# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Dungeon/Subterranean Mapping >  Under the Mountain

## Jaxilon

So I am in need of some underground maps for a game session and had an idea I wanted to try for creating it.

This is my GM map and so doesn't have a lot of extra fluff but who knows how far I'll go with it. It probably depends on how well things go.

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## Jaxilon

Added some ruins, expanded the lake, Lost tombs, Laketown, plus various labels and touch ups. Tossed a color overlay to get rid of the snow white look.


I know I planned this as a quick mapping exercise to see how the method might work out as well as provide a reference for a location in my campaign but now I can't leave it alone.  I think I'm going to work on carving out a bit more of a city in there now and I'm caught up imagining what the locations within here might look like. I'm thinking to add some illustrations but we'll see.

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## Jaxilon

Adding more ruins and building up the story. 

It does seem really quiet in here...almost like I'm all alone. I feel like maybe this either sucks or folks don't know where I'm going with it so don't have anything to say. 

For any who care about the story behind this: The dwarf in our campaign wants to go looking for gold in a cave they came across during our last session. (I say last and it's sad to say but that goes back about a year now).
I'm planning a cave in that will cause him to fall into an old mining cart that will launch down a track. While he gains his footing and attempts to figure out what just happened it will continue to build up speed.
You never know what a player is going to do but in my imagination I see it like a movie scene. 

He'll be flying down the tracks through the darkness and when he gets a chance to look he'll realize he's basically flying through space because the tracks are WAY up and he can't see the ground. To top that off everything is old as heck so the rails aren't in good shape and the wooden structure will be loosing pieces behind the cart as he flies along. He'll probably find the break handle at some point but those aren't in good repair either. In fact, I'm sure I'll have some saving rolls in there to compensate for an area of dead mans curve where the inside rail is broken free.  

Surviving that, a bit of light will soon be seen up ahead as the final stop for our cart comes into view.
If he's pulled the break handle by now sparks will be showering out behind the cart but it's not going to stop because the brakes are shot. Plus, most likely the brake handle will have snapped off from all his wild heaving on it.
At this point the cart will be flying parallel to some small buildings and if he's perceptive he'll notice a bunch of cages with small humanoid creatures in them. A LOT of them. Also, due to the squealing of partially locked breaks and flames shooting out behind the cart he may see some large enemies of a race he knows well rushing to meet him where the cart will stop...forcibly. 

Knowing my player I totally see him taking a stand atop the the cart, Battleaxe and shield at the ready, beard streaming over his shoulders, bellowing for battle at the top of his voice. Why he's going to look like some kind of fiery berserker descending out of the darkness and if he plays it right those enemies will be rolling fright checks.

So, he's totally set to become a hero. If he frees those little denizens who have been forced into slave labor they are going to LOVE him. It'll be a battle but if he wins....LOL.

Of course, after that, he'll still have to find a way out of these uncharted caverns where he will likely pass through all kinds of ruins and battle whatever monsters have found homes therein.
I will probably have one or two of the younger ones follow him all the way back home and adopt him as their guardian. He has got space in the Keep and it'll be interesting to see how that plays out in the future. Maybe they can help him with his tinkering. Oh trust me, they will be helping  :Evil: 

All in all, it seems like an awesome adventure to me but I'll have to let you know how it goes once I get to play it through. Like I said, you never know what will happen but that's how I imagine it.

I have to pick the final location where the Cart will end and the cavern delving begin. The cart and track he arrives on aren't on this map because they start elsewhere and while I do have a poorly drawn image of that map for my own reference the tracks he comes in on won't be in any condition to attempt traversing after his wild ride.

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## MapMappingMapped

It's looking great! I can feel the vastness of the caverns. Looks like lots of work - good luck! And back story is always a clever and fun addition!

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## Abu Lafia

Wow, this is an amazing mine/cavern system Jax!  :Smile:  I agree with MMM, the impression of vastness of the place is awesome and it has a wonderful organic feel to it. The scale and placement of these settlements add a lot to the overall vibe. I really enjoy your colour choice here (as always  :Wink:  ) and the scene you envision together with the map is totally immersive. Brilliant and inspirational work! I'm sure your players will be happy. 
Btw. did you use the gimp script for the contour lines? It looks quite familiar  :Smile:

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## waldronate

You scanned a leaf?

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## Jaxilon

Thanks guys for taking a moment leave comments. 




> Btw. did you use the gimp script for the contour lines? It looks quite familiar





> You scanned a leaf?


Close, Neither, and a leaf? LOL - I bet a leaf would work amazingly well if I had a way to scan it.

As mentioned I was looking for a quick way to create a huge underground environment as I'm going to need a few more of these and I figure that anyone looking to build underground would welcome using an already naturally dug out system so why not try.

So far I've spent three evenings while listening to Critical Role so I'm not sure if it's fast or not but here is what I've done:

1) I have some lightning brushes for Photoshop (downloaded from adobe or somewhere) and change the sizes to punch in a bunch of random-ish looking tunnels. Change the size smaller and larger to connect as many as you want in a way that doesn't repeat to much. I alternated from black to white to build up some texture but don't get too much white over the tunnels you want to expand on.
2) Go back through to make connections where they need to be so you have a nice network of caverns. 
3) Duplicate the webwork once or twice depending on how solid you want things and on one of those new layers select Filter>Stylize>Find edges (this created the 'contour' lines Abu Lafia was refering to). Fiddle around with the layer blending modes to get something you want to work with. I actually have 4 duplicates of the original layer with masks and used Normal, Burn, Screen and Soft light blending modes.
4) use the selection tool and grab some random pathways and/or hand paint on another layer to create different levels (this is the yellow "Upper path" areas). I manually gradiant between the upper and lower path wherever I wanted to connect these. Theoretically you could make many levels doing this using various colors but it would be a bit convoluted if you took it too far.
5) Using layer mask I smoothed out the main cavern floors. By that I mean tone down the contour lines and random stuff left behind by the process so far.
6) Then I just painted in the buildings using square and circular brushes. Usually by putting down white and then black over the top of it to give it depth.

I wouldn't mind putting together a tutorial on this if there is interest, as I do need to create more of these. In  fact, I have a full on Dwarven city I need to do.


In this update I have placed the Mining Village where our hero will begin his unexpected quest. I wonder which way he will head out when the time comes?

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## Jaxilon

Put some floor tile in place. Added some small shacks here and there for encounters, changed labels a bit for bleed and cleaned up the Key panel. Oh, and there is now a back door leading out if someone is fortunate enough to happen across it.

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## bkh1914

A very interesting map with lots of options.
And an interesting way to create it.  I'm going to have to save that idea.

I'm uncertain how to interpret the contour lines.  
Or are they just a decorative effect?

I think you meant Mining Town for the label.

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## Jaxilon

> A very interesting map with lots of options.
> And an interesting way to create it.  I'm going to have to save that idea.
> 
> I'm uncertain how to interpret the contour lines.  
> Or are they just a decorative effect?
> 
> I think you meant Mining Town for the label.


Yeh, the contour lines aren't useful for much. I mean if you wanted to use them for the external portion of the mountain I supposed they might do. On the inner locations, the grey blue and brown portions I use them as you might normally. In other words, they might represent a rock formation that can be ducked behind or a stalagmite. (I'm talking about in the center of the map area for example). Either way within the white coloration areas I don't know what help they are. I may mask them out. I may not do a lot more with this particular map but I do need to make some others like it so hopefully we can improve on the technique.

And thanks for the spelling catch. I've updated that. Also, for my own eyes I actually blew this up twice as big even tho going larger isn't the best way to do something. I just found myself zooming in more than 100% in order to look at it. Good to know for next time.

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## Eri

This looks amazing and so natural for all the cavern networks.. LOVE IT!

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## Jaxilon

> This looks amazing and so natural for all the cavern networks.. LOVE IT!


Thanks Eri. I do like the natural feel myself. I may try this method again at some point. Really glad you like it.

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## DPSEve

I understand I may be a little late to the party, but this map looks fantastic. I believe once upon a time you mentioned a tutorial? As a newbie looking to learn more, I'd be very interested in seeing one.

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## soldier2138

Like when I thought I could play Poker... until I sat in a table with Real Poker Players...  when I looked at your map I realized that I am still playing with Finger Paints.  What program do you use and I read in another response that you might give tutorials..  I have a LOVE of Topo maps (my years in the Army) and I want to cross over Real world maps into my RPG worlds.

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