# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Dungeon/Subterranean Mapping >  Elder Scrolls Ancestral Tomb.

## Ballamer

My campaign takes place in the Elder Scrolls so I had my party travling into Morrowind where they were tasked with hunting down a necromancer who had taken over this Ancestral Tomb. The map itself took between 6-8 hours I made it in GIMP doing everything by hand with the exception of objects which I just copied and pasted over onto the map thanks to a lovely resource I found online which was filled to the brim of objects, and overlays. The map is 3500 X 3500 and is made with roll20 in mind being 50 X 50 Units.
Any thoughts and criticism would be more then welcome since I am still very new to this.

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## Tenia

I like it, it is clear, precise and not overloaded, what we expect of a vtt map  :Wink: 
Two or three things (my own opinion though)  as you have asked for comments  :Wink:  :
- some dark places on the ground seems to merge with shadows, they may not be essential ?
- I personaly would have placed the cabalistic sign in the center of the room and made it 'round' (it seems oval) but it's a matter of taste
- some objects have a shadow (like the bed and it is perhaps too big) and others not
- where is the entrance ?
Regards

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## Ballamer

> I like it, it is clear, precise and not overloaded, what we expect of a vtt map 
> Two or three things (my own opinion though)  as you have asked for comments  :
> - some dark places on the ground seems to merge with shadows, they may not be essential ?
> - I personaly would have placed the cabalistic sign in the center of the room and made it 'round' (it seems oval) but it's a matter of taste
> - some objects have a shadow (like the bed and it is perhaps too big) and others not
> - where is the entrance ?
> Regards


The weird thing with this map is that it was made with Roll20's Dynamic lighting in mind so I went out of my way to attempt to darken it much more so things would fit better in that way I am not totally sure if it worked out how I wanted but yeah.

The cabalistic sign is not mine at at all and I simply placed it in the room after trying to figure out what to put in it admittedly.

Again not mine and the object came with it's own shadow. Should I of just resided it to be a bit small?

And the entrance is in the top most left room with two pillars. If you look at the farest away wall you can see a door was placed inside the wall a bit  signalling that was the start.

Thank you very very much for your thoughts.

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## tatteredglyph

It's a pretty good map! It shows what you want to show, but the glaringly obvious is what Tenia said. The bed looks out of place, the cabalistic symbol isn't centered on the floor (it personally bugs me, but that's just me) - and on the topic of the symbol, even though you didn't create it, you can surely resize it to your liking? I haven't played around on Gimp in a while, though. So take it with a grain of salt.

Do you mean to say the top left room? As that's the only one with a door. The top right room doesn't seem to have a door, so I'm confused as to where the entrance is. Currently I'm playing Skyrim, so my critique would be to make a symbol and place it at the entrance (like an objective marker or something) that would help. Or make the entrance a pathway, or distinguish it in a different way. You say the entrance has two pillars, but there's two rooms at the top with two pillars.

It's a really solid map outside of those critiques, though! Polish this up a bit more and it'll really shine.

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## Ballamer

> It's a pretty good map! It shows what you want to show, but the glaringly obvious is what Tenia said. The bed looks out of place, the cabalistic symbol isn't centered on the floor (it personally bugs me, but that's just me) - and on the topic of the symbol, even though you didn't create it, you can surely resize it to your liking? I haven't played around on Gimp in a while, though. So take it with a grain of salt.
> 
> Do you mean to say the top left room? As that's the only one with a door. The top right room doesn't seem to have a door, so I'm confused as to where the entrance is. Currently I'm playing Skyrim, so my critique would be to make a symbol and place it at the entrance (like an objective marker or something) that would help. Or make the entrance a pathway, or distinguish it in a different way. You say the entrance has two pillars, but there's two rooms at the top with two pillars.
> 
> It's a really solid map outside of those critiques, though! Polish this up a bit more and it'll really shine.


Thanks for the feedback and you are right did mess up there. I meant the left most room. I just edited and fixed that. As for entrance bit I honestly never considered that. Mostly because it wasn't anything I needed to worry about since I placed the players on the map and everything. But I like the idea to sorta keep track of it.

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## tatteredglyph

> Thanks for the feedback and you are right did mess up there. I meant the left most room. I just edited and fixed that. As for entrance bit I honestly never considered that. Mostly because it wasn't anything I needed to worry about since I placed the players on the map and everything. But I like the idea to sorta keep track of it.


Oh, that would make sense. I don't play D&D, so that thought didn't occur to me. I was thinking strictly digitally as a reference map. But, that would make sense if you were doing a physical map, you'd obviously know where the entrance is. However, I think on a digital medium, a marker to indicate the entrance should be visible. If anything, on digital copies, have the door open to indicate the entrance - something to that affect. That way those of us who don't play on maps like these can easily identify the entrance. Because as someone who doesn't play, often times I look at maps like this and often wonder "where am I entering from" so markers would greatly help those who don't play on maps like these.

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## Ballamer

> Oh, that would make sense. I don't play D&D, so that thought didn't occur to me. I was thinking strictly digitally as a reference map. But, that would make sense if you were doing a physical map, you'd obviously know where the entrance is. However, I think on a digital medium, a marker to indicate the entrance should be visible. If anything, on digital copies, have the door open to indicate the entrance - something to that affect. That way those of us who don't play on maps like these can easily identify the entrance. Because as someone who doesn't play, often times I look at maps like this and often wonder "where am I entering from" so markers would greatly help those who don't play on maps like these.


Funnily enough I do not play physically as well. I use a virtual tabletop and all of my maps are built with that in mind so I can place the players there and allow them to move around with line of sight and lighting. But with that brought up I will definitely look into ways ways to show where the entrance is located for when I do share them here.

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## Bogie

Good map.  Looks like you either found the old DundJinni Forums or the new MapForge Forums where most of the DundJinni art has been moved to.
The bed isn't a great match for the other furniture.  Try one of these instead ( may need resizing ):

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## Mouse

The dungeon is looking great, Ballamer  :Smile: 

And...

Oh Bogie - they're really pretty!

Thank you for sharing them

You marvellous man!  :Smile:

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## Bogie

You're welcome Miss Mouse, but I can only take credit for sharing.  These were created years ago by other nice Dundjinni members.
I did make some beds of my own, but I thought these fit Ballmer's map better than mine.  My beds are a little to neat & clean for a nice gritty dungeon.

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## Ballamer

> Good map.  Looks like you either found the old DundJinni Forums or the new MapForge Forums where most of the DundJinni art has been moved to.
> The bed isn't a great match for the other furniture.  Try one of these instead ( may need resizing ):
> 
> Attachment 100038Attachment 100039Attachment 100040Attachment 100041


Those are great! In fact I was never able to get into the DundJinni forms and I got all of the objects from this link right here. https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comment...gb_archive_of/

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