Despite the complaint on the letters page about isometric maps, the mountainside monastery in Riders on the Storm really needs a supplemental iso-view to make it clear what goes where. With rooms at over a dozen different heights, several dozen stairs connecting them, and no indication on the map of relative room height or which end of each stair is the top end, I have a hard time figuring out the map. Any chance you could include such a diagram in the web enhancement for this issue? Or at least indicate which way the stairs go?
Creative Director
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Despite the complaint on the letters page about isometric maps, the mountainside monastery in Riders on the Storm really needs a supplemental iso-view to make it clear what goes where. With rooms at over a dozen different heights, several dozen stairs connecting them, and no indication on the map of relative room height or which end of each stair is the top end, I have a hard time figuring out the map. Any chance you could include such a diagram in the web enhancement for this issue? Or at least indicate which way the stairs go?
We don't have the budget to commission a new map, unfortunately. As for which way the stairs go, since the only place that has chambers below chambers in the map is the secret passage between areas 3 and 15, it doesn't really matter in the context of the map itself.
Basically, the "ground level" rises as you head south on the map. Listed below are all the encounter areas that occur and their vertical relationship to area 1.
Level –1 (–5 ft. elevation): Area 17j
Level 0 (0 ft. eleveation): Area 1, 17g–17i, 17k
Level 1 (5 ft. elevation): Areas 2–3, 9–15, 17e–17f, 17l
Level 2 (10 ft. elevation): Areas 4, 6–8, 17d, 17m, 18
Level 3 (15 ft. elevation): Areas 5, 16, 25–26, 17a–17c
Level 4 (20 ft. elevation): Areas 24, 27
Level 5 (25 ft. elevation): Areas 19–22, 28
Level 6 (30 ft. elevation): Areas 23, 29–30
Level 7 (35 ft. elevation): Area 31
With permission, I could hammer one out in sketchup pretty quickly.
Thank you James, that helps a lot. Given the group's tendency for highly mobile running battles, I suspect Errol Flynn-style fighting on the stairways will occur at some point, and it's useful to know which end is up for the higher ground bonus, especially in the tricky Area 17. It also lets me calculate how high off the floor the balconies in area 3 are, since I'm pretty sure that either the scout or the swashbuckler is going to want to jump from one to another.
Greg - you can e-mail it to me; I'll host it and post a link here.
The address is zherog at yahoo dot com
::Pause while all the "Computer Guys" out there laugh at me::
Luddite. :)
I wish I could draw that well...
Being "Not a Computer Guy", I have no idea how to do so, but if someone could give me a quick instruction on how to set up a link or would do it if I e-mailed it to them, I have scanned the sketch map of the front elevation that I made to give an idea of the relative heights (which James has painstakingly rendered into list form above).
::Pause while all the "Computer Guys" out there laugh at me::
I don't now if that's feasible or not, but it was an idea I had for what it's worth.
Bravo, Greg. Some of us old 1st ed. geeks still like to draw our maps by hand, and aren't all that fond of the computer drawn ones because they don't give you as much flexibility.
Here we go. Normally when I host images for people, I'll resize things to fit nicely on a screen. I didn't do that with these, though. So be warned - they're kinda big.
And now, I have the mighty Greg Vaughan's e-mail address! Bwahahahaha!!!!1!!!!one!!1!!
And now, I have the mighty Greg Vaughan's e-mail address! Bwahahahaha!!!!1!!!!one!!1!!
Even if he changes his e-mail address, don't sweat. For the proper donation to the Brent Vaughan Retirement Fund, I'll provide not only his physical address, but a list of nice restaurants in the general vicinity.
Oh, and when he says he's "Not a Computer Guy" you can take that to the bank. I had to tell him several times to quit setting out traps for his computer mouse <rimshot>
Bravo, Greg. Some of us old 1st ed. geeks still like to draw our maps by hand, and aren't all that fond of the computer drawn ones because they don't give you as much flexibility.Being "Not a Computer Guy", I have no idea how to do so, but if someone could give me a quick instruction on how to set up a link or would do it if I e-mailed it to them, I have scanned the sketch map of the front elevation that I made to give an idea of the relative heights (which James has painstakingly rendered into list form above).
::Pause while all the "Computer Guys" out there laugh at me::
I don't now if that's feasible or not, but it was an idea I had for what it's worth.
Aside from dice, nothing says RPG to me more than good pad of graph paper ;-)
What about Cheetos and Mountain Dew? :D
I guess i've gotten spoiled with CC2...it's nice being able to make a map that someone besides myself can read. And to put in my two coppers on the isometric versus overhead view....each map can benefit in different ways from different views. if we're given an isometric map, that i think the i'll need an overhead view in practice, i don't have a problem drawing one out. maybe not high art quality, but it's fine by me. And sometimes, the isometric map helps a lot...
even if, as i did one time, i post before i manage to make out all of the details on the isometric map with awkward questions (has the grace to blush)