Settlement Maps (updated - abandoned house map)

[colonelthread]

Kris,

Thanks again for sharing this with us. I am quite impressed, and inspired, by your talent. It is a shame that many commercial products are below the quality that your work exhibits.

By the way, do you take requests?

 

[Kris]

To be honest - I hadn't really given much though about taking individual requests (as the maps can be a bit time consuming). I suppose I might be able to squeeze something in if it's relatively simple (maybe just a few buildings - or something like the farm or mill) - but I can't make any promises.

But now that I think about it, you've got me wondering about something along a similar line...

...Would anyone be interested if I (or someone else) started a new thread - where we could all build a small settlement together. What I mean is... we could start small (with a thorp maybe), and then discuss what to include (with regard to buildings, rivers, roads/trails, etc.).

I could try another map in a similar style to those posted above (once the layout had been agreed on), and maybe some of the great artists on these boards might be interested in doing a few sketches/portraits for some NPC's, or floorplans for buildings, or handouts, or whatever takes their fancy.

Basically just bring together a bunch of different artwork - all of which could be used to represent a single community (be it a picture of 'Bob the miller' or a crumpled parchment displaying the inn's prices).

I don't know if it would work , but I think it would be cool

 

[colonelthread]

I'd certainly be interested in participating, but I absolutely lack the artistic skills to do any of the cartography or other art work. I can, however, lend my time in helping to "design" these entities.

What about another thought. Would you consider releasing your creations as "bits" for people to use for making their own maps? In other words downloadable bits of the buildings, sections of grass, trees, etc, that someone could use as the building blocks for coming up with their own maps? Just a thought, and I can understand why you wouldn't want to do something like that.

Cheers,
ct

 

[robjh]

I've been trying to come up with an effective look for a river today - and so as a test I have tried to do a (very) small map that shows the mill that the first map points to.

http://www.enworld.org/CrookedStaffProductions/testwatermill.jpg

I am quite happy with how the water-mill itself turned out - but I'm still not sure about the water ...I've tried it lighter, darker, different colours - but this is the best so far :\

What, no mill pond? A simple dam would provide more power for the wheel and would also serve as a crossing point. During medieval times some mill pond owners charged a fee to use their dam as a ford/bridge, providing a little extra income.

 

[Kris]

Would you consider releasing your creations as "bits" for people to use for making their own maps?

Yeah - I had thought about trying some modular way of putting maps like this together.

My previous (quick test) attempts weren't all that promising though - as they kinda looked too uniform - and there was always a pretty obvious join where two pieces come together, and as soon as you start rotating things all the shadows look wrong

I also think there is other software out there that would be a lot better at this kind of thing - so it's not something I plan to do in the near future - though I haven't completely abandoned the idea

 

[Kris]

What, no mill pond? A simple dam would provide more power for the wheel and would also serve as a crossing point.

hmmm... so did mills like the one I have drawn actually exist? (I admit - I have very little idea myself). I see how it would not be all that efficient - but is it a plausible design for an early mill perhaps?

And regarding 'mill ponds'...

Like I said, I now very little so... would we would basically have a dam (and the obvious build-up of water behind it) with the water wheel actually set into the dam - so the water flows through a narrow channel - thus propelling the wheel. Or could you also have it so the water flows down on top of the wheel to turn it? (or maybe I should just google).

I guess doing the 'community settlement' thing I mentioned above would be great for ironing out these sort of creases beforehand - as we could attempt to create a little thorp (or whatever) that would look like it may actually work (rather than someone like me doing a map of what I think looks about right - but actually having very little idea about what I'm drawing). I know that it'll just be a map for a game, and not a lot of people would care too much about it's 'historical' or 'engineering' accuracy - but it wouldn't hurt to get it looking right

 

[Lawrence of Arabica]

I've got one technical nit about the layout of the cottages in the farming village. In a more or less medieval Europe culture, I'd expect each cottage to own a small vegetable garden, and maybe a chicken coop. Most of the cottages have room for this (though they're not shown on the map) but a few don't.

 

[Ferret]

Just a thought, what happened to old edor? Fire? Magic? Care to draw it?

 

[Kris]

I'd expect each cottage to own a small vegetable garden, and maybe a chicken coop

OK... I've been caught out again though a couple of the buildings pictured are gonna be a shop, a smithy, a hall, etc... so maybe they're OK as they are

I do however see your point, and this is the kind of feedback that's going to help out in any future maps that I do - thanks (keep them coming).

what happened to old edor?

Actually, if you want further info on the settlement, I've just finished putting a rough pdf together for possible inclusion on my site. I've basically put all the pic's together and added a quick overview of the hamlet - but kept it all to just two pages long (well... 3 pages if you include the title page... but that's just there so that I can add my copyright and a link back to my site).

Keeping it to just the two pages means that a DM can have a reasonable starting point (hopefully ) for a small settlement tucked away in their folder, that's printed out on a single sheet of paper.

I do however apologise for my lack of writing skills (I should probably stick to maps ), I have purposely tried to keep the write-up brief - though I've probably only really succeeded in stating the obvious :\

Anyway, here's the link... (it's nearly 750KB)
http://www.enworld.org/CrookedStaffProductions/new_edor.pdf

I hope it turns out to be useful to someone.

 

[Ferret]

Looks good! Might use that actually....