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Hello everyone,
Some of you probably know that I'm already mapping several locations for the Skinsaw Murders, and posted many on the community created content thread, but I think this is a big enough project to warrant its own thread (rather than hijacking what is supposed to be an indexing thread).
I want to welcome everyone so post on this thread any comments or battlemaps that you have done for the Skinsaw Murders too. Hopefully, Gr4ys will continue to catalog updates on his thread to have a concise place for all content (map, models, handouts, etc).
Without further ado, here is all of my content for the Skinsaw Murders:
http://4e.educatedgamer.net/Home/rotr/Skinsaw-Murders
If you'd like a more graphical layout, check out my gallery: http://educatedgamer.net/gallery. Click on Map Sets, then Rise of the Runelords: Skinsaw Murders. Individual maps are discussed below.
IF IT'S BLUE, It's a link!
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Player Handouts - Stained Glass Windows & Notes
Since these play such an important role in the symbolism, are described in great detail, and are clues to the overall story, I decided to render these out. Keep in mind that they use copyrighted art - these are just for personal use and I hope that I modified them enough to arguably create a new work. Don't sue!
FARMS
Hambley Farm
This is the simple farmstead where the party has a big fight. This map actually steals 2 maps from some old ones I found on the web a long time ago (the barn and the house interior). I did not map those! If they are yours, please let me know, since I have long since forgotten where I got them, and would like to give credit.
Cornfield 1
Cornfield 2
Cornfield 3
Cornfield 4
Just some basic cornfields (nighttime). Really basic.
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Misgivings Level 1 (grounds and house - medium res: 100dpi)
You can follow the link in the description to get the full 200dpi file. Warning: it's 8000x5000 pixels.
Misgivings Level 1 (just house, 200 dpi)
Cropped to reduce file size and focus on the interiors. I tried to follow most of the module's descriptions to the letter, and had to create a lot of custom objects. I had a great time with the mold & fungus everywhere. This was the beginning of an obsession...
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Misgivings Level 2 (200dpi)
This was a difficult map because I made several adjustments to hue/saturation on the 1st level that I never documented, so getting this one to like the same house as the 1st (in terms of color and lighting) was difficult. Lesson Learned: TAKE NOTES
That's awesome! Makes me a little sad that I've already played through this adventure.
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Misgivings Level 3 (200dpi)
Brain... Turning... Into... Pudding...
Geez, this house is going to be the death of me. Lots of work on this level to get the holes in the floor right. I also had some tricky lighting areas and the roof... gah.
Anyways, several hours and lots of Midnight Syndicate, Nox Arcana, Castlevania, and Dracula Soundtrack... plus coffee. Lots of coffee - and I'm done! :-P
Now I just have to delve into the basement... **shivers**
Awesome work sir!
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Misgivings Basement (200dpi)
The basement is a pretty dark and disgusting place, covered in rat droppings and mold. I struggled with whether or not I should put any lights, but the map looked pretty bland without them, so I added glow-fungus throughout. besides, I had already set the precedent on the 1st floor. The staircase down was particularly challenging but fun.
Reminder: Don't forget to check the link at the beginning of the post for all the stained glass images, for your players
Uniformly excellent. Where are you going from here, tintagel?
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Well, we game tomorrow (today, actually - it's past midnight) - and I just hope they don't go down into the caverns yet. Luckily, we are just starting Skinsaw Murders today, so I don't think they will get that far.
I still have to map the caverns, then I am taking a bit of a break from mapping probably. I'm considering constructing the clocktower in 3D using Sketchup, but I'm not sure yet.
Scott, I just finished looking at your Misgivings conversion information and WOW... It's a complete lifesaver. Thanks a thousand times.
P.S. Karui.... LOL!
Well, we game tomorrow (today, actually - it's past midnight) - and I just hope they don't go down into the caverns yet. Luckily, we are just starting Skinsaw Murders today, so I don't think they will get that far.
I still have to map the caverns, then I am taking a bit of a break from mapping probably. I'm considering constructing the clocktower in 3D using Sketchup, but I'm not sure yet.
Scott, I just finished looking at your Misgivings conversion information and WOW... It's a complete lifesaver. Thanks a thousand times.
You're welcome! Good luck, and don't stress too hard about running the Manor. It tends to run itself pretty well. I'd almost suggest letting your DMing fade into the background a bit, so that it seems like the party is up against the Misgivings rather than dealing with you, the DM.
Player Handouts - Stained Glass Windows & Notes
Tintagel is the figure in the broken stained glass window the king from a well known BBC adaptation of a fantasy classic?
Player Handouts - Stained Glass Windows & NotesTintagel is the figure in the broken stained glass window the king from a well known BBC adaptation of a fantasy classic?
I should have mentioned they are also great, thanks for all your efforts.
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Tintagel is the figure in the broken stained glass window the king from a well known BBC adaptation of a fantasy classic?
Heh, yeah he is. The stained glass windows were "value adds" and blatant Google Image Search ripoffs, but my players will appreciate them. None of them have seen much BBC stuff either. The sorceress in the stained glass is also very well known, I'm afraid.
You will also notice that I added a new version of the Iesha painting. The one in the module is great, but it just didn't match the description of this young, beautiful gypsy woman. That one seemed much more... matronly? I dunno, but the one in the module looked like she could break me in two...
At the request of my wife (of all things), I substituted a picture of Monica Belluci (Matrix, Brotherhood of the Wolf) instead.
Iesha Redux
I also find that it makes the revenant that more horrifying, since it's a larger contrast to what you see in the painting (the module one looks mean already, LOL).
You will also notice that I added a new version of the Iesha painting. The one in the module is great, but it just didn't match the description of this young, beautiful gypsy woman. That one seemed much more... matronly? I dunno, but the one in the module looked like she could break me in two...
Totally agree about the picture and I always have time and space for Monica Belluci... always
I am depressed that I've already run through all of this twice....
Sigh...
I hate you for doing such amazing work and being exactly one step behind me. I found your postings for this the night after I ran the first two thirds of Foxglove Manor. For the upcoming game, I need the caverns and the sawmill. Looks like I'm relying upon my considerably less formidable talents for this...
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I hate you for doing such amazing work and being exactly one step behind me. I found your postings for this the night after I ran the first two thirds of Foxglove Manor. For the upcoming game, I need the caverns and the sawmill. Looks like I'm relying upon my considerably less formidable talents for this...
Ah, I'm sorry Thantrax. I'm currently in a topsy-turvy stage in my life. My job is going away as of June, so I'm hunting for one, but still working. I'm trying to get a small startup off the ground (mapping related) so that I can approach Paizo about doing just this kind of work as a 3rd party developer. And I'm also doing some free work for Mindgene, the company that makes d20pro VT software. Oh, and I have a wife and wonderful 16 month old girl.
I'm afraid that I have a harder time justifying free map work, so I'm really focusing on the real juicy ones that I want to see for my own personal reasons. That said, I hope to work on the catacombs a bit tonight, but that might be too late for you.
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So I love these maps. As the areas pop up, I plan to print out each one in full on cardstock and make use of them, ala veector's method. However, they are lacking a grid, which is fine, that's easy enough to make. As opposed to making a full blown grid, I opted for slightly more picture-friendly 'crosses', to keep as much of the map visible as possible (as they are very pretty).
Anyhow, I just did the underwater sea cave for now as the players are approaching thistletop, but plan on doing something similar to the Mansion in Skinsaw as well. I'll keep them up on my site, though if tintagel would prefer to keep them on his area, I'd be happy to email them to him for hosting purposes.
Some may note I also shrunk the map down from its original huge size, only to match the grid-inch size that was used in the AP's map. The original map was about 60-65' wide at the largest point, when it is only supposed to be 45-50' or so.
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Thanks Karui!
I intentionally enlarged that cave a bit to have a bit more maneuverability in the possible fight. My players didn't even fight the Chuul down there (4E conversion). :-(
If you want, I can create an account for you on my site, so you could post your own content there - it's meant to be a collaborative site, and frankly I was hoping that our Community Created Content could all be hosted there in one place. But either way, if you want access, just say the word. You could then upload the files or even link to them.
Of course, I could do that for you if you feel more comfortable that way. Just let me know.
Btw, the invite goes for anyone on these boards.
The last of Misgivings is done:
I was preparing for today's campaign last night and I realized, to my horror, that I didn't ever map this, so I burned the midnight oil and got to mapping furiously. I wish I could have spent a bit more time on it, but... meh.
Your maps have been a godsend. We use maptool with grid, so to get the grid to work properly with scanned maps (really maps pulled from the PDFs) is a lot of work. Other than resizing to my preferred resolution, I can just plug in your absolutely GORGEOUS maps and run them fine.
I really appreciate your hard work, since it's saved me hours of getting lesser quality maps to work right.
But I wish Paizo would include/offer raw image files of the maps for people who use virtual tabletops to import. A zip file with the maps in JPG or PNG (preferably unlabeled players maps) would be awesome.
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Thanks for the compliments. I agree that there needs to be some sort of solution. Maybe I can help contribute to that solution, but we'll see.
I went ahead and did a VERY basic map of Foxglove's Townhouse. I basically converted the existing map as faithfully as I could. I didn't put in any extra details (like scattered books or damage to the house), as I focused entirely on speed mapping and simplicity. This has the secondary benefit of making the map reusable for other adventures!
It's at lesser scale (100 dpi) and is, in my opinion, the standard quality that I would expect for most maps in an Adventure Path (if a third party were selling them). My thoughts are that these maps can be created fairly quickly and could make the bulk of combat maps, with one or two High Quality maps per adventure.
Anyways, here are the links:
* Foxglove Townhouse Level 1
* Foxglove Townhouse Level 2
* Foxglove Townhouse Level 1
Note that I'm now hosting my maps at Creative Gremlins.com. This is a small company that I've help start which focuses on getting together independent artists and content producers to sell their RPG materials. Of course, we will have free stuff for the fans, like these maps.
Creative Gremlins looks great. Fantastic job.
