or black rings around a landmass on a parchment-style tan and black map. The stroke can also be applied outside or inside the object as well as centered on the edge. Lastly, you can also use a pattern as a stroke instead of a solid color or a gradient. The only downside is that the stroke does not fade out like an outer or inner glow. The following pic should explain it better.

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Oh ok.. Then it looks awesome then LOL

Terry

Hi Turgenev :-)

I absolutely love your Fantasy RPG Town Map and the whole article, however could you please post some details on how you actually created the buildings, what size was the initial image in Photoshop and could you please post a small piece as a .psd so we can all learn how you did it...

Take care,
Matt

Holy thread-rez Batman!

Thank you for Rez'ing this thread, Very nice work on this town usable for just about any type of campaign.

BOB

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Originally Posted by yaztromo

Hi Turgenev :-)

I absolutely love your Fantasy RPG Town Map and the whole article, however could you please post some details on how you actually created the buildings, what size was the initial image in Photoshop and could you please post a small piece as a .psd so we can all learn how you did it...

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Glad you liked the map, Matt. Sorry for the lateness of the reply but I'm not around these parts as often as I used to be. I've cut back my involvement with 90% of message boards that I used to visit so I would use that time more efficiently on my work. That map was from some time ago but I drew the houses by hand, scanned them in the computer, and then did a lot of copy & paste to get them where I wanted them. I added a colour overlay and a slight bevel/emboss to rise the houses off the page. As for posting a piece of the psd file, I'm sorry to say I can't. It is on my old and very dead computer.