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Thread: ETCR - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft in DD3

  1. #31

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    I lurk a lot and appropriate great maps for my D&D group - this is amazing. Thank you so much for your effort & kindness in sharing.

  2. #32
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    @johnnywiggle
    I totally understand the dilemma. When I started this, I didn't really...'want to' as much as I became frustrated at a) the inconsistencies, and b) Wizard's idiocy in providing only 'keyed' maps that, if you want to utilize for players, you have to edit anyways. (They finally started posting 'clean' maps in 4e.) Unlike many Ravenloft dms, I actually liked the 3.5 maps. Yes, they are inconsistent but I liked the style. I originally was going to keep all of the floors blue as they had done, but then, well, I just started getting carried away, lol.

    The worst part of the inconsistencies in the maps is that they are so darned minor to casual observation until battle starts and you realize, "hey, the dining room door moved 5 or 10 feet from where it was on the other map, what gives?" It seems like such a little thing until you set the minis down and realize that it changes the tactics quite a bit. Great adventure, just wish they had not rushed it quite as much. Also, if you have not found it already, Fraternity of Shadows has a handy errata sheet for the adventure.

    Stairs. Good grief! Thank goodness I had all three modules to work with. The 1st ed was the best and became the 'go to' map for figuring stuff out. Here is a good way to keep the stairs straight: Draw a mental line from the front entrance all the way to the back chapel, bisecting the chapel. Every spiral stairway NORTH of this goes UP as you walk clockwise. Every spiral stairway SOUTH of this goes DOWN as you walk clockwise. Once that was figured out, I just had to be careful to keep track of which tiles the stairways appeared at, as that was sort of a hodge-podge in some of the side areas. You'll see those areas as you run the game.

    I strongly urge purchasing a flat 23"-24" monitor. $170.00 will get you one and it will pay for itself in a year with ink costs. Projectors also work, but I prefer the under-lighting (especially with some of the miniatures, like Caller in the Darkness, that has a hole underneath that captures the monitor light and gives it a nice, other-worldly glow.) If you're using Maptool, make sure to up the memory usage on the very first small screen that comes up after you click on the icon. It's default is 256 mb which will not load these maps well. I upped it to 1 G and that works nicely, especially on the 3rd floor with the outside walkways.

    CC3 is a great program but has a tough learning curve if you are only used to Windows based programs and have not used a CAD based program before. Like me. But then I found some great tutorials that explained its functions quite well and now I love it. But I would not have attacked this whole thing if I could have found something online that I could use, that is why I HAD to post these when I completed them. I have 'borrowed' more than my share of maps for my game, and it was high time that I paid my dues back to the online community.

    I am preparing another module and doing some map work again after being busy with work for the past year. I am going to figure out why I have not been getting e-mails from this site when someone tries to contact me or adds to this post and correct the problem. If you have any further questions, message me, and I will be checking this site weekly from now on.

    Thanks for your kind words!
    Last edited by Shindig; 12-02-2011 at 03:54 PM.

  3. #33
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Drakecoinus View Post
    I have never had the pleasure of experiencing Castle Ravenloft in any format, but I will defiantly have to look into it now
    hats off and JOB WELL DONE Look forward to seeing more of your work
    Thank you for the kind words! Come to the darkside.
    It's a well made castle with a well made villain. Not one that the pcs read about, meet once, and then battle to the death, but a villain that they meet many times and get defeated and pushed into doing his bidding. The hatred in my game group is seething for this guy. We are just in the last part of it. Two of my players are on their 5th characters for this module. I believe that once they defeat him (if they do, and I hope they do) they will be doing victory dances while their characters jump up and down on his corpse, lol.

    I am back at the map making for a while now. I hope to post soon.

    Again, thanks!

  4. #34
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Blinded View Post
    I lurk a lot and appropriate great maps for my D&D group - this is amazing. Thank you so much for your effort & kindness in sharing.
    No problem! It is about time that I gave back to the site that I lurked myself for years, downloading maps as needed. I am just thankful that people have taken to them so well. I am working on some new projects so I will post again soon.

    Thanks!

  5. #35
    Community Leader Bogie's Avatar
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    Great set of maps Shindig! Nice work.
    It was also fun spotting a number of pieces I had posted on the Dundjinni Forums in your maps. The first one that caught my eye was the round table in front of the fireplace. (and the floor in front of the fireplace uses the same original photo I took, it was a tiled floor in a hotel lobby, then I made a table out of it.)

  6. #36
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Bogie View Post
    Great set of maps Shindig! Nice work.
    It was also fun spotting a number of pieces I had posted on the Dundjinni Forums in your maps. The first one that caught my eye was the round table in front of the fireplace. (and the floor in front of the fireplace uses the same original photo I took, it was a tiled floor in a hotel lobby, then I made a table out of it.)
    Thank you twice then, sir! Once for the compliment and one large one for posting your artwork for me to utilize! I used two main libraries besides the library that comes with CC3: Shessar's Map Art Collection (SMAC) and a Maptool art set that I am not sure who compiled, so one or the other probably included your work somehow. Glad it could come back to you in a format you enjoy. Thanks again!

  7. #37

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    I know this thread is 6 months silent at this point. But I wanted to give it a bump due to it being a fantastic one. Thank you for doing these maps. I ran the first module when it came out and have every rendition produced through out the years. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this project.

  8. #38
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    I know it has been a while, but I have finally broke in my new pc and am busy once again with building maps. I have completed the Garden of Graves which my players have recently finished, but only the first chapter of the whole book. You can find this in the Virtual Tabletop/Battlemap Mapping forum. That is probably where this should have been placed, but I am not going to attempt to move this thread.

    I have also completed a darker, more earthy version of King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, which I will be posting soon. That will probably be posted in this forum.

    Enjoy!
    Last edited by Shindig; 08-23-2012 at 09:09 AM.

  9. #39

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    I have access to huge printers and small color printers both....what size should i print this out to so i can lay them out for miniatures while we play? Please help!

  10. #40
    Community Leader Bogie's Avatar
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    Most people play that 1 inch = 5 ft. At that scale, the close up map on post 2 should be printed as 34 inches wide.

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