RangerWickett
Legend
I look for interesting buildings in real life, note how they're laid out, and just change the flavor.
My college campus has a lot of buildings with unusual architecture. A lot just have four different entrances on different floors because they're built on the sides of hills, while one pair are connected by a skywalk because it was decided the library needed to expand into the adjacent building, and some are just weird because they used to be dorms or chapels but were re-purposed into class buildings.
The best example, though, is Emory Hospital. It was originally one building on the west side of Clifton Rd. Then they built a second wing north down the street ten years later. Then they built a six-story parking deck across the street on the east side. Then they expanded the first building so it connected to the second wing. Then they built a skywalk across the road, added a small park with benches and trees alongside the parking deck, and constructed a massive 8-story edifice whose purpose I still do not know. The whole complex is fairly tightly packed, but the architecture changes dramatically between the different eras.
In one campaign, I used it as a baseline for the Imperial Palace of the villain, replacing the roads with canals and moats, and casting it all in neo-gothic stone architecture. The mysterious 8-story section became the quarters for the elite guards, with guest quarters above them, and a massive ballroom on the top floor, looking out at the lake surrounding the palace.
When I had that in mind, I sketched it in about five minutes, and ignored specific details. I just cared about how the important locations were connected, and didn't worry about the countless unimportant rooms. If I needed to figure out what one of them looked like for an encounter, I just made it up.
My college campus has a lot of buildings with unusual architecture. A lot just have four different entrances on different floors because they're built on the sides of hills, while one pair are connected by a skywalk because it was decided the library needed to expand into the adjacent building, and some are just weird because they used to be dorms or chapels but were re-purposed into class buildings.
The best example, though, is Emory Hospital. It was originally one building on the west side of Clifton Rd. Then they built a second wing north down the street ten years later. Then they built a six-story parking deck across the street on the east side. Then they expanded the first building so it connected to the second wing. Then they built a skywalk across the road, added a small park with benches and trees alongside the parking deck, and constructed a massive 8-story edifice whose purpose I still do not know. The whole complex is fairly tightly packed, but the architecture changes dramatically between the different eras.
In one campaign, I used it as a baseline for the Imperial Palace of the villain, replacing the roads with canals and moats, and casting it all in neo-gothic stone architecture. The mysterious 8-story section became the quarters for the elite guards, with guest quarters above them, and a massive ballroom on the top floor, looking out at the lake surrounding the palace.
When I had that in mind, I sketched it in about five minutes, and ignored specific details. I just cared about how the important locations were connected, and didn't worry about the countless unimportant rooms. If I needed to figure out what one of them looked like for an encounter, I just made it up.
