Crypt of the Witch King - re doux

[damonjynx]

Hi Folks,

I'm re-doing my Crypt of the Witch King map for the One Page Dungeon contest.

Original:
CotWK_Final.jpg

So far here is my basic layout, still have to draw in the caverns and what not. The little room off by itself will be either the treasure room proper or the landing/final resting place of the Witch King haven't quite decided yet. The map is being done entirely in Photoshop CS4, 2300px x 3300px, print resolution 300px/inch, screen resolution 100px/inch for printing as a battlemat for personal use, it will be scaled down to fit an A4 page for the contest. It will be finished in the same style as my Black Fang lair map (see this thread).

### Latest WIP ###
CotWK_OPD_WIP1.jpg

As usual, any help, advice, comments welcome.

Cheers,

[Bogie]

Good Luck with the contest. Keep in mind that they are primarily judging on the written content. There usually is a prize for best map, but most of the awards go to the best written adventures.

[damonjynx]

Thanks Bogie, I thought as much. It will be a tough competition, I've checked out some of the entries from this year and previous years and the quality of the Dungeons is very high and some of them are very, very ingenious and highly original. I fear my little dungeon won't have much of a chance, but by submitting an entry I at least get a copy of the compiled entries when it comes out So I'll end up with around 70 or so dungeons to play with

[Gamerprinter]

Yeah, I earned a runner up award (Penultimate Winner's Circle) for my OPDC entry for last year. My map took up less than half the page with the remainder as textual information in an 8.5 point font. Don't go smaller than 8 pt. Good luck.

[damonjynx]

Thanks Gamerprinter. All I can do is give it my best shot and see how it goes. I'm hoping the "old-school" vibe will stand me in good stead.

[damonjynx]

Here's a little update.

### Latest WIP ###
CotWK_OPD_WIP2.jpg

[Mouse]

Map is looking great. Nice interesting room shapes

Good luck with the competition

[DanielHasenbos]

I like how you have done the dungeon walls. It looks very cool. Good luck with the competition!

[damonjynx]

Thanks Mouse, Daniel.

Re the walls it's just a pattern filled layer, gravel @ 100% (I believe this is a standard PS one) painted on an inverted layer mask with a hard round brush that has opacity set at 100% and pressure sensitive. I start really large with a light touch and then decrease the size and increase the pressure. Gives the walls a bit of a "chiselled" look. I'd prefer to do the whole thing in a Dyson-style but I suck at the hatching and it's even harder to do digitally and still have the hand drawn feel. I like the basic B&W maps because they're printer friendly, though I could easily put it on a parchment.

I tell you what, the tutorials on this site are freaking awesome - I think my mapping skills have improved heaps over the last few months...still very much a novice but I'm getting better.

I noticed a little error; I'm missing the walls where the tunnels intersect - I'll have to fix that...

[damonjynx]

Hi Folks,

Another update. Playing around with some layout options in InDesign, the only issue is the jpeg I used for the dungeon doesn't have a key...

The text is the first draft and will be heavily edited to get rid of unnecessary fluff, bearing in mind entries must be system neutral. The font will most likely also change as at the moment it's just Times New Roman.

Thoughts?

CotWK_OPDv2.jpg