# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Building/Structure Mapping >  Contest Map Entry!

## Gamerprinter

So, I've entered a contest on another site - a private D&D forums site. This contest has Amazon gift certificates as prizes - 1st ($75), 2nd ($50), 3rd ($25).

Contest is in 4 categories - game setting, fantasy short story, create 3 NPC characters and/or "create a map with 25 locations for fantasy setting..."

I actually might place an entry 3 of the 4 categories - not NPC generation. Though you can only win with a single entry.

The map is of a temple, being used by a priestly lich named Lhessadrak. I plan to place this shrine on a smalll islet within a great swamp, accessed by a bone bridge.

WIP so far...  :Smile:

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## ravells

Nice start, and great textures on the walls. I like the hand drawn / computer texture combo! Good luck in the competition and tell us all how you did!

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## RobA

I  like the wall details... I can just imagine the buttresses and the vaults.

-Rob A>

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## RPMiller

Very nice start. I agree about the wall details and the overall shape just screams citadel to me.

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## Gamerprinter

OK, I just created the first octagonal chamber. Though I still plan to hand draw the floor tiles, for now, its just a brick tile texture. Note the bloody cherub, at the top of the Fountain of Blood. This is the center octagonal chamber. More to come...  :Cool:

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## RPMiller

The dissonance of that image is very interesting. The mixture of hand drawn and what I'm assuming is CG make for a strange blend that somehow works once you look at it for a bit. I think that middle ring may be the hardest part to get past though.

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## Gamerprinter

OK, I took away some of the CG, and put in a bit more hand-drawing. I fixed the middle tier of the fountain. I changed the ripple to something more accurate - still CG though. I hand-drew the flooring changed it into a bump map in GIMP, then composited in Xara.

WIP so far...  :Cool:

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## RPMiller

That definitely cut down on the dissonance quite a bit. I think the thing that is bothering me the most is the blood smears on the floor. They should follow the bump map of the stones, and if there is that much perhaps there should be a bit more "flow" to the blood.

Was a body dragged from the fountain? There should be blood on the edge of the fountain as well then.

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## Gamerprinter

I thought about pooling some blood in the gaps between the floor stones. And yes, I should drag some more blood towards the fountain.

This next chamber is called the "Pit Room", and as you see, there's a large and deep pit in the center of this room. Bottomless... I'm not sure. But when the Lich (who is also a vivisectionist) fails in working with a given dead body, he chucks it down the pit...

WIP so far...  :Cool:

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## RobA

That last one picked up some nasty white fringing around your pen lines at full scale.

-Rob A>

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## Gamerprinter

OK, the fountain image, I changed the grout to a lighter grey - I thought the other was way too dark. I also pooled the blood in the grout area only. Its improved.

RobA> rescanned and placed a darker color as the alpha channel background.

WIP so far...  :Cool:

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## RPMiller

Much better. You might consider "washing" the stone tiles with the blood though. Specifically the grooves in the stone would have remnants of the blood and then a very light "smearing" of blood on the flat surfaces, and I think it would be nailed at that point.

That pit is quite intimidating. I hope those body parts aren't still "alive" down there. I feel sorry for the poor sod that ends up at the bottom.  :Shocked:

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## SpamValiant

The pit is great.

On the subject of blood, a thin layer or smear of blood can dry with quite a light colour, but the deeper pools are actually surprisingly dark.

So I'd use light streaks across the top of some stones, with darker poolings between them. 

You can probably find a million images through a GIS of different fluids pooling, to get ideas for natural looking distributions. 

The fountain of course is presumably still fluid so the brightness there is great.

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## Robbie

For blood I always suggest using a very light pink color on a layer set to "Color Burn"  It's like the best blood in the world...especially if you DON'T use a solid color like the example I'm going to post and instead use a light pinkish brown dirt texture on color burn...its REALLY nice.

Check it...one is without color burn, other is with.

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## Gamerprinter

Arcana, I really like that blood - I'll have to give that a try!

For now, here's the Lich's Lair map so far. The chamber to the northeast of the Pit is the "Summoning Chamber" east of that is the "Binding Chamber" holding a nether planar being for enslaved power source...

Thinking about adding a second floor, with access from the "Masoleum - access to lower crypt" the chamber due east on the opposite side of the structure from the "Pit Chamber". I might stairs upward in this chamber.

To give you an idea of scale, each octagonal chamber is 50 feet across.

WIP so far...  :Cool:

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## SpamValiant

It's coming together well, though I think that the pit room would look more effective if the edge of the oubliette had the same flooring as the other rooms...

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## RPMiller

> For blood I always suggest using a very light pink color on a layer set to "Color Burn"  It's like the best blood in the world...especially if you DON'T use a solid color like the example I'm going to post and instead use a light pinkish brown dirt texture on color burn...its REALLY nice.
> 
> Check it...one is without color burn, other is with.


Very nice hint! REPPED!

So do you have the specific color that you like to use for blood? That would be good to add to my color palette.

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## RobA

That one was *cd6653* (ish) (and thanks for repping Arcana - I guess I need to spread it around a bit more...  :Smile:  )

-Rob A>

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## RPMiller

I thought Arcana was hinting that he uses a different color than what he posted above thus the question.

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## Robbie

I usually try to get a good pinkish brown color...really light...I never use the same color...I just pick whatever looks good for my selected stone color...the color in the example above was just picked to show the effect.

Thanks for the Rep...no one hardly ever reps me I think...hehehe

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## RPMiller

I get ya. So it really really depend on the background that you are applying it to? That actually makes a lot of sense in hind sight.

I know exactly how you feel on the rep situation.  :Smile:

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## delgondahntelius

Gameprinter... I want to be you... that is about the best compliment I can give here..  :Smile:

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## Gamerprinter

Now that I have a little time to get back to this other contest map. The break was good, because I'm going a different direction.

I really didn't like the color scheme and some of the chambers created and I hated the floor. I liked my new spider map object and I decided to integrate it with this map. I experimented with a parchment background I think this looks much better.

I'll spend the next few nights doing the chambers and halls - and get this map done. The contest ends June 1st, so I've got to get at it.

WIP so far...  :Cool:

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## GM's Apprentice

GP,
   Do you mind letting me know where the contest is at.  I think I might enter the NPC generation portion (or another one you do not enter)

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## Gamerprinter

> GP,
>    Do you mind letting me know where the contest is at.  I think I might enter the NPC generation portion (or another one you do not enter)


GMA, the contest is at http://www.dndadventure.com

You will need to post a request for admittance in the "Bot Trap", but then you should be able to join and post an entry. Contest has map, short story, NPC builds as categories.

Good Luck!  :Cool: 

Sorry I got the URL wrong - corrected above dndadventure.com is the site!

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## SpamValiant

Love the new style. I've been waiting for an update to this one, but didn't expect it to be so radical :Very Happy:

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## Robbie

I think the change looks quite awesome GP...I LOVE the color contrasts and the hatching.  The hand drawn symbols REALLY pop in this one too.

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## GM's Apprentice

Thanks GP!

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## Gamerprinter

OK, added a few chambers worth of stuff.

Added the summoning chamber between the Pit Vestry and Demon-Spider binding chamber. Directly below the summoning chamber is the Gaol, to hold prisoners and "patients", next room is the start of a torture/vivisectionery chamber.

Oh I changed the altar into a kneeling demon skeletal deity and moved the skull into part of the map title. Also added a byline below. Plan to place a scale bar beneath this.

Opposite side of the main entrance on the far side is a guardian chamber containing 12 skeletal warriors and a skeletal giant, next room contains the vampiric nunnery.

This map will include square grid at 1 square = 5 feet for the contest entry. I will offer a VTT version without grid, and several of the map objects removed.

GP

Moving right along!

WIP so far...  :Cool:

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## Gamerprinter

Not much different than the last post, but I'd say I'm half way done with this map. Although top floor chambers aren't numbered yet, I know which ones they are. Oh the Phylactery Chamber is a false one, the actual phylactery is hidden and protected by the ghost oracle in the last chamber.

I've created the outline for the front elevation illustration of the citadel, and that will be located above the room list on the lefthand side.

I'm still unsure whether to include a square grid or not, I'm hedging against it, and placing a scale beneath title logo, instead.

I plan to create a skeletal bat-like imp as the compass rose at top right.

WIP so far...  :Cool:

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## ravells

I really love the feel of this map. Great work (as always) GP!

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## RPMiller

Agreed. This is coming along swimmingly. I do have a question though. How did they get the giant spider into the room, and perhaps more importantly, how will they get it out?

In a related question, how about the giant skeleton as well?

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## Bohunk

Beautiful.  Love the border the most.  Can't wait to see it finished.

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## Gamerprinter

As I was creating it, I was developing the "whys" and "hows" involved.

First of all, a Lich Priest, probably 20th level or higher with a support staff of mummies, vampires, ghosts and other intelligent undead. Summon spells are extensively used by them.

The Skeletal warriors, all of them large and small, were assembled and animated onsite. Perhaps the skull had to be assembled from multiple plates as they could not fit through the door. However, femurs and humurus could.

The giant skeleton guards the Nosferatu Nunnery, while the normal sized skeletons leave this room to attack any who enter the temple not of the cult that belongs there.

The giant demon-spider was summoned as a small spider say a foot across, bound in the bindery chamber and over several centuries nurtured with human blood, until its too large to get out. The giant demon-spider serves as a conduit to a nether plane for the Lich's needs, Lhessadrak wants to keep the spider bound indefinitely.

Created by the twisted minds of the undead, unfathomable even for me.  :Razz: 

GP

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## RPMiller

Ah ha! Yes, I see the only when into the Nunnery is through that room. Although there isn't much room for the giant to move around, but that just makes it easier to block the door.  :Wink: 

Makes sense concerning the spider as well. That will be one peeved off spider if it ever gets free... a possible ally for our adventurers perhaps?  :Evil:

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## Gamerprinter

Almost done! I've got four more chambers to create, this is coming together nicely. The illustration is proving to be more challenging than I wanted.

I should be complete by tomorrow night.

Anyway, WIP so far...  :Cool:

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## Gamerprinter

Note: on the hallways - though I have no objects in them, they are not the boring corridors they may seem. The walls on either side of any hallway contains the darkest and most powerful spells - ready to copy, pertaining to whatever it's hallway's name (ie: pain, chaos, dispair, death). Also a "Symbol of Pain" in engraved on the floor center of Hall of Pain. Respective symbols are placed in each hallway.

I'll create detailed list of all chambers, they're contents and particulars when I'm completed.  :Cool:

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## Gamerprinter

I'm finally done with this map, that was work too. Especially that illustration - whew! I'm about to submit it to dndadventure.com, and hope it goes well...

Anyway, the completed map below...  :Cool:

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## ravells

Best of luck, GP! I haven't seen the other entries competition, but nevertheless, if you don't win it will be a travesty of justice! (not that I'm biased or anything!)

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## Gamerprinter

In rereading the rules for this contest, I realized I needed to attach a location description file in Word format. In case anyone's curious of what each room contains, even perhaps if you plan to incorporate this into an existing RPG campaign setting - here is the .doc room descriptions...

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## meleeguy

Consider a ragged edge.  Beautiful map.

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## torstan

Yep. It's a stunner. Repped.

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