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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MerakSpielman" data-source="post: 794200" data-attributes="member: 7464">The fascinating thing I have discovered is that, every time I think I have finally figured it out, gotten everything I need into, say, my castle, I find a layout map of a real, historical castle and realize how much of what I added was extranious.The problem I often run into is I try to make every castle, every temple, and every other large structure totally self sufficient. The maps in Deities and Demigods for temples truly astounded me, especially the Olympian one. It was two rooms in a building surrounded by pillars. Not even so much as a closet or priests quarters.I opened up my old map for the Main Secret Temple of Vecna - a sprawling mini-city of slaves and acolytes. It occurred to me that there shouldn't be a wing devoted to classrooms and lecture halls for the teaching of arcane lore. At most there'd be one such room, and different groups would take turns using it. More likely, they would just hold classes in the library itself, where all the arcane books are kept.Speaking of libraries, my great mistake there is trying to make them too large. I want them to be as impressive as a large modern public libary, when they are more likely to be a small (no larger than 20' square) room. There's a library at my RL church that has most of the greatest works of religion and philosophy (pretty much any religion and any philosophy you could name) in a room that would look insignificant on a D&D one-square-equals-ten-feet map. I mean, the room must be 10' by 16' at most, and there's still room for a small table and several chairs in reasonable comfort. Do the wizards and clerics of D&D need tens of thousands of tomes to do their research? Or hundreds? Or, more likely, a few dozen? It seems reasonable to me that an evil wizards' demonology library might consist of only a handful of books carefully locked away in a chest.As a matter of fact, looking over several of my maps, I'm tempted to go Freudian and talk about my obsession with Size. Yes, most of them would work in a "realistic" sense, but you don't need so many storerooms. Really. You don't need a 50' x 60' kitchen, even if you're cooking for hundreds of people (the restaurant I used to work at would serve hundreds of people a night - and do caterings at the same time - out of a room I would judge to be 20' x 30'. Maybe smaller. And 1/4 of it was for the dishwasher). How much office space do you really need? I had my temple of Vecna have a huge administrative wing - but what do they really need to keep records for? Supplies? Income? Do you need more than a couple small offices for this stuff, with a couple full-time folks on the job?Another thing I always make Too Big: the barracks. Sure, you got guards and fighters around. But do you realize how many double bunks you can actually fit in a 20'x20' room? LOTS. you only need a couple feet between them, and they're only three feet wide. You could squeeze 50 people in there if you want - since all they're doing is sleeping. If your guards sleep in shifts, suddenly your 20' room can support 150 soldiers. At any given time 50 are on active duty, 50 are sleeping, and 50 are eating/training (probably in a dual-purpose room).In a real structure, there is rarely call for any room larger than 30' square. Most rooms would not even be 20' square - incuding armories and smithies. Most bedrooms (if you're lucky enough to have your own) wouldn't be larger than 10' square.In a real, occupied structure (cave network, castle, whatever) most rooms would have 2 or 3 purposes. The main audience hall might also be the dining room, ballroom, and main ceremonial chamber. The library is also the office of several scholars, the workplace of several scribes, a museum, and a classroom. Etc...A reasonably well-fortified castle could take up a total of less than 50' to 70' square and still be a major location during wartime.These are techniques I am trying to get my mind around properly. Construction is expensive. People build as little as they can and still get by. There is rarely such a thing as an "empty room." Every room had at least one purpose, and the purpose should show, even years later.</blockquote>

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