Fantasy RPG Town Map

[Turgenev]

Here's a town map I've been working on and off for the last week or so. This town was built over the ruins of a much older settlement. The outer and inner walls have either fallen to decay, or the stonework has been appropriated for other uses (ie buildings, bridges, property walls, etc). Perhaps the outer walls were never finished in stone and the original wooden walls have rotted away with time. I was also thinking that the little pond at the top of the map was originally man made and originally had some tactical significance hence the tower and walls (perhaps the river was wider in the town's past as well).

The various houses I drew by hand and scanned into the computer and manipulated with Photoshop. My initial inspiration to do this map came from pyrandon's excellent tutorial: A medieval town map tutorial in Photoshop. As I digest the info in this tutorial, I'm sure I will be tweaking my own map as I try out new things.

[Steel General]

Ahhh expanding out to try "new" ideas...always a good thing.

[Torq]

I think it looks very cool Turgenev. New genre, but its still got your clear and informative style with great sense of proportion and artistic flair. Nice one.

Torq

[torstan]

Very nice. I like the style a lot.

I understand the ruined fortifications in the middle of the town, but the further out ones are a little confusing. Was the town ever big enough to need the outlying wall to the SE? It seems a long way from the outer houses and I can't quite see the logic for it being so far away. Also, The hard outline on the fortification walls jars a little. I'd suggest halving the width of the outline to let them blend in a little more.

Otherwise, lovely. I particularly like the muted colour scheme - and the detail in all the buildings is great.

[Turgenev]

I understand the ruined fortifications in the middle of the town, but the further out ones are a little confusing. Was the town ever big enough to need the outlying wall to the SE? It seems a long way from the outer houses and I can't quite see the logic for it being so far away. Also, The hard outline on the fortification walls jars a little. I'd suggest halving the width of the outline to let them blend in a little more.

Thanks for the comments, torstan. My original idea, which I didn't explain very well, was this town was built over the ruins of a much older settlement. The outer and inner walls have either fallen to decay, or the stonework has been appropriated for other uses (ie buildings, bridges, property walls, etc). Much like cities and towns are often built on top of each other (i.e. Rome).

I was also thinking that the little pond at the top of the map was originally man made and originally had some tactical significance hence the tower and walls (perhaps the river was wider in the town's past as well).

I'm leaving most of the background info generic so this map can be dropped into someone's AD&D/D&D/Fantasy game as used without too much hassle. At least that's my goal with this and perhaps the next batch of town maps.

[Turgenev]

Thanks for the comments & suggestions, guys. I'll be revisiting this map soon enough. For the record, this is my third attempt at a village/town map with my previous works being at my cartography site. I used to draw all of my village/town/city maps by hand and it is recently that I've switched to doing it in Photoshop.

[Turgenev]

I've replaced the original map with the revised one. I changed the thickness of the stroke on the castle walls as suggested by torstan. Good call.

[torstan]

Looking good.

I'm glad the comments were useful. The explanation as the remains of the fortifications of a much older settlement makes more sense now. I also wondered about the pond to the NE. It looked to me like a place where the fortifications had been breached by some large explosion and the river had flowed through into the crater, or just where the wall had been taken down by sappers and the river had flowed through into the depression on the far side.

Looks done to me. What else do you want to do to it?

[Steel General]

Looks done to me. What else do you want to do to it?

I was going to ask the same question.

[Turgenev]

I'm glad the comments were useful. The explanation as the remains of the fortifications of a much older settlement makes more sense now. I also wondered about the pond to the NE. It looked to me like a place where the fortifications had been breached by some large explosion and the river had flowed through into the crater, or just where the wall had been taken down by sappers and the river had flowed through into the depression on the far side.

I like that idea. I might have to use it if I ever get to writing up the town for my own AD&D game.

I was thinking of playing around with the background layer to add some elevation. Basically I was going to apply the Burn Tool to the grass background to give a sense of depth. I also want to reread pyrandon's tutorial to see if there were any other touches I can add. I will resave the PSD file so if any changes don't work out the way I'm hoping, the original will remain untouched.

This map is pretty close to being done and it might be time for me to start a new one. It is a nice change from drawing dungeons (but more time consuming).