# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Virtual Tabletop/Battlemap Mapping >  Maps for Hoard of the Dragon Queen

## Torgaard

Ok, so I'm taking a group through Hoard of the Dragon Queen.  Thought I'd post the maps I've got so far and maybe my WIP's as well.

Here's the first few I made.  I changed up the module a little and decided to have my players enter the town in the NW corner of the Greenest map (see the module), and ran the "Seek the Keep" initial encounter here.  Basically they come in from the west along that small street in the NW corner.  The fleeing villagers come running _from_ the north, down the street that runs north-south, and put their backs to the home that's not on fire in the SE corner of the map.  Had my kobolds spill onto the map from the direction they came and we were off to the races.  Worked out great.  I even through in a random encounter after the dust settled that came at the party from the direction they entered the map.  Players had a great time!

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## Torgaard

This map I whipped together after we wrapped our session on the first one.  It's the next encounter on the path the party started to take to reach the keep.  Roughly south-southwest of the first one (above).  We'll be using this map tomorrow.

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## Torgaard

Here's my version of the keep.  It's not really to scale.  I kinda made it a bit on the smallish side, but ah well.  Plan on changing up this encounter as well.  Party will enter the map from the NW and make a break for the keep, though they'll have to fight through maybe a dozen kobolds.  I'll have the mini-boss they're _supposed_ to come out and duel a little later (a completely absurd encounter that's actually designed to make the player fail, which really had me shakin' my head when I read it) come rolling in behind the party with like 20 more kobolds and chase them into the keep.

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## Torgaard

This will be the map for one of the first missions: "The Old Tunnel"

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## Torgaard

Currently working on another of the missions called "Sanctuary", where the party heads to the church on the east end of town to rescue some villagers trapped there.

Here's what it looks like on the Greenest map (not much to go on):



Here's what I got so far.  I plan on having a burning wagon or something outside the church to the northeast to account for the orange light coming through the windows.  Not sure how this'll work out.  We'll see I guess:

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## Kennyt

Hey these maps look great - keep em coming!  I just finished running both my groups through these encounters and wish i would have caught these before!

Critiques:
The Keep -  I would add an artistic license and add a partial "gatehouse" to the keep with the sally port shown, that way you could use the same map for that encounter as well.  and maybe a stair or ladder for players to climb up during the dragon encounter.   In order to make the encounter more fun i added a beat up ballista and catapult that intrepid adventurers could repair to have a better chance of driving the dragon off.

The church - most of the encounter seems to fall outside of the church so i'd expand the canvas and add some outside terrain.

all in all, great work!

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## Jacktannery

Great maps Torgaard. I love your lighting and contrast.

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## Torgaard

Thanks guys, and thanks for the tips!  I'll try to post some WIP shots this week.

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## Owen Guthrie

Thanks Torgaard,

These are great. If only I had known! I should have looked. I just ran the first chapter of HotDQ last Friday. I would have borrowed these had I seen them - they'd have been nice on our overhead projector/digital mapping table. I'll be watching here to see if you create any for the next chapter! The Raider Camp!!

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## Torgaard

Ok, after a bad computer crash and alot of data and rebuilding and just plain old other stuff pulling me in other directions, my 5E campaign recently started up again and I had to hurriedly slap together something to make the Sanctuary map semi-usable.  This is absolutely not a finished map, but it's what I used for the encounter.  The party has moved on, so I may not get back to this map, but thought I'd at least post it if anybody can use it in it's current state:

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## Torgaard

What I started working on next was the 1st (possible) encounter in Episode 2.  The "Stragglers".  I'm kinda going overboard here and I don't know why I'm going this big with a map that _probably_ won't be needed:



I'll edit this post with an updated map when I finish it.

Edit: updated on 3-14-15, this is now a map for the 1st encounter in Episode 2 "The Stragglers".

Kinda wanted to add more ground clutter as I wanted it to make it seem like our stragglers decided to stop and rummage through a chest or two, etc but this will have to do.

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## David Curtis

These are great.  I've been looking everywhere for maps to cover these areas and love them.  Can I ask what software your using, I tried to do the same thing in Dungeon Designer 3 but wasn't able to get the path and lighting to work correctly and I would love to create and share with the community as well.

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## Torgaard

> These are great.  I've been looking everywhere for maps to cover these areas and love them.  Can I ask what software your using, I tried to do the same thing in Dungeon Designer 3 but wasn't able to get the path and lighting to work correctly and I would love to create and share with the community as well.


Thanks! 

I'm using Photoshop CC (Creative Cloud). It's a steep learning curve if you're new to it, but it's incredibly powerful once you get rollin' with it. It's cloud based now, so you can pay Adobe $10 a month and you're off to the races.

Stay tuned, as I'm gonna start in on the "Rearguard" map now. Gonna try to have it done in a few hours (which is when our session will start).

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## Torgaard

Ok, well this is kind of a hot mess of incomplete, unfinished color/brightness/hue/saturation adjustment, etc - but session starts in an hour. Gotta prep.

This is my version of the "Rearguard" map. If the party doesn't reach this encounter this session, maybe I'll come back and finish it.

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## Torgaard

Just wanted to get this one posted before our next session starts. My version of the HotDQ Dragon Hatchery. The party should definitely hit the Dragon Hatchery tonight. Not to sound like a broken record, but once again I didn't exactly finish this one. Sorry.



I did change some things (I often change ALOT when I'm using a published adventure). Notably, room 9 - the "Dragon Shrine" is pretty different. I didn't go with a polished stone look to everything, and I added a (kinda cruddy) statue in the SE corner of the room that's meant to look like Tiamat kinda comin' outta the wall over a large dias, etc. The chest is in front of the statue.

Anyway, enjoy!

Edit: Whoops, forgot the carpet to cover the hole in room 11.

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## Bruno Darko

Hey mate! Thank you so much for making the maps avaiable! I've been using them every week on my campaign! 
I've caught up on your releases, can you give some info about what are the maps that you gonna release next, and when it's going to happen? Thanks!  :Very Happy:

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## Torgaard

> Hey mate! Thank you so much for making the maps avaiable! I've been using them every week on my campaign! 
> I've caught up on your releases, can you give some info about what are the maps that you gonna release next, and when it's going to happen? Thanks!


My group is in the middle of the Dragon Hatchery right now, so I don't know that you'll see another map this week. Maybe next week, but I don't know that it'll be a map that's straight from the adventure.

Part of the problem is going to be that we're getting to a part of the module that I don't care for too terribly much. I do this with pretty much all published adventures - I use them as a foundation, take the ideas I like, and toss the ones I don't (which is sometimes alot of them). A couple examples with this module are that I'm probably going to send them west to Baldur's Gate after the Dragon Hatchery (which is pretty much in keeping with the module), but then I think I'm going to shift gears into an ocean adventure. Never had a water adventure before, so that might be fun. Bad guys will take a ship to Waterdeep, party will be a few days behind on their own ship, etc. Then the adventure is gonna park in Waterdeep for awhile. Possibly quite awhile, as I'm going to send the bad guys into the depths of Undermountain (always wanted to do an adventure in Waterdeep, the Yawning Portal, and Undermountain as well).

As of right now, I intend to make maps for the following locations from the module, though in my particular campaign they might come at different places, etc:

A road encounter map or two - At least one of these will probably come next.Carnath Roadhouse - A couple weeks from now. Maybe?Might do a city map of Elturel. Dunno. Might be biting off more than I have time to chew.Might see one or two battlemaps of city streets, buildings all around, etc. Will probably be for Waterdeep, but could be used for any city adventure.Castle Naerytar - Might be months from now. Might not come at all. We'll see where the adventure takes us.

I might swing the adventure back to Parnast and the Well of Dragons towards the end, but I dunno. I can say that I definitely will not be doing Skyreach Castle, as that section of the module got a little too fanciful/improbable for me.

Sorry, that might be more answer than you expected!

Oh, and thanks! If others can maybe have some fun with their games using these maps - mission accomplished.  :Smile:

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## StoicLoofah

Hey Torgaard, just wanted to chime in and say thanks a ton for the maps! I used them for the first chapter, and they were a big hit with my group. I hope your group appreciates them just as much!

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## Yagaku

Hey! I really liked these maps! I'd liketo know what are the scales you're using for these maps. I mean, how many feet are there in each size of each map and how can I calculate this number?

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## Torgaard

Thanks!

The scale is basically 50 pixels = 5'.  I typically put a little 50pixel x 50 pixel square somewhere in the image (usually near a corner) to be a guide for putting a grid on the map, particularly if you're using Fantasy Grounds.

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## Nolpbest

Torgaard, these are amazing maps! Great work. Which software do you use to make these? im interested in making my own for HOTDQ and was hoping i could emulate your style. 

Thanks

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## Shadesmahna

I'm with the others! Thank you so much for these maps. the lack of map resources for the first episode of HotDQ is disappointing to say the least, but then frustrating when you try to find some online too. Your work is great, and these are going to help so much!

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## Torgaard

Whoops, sorry guys - didn't see your posts till now.  And thanks!  I hope to get back to makin' some maps soon.  Oh, and I use Photoshop CS6.   :Smile:

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## bighairycamel

I had to register just to say how amazing these are.

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## Steavon Taylor

Hey Torgaard, I'm loving the work you've done so far! 

Are you planning on making any more maps for your campaign? I'm doing the campaign as well and your maps are gorgeous and I'd love to use ones for Castle Naerytar and later chapters to enhance my gameplay.

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## hahamiso

It's really unfortunate he didn't do a tutorial  :Frown:

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## ddziadula

Thank you for the battle maps.  I'm sure my players will appreciate them as well.

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## Excoriation

These are very beautifully done and just what I was looking for for visuals to supplement my campaign! Thank you!

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## McDeath

Thats some amazing lighting and fire.  Almost makes me thing of some CRPGS.

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## Fiendrunner

Thanks for the great work. 
I have bought so many maps for other modules from Mike Schley and others, figures the one campaign I end up in, there isn't any maps for. 
My DM will use these to great effect. 

Thanks again.

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## XCali

> This map I whipped together after we wrapped our session on the first one.  It's the next encounter on the path the party started to take to reach the keep.  Roughly south-southwest of the first one (above).  We'll be using this map tomorrow.



Love your maps. Great job on them. I was just wondering what textures/patterns(same difference  :Razz:  ) you used for the grass and the ground in these maps? It looks amazing. (The first maps you posted in this thread.)

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## Niztael

Just curious if you have any, I really enjoy the landscape work.

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## houseofdexter

Really like your work...

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