Underground Waterfall Temple

[Descending Bear]

So, I'm in the process of writing my first fantasy campaign (probably for Fate, but I've been working on the story rather than the stats so far). I've begun the process of making maps. And I'm interested in getting some feedback.

Obviously, I can't ask my tabletop group, as they're going to be my players

The whole campaign takes place underground, but I've started mapping from the bottom up with one of the last areas the players should find: the subterranean cave and temple which is causing a lot of their problems. The concept is of a huge cave which was inhabited by cultists generations ago, abandoned and forgotten, and then re-discovered by accident.

I know I want a few things here:

- The cultists put all their building time into the temple itself, and the rest of their structures were ramshackle huts and pre-existing caves.
- The waterfalls have cut through the rock in the centuries since the cave was abandoned, so they're further back from the temple than they were, and erosion has taken out a couple of the old huts.
- The cult's major goal was kidnapping new slaves/sacrifices for their god, so the prison is important.
- An exploring group (of cartographers, no less) re-discovered the cave by accident, and their camp is still here.
- The temple and prison are in use again, as this group was overtaken by the dormant god.

This was an earlier concept, the entrance is no longer behind a waterfall and I hadn't really thought about erosion yet:



This is the most recent map, which I probably should have done with a grid to start with but oh well:



Both hand-drawn in Photoshop with a tablet. I haven't mapped the temple itself yet.

I'd be really grateful for feedback. Do the maps look good visually, would you as a player be interested in exploring them, are they clear & legible, am I overlooking anything important? Is the location believable? Thoughts on 3d/isometric maps vs top-down maps? And I feel like I have a lot of empty space in the second map, is that a bad thing?

[Jacktannery]

I think these are great!

Do the maps look good visually, would you as a player be interested in exploring them, are they clear & legible, am I overlooking anything important? Is the location believable?

Yes it's excellent. The only thing I find confusing is the colour on the second map, because the greenish shades makes it look like it is underwater and it took me a while to realise I was not looking at an underwater flooded city under the waterfall. Otherwise it's great.

And I feel like I have a lot of empty space in the second map, is that a bad thing?

No I think you have the perfect balance.

[Descending Bear]

Thanks for the feedback. Good point about the colours, I'll play around with them a bit, make the parts that aren't water pop more.

[Bogie]

The waterfall is great!

[Jaxilon]

Really a great job so far. I agree about the coloration on the second. I was looking at it completely upside down until I read that. It's still not bad once you know what you are looking at but after looking at that waterfall, wow, that was just really well done.

Still, I'd say your group is fortunate to have such a talented artist as you and I look forward to seeing more of your work.

Edit: i looked at this again and actually I think what might help more than color is if you indicated the cliff wall continuing on either side of the waterfall. Doesn't have to be a lot of detail either. its just a thought. I like it anyway

[arsheesh]

I really dig them both. They look great. Very whimsical. The font is a perfect compliment to the drawing style as well. Kudos.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh

[Jacktannery]

@Descending Bear, post us an update!

[Descending Bear]

An update!

So I've taken the second map and essentially reversed the bottom half of it, so that the layout makes more symbolic sense to me (the entrance is closest to Shedding, prison to Killing, etc). I also played with the walls a lot, especially the prison and storage areas, so that it looks more like a natural cave that's been squared off in a few places.

And I've begun to lay down some flat colour.



Gonna have a close-up of the shrine in the bottom right corner, and also put some lines or grey/brown colour around the outer edges, to indicate a continuing cave wall as Jaxilon suggested.

[Descending Bear]

(dramatic drum-roll)



I'm fabulously happy with this. But I'm so not doing this for every map in my campaign. I need time to write and eat and sleep as well

[Abu Lafia]

Awesome work Descending Bear! Great layout, fantastic linework and lovely colors... What else to say? Make sure your players won't rough up those cartographer cultists too easy!