Smokemount Hold
Salvation's End
Dagon's Temple & Village of Boggard's Maw
Elven Guardpost on the Tanglebriar Border
Firebrand's Redoubt: Stronghold of Lady Delbera Axebringer
Ancient Cyclops Stronghold in the Icerime Peaks
Treant's Crossing
The Drowning Temple
Alright.... life is calm for a whole ten minutes and internet has finally worked well enough to view the rest of the maps, enter my votes, and make this post. I'm sorry I couldn't manage individual critique in every map thread... both life (sick baby, three-year-old, husband, and self!) and my internet connection (super, super slow loading of each page!) have been seriously crazy. However, some words here...
First, awesome job, guys! Really good maps all around. I'm impressed, and brimming with ideas of adventures to run based solely on these maps. So, thanks! :)
My votes went to:
Elven Guardpost - Love, love, love this tree fort, and I love the way it clearly shows all three levels in one beautiful top-down map. Did I mention I love this map? Want to use it in a game right now...
Lady Axebringer - Not just professional quality, but clever and believable, and a place I would enjoy taking over as a base of operations in a game (or maybe even real life...)
Inside the Glacier - Way to throw hot and cold together in a creatively changing mass of awesome!
Griffon Falls - Great town, professional quality, interesting hooks, want to use it for my game...
Leviathan's End - super creative idea, nice touches, cool stuff
Treant's Crossing - also super creative idea, could be used almost anywhere near a forest, love it!
Cliff Dwelling - creative, intriguing settlement, neat presentation, I want to adventure there!
Cyclops Stronghold - Wow! Mountaintop awesome-scary vistas of deadly boulder exploration and neat cyclops fountains!
.....
Honorable Mentions: (Why Can't I Have More Votes?)
Caverns of Steam
Drowning Temple
Salvation's End
Smokemount Hold
Gravepit Basin
Water Gardens
I'm throwing my seventh vote to "Inside the Glacier". The best remark you can make about a map is that it immediately inspires you to go adventuring, and I wanna be in that glacier with time running out, background music spiked very high, and ice walls collapsing as I fight my way out.
My emphasis. I judged on two things. First, clarity, both in terms of knowing what's what and in visuals. The second was inspiration: did I want to explore this area or that would be a great place for critter X or the player 3 would love seeing his barbarian here.
I gave a simple '+' if you surpassed expectations in clarity or inspiration and '++' if you exceeded even that (I gave '+/-' for meets and '-' for 'didn't.')
Only two got ++ in both categories. Four got +/++ (I ranked inspiration above clarity for some reason), and two more got ++/+. My eight are:
Salvation's End
Shadde-Quoh
Ancient Cyclops
Firebrand's Redoubt
Caverns of Steam
Gravepit Basin
Lost Water Gardens
Smokemount Hold
Honestly though I gave very few 'minus marks' and to that I want to say congratulations to all the contestants and thank you for a great first run on a new round!
In no particular order:
Smokemount Hold
Firebrand's Redoubt
Ancient Cyclops Stronghold
Inside the Glacier
Dagon's Temple
Treant's Crossing
The Drowing Temple
Temple of Kabiri
Ok, my votes went to:
- Monica Marlowe - Firebrand's Redoubt: Stronghold of Lady Delbera Axebringer
- Kalervo Oikarinen - Ancient Cyclops Stronghold in the Icerime Peaks
- Charlie Bell - Smokemount Hold
- Brian Fruzen - Salvation's End
- Dana Huber - Elven Guardpost on the Tanglebriar Border
- Ben Iglauer - The Haunted Dinosaur Graveyard of Mediogalti Island
- Russ Brown - Lost Water Gardens of Jalmeray
- David Higaki - The Gravepit Basin of Fallen Sercai
I think I speak for many when I say thanks for your efforts, Pedro! It'll be interesting to see how the sample matches up with the actual outcomes.
I commented on all maps, but here's the ones I voted on and the reason I did so.
1) Firebrand's Redoubt - Solid map, cool place to explore, it's got a unique feature (shaped like an axe), and looks like a place with a big story. Overall, a very solid entry.
2) Salvation's End - Well drawn map, great notes, very interesting terrain, a fun place to explore. It's only downside is that it's a very small map.
3) Caverns of Steam - Every room looks like it would make for a fun encounter. I really want a module made for this dungeon. The notes in the map conjure a fun adventure investigating the lair of a magma dragon that lives under a resort hotspring.
4) Inside the Glacier - I love the idea of locations that change so much to require two maps. I loved it in Clash of the Kingslayers and I loved it here. Though, I do wish the glacier actually had fun things inside of it.
5) Drowning Temple - Cool dungeon. Every room looks like a barrel of fun.
6) Treant's Crossing - I'm a sucker for dungeons inside of creatures, but this one is genius. The areas around it really sell it as more than a gimmick.
7) Smokemount Hold - A solid, intricate dungeon. Not much more to say.
8) Leviathan's End - Dungeon inside of a giant fish with a laboratory attached to it. Needs a little "fleshing out" but it's a win for me.
Here are the sixteen I hope make it through and one complemented for the cartography skills shown.
The eight I voted for in the order they were presented:
* Caverns of Steam, near Dwimovel (Darklands, Sekamina)
* Smokemount Hold
* Lost Water Gardens of Jalmeray
* Salvation's End
* Inside the Glacier
* Leviathan's End
* Firebrand's Redoubt: Stronghold of Lady Delbera Axebringer
* Treant's Crossing
These seven were strong contenders for me and I hope most get through. Again in the order in which they were presented:
* The Gravepit Basin of Fallen Sercai
* Elven Guardpost on the Tanglebriar Border
* The Haunted Dinosaur Graveyard of Mediogalti Island
* Shadde-Quah Shoanti Cliff Dwelling. Calphiak Mountains
* Ancient Cyclops Stronghold in the Icerime Peaks
* Town of Griffon Falls
* The Drowning Temple
This one I hope makes it through as there was some good imagination used and it is Jiggy, but was too lacking in detail for me to support:
* Tomb of the Mad Elementalist
This 17th entry was beautifully mapped out and gets kudos for that, although I don't think it will move on.
* The Fancy Reefclaw Brewery
Wow. Except for the Brewery, it looks like the exit poll was spot-on for accuracy!
Congratulations to the Top 16! Great maps all around! :)
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O.O
I went 8/8 and even mentioned the remaining 8 in the honorable mention section...
...excuse me while I go buy some lottery tickets.
Great job, Feros! LOL.
All 8 of my votes and all 6 of my honorable mentions made Top 16, so I'm thrilled, too.
I'm looking forward to seeing what else these great contestants come up with! :)
8 out of 8 for me too - I must FINALLY be grasping this here superstar thang! ;)
I got 7/8 because of the Tomb of the Mad Alchemist, a map I knew couldn't win but still wanted in there. There were a few I knew would win, like the Redoubt of Ladywhatever Boringoverlydetailed Axeface, even though I didn't pick them.
If I had switched from what I liked to specultion as to which would actually win, I'd only be surprised by three of the selections: the cliff town, the fancy reefclaw, and the town of Griffon Falls. The others were pretty obviously the best. There was a wide gap between the top and bottom, qualitywise, with only a few grays in between (the above 3 among them).
All of the 5 I'd marked as "Top tier" and 7 of the 8 I actually voted for made it. On the other hand, so did one of my bottom four which I had simply listed under the heading "If you can't say anything nice...".