Enc's Encounter Maps: Eaton Gatehouse & Village

[Encartrus]

Hello everyone!

I'm Enc (Brooks IRL) and I've been a long-time lurker here. For about two years I've been making encounter maps for my Pathfinder game in Roll20, and I'd like to start sharing them for other folk to use. I'm not sure where the best place to start would be, but to kick things off I figured I'd show the maps I finished the current arc of my campaign: The Village of Eaton.

In my campaign this sleepy little village has been attacked by bandits, with my party having to come in and clear them out. But not all is as it seems, and perhaps the bandits are not wrong to be attacking these strange villagers. The arc began at this gatehouse, with a long battle to break through their gate and enter the village proper:

eaton-village-gatehouse.jpg

After that they entered the village proper and investigated what exactly was going on around town. The Grainary had bodies of travelers, long dead, hidden in the hay at the base of the silo. The Village inn had a logbook of villagers poisoned and a cache of their valuables they had taken from the dead. Inside the noble's mannor a ghost, long since murdered, of the local baroness wandered the halls, wailing about the death of her children by a mob of the villagers:

eaton-village-square.jpg

The orchards on the far side of town seemed peaceful enough, but someone was watching from the Foreman's house on the hill. A villager who had escaped the bandits, but was terrified to tell the party of what was going on:

eaton-orchard.jpg

I'm still working on the rest of the village, including a large church, basements, gardens, and a crypt that my players will delve into next week and the week after to see what is going on.

(Technical stuff: I've recently started shifting from just Photoshop to also using Sketchup, and for some of these (like the village map) there are some problems with the textures layering on the walls and the lines for the sketchup building assets being crazy thick and generally distracting. The last chronologically here is the orchard map, and I think I figured out how to texture things a bit less wonkily. Any suggestions are appreciated!).

[Diamond]

Wow, way to jump in with some great maps on your first post! Have some rep, and thanks for de-lurking. I absolutely love the attention to detail on this, right down to the quilts on the beds and the carpets on the floors.

[Chick]

Woohoo, I really like these, and just love the brickwork on the roads

[J.Edward]

Agreed. These are quite nice Encartrus.
A few things I'd suggest - rotating the roof texture on the second map, for instance.
But still quite nice work. All three are very engaging and well done.

Ah, just read that you're using SU - that was probably the problem with the roof texture.
If you right click on the texture you can choose to rotate it per surface so you can get the right orientation for each surface.
If you need any help with that, let me know and I'll explain it better.

[Encartrus]

Agreed. These are quite nice Encartrus.
A few things I'd suggest - rotating the roof texture on the second map, for instance.
But still quite nice work. All three are very engaging and well done.

Ah, just read that you're using SU - that was probably the problem with the roof texture.
If you right click on the texture you can choose to rotate it per surface so you can get the right orientation for each surface.
If you need any help with that, let me know and I'll explain it better.

Thanks, man! I was originally making just flat white shapes in sketchup which I would later drop textures on in Photoshop (the gate and town are like that), but that had a lot of line up problems. I'm now rendering my base, flat textures in Sketchup before I import it to Photoshop (for example, the house on the Orchard Map) to solve that problem. My initial sketchup shapes were also crazy small, hence why the town has a ton of jagged lines on the building borders and why there is as much ivy and clutter on the edges to try and lessen their impact on the map.

I'm presently working on getting 3d renders for topography (the orchard for example) and am having... mixed results. Sandbox in sketchup opens a lot of possibilities for me but my poor little Surface Pro3 just doesn't have the capacity to render large objects well with it.

[arsheesh]

These are really quite good. I like the technique you use for making leaves and flowers. However J. just mentioned the biggest issue I spotted as well:

A few things I'd suggest - rotating the roof texture on the second map, for instance.
But still quite nice work. All three are very engaging and well done.

Ah, just read that you're using SU - that was probably the problem with the roof texture.
If you right click on the texture you can choose to rotate it per surface so you can get the right orientation for each surface.
If you need any help with that, let me know and I'll explain it better.

Great work overall though, look forward to seeing the rest of the maps, and learning of the fate of this dark and malicious village. Oh, and congratulations on jumping from lurker to contributor.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[J.Edward]

Thanks, man! I was originally making just flat white shapes in sketchup which I would later drop textures on in Photoshop (the gate and town are like that), but that had a lot of line up problems. I'm now rendering my base, flat textures in Sketchup before I import it to Photoshop (for example, the house on the Orchard Map) to solve that problem. My initial sketchup shapes were also crazy small, hence why the town has a ton of jagged lines on the building borders and why there is as much ivy and clutter on the edges to try and lessen their impact on the map.

I'm presently working on getting 3d renders for topography (the orchard for example) and am having... mixed results. Sandbox in sketchup opens a lot of possibilities for me but my poor little Surface Pro3 just doesn't have the capacity to render large objects well with it.

Yeah, that's understandable. 3D does take some resources.
The sandbox can be quite cool but it can be frustrating too. To get good definition in a topography you have to make a rather large terrain.
I've had some decent results with it. You can also import lines from illustrator or other vector program and create a meshed terrain with those but it's a more involved process. Results vary in effectiveness.

That's nice to know about the surface pro - I had considered one for the drawing capacity but if SU is bogging it down then photoshop would kill it with 30+ layers.
Oh well, the search for mobile drawing continues.

Hope you'll post more of these. They quite cool.

[Encartrus]

Yeah, that's understandable. 3D does take some resources.
The sandbox can be quite cool but it can be frustrating too. To get good definition in a topography you have to make a rather large terrain.
I've had some decent results with it. You can also import lines from illustrator or other vector program and create a meshed terrain with those but it's a more involved process. Results vary in effectiveness.

That's nice to know about the surface pro - I had considered one for the drawing capacity but if SU is bogging it down then photoshop would kill it with 30+ layers.
Oh well, the search for mobile drawing continues.

Hope you'll post more of these. They quite cool.

Will do.
My next game is Sunday, on Monday I'll post the maps I used that night. I have two finished now, hopefully will find time to sort out the third tomorrow.

Re: the Surface Pro 3 - I have some maps that end up 90+ layers with the amount of effects going on and there is eventual serious slowdown, especially when crunching them for export or saving. The main problem I have with my Surface isn't actually getting these things done, for the portability the power is definitely there and I like not having to use a wacom attached to a desktop to doodle or paint. The issue is in storage space. I have an attached TB harddrive to store my files, after software and the OS my midrange Surface only has like 50gb of storage which doesn't go every far when working with PSDs.

It also heats up very fast, and isn't the best for outdoors or sitting on your lap for randering. Drawing is usually fine.

[Encartrus]

Ok, so last night was game night and that means new maps:



So here is the exterior of the Temple of Tamberlain. Last night the investigation of Eaton Village continued with the climax: the Temple of Tamberlain, the Allfather. This compassionate deity is revered around the world and such temples are common to train clerics in their duties of healing and offering guidance. However, here the party encountered Lamar, the Bandit Baron ravaging the village of Eaton, as he chained up the door to the temple with the parishioners inside. After a brief battle and a stroll around the gardens, the party entered the temple…



Inside the Temple of Tamberlain the party found the remaining villagers slaughtered, over their corpses a Cleric of Morrigan loomed, having enthralled the villagers to attack the bandits and to attempt to break through the holy seals warding the lower levels of the Temple: The Hall of Trials. The party made quick work for the evil cleric and, with the blessing of a surviving priestess of the Allfather, entered the hall of trials.



The hall of trials map is a bit ambiguous, and it is intended to be. Here is how I used it:

The Chamber of Choice: Here each party member was given a moral dilemma by a spirit on the dais in the center of the room (such as having to choose between two loved ones or between family and friends on the battlefield). Based on their choices, they would have one of the four doors open taking them to the Corridor of Consequences. Depending on how “just” their choice was reasoned, the corridor would either have traps or nothing. Then they would find themselves back in the Chamber of Choice for the next player’s attempt. For each player, I had two possible outcomes customized from their backstories and depending on who they failed that person would eventually appear in the Gallery of Grace as an enemy. More on that in a bit.

The Corridor of Consequence: Inside I had pendulum scythes, wall spikes, and swinging censers with knockout gas. .

In the Vault of Visions I had the players encounter some additional traps, this time a set of ghost-fire walls and a tesla orb, and then later had them make a choice concerning the campaign I’m running with the final two doors. This choice was a big deal in my game (essentially deciding if a supporting character would be good or evil forevermore). After this they pass through the door of their choice and into the Gallery of Grace.

Here the spirit from the Chamber of Choice reappeared and told the players “In the words of the Allfather, there are no good choices, no bad choices, only what we choose to do and the consequences that follow.” Then the avatar revealed the people the party chose to save in their decision and each granted the party a specific buff, and then revealed those they failed across the gallery for a long battle.

After this they entered the Altar chamber and accomplished their goal of passing through the Hall of Trials.


Next up: my party will be sailing to the frozen north to confront Draug, God of the Vengeful Dead. Northrend-flavor campaign, ho! The next set of maps will be posted in their own thread (unless it would be better to post them here?) I'm not sure what the protocol is.

[J.Edward]

Those all look really good Enc.