"Spectres & Shadows" – dungeon 1

[Caenwyr]

"Schimmen & Schaduwen" is a Belgian fantasy RPG dating all the way back to 1989 (I was just 5 years old back then...). The guys behind the game call themselves The Wise Tree. They publish several books until about the mid 90s, when they inevitably get entangled in the wonderful distractions of the real world. The game never dies, however. In the early 2000s, they scan the books, rework them and publish the content free of charge as a series of PDFs. You can still download them here (if you happen to read Dutch).

Recently however one of the original developers decided to completely overhaul the game, adapt it to the modern times and republish it in English. That edition of the game will be called "Spectres & Shadows". It's not finished yet, but what's there already is seriously awesome. The new game will be funded through Kickstarter, and to make things really attractive from the get go, he decided to team up with his old buddies and attract a cartographer to revamp the old dungeon maps. And that's where I got involved.

So yeah, I'm now drawing the first of five dungeon maps! Below is the sketch provided by The Wise Tree:

0. client sketch.jpg

Which I first turned into this isometric "blueprint" :

Dungeon 1 (1).jpg

And which I'm currently turning into an actual dungeon map:

Dungeon 1 (3).jpg

[Bogie]

Congrats on the commission, looking good!

[Adfor]

Really glad they're allowing you to share this as it's developed. Digging what you have so far, more please!

Cheers!

IR

[Caenwyr]

Thanks guys! Glad you like it so far!

In the meantime I've been able to finalise the linework, and the next step now is to start colouring and shading this beast! Since there's not gonna be many light sources and I still have to keep it readable, this might turn out to be something of a challenge... but what's a map without a challenge, right?

Dungeon 1 (7 - linework).jpg

[Caenwyr]

Alright, here's a first splash of colour!

Dungeon 1 (7 - splashacolla).jpg

[Caenwyr]

Alright, and here's shading!

Dungeon 1 (8 - shading).jpg

[Caenwyr]

Next step: an inset showing the other end of the portal.

Dungeon 1 (12).jpg

This is getting pretty close to completion!

[danteinmix]

Hi Caenwyr, nice dungeon. Could you tell me what program or software do you use to make the 3D map? I am also designer and really like dungeon board games with minis. My hooby is crafting board games for my adventures. Thanks!

[Caenwyr]

Hi Caenwyr, nice dungeon. Could you tell me what program or software do you use to make the 3D map? I am also designer and really like dungeon board games with minis. My hooby is crafting board games for my adventures. Thanks!

Hey Lunatic! (that sounds weird but I love it!) Thanks for asking! I use Photoshop for all of my maps, and very little else. I basically started with a square grid, transformed it so it became an ISO grid instead, and drew everything on top of that.

[Bogie]

The lighting is fantastic!