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After watching the animated Green Lantern: Emerald Knights last night, I had a gaming idea.
The Order of the Emerald Mask - an order of Paladins who patrol the spaceways (I’m thinking probably Spelljammer), battling evil. They wear masks that look to be carved from emeralds. These masks would give them the ability to fly and survive in space for a limited amount of time. Maybe the masks would offer more powers as the character progresses in levels.
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I’ve been trying to dial back on my map making this year. Don’t want to burn out on it. That said, my recent rereading of REH Conan stories inspired me to make some major changes to the Main Continents map
I use to organize many of my other maps.
One of the big changes I made was adding several hundred square miles of land, most of which is taken up by The Steppe Lands. I also made a bunch of changes to various island groups - deletions, additions, and moves. There have also been a bunch of minor changes over the last year or two. Mostly geographical, but also adding or moving cities/towns/etc, or adding roads & trails.
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I’ve also been making changes to the land of Shandura. Some older posters hereabout might recall when visitors to these boards had a shared world website, and Shandura was my contribution.
Anyway, most of my alterations for that have been minor geographical changes, adding new cities & towns, and connecting places with roads.
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Last October, I experimented with a couple of different map styles to create a small(ish) island realm I named Far Habad. I was never very happy with any of the previous versions, so the other day I started to revisit it. I tried a few more maps styles, until I hit on one this morning I found acceptable.
In my map world mind, Far Habad was settled by refuges from bad times in the land of Shandura (which has Near Habad of its northwest coast). The settlers named it, and that name stuck. Even when the island was later visited by folk from the west.
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I’ve been cutting back on my map making this year, but the other day I came across a real world location that piqued my interest - Lake Tamblingan, Indonesia. It’s got some really cool looking temples/shrines built around it.
In game terms, I could see that as some remote lake, with shrines built around forming a sort of protective barrier around the lake. Maybe to keep something out. Maybe to keep something in. Maybe a bit of both.
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One thing that I’ve found CC3+ a bit lacking in - stuff for ice and snow. Specifically, there aren’t a lot of bitmap fills for ice/snow. Nor are there really any symbols for stuff made out of ice.
Still, what little there is (coupled with some color changes) I used for a map called The Fane of Winter. It’s a temple for a winter goddess, which I tried to show as being made out of ice.
It came out okay. Probably could have been a lot better if I’d spent more time on it. Might revisit it one day.
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Took a few days, but I finally finished that new map. The way I see it, this evil magic user type capture a Phoenix, bound it to himself so he could share in its immortality……hilarity ensues.
Much like the Tower of the Elephant which inspired it, this one’s surrounded by a walled garden. The garden is patrolled by wild beasts which come from an underground lair through a hidden tunnel. The topmost level has some other deadly guardians. Right below that is the chamber holding the imprisoned Phoenix. Beneath that is a level with at least one meditation chamber.
There are other levels as well. The tower has eleven of them, plus the underground. Among some of the other locations are acolyte cells (minions), a harem level, a gallery, and at least two libraries.
All in all, it came out okay. I may go back and actually put in some furniture later.
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I hadn't planned it, but ended up doing a new continent map today. This one is kind of a combination Indonesian Archipelago and Australia, but as one land.
I had only intended to start it today, but got into it and finished this first version. It's still a work in progress, however. I only added a few locations names. No cities, towns, or strongholds.
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Saw an article this morning that said D&D’s sensitivity readers have pushed a change to get rid of “half-“ races. So no more half-elves, half-orcs, and such. The idea is those kind of mixed-blood characters are offensive to someone.
I guess we can also say either goodbye to sorcerers, or get rid of the bloodline stuff. Seems to me, that would be equally “problematic”.
It makes me a little sad, but in the end, I guess it doesn’t really bother me all that much. I don’t see myself buying any more D&D products anymore because I don’t game anymore. And I don’t see that changing any time in the near future.
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I recently acquired two more books in the History of World Architecture series. One of them was volume 2 of Oriental Architecture, primarily covering China, Korea & Japan.
So my most recent map, which I finished yesterday, was a Pagoda - The Pagoda of the Four Heavenly Thrones. It’s a hollow pagoda, with stairs going up to platforms at the top, where people can climb to get a spectacular view. Simple, but fun to make.
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I watched the old 80s animated film Fire and Ice last night. It got me thinking a cool idea would be a bad guy stronghold made of mystic ice and radiating intense cold. Put it in the middle of a tropical or warm temperate climate, and you’ve got a land of mists surrounding it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had already done something like that. Seems like a cool idea.
Free airconditioning!
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I watched the old 80s animated film Fire and Ice last night. It got me thinking a cool idea would be a bad guy stronghold made of mystic ice and radiating intense cold. Put it in the middle of a tropical or warm temperate climate, and you’ve got a land of mists surrounding it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone had already done something like that. Seems like a cool idea.
Ba-dum-tish!
But yeah, maybe some nutso white dragon has the wild idea that they can freeze the world by taking over some equitorial seamount and using their breath weapon to form a massive glacier on the top of it, leading to massive clouds of mist forming over the island and surrounding waters, as the dragon breathes and breathes, day after day, building their icy monument to the ice age they have convinced themselves they are starting!
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I finally got around to starting another map. This one has been gestating a bit in my brain. It’s a wizard school, inspired by all the recent (the past few months) HP news.
Anyway, my plan for this for an overview map in the city style, since it’s going to be well spread out. Then I’ll try to work in individual maps of the main structures. There are at least three of those.
The first structure is the Headmaster’s Tower. It’s also one of two original structures. It started off as a Roman style lighthouse (largely inspired by the Tower of Hercules in Spain).
The second structure (second of the two originals) was once a small shrine/chapel, but is now a store room.
The third (and largest) main structure will be the main castle itself. For that I’m using an isometric image from my book on Renaissance Architecture as inspiration.
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I did another map last night. This one is based on the Maison carrée, an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes, France. I intended it to be an ancient temple on the grounds of the wizard school I’m developing, something now being used as an old storage hall.
Now, in the light of a fresh new day, I’m rethinking that. I might make the underground level the actual ruins, and the storage hall is simply built over them.
Either way, the map came out pretty decent.
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I finally got around to continuing my maps for my HP inspired wizard school castle. This time around, I started work on the main castle itself. Unlike what I saw with Hollywood, I’m trying to develop it along the lines of what I’ve seen with actual castle construction and evolution. It’s taking longer than I hoped (due to several revisions of the layout), but so far it’s going well. I’ve got a nice mix of medieval and Renaissance styles.
Not sure when I’ll be able to finish it, though.
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I finished up the level 1 map of my wizard school’s main castle. It turned out okay, but I won’t discount making minor changes here and there sometime in the future. I tried to “evolve” the castle, with the idea it was constructed in different phases. So first there was a large keep/barbican, and the walls coming off it to create a courtyard. There were other towers of varying sizes along the wall. Within the courtyard was the great hall, kitchen, and pantry. Later, they built the larger castle connecting off the great hall. And still later, they added a wing onto that larger structure.
In later maps, I detail the expanded castle grounds and other buildings therein. At least one of those will be a Roman-style bath.
I also started and finished another map. This one is of the dungeons beneath the main castle. As with the upper floors, the dungeons evolved along with the buildings they lay beneath. Of course, there are also secret tunnels.
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Well, between last Saturday and today I finished two more maps. Each one is part of my wizard school main castle - levels 2 & 3 respectively. Next up will be level 4, which will only consist of the keep/barbican and the two large towers attached to the main structure.
Those two towers will also get at least two levels beyond level 4. There’s another tower stair I’m considering extending one more level as well. And maybe have it end it a large room at the top of the tower. Maybe I’ll even give that one a couple more levels.
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I added another level to my Wizard School Main Castle. For this fourth level I added a slice of tower into a corner of the courtyard. I then went back to my older level maps and added the same slice. The intention going forward is to continue that slice as part of a greater tower extending up from the main building (by at least two level, probably more).
That will add another tower to the three I was already planning to extend upwards. Those tower extensions will be my next map (or two).
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Ugh. I still haven’t been able to bring myself to do any new maps. It’s been close to 3 months now.
I did have a new idea the other day. Not for a specific map, but for a feature on an overland map.
The Iron Road - kind of like the old Silk Road, but this would have been built by dwarves to connect their various strongholds, cities and mines together. And to connect them to their customers.
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Finally got around to doing a new map. This one was pretty simple and straightforward - The Temple of the Four Riders. My own little homage to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, and a sort of Halloween themed map. I had a lot of fun doing it.
And the Halloween movies I’ve been watching have given me another map idea. I’m hoping to get to that one sometime next weekend.
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On another note - once upon a time I developed a pantheon with a snake god named Yig N’gar. I derived it from somewhere, but can’t recall the exact source. Probably a similar source as the Freeport setting.
Anyway, fast forward to today. As I was logging in to this site, I accidentally started to type “Yagoo” instead of “Yahoo” for my email. That gave me the thought of revisiting the previous deity, and adding him to my current world (the one I use to help organize most of my maps) as Yag N’gar. Or maybe make it all one word - Yagnagar.
Probably the first version, since it goes better with the book I had as background flavor - the N’garran Grimoire.
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Even though the Halloween season is over, I did another Halloween-themed map. I came up with the idea a week or so ago, but didn’t have time to do it until today.
This was inspired by the Hammer horror film Dracula: Prince of Darkness. At the end of that movie, they defeat Dracula by shooting through the ice he’s standing on and drowning him in the water. Combine that with the D&D rules about vampires taking acid damage from running water….
Anyway, the map is Vampire Plagued Town. The town sits along a river, and there’s an island offshore where they bury their dead. In theory, the rushing water of the river would trap vampire spawn (according to D&D 5E rules). Anyway, it was simple but fun.
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Been working on a new version of an older map - The Citadel of Light. It's an angel fortress on the material plane. Over the first to revisions, the idea of it evolved to be something of a cross between a prison and a hospital for those who've been kind of magically cursed.
It's still that, but I'm trying to simplify it more. My last iteration had a lot of mortal stuff associated with it. I'm cutting back on that. And I'm trying to include more angelic symbolism.
Its gonna take awhile, I think. I'm not in any hurry though.
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I’ve been slacking again, but my slacking has led me to a new and (for me) exciting idea.
I had been working on that Wizard School map inspired by the IP That Must Not Be Named, but fell off when I started playing Diablo 4, then The Video Game Which Must Not Be Named. Having finished both of those, I fully intended to get back to that map.
But then it hit me….
See, I keep a rotating pool of background pictures on my work computer. Cool locations and/or ancient architectural wonders such as the Ajanta Caves, Bamburgh Castle, Dubrovnik, the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, among others. I change it once a week.
Recently, I added Mont Saint Michel to that list of pictures, and that’s where the new idea came in. It think that island would make a great Wizard School. The central peak could be the main portion of the school - tower, great hall, maybe the library. Then all the classrooms, dormitories and such could be all around and below it. I’d probably make it a full blown island, with the tides reducing the water level just enough to uncover a bridge from the mainland to the island.
I’ve even got a place picked out for it on the main continent map I use to organize my other maps. And that location already had a magic stronghold. So it’s perfect. It’s density!
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Finally finished the above ground portion of my new wizard school castle maps. The Hexspire itself (central tower) is 15 levels. The surrounding buildings and walls are mostly from one three levels. The exception being the Entry Hall and Great Hall. Both of those are one level each, but the ceilings are high, of course.
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Red Spider Brotherhood - an ancient order of Ninja assassins whose symbol, often left as a “calling card”, is the Red Spider Lily flower. The brotherhood consider themselves servants of the gods, bringing about deaths important to the universe. Thus, they are very particular of whom they accept a commission against. To be chosen by them for death is often considered a great honor and proof of worthiness.