July 2008 Entry: Kane's Place

[ravells]

This is looking delicious. I would love to see a walkthough / tutorial when you're done!

[torstan]

... and here was me thinking I might pitch in for this month's challenge I will, but only if I can come up with a killer hook - Vry really has the detailed map market sewn up.

A few queries about this as it stands though. Firstly - there's a lot of fade to black going on around the side. I can do that with FOW in VTT maps if I need to. With this map I can see my players walking over there and asking me to reveal what they can see and I'd have to say 'um, I don't know'. Also I'm intrigued by a circular feature up at the top of the map - it is huge tunnel going down, or a circular roof? Also the room with the antlers on the south wall is incredibly blurry - was that intentional (a fug of narcotic smoke ) or will this sharpen up in the final? Finally - are the tables and chairs movable? I know that my players tend to throw things around when a bar fight breaks out and the fixtures don't stay fixed for long.

That's a few pretty niggly queries on what is a truly astounding map. Good work as always.

*edit: Never mind - I've figured out that the blurred area is the lower floor seen through the open space in the first floor. Maybe it would help to darken the lower area to make this difference clear.

I do have one more query though - what is the roof that is visible to the right of the upper floor? It doesn't look like there are any supports for this to the right of the lower floor. I might just be being dense again, but I can't see how that fits together.

[jfrazierjr]

I do have one more query though - what is the roof that is visible to the right of the upper floor? It doesn't look like there are any supports for this to the right of the lower floor. I might just be being dense again, but I can't see how that fits together.

That's a different building. It has no relationship to the upper floor at all. I think what Vry was intending is the the "main" level be the one on the right, the upper level was moved and placed as a sort of "inset" over top of the other buildings in the area in the upper left corner of the map. Likewise for the cellar in the lower left.

Joe

[torstan]

Ah, got you. It was clearer in the first map. I understand now.

[RPMiller]

Shaping up to be a very nice map Vry. The one thing that always detracts from the usability of your maps for me, (this is an incredibly small nitpic mind you) is the darkness/built in light sources. Obviously for the challenge this is perfectly fine, but if you were to include the map for use, I would prefer the whole thing to be "properly lit up". Meaning no dark corners and the like. That way I can put in my own light sources or control the light better if someone were to blow out the candles for example. With everything being dark and shadowy when the PC moves into the corner with his torch, there is no way for it to "brighten up".

That said, this is a beautiful map and definitely in the running for the win I'm sure. I also repped you for the wonderful tokens you've posted. Both the pog and top down styles are excellent.

[jfrazierjr]

Shaping up to be a very nice map Vry. The one thing that always detracts from the usability of your maps for me, (this is an incredibly small nitpic mind you) is the darkness/built in light sources. Obviously for the challenge this is perfectly fine, but if you were to include the map for use, I would prefer the whole thing to be "properly lit up". Meaning no dark corners and the like. That way I can put in my own light sources or control the light better if someone were to blow out the candles for example. With everything being dark and shadowy when the PC moves into the corner with his torch, there is no way for it to "brighten up".

I would agree. After the challenge, I know I would love to see a copy of this posted up in a cleaned up(for VTT use) form as mentioned by RPMiller and others.

Joe

[Vry]

Changes:
Darkened 1st Floor area visible from 2nd floor.
De-emphasized the floor scuffs and lighting.
Moved the 2nd Floor and Cellar to the right side of the map for left/right readability.
Added an NPC placement key.

The challenge instructions said all objects and tokens should be "already in place" but something just seems wrong about burning tokens onto a map. I got around this rule by including a little key at the bottom right that shows the placement while keeping the map clean and usable. It's also a flimsy excuse to crack out some iso... yay!

### Winner ###

Kane's Place2.jpg