Storm's Hollow

[Ignis-fatuus]

Hello all, this is my first post. I have recently gotten back into tabletop roleplaying games where I have been thrust into the roll of the DM. As such, I have found that there is a lot more mapping than I had originally remembered (although back in the day we let things slide mostly due to laziness). I figured I would share my first real attempt at mapping a small seaside village. I think this was an especially interesting experience in that I had originally drawn up a completley different village with a more of a rural aggriculural setting. When I sat my players down to roll up characters, they all decided to roll up characters with sailor/pirate backgrounds. Instead of trying to shoehorn them into my original map I decide to take a more of a ground-up approach and get back to the drawing board as it were. Herein we have the port town of Storm's Hollow. I would love any feedback as I have only just started to hone my cartographic skills...though I must admit that I have been bitten by the bug.

This BW image I have recently revisited and added a good deal of shaow. I found that a nice fat felt tip can do wonders to maps inked with fine Micron pens. I will be exploring this in the future. For the color picture I went in and added a number of color layers via Gimp. I liked what I came up with but might explore Krita in the future and perhaps invest in a tablet (coloring with mouse is awkward at best.)Storm's_Hollow_BW_Shadows.jpgStorm's_Hollow_Color_Scan.jpg

[rdanhenry]

Your drawing and your colors have come out fine, though I would personally prefer a bit less background variation under the key for readability reasons, but I do have some have points to offer concerning the key and village design.

The village seems to be all shops. Surely, there are some sailors with houses, or are all the ships and boats visitors? If there is a fish monger and no fishing fleet... I would be wary of his wares.

Spelling issues:

6. Jeweler
12. Healer
15. Bookseller is usually written as a single word

This also looks to be a very small place to support a jeweler, a mage's shop, an alchemist, a slew of specialist craftsmen, and both a tavern and an inn. Where is all the money coming from to support this specialist-heavy economy? Even modern tourist-trap seaside spots aren't this heavily weighted toward shops.

Oh, wait, you wrote "DM". Economic plausibility is out the window if you are playing D&D, so we'll set aside the question of how these shops survive. Still, a complete lack of a residential zone is pretty out there even by D&D standards. Maybe those cliffs around the commercial district are honeycombed with converted caves where most of the villagers live? That would not only solve the "where are the sailors and their families?" issue, but lead to possible adventure hooks as the cave network leads down deeper...

[Ignis-fatuus]

Oh jeez, that is certainly embarrassing...I find that when I don't have spellchecking enabled my slopping typing will get the best of me every time. Thanks for catching the misspellings.

And I agree with you regarding the lack of residential area. This was my first attempt at building a small port village and tried to cram as many different building types as I could think of...In hindsight I believe I did overdue it a bit. I think I shall go back to the drawing board and make some space for local to have a place to call their homes.

Thanks rdanhenry

[XCali]

Lovely. I enjoy the way you color. The colors themselves fit together nicely.

I will say this, the text is a bit hard to read zoomed out naturally. Also, if the light is coming from the top, then try to add a highlight on top of the cliff. If not, a nice fat shadow would sell the cliff nicely. But other than that and the spelling issues rdanhenry pointed out, good job with this one so far.

[Larb]

It's a nice map and I don't have much to say beyond what others have said. However, how do I get out of this village on foot? =P

[Ignis-fatuus]

Thanks for all of the input. This was my first attempt at using software to add color and add text to my maps. In all honesty, I should have been working on my Master's thesis instead of playing around with gimp. As far as people getting out on foot, I have the idea that the keep in the SE corner is going to be entrance to a large guarded tunnel that lead out to the mainland. For my campaign I was thinking that a local magistrate has established himself as a corrupt overseer who ruthlessly manages trade in and out of the port town.