WIP - Caves of Chaos variation

I've been a longtime lurker/dabbler, and this is my first effort that I've felt worthy to post.

The D&D Next Playtest got me thinking about CoC and KotB again. I was going to download a battlemap for Maptool, but couldn't find one that fit my needs. With a plethora of free time, and a battlemap tutorial from torstan, I started working on a Frankenstein-ian CoC hybrid from all the maps I could find.

The results, produced in Gimp, are below. Any feedback/suggestions would be appreciated - sometimes I wonder if I went too subtle with some effects. These are also significantly reduced from the original - I managed to keep it at 50px/inch (5' sq) for an 8000x8000 original - tried to go 100px, but my computer choked. I cut it to 1/4 size for web posting, but could probably host (on my own server) a full-res version if there's interest.

I'm particularly interested if anyone can point me at a good technique to do sloping corridors... I haven't found one yet, and I'm not really sure how I would do it...

I've still got lots to finish:

• Stairs
• Water
• Valley greenery
• Doors? (may leave that to the VTT)
• Interior decorating
• Level 3, KotB, Regional, and any other maps, assuming my free time and passion hold up

Also - I'm not 100% sure about the copyright implications of using map layouts (original B2 Keep on the Borderlands, Hackmaster's Little Keep on the Borderlands, and 0one's Caves of Chaos maps) as a basis for a mostly original work. I think it falls well within the derivative works clause of fair use, but if I'm wrong, feel free to delete this post.

Ooh, me likes a good mega-dungeon, particularly if it's based on a classic. This turned out pretty well, though when zoomed in the image doesn't appear quite clear. Perhaps if you increased the opacity of the grid layer (or duplicated the grid layer)? Don't know. But that aside, this is looking good so far.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

Wow.. That is pretty good. I actually like the "fuzzy" feeling of this (although the grid is a little transparent) As for sloping corridors it's all a matter of shadows lighter at the top and darker at the bottom. Keep up the good work :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by arsheesh

though when zoomed in the image doesn't appear quite clear. Perhaps if you increased the opacity of the grid layer (or duplicated the grid layer)? Don't know.

---

I was going for subtle on the grid - I didn't want a bunch of dark black lines overpowering the rest of the map. The grid is actually two layers - a rendered grid in normal mode and 25% opacity, and a slightly-blurred copy of the grid in soft-light mode and 30% opacity (to keep Maptool from dropping out grid lines when zooming out)

It's also possible the resize operation and/or jpg export are making them less distinct (at least they seem a lot less distinct) - I've attached some full-res samples (two jpg, one png) for comparison.

While fuzzy isn't necessarily bad - I don't want them to be too fuzzy... :)

Awesome! Wish more people could post self-made maps from old modules! ...and I wish I had more time to do some myself!

Looks pretty good for now. Im looking forward to see some progress!