Westbar (C&C appreciated)

[Dumont]

Hi everyone! My first post here -- I'm a graphic designer who's played in a wide variety of games for over 15 years, but never had a chance to DM a major campaign myself. Trying to put my skills to good use for my first time out.

I'm working on a map of the home of the PC's, and trying to get a grip on the level of detail and consistency of scale throughout. Would love some eyeballs on my progress so far and advice on how to improve. My main concern right now is that I feel like some buildings aren't the right size for their relative placement. Also, I'm trying to strike the right balance for this being a bustling town that's *almost* a city, and has plenty going on, but still has an agricultural life behind it.

Any feedback or advice is appreciated. Thank you!

Software: Photoshop

westbar_wip_1.jpg

EDIT: Forgot to mention - Right now, the city is about 80% roughed out. Still to do:

-populating the outskirts of town
-cleaning up building outlines to square them off better
-blending the city's districts more naturally
-lots and lots of detail i may or may not ever get to if my players immediately ditch Westbar and head off to explore for the rest of the campaign

### Latest WIP ###

westbar_map_labeled2.jpg

[Bogie]

-lots and lots of detail i may or may not ever get to if my players immediately ditch Westbar and head off to explore for the rest of the campaign

Those Darn Players have a tendency to do that. The likely hood is directly proportional to how much time and effort you put into this map. The more effort you put in the greater chance they will just take off.
I like the map, nice colors nice layout. Good start, clearly needs more details if they stick around. I would include more small single family houses.

[Mouse]

A glowing golden city - really beautiful. If your players abandon it too quickly they don't deserve you! That's the most convincing parchment I've ever seen - looks just like the old maps I used to work with 30 years ago when everything was still on paper. Did you make it yourself?

[Dumont]

This is the source for the parchment I used. I cleaned up the more damaged areas of the texture because they were too distracting, but is working excellent otherwise.

[Mouse]

Thank you Dumont

Looks like a really popular graphic, judging by the number of acknowledgements!

[Dumont]

Some small updates! More fleshing out of the town, a few color tweaks, some district blending. Don't want to make the town too much bigger or it's going to quickly steer into full-fledged city territory.

Westbar_map2.jpg

[Raven Moon]

I like this, the colors remind me of the colors for "The Daughter" from the Clone Wars/Rebels. Looks good and I would love to hear some of the stories this city has to tell. GOOD WORK!

[Dumont]

Okay, I don't know if this is necessarily 'finished', but I've definitely taken this as far as I'm willing to for now.

Westbar_map3.jpg

Had some fun making the surrounding grounds more interesting, uneven colors, as well as updating the style of the river.

[Raven Moon]

I like the end result. It keeps it simple enough to read or reproduce for players yet has enough detail to give any adventurer or player the room and definition to set roots. Awesome job.

[Falconius]

I think this map is great. But I can't figure out why you are going with a labeling style so at odds with the rest?