"Spectres & Shadows" – dungeon 1 (FINISHED)

[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.

Here's the WIP thread for the first dungeon. And this is the final version:

Dungeon 1 (FINAL).jpg

If you have any remarks or suggestions, let 'em come!

[Wired]

Wow, I just love these kind of isometric maps! Can't rep you, though.

[Voolf]

Said it on Deviant Art and I will say it here. This is an outstanding iso map, as Wired stated.

[DrWho42]

i love isometric maps. this would make for a fun 3D-printable layout!

[Ilanthar]

Great map! You're getting so good at those iso "cut-views" buildings!

[rdanhenry]

Looks great! The layout is clear, the colors bright, the shadows gloomy, and the composition pleasing.

I do have two things to point out that appear problematic. The first is that tombs are for storing dead people, and there is no sign of that here. Maybe the name is deliberately misleading, though, so that's a minor issue. The second point is more serious. You have stars showing through the moon. Now, maybe those aren't crescent moons, but massively carved out remnants of moons, though that would be an absurd coincidence that they'd have such matching damage, even before getting into the physics. I suppose the moons could be some magical stone that turns completely transparent when not illuminated, but while there are these possible exotic explanations, it's most likely an oversight, and will always appear a mistake if the illustration is presented before the explanation.

What did you use for the "paper" texture? It's very nice, giving a bit of tactile sense to the map without calling attention to itself.

[Caenwyr]

Hey Dan! You're absolutely right about the moons. I noticed it too, and then forgot about it! Shame on me...

About the naming : that's something for the client to decide. I'm just the mapper! ;-)

Sent from my SM-A705FN using Tapatalk

[bkh1914]

A great dungeon map.
I love the perspective view.