Prepared! In Its Horrid Wake

[Meshon]

The adventure In Its Horrid Wake by Jon Sawatsky is up on the Kobold Press Blog featuring the map I worked on in this thread. I'm really glad I finally managed to do a WIP for one of these maps, the feedback I got there was great. Here's the final map; as far as I remember its the same one that ended the work thread. Except now there's an adventure to go with it! Oh, this one is also the full resolution, 100 pixels per square.

In-Its-Horrid-Wake.jpg

The map is property of Kobold Press.

cheers,
Meshon

[ChickPea]

This looks great and it's nice to see a higher resolution. That alter thingie is a bit gruesome!! I do like the smoking fire. That's really well done.

Fantastic job overall and looking forward to seeing the rest of the series as you finish them. Hope the adventure game goes well!

[arsheesh]

First off, congrats on the publication of your work in Kobold Press! A great little piece. I particularly like how you've done the clumps of grass. One piece of constructive criticism has to do with the contour work of this piece. It seems to me that you've added light and shadow contours to individual items within the map, rather than entire structures. For instance, on the ruined thatched turret you've added depth to the thatching but haven't shaded the southeastern side (since it seems the universal light source in this piece is coming from the northwest). Dido for the tile buildings in the northwest portion of the map. Also, you've got a small inner shadow running along both sides of your wall that doesn't quite look right. All of these are pretty small and easy fixes and the piece is quite nice, just wanted to offer some (hopefully) helpful advice.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[foremost]

At first, I was thinking that you had copied and pasted a mud splotch four times; when I realized they were paw-prints, I smiled, and the title made sense!

I really like your straw and brick[/shingle?] structures. Cool to see how the monster presumably knocked one of them down.

The only thing about this map I'm not fond of is the fire. Due to the way that it's positioned in the pit and the drifting of the smoke, it seems to break your top-down perspective. Even though the smoke could be blown that way by the wind, it would mess with my mind a little less if it was coming straight up. However, why is the fire still burning, anyways?

[Meshon]

First off, congrats on the publication of your work in Kobold Press! A great little piece. I particularly like how you've done the clumps of grass. One piece of constructive criticism has to do with the contour work of this piece. It seems to me that you've added light and shadow contours to individual items within the map, rather than entire structures. For instance, on the ruined thatched turret you've added depth to the thatching but haven't shaded the southeastern side (since it seems the universal light source in this piece is coming from the northwest). Dido for the tile buildings in the northwest portion of the map. Also, you've got a small inner shadow running along both sides of your wall that doesn't quite look right. All of these are pretty small and easy fixes and the piece is quite nice, just wanted to offer some (hopefully) helpful advice.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

First, I really didn't get published with KP. My friend is the writer who they actually hired, and he hired me. Kobold Press has been really positive about the maps though, and it is really great to see them out in the world and hopefully being played with. Your advice is much appreciated. My first thought was, "What're ya talking about, I did all kinds of shading!" But I looked harder and now I get it. I am still struggling with representing shape as light and shadow, but I will definitely pay attention to structure shading along with the shading of individual objects. You really gave me a moment there, thank you.

At first, I was thinking that you had copied and pasted a mud splotch four times; when I realized they were paw-prints, I smiled, and the title made sense!

I really like your straw and brick[/shingle?] structures. Cool to see how the monster presumably knocked one of them down.

The only thing about this map I'm not fond of is the fire. Due to the way that it's positioned in the pit and the drifting of the smoke, it seems to break your top-down perspective. Even though the smoke could be blown that way by the wind, it would mess with my mind a little less if it was coming straight up. However, why is the fire still burning, anyways?

Yeah, the fire. I cursed my friend for writing in a fire, but then I slogged ahead and I felt like it worked out okay. Of course, I was already convinced that the smoke was blowing in that direction before I drew it, so it's good to hear the perspective of a fresh pair of eyes. So many things to practice! But thank you for pointing it out.

In the adventure that goes along with the map the gnolls are actually performing some kind of ritual using the fire. The big huge evil creature has already passed by, but the gnolls are following along "in it's wake" as it were and the encounter happens while they're still in the temple.

cheers,
Meshon

[Domino44]

Really nice work Meshon! The giant claw prints look awesome, and I also love the way you did the grass. The little details stand out a lot on this map, like the broken down gate, blood path, and I'm going to disagree with Foremost about the fire. I actually really like it! I think it could have read a little better if the flames were going straight up but since you can see that the wind is blowing that way it makes since that the flames would be pushed that way as well. Great job with this and congrats!