[WIP] Castle Ravenloft 2D Battle Maps REDUX!

[wthrasherb]

Hey folks! I just got my hands on the new Curse of Strahd D&D adventure and, like so many others, I purchased the digital maps to use online in a virtual tabletop environment and there are no maps of CASTLE RAVENLOFT!??? Sure, I got the awesome poster map with the adventure, but I'm playing online. So what's one to do? Well, thank goodness for this guild and it's awesome members! I found some maps of castle ravenloft on here (found here: http://www.cartographersguild.com/sh...ad.php?t=13943).

Unfortunately, Shindig did THOSE maps for the 3rd edition Expedition to Castle Ravenloft adventure and some visual elements are included in his (her?) maps that don't match with the latest incarnation of the D&D classic. So I have take on a labor of love and I am redrawing the maps that Shindig made previously. Shindig's maps are also labeled differently than the Curse of Strahd has them labeled so I will be drawing/labeling them according to the Curse of Strahd adventure.

@Shindig, I hope you are cool with this. I don't take any credit for the efforts you made in converting the isometric maps to 2D or ANY of the layout. I am essentially just "reskinning" the visual elements to fit the newest adventure. Thanks for all your hard work!

Any feedback or comments are welcome as usual. I haven't made it very far yet. I JUST started today, but here is what I have so far...

This is the start of the left edge of "map 2" in the adventure, "Walls of Ravenloft". Due to the large size of the map, just like Shindig, I have broken this entire map into 3 pieces. This is the first piece... This is also a lower resolution version due to the upload limitations of the site.

Map 2_Walls_of_Ravenloft_A_002.jpg

[wthrasherb]

Here's as far as I made it for today. This piece is ALMOST finished I think. I might add a portcullis and some gargoyles, but I'm not sure on those yet. They are in the descriptive text but I'm not sure how practical they are on a map of this scale for battle map purposes. There are no main encounters on this map either, so I don't want to spend TOO much time on it. Hopefully I can finish the other 2 parts tomorrow.

Map 2_Walls_of_Ravenloft_A_PROGRESS.jpg

EDIT: I just noticed that I have the rocky base that the castle is sitting on as fairly dark, so I thought the castle should be darker stone. It IS Castle Ravenloft afterall.

So I need some feedback on these two choices: A) Light Colored Castle (above), or B) Dark Colored Castle (below)??? Thanks in advance!

Map 2_Walls_of_Ravenloft_A_003.jpg

EDIT #2: Moderators, now that I think about it, this post MIGHT need to be in the VTT/Battle Map Forum... dunno what ya'll prefer. I was just thinking 'dungeon' so I put it in the dungeon forum. Doesn't matter to me, but these maps are set to scale for mini use. And for those interested, the grid that is on there right now is a 70 px per square grid (standard for Roll20), each square being 5 feet.

[wthrasherb]

Before I got too far redrawing this beast of a dungeon I wanted to make sure my scale was still correct after compression for the virtual tabletop site (they have a 10 MB limit on individual file size). I just did a quick upload of the piece I have previously posted here and added some minis for size and turned on the VTT grid to a obvious red so everyone here can see that my grid and the VTT grid match up perfectly. Again, the grid is standard D&D, 5 ft. per square. Here's a quick screen shot:

screen_Shot.JPG

[designbot]

Looking good. Personally, I prefer the lighter castle. I'll probably be printing or projecting maps for use at the table, so it would be helpful for me if you could maintain a copy with as high a resolution as possible, even if it can't be uploaded to Roll20 or this site at that resolution.

[wthrasherb]

@designbot, I JUST sent you an email right before I saw your post on here... full res versions will be available at the end. I will upload to my google drive. Be advised, I am making these PRIMARILY for digital use, but I will do my best to size some versions for print. I just tested a resize up to a 1 inch grid and this first piece of map that I have done so far is 66.35 in x 100.1 in. @ 100 ppi. I sized that based off of Jon Roberts suggestions on his site here. I saved this test run as a tif, but most printers should be able to handle that.

As for lighter or darker... I personally LIKE the dark stone, BUT it may be TOO dark once I get to the interior and start adding details and such... either way, it's a simple color overlay that I can remove for those that might prefer one over the other. Once this project is done I will put together all the maps in some nice orderly fashion with variations and such available.

Thanks for the feedback! Stay tuned, more to come!!!

[wthrasherb]

Hey folks! I had a busy day yesterday, so I didn't get much map work done. I'm trying to make up for it today though!

The piece I've been working on is "finished". There are a few nit-picky details I might "clean up", but the map is finished for the most part.

Map 2_Walls_of_Ravenloft_A_PROGRESS.jpg

I've started on the next section. Shindig had his maps broken up kinda weird for file size purposes I think, so I'm ATTEMPTING to merge the last two slices of his map (parts b and c) into one. Also, this map will include what is "MAP 3, MAIN FLOOR" in the Curse of Strahd Adventure. Map 2, Walls of Ravenloft, just doesn't really have any "encounter" material written in the adventure, and both the main castle gate AND the front doors to the Keep are WIDE OPEN when the characters arrive at those locations initially, so I figure they won't dally too much.

Here's all I have so far for the other 2/3rds of this current map:

Map-2_Walls_of_Ravenloft_B_PLUS_MAIN_FLOOR_001_Progress_post.jpg

And here is a quick "attachment" test to see how these two parts match up since I did them individually. I have turned off the grid/gloom/mists overlays on the first map portion since I haven't added those elements to what I've done today...

Joined_TEST_01.jpg

You can clearly see there are some matching issues and an obvious seam.

Lesson: do maps like this all as one piece THEN cut it apart.

I'm not working with the beefiest of computers, so I'm always hesitant to work on super huge files.

Ok, so Yesterday I did an upload test to Roll20 of that first map piece to see how it looked after compressing. It looked fine and the grids/dimensions are perfect. If I try to create ONE HUGE MAP for this part not only will I have to possibly compress it too much to make it uploadable to Roll20, but there is no "functional" need to have this large of a map ALL on one "page". Depending on how the DM runs the game, there's not REALLY any encounter material setup for the outer courtyards and gates and such. So for now I'm not going to correct the "joining" issue. The pieces are intended to be used separately in my game. If for some reason I get a ton of requests to make it all one map, I MIGHT take the time and go back and correct stuff. But for now I'm trying to work as fast as I can in my free time to get some decent usable maps for my game and get the adventure up and running.

Also, FOR NOW, I'm trying the castle walls as the dark color they are here, but the INTERIOR keep walls/color scheme may be slightly lighter. I'm not sure yet, but I'm pretty sure I don't want it as dark as the outside walls.

Please feel free to leave feedback and/or comments.

I know there's not much "map" to comment on yet... be patient! More coming soon...

[wthrasherb]

Hey guild and Ravenloft fans! More progress to share! Coming along slowly but surely!

I don't really have much to say here, just posting the latest progress image.

Map 2_Walls_of_Ravenloft_B_PLUS_MAIN_FLOOR_002_PROGRESS_POST.jpg

More to come!

[Gold]

Following your progress on these Ravenloft inspired old-school adventuring, virtual-tabletop-oriented digital maps. Looks nice so far. I saw your post on Roll20 and as you can see I'm a Cartographer's Guild member too. Best wishes on your mapping and thanks for sharing the results and tips/findings along the journey to create your version of this.

[Falconius]

Personally I'm a fan of those very fine grid lines you've got there, and I don't know if this is an issue or not, but they get very difficult to discern when they go over the flagstones. Perhaps if they were a contrasting colour like white it would be clearer?

[Jacktannery]

wthrasherb, nice maps. I find them quite dark overall. I think this is caused by the white cloudy/snowy parts at the edges. I would recommend changing these white parts to pure black, in order to make them fade completely into the background and emphasise the playable parts of your map. I would also brighten up the map a wee bit. Regarding your floor texture, I agree with Falconius, maybe change to a simpler style? I attach quick examples of what I mean.

example.jpg

example2.jpg