Le village de Vert-Cuivre

[ThomasR]

Hi folks,

Today I present to you the village of Vert-Cuivre (Copper Green) that I drew fo the French edition of Runequest.

I love Runequest ! It's the first RPG I've ever played (25 years ago) and it's the RPG I played the most so, when I heard they were translating the latest edition, I approached the chief editor on Twitter. A few month ago, the cartographer who was supposed to draw the maps for the additional French material was not available due to a too big command list (it's Olivier "Akae" Sanfilippo). With the recommendation of Olivier, the editor contacted me back and here we are. You can imagine how happy I was. City/village maps frighten me so I was also scared "excrementless" (regional maps I understand, city planning I don't and I want my maps to be believable) but I was also compelled to give it my best.

The map below will certainly remind you of Larb's, Voolf's and J.Edward's style, that's because they were my main source of inspiration and their maps have been reference material for me for a long time and this time litteraly. I still hope I put enough of me in this map but I've got to send them a big thank you for being such amazing artists and sharing their maps with us. A big thank you to people on Twitter who barged in and gave me insightful advices to better the map.

The setting.

Vert-Cuivre is an Orlanthi village that takes it's name from the big water mill near the river. It's an ancient structure with a copper paddle wheel. The Orlanthi are a barbaric culture, a mixture of Celt/Viking inspiration with hints of Summerian/Hittite and other stuff (Runequest is really another take on Medfan if you ever get tired of the DND vibe, more Antiquefan) and I tried to make it more French by using Gaul villages as inspiration Straw roofs, wood and daub walls, no chimneys but openings near the roof's ridge, mostly close to the houses agricultural areas (you can spot vineyard, orchards and hop pergolas) and the strong presence of woods.

I hope I did a good enough job and that you like it. For those interested, you can find the WIP here and here comes the map :

Vert Cuivre post.jpg
© Studio Deadcrows - 2020 - All rights reserved

As usual, critics and comments are welcome.

I'll jump right back on the horse as I still need to complete an A3 city map for the same game but in a different environment. Stay tuned !

Cheers !

[bbennett]

Thanks for sharing this beautiful city map.

[ThomasR]

Thanks for sharing this beautiful city map.

Thanks a lot bbenett, I appreciate the kind words and rep

[Ilanthar]

You got me with the rune first . It's just splendid, and very much in the Runequest era & style .
I'm particularly impressed by the roofs, trees (!) and the nice flow of your river. Chapeau bô!

[tilt]

Looking really beautiful, great work

[QED42]

I enjoyed following the WIP thread, this map turned out very nice. Unfortunately I can't rep you again so soon.

[Arimel]

The map does look amazing! The colors all work and the details are great! Excellent job!

[Marc Moureau]

Congratulations for trying something out of your comfort zone, it definitely paid off !

[Razgriz05]

Great job, I really like it!
Sure, it's a small village, but it doesn't mean it is easy to make it look right. And your map really looks like something I'd like to see in a game or read about in a book.

[arsheesh]

Fantastic! Yes, I can definitely spot the influences in this map, but you've managed to blend these styles together with your own to form a wonderful synergy. The border is great as well, and I love the colors. So much to like about this piece.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh