Battlemap & 2 encounters (homebrew)

Cute-Hydra · Jun 4, 2010

Hi All,

This is my first go at making battlemaps by photoshop software so please take that into account.

I am also new to the forum and apologise in advance if referencing is against forum rules.

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Encounters:

This is the start to a lvl 6-8 dungeon that I am working on; it is designed for 6 players. This is the dungeon entrance, the players drop in through the ceiling, marked by the lighted squares. The room they land in conceals 3 Carrion crawlers (MM40) and an Otyugh (MM211) hidden in the stream having defeated them the players ride down the stream, one way current

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This gets them to a lake of sorts which is the entrance to the dungeon proper. It works as a jigsaw puzzle, with the 6x6 square (marked by a different colour) cut into individual tiles and put into place the wrong rotation. Only about 12 of them are wrong. In order to solve the puzzle the players have to turn the pieces the right way round. A player may spend their standard action to turn a piece any way round. The puzzle is complicated by when the first puzzle piece is turned, a horde of ghosts float through the puzzle and attack them; 10 wisp wraiths (OG192), 2 Moon Wraiths (OG192) and 1 Phantom Warrior (MM116). The wisp wraiths are just to pad it out a bit and to look flashy, I was thinking the swarm of ghosts when a tomb is opened kind of effect, they won't do any real damage. When the puzzle is completed (looks like one in picture) then the 2x3 tiles on the beholders mouth shift away revealing the stairs down into the rest of the dungeon.

The puzzle is at the bottom of a lake, and while the water is clear enough for them to see, they do have penalties due to being waist deep in water.

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Map: as I say, first attempt at Gimp which is what I used, do like it but it will take a while to get used too. Did try a lot of specially designed tileset software and didn't like it.

I will do this one again and do it neater getting squares exactly aligned. I am aware that it is rather crude as of moment. Ultimately I will print off to use with my group but have a month to get ready so still playing around.

I am quite happy with it so far, but am probably going to put something else into the carrion crawler entrance room, I feel it is a little empty.

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Looking forward to hearing other's opinions.
Cute-hydra

aco175 · Jun 4, 2010

I like the map just fine, you should not beat yourself up about it. My maps are just pencil sketches on graph paper which I try and find tiles for before the game starts. I thought about laying out the tiles and taking a picture of them to insert into the document with the monsters, sort of like the Delve module set up, but got lazy.

The dungeon is fine and should work great, but some of the minor details that lend to realism are being overlooked. One is how do the carrion crawlers and the otyugh get along and come in and out of their home for food? They could be pets of some sort which would explain the getting along but there should be some sort of secret dug out tunnel to get to the surface. The pc's find it after they are at the bottom and can use it to come back and forth later on.

If the river is one way to trap the pc's in the dungeon, in effect, it should flow out of the room somehow. There can be a grate in the pool that flows at the same rate coming in, or an outlet leading back into the wall. It could be neat with the grate in the bottom idea that another trap later in the dungeon closes the grate and now the water begins to flood the rest of the dungeon.

Dr_Ruminahui · Jun 4, 2010

One thing that you will need to consider going forward is that the door the players are going to open is at the bottom of a lake - what then happens to the water (presumably, it flows down the door/hole in the floor), what that does to the players (do they get sucked down?), and what that does to the rooms below (breaks things, sweeps things away?).

And, to add to the good points given by aco175, why are the monsters hiding? Do they know the players are coming? Why is the otyug in the water (not the typical otyug environment - but fine if it is being reskinned as something else)? Why isn't it being swept away?

And as a final thought, I think you should avoid having the water force the players in one direction and for it to be impossible to go in the other direction. That smacks too much like railroading - you always want to give your players at least the appearance of choice. Make it difficult to travel against the flow, yes, but not impossible. As a related note, to have the strong of a current, you need a lot of water moving very quickly - so give some thought as to where the water comes from and where it goes to.

Cute-Hydra · Jun 5, 2010

Sure, thanks for the help; I was considering a grate, or waterfall into the dungeon but couldn't do it on the map

. I know it feels like rail roading, but the dungeon has alternate exploratory routes later, and I felt justified rail roading in the entrance. I think the way I am going to do it will be to have after the puzzle is activated the river is pumped mostly out, leaving it possible to move down the right path which provides the way out. I was planning on saying the water is pumped out and leaves them with damp but walkable steps.

As for the monsters, I thought that they would hide when they hear/see sign of players. As it is dark down their the chances of players seeing is low. But a perception check would reveal movement or a high one see a crawler. The otyguh I thought it mentioned water in their description (need to look up again). But, I think the story for them being there was going to be guards/pets and dead bodies are provided to feed them.. not too much gotta keep them hungry.

Il post an updated version when I can with the next encounters

Thanks a lot for the help
Cute-hydra