Abandoned stronghold

[SJS]

I'm working on a new D&D adventure for my kids, and the general outline is that a long-dead wizard's stronghold has been discovered, but it is impenetrable due to a magical door that requires 3 keys for entry. So it will be a 4-part adventure with the fourth part being the wizard's stronghold (looking for whatever treasures may have been left behind) pending success on the first 3 adventures to track down the 3 keys. These are rumored to be in the stronghold of the old wizard's 3 apprentices, also thought to be long-dead.

The climax of each of the three preliminary key quests will be the key room itself, which will require a puzzle to be solved to earn the key in question. Since we don't usually get a lot of time to play I was trying to make the 4 adventures all bite-sized, though in this first stronghold I made a few more rooms than I'd wanted to. Can't help myself. Here's the WIP of the first stronghold:

CaPhkiR.png

As I'll make clearer when I work more, the "front" of the building is up on a high hillside, reachable only by steep switch-back trails. Much of the structure is embedded in the hillside, though the front areas are set outside. The semicircular area in the front (bottom) is a patio overlooking the valley. Most of the front rooms are kitchen, meeting areas, servant quarters. The area back left will be behind a locked door and are the apprentice's workrooms. The area behind the secret door is a burial chamber and the key room (the puzzle involves the murky water there). To the right side is the bedroom suite of the apprentice, which will be elevated over the garden area which is exposed to the sky (and thus may have some wild creatures at this stage). The garden area had been used to grow herbs for potions, etc.

I'm making this map in Photoshop, unhiding lower layers by painting black on a layer mask. I'm not sure the combination of the semi-realistic garden makes sense with the schematic style of the rest of the map, but I don't care, I'm having fun with it. Obviously I still will be adding doors and other interior symbols along with a clearer representation of the area outside.

[SJS]

A minor update with some furniture and doors. The areas with pillars are holding up a roof and are open to the outside or to the garden area. The stairs show the climb up to the master's suite, which contains one open room above and overlooking the garden.

yuQMP2i.png

[madcowchef]

Looks fun! You might want to play with the background, trying a light parchment or a couple of other options, I'm not convinced that the black leather like surface is adding a lot to the map. If you want to unify the map a simple floor texture would make the interior more in line with the outside garden without much work (though I don't think that's necessary and agree wholeheartedly with you intention of simply having fun with it). Kids certainly posses more than enough imagination to enjoy some good old D&D!

[SJS]

Looks fun! You might want to play with the background, trying a light parchment or a couple of other options, I'm not convinced that the black leather like surface is adding a lot to the map. If you want to unify the map a simple floor texture would make the interior more in line with the outside garden without much work (though I don't think that's necessary and agree wholeheartedly with you intention of simply having fun with it). Kids certainly posses more than enough imagination to enjoy some good old D&D!

I had been thinking of that black as just a placeholder for now. However, I'd been thinking of dark colors, but now that you mention it, a light, maybe brownish parchment might look better. The trick is going to be trying to indicate what parts of the structure are built back into the hillside and what parts are exposed. My PS skills may not be up to that challenge, but I may try to go with a dark rock for the former and a light parchment for the latter.

[SJS]

The latest WIP - I'm not happy about the walls of the compound (too thick, weird texture) and I'd like to set off the building from the background better. Also, I'm still struggling with how to indicate the parts of the building that are buried in a hillside.

miYRVQB.png

[Bogie]

Use more shadows to outline your walls as I did for the rooms on the left side, and use a dark rock texture to fill in the hillside.

My Quicky version of that:
miYRVQB.png

[SJS]

Thanks for the suggestions Bogie. I took your suggestion about placing a shadow around the internal walls. I went in a slightly different direction with the rock - rather than show a "slice" through the hill, which would be rock or dirt, instead I decided to slice only where the floorplan was, and instead show the hill from the top view. After all, my PCs won't be walking around in the rock, but conceivably they could climb the hill behind and above the stronghold.

I also had a mini-inspiration looking at the tile floor of my bathroom, where a design is made from a double-line. I thought that would be a cool way to indicate the external wall of the stronghold. So, after first making it thinner, I added an interior division for the external wall. I like the look.

Finally, I left as-is the dark area around rooms 22 and 23. My thinking was that that area was originally carved out from the wall, then filled in later with rock.

As0UBAj.jpg

[SJS]

Here's the latest (final?) version. I put a little depth on the garden ponds and a little elevation variation on the hill. For some reason my previous uploads didn't have good definition of the trees/bushes - not sure why since I could see it on my screen. Something in the conversion to jpg/png. In any event:

5negF6L.jpg