Settlement Maps (updated - abandoned house map)

[Kris]

Hello again - thanks everyone for the input


Yep - I'll try and include pretty much all of these ideas in future maps (especially the fences/wall/ditches issue). Though I'm not so sure about lightening the grass though - as when I've printed the pic's out - they seem to look ok (though the printout does look a little different to what I see on my regular monitor - and different again on my laptop screen ).

...So I've basically gone with what they look like when printed on glossy paper (as that's what I'm printing them on myself).

The PDFs are really cool to use whenever the PCs would stop in a small village along the road

Glad you like them - I hope they turn out to be useful. I've still not got round to putting a zip file on my site with all of the maps minus the text (for player handouts perhaps - or for DM's to name themselves). I'll try and get round to it soon.

Also - today I had no work , so I've been trying to come up with a suitable 'look' for a cliff-face or mountainous area. So here's my test map for that... a small mine:

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

I'm reasonably happy with the stone texture, and I think the cave entrance has turned out quite well). I've probably got the layout all wrong again, but heh - guess what - I know very little about mining either (no surprise there then). Hopefully it would work for a very simple mining operation.

 

[Nifelhein]

This one, as all the others is good, although i can say I know as much of mining as you do.

Congratulations and thanks for sharing your work, this sure will come handy sometime.

 

[Nellisir]

I've probably got the layout all wrong again, but heh - guess what - I know very little about mining either (no surprise there then). Hopefully it would work for a very simple mining operation.

I don't mind people being wrong as long as they know they're wrong. That's called artistic license (or doing what works -- sometimes what's right isn't what's best).

I did a search last night for satellite photos and came up with USPhotoMaps. It's a free program that'll go out and get satellite photos for you of just about anywhere in the US that you want, plus topographic information. It might be worth looking at, to give you some idea of how stuff looks from above. It doesn't get really detailed -- at 1 meter/pixel you could probably make out a car against a light background, but not a person -- but you can see how fields and buildings are arranged around the terrain.

Also, I live in New Hampshire, and might be able to figure out a few places to look at for small,"non-modern" farms, if you're interested.

Cheers
Nell.

PS - I think you've got some great maps, BTW.

 

[Kris]

Any chance on including some breif instructions on how you create these amazing maps?

I'll try...

I started by drawing the 'rooftop' view of each of the buildings and saving them as individual photoshop files.

I did this by first getting the basic shape done in a cheap vector graphics program called Draw4 (cost me around £20 a few years ago - it's basically a poor-man's version of something like adobe illustrator) and then tinker with it in photoshop to get it looking something like right. For example the wooden roof pictured in the example below was created using a few different 'filters' and creating a couple of different 'styles' to get the texture and shading effect (basically a lot of trial and error).

All of these rooftops I can then copy and paste into the finished map (and just have to mess with the shading on each of the roof sides accordingly - depending on how it's rotated (to simulate which side catches the sun).


Then for the map itself - I start from the grass layer (which is done in a similar way as the link posted above on how to get a parchment effect) and work up. A lot of this is done in a similar way as the building - by which I mean, I start with simple shapes drawn in Draw4, and then mess around using different 'styles' and using various 'filters' in photoshop. For example, the tree in the pic below is created from the basic blue shape that I have drawn - so I basically copy & paste a section of grass the same shape as the blue 'blob' and use this new layer as a base to start from.

After that I simply apply a 'style' which I have created, to this new shape (the style being comprised of various bevel & emboss, drop shadow, colour overlay, satin, etc. effects) - and then make any slight adjustments accordingly.

here's the example pic's...

http://www.enworld.org/CrookedStaffProductions/june05example01.jpg


So individually the pieces don't look all that spectacular - but when they all come together on the finished map, they (hopefully) look OK.

I'm not sure if I have explained things all that well (especially to those of you are not familiar with photoshop) - but it's basically all created by drawing simple shapes first, and then a lot of messing around in photoshop.

 

[Kris]

I don't mind people being wrong as long as they know they're wrong. That's called artistic license (or doing what works -- sometimes what's right isn't what's best).

Yeah - like I've said in some of the above posts, I'm no expert - just some guy trying to come up with a few maps to use in RPG's

...And I guess any real world examples are always good for inspiration. I suppose I could also check out the aerial photo's of the UK (on the multimap website) as well.

I've also been 'googling' a bit and I'll try and incorporate some of my new-found knowledge in future maps (though I'll probably lean a bit towards what is easier to draw than what is exactly 100% accurate - simply due to my own laziness ).

 

[Hussar]

If you're looking for an online program to find aerial photos and such, you might want to try Google Earth which is just an incredibly groovy program. REALLY useful if you play modern games.

 

[Kris]

OK - so after finishing that small mine map above, I thought I'd try drawing a map for a small mining community to go with it

So this time (keeping some of the suggestions posted above in mind) I actually drew the terrain first and then tried to fit in all the various buildings etc. (as previously I had started with the road and buildings and then placed any terrain etc. in the spaces left over ). The old way does seem a bit backwards now that I come to think if it - but heh - I'm learning slowly

I know I've forgot a few things (or failed in a few areas) - for example I tried making some larger trees - but now there're one the map, they don't look hardly any different :\ (guess I need to make some really big ones on the next map), and also I didn't add many fields to this one - so I didn't get to do many hedges

Anyway, enough of my rambling... this latest pdf file can be found on the bottom of this page on my website...
http://www.enworld.org/CrookedStaffProductions/page6.html

or just click on the following link for the pdf itself:
http://www.enworld.org/CrookedStaffProductions/beorgham.pdf

 

[Darrell]

Wow.

I stumbled across this thread a few days ago, and I have to say, I'm impressed. I always seem to be needing small communities for a party to stop in, and these will fill the bill quite nicely. The maps are beautiful, and the settlement layouts seem to me to be well thought-out.

Have you given any thought to other types of small communities, say a coastal fishing village, an elven tree-dwelling homestead, or a "Hobbiton-like"gnome or halfling settlement"? Or, perhaps, something a bit larger than New Edor?

Also, have you given any thought to going back to some of your earlier work on the CSP page and putting some of those building maps onto the parchment background you're using now?

In any case, your maps are wonderful, and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Regards,
Darrell King

 

[Kris]

Hello and thanks for the comments (I hope you get some good use out of them).

Have you given any thought to other types of small communities, say a coastal fishing village, an elven tree-dwelling homestead, or a "Hobbiton-like"gnome or halfling settlement"? Or, perhaps, something a bit larger than New Edor?

Yep, I have had a few random thoughts about most of these (though only 'thought' about them at this stage ), and the 'hobbiton-style' map is one that I would really like to attempt in the future.

And with regard to bigger maps - yeah, this is also something I want to try - but I have started small and hope to eventually work my way up . Though for bigger settlements I think I'm going to have to make the map icons a lot smaller (and thus re-do all my styles in photoshop ), as my computer is taking an age just to open & save these small maps - or maybe I just need a new computer (though the original images are disturbingly large and contain a lot of layers).

Also, have you given any thought to going back to some of your earlier work on the CSP page and putting some of those building maps onto the parchment background you're using now?

This is also something I have considered - as I think adding the parchment to them makes them look a whole lot better (as on their own I have to admit that they do look pretty basic). However, I'll still leave the black & white ones on the website, as a few people have expressed that they prefer B&W images over colour ones to save on printer ink (though parchment versions may appear alongside them at some time in the future - or maybe as one big pdf download).

...and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

I'm not sure when the next map will appear, or when I'll get round to updating the site next, as I generally have phases where I go mad on creating maps for a while, then I might have a phase where I spend a lot of my spare time painting miniatures, or work on my hirst arts dungeon, etc... etc... etc... ....and I have just got myself into a regular D&D game again (hopefully)

...so the time I dedicate to gaming stuff is pretty much packed full of too much stuff that I want to squeeze in... as always (damn this hobby ) - but more maps will no doubt be appearing in the not too distant future

Anyway thanks again for the comments!

 

[Kris]

Hello again...

...I had nothing to do yesterday afternoon, so thought I would attempt a new map, and seeing as how I'm thinking about trying my hand at DM'ing online (using OpenRPG) some time in the future, I thought I would try and come up with a site map for an adventure I have been thinking of.

Nothing special... just an 'out of town - old witch-house' kind of scenario (with a slightly spooky garden - maybe something lurking in well, or in the pond... did that bush move? etc...).

So here's my attempt...

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

...I've tried to draw a bare tree on top of the small hill (just beneath the scale bar), and added some dead bush-type areas by the (slowly disappearing) path - maybe for twig blights to hide in. I should probably try to develop some kind of technique for making the grassy areas look a bit more overgrown, but overall - I think it'll do the job that I need it to do.

Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you guys - just in case anyone else might find a use for it in one of their games