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Thread: ETCR - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft in DD3

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  1. #1
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Wip ETCR - Expedition to Castle Ravenloft in DD3

    I began this project in September of 2010. I knew that I wanted to run this campaign soon but could not find any maps anywhere that got into the amount of detail that I felt this castle deserved. I am by no means an advanced cartographer. I had purchased Campaign Cartographer nearly 5 years previously and never really used it, telling myself each time, “I will have to learn to use this program someday…” and putting it off.

    After using so many maps from this site I decided that it was time that I contributed something of my own as repayment. I sat down and decided to teach myself Campaign Cartographer while making this castle. I didn’t care how long it took me, nor how many times I would end up backtracking on already completed floors as I learned how to use the program properly. It took me four months to complete the major parts, but I am still finding things here and there that I go back and retouch.

    Each room was done after reading through each description entry of each edition of the module. I tried to capture everything that is included in the descriptions into the map. The length of time I spent constructing these maps should not be taken as an indication of wise or knowledgeable use of the program as much as it should reflect the amount of time perusing libraries of textures and symbols and overcoming indecision on which to use.

    I am now in the middle of reffing the actual game. They have yet to actually enter the castle. I am making the other encounter maps for the campaign as we encounter them, now that I am a little better at using the program. The castle itself is for the most part complete. There are a few points I would like to make about mapping this castle, though.

    The castle has had slight changes made to it throughout its various incarnations from D&D 1st edition, 2nd, 3rd and now a 4th edition board game. The last I have not even bothered with, even though I own it, as it is more random layout.

    I created the castle for use with the 3.5 version. However, there are quite a few oversights that needed to be addressed. Staircases changed directions as well as orientation, and the third floor had two ‘renovations’ namely the Hall of Ghosts and the secret passage area. I referred to all three renditions of the castle when doing this and used the 1st edition version as drawn by David Sutherland III as the final authority. So the Hall of Ghosts has 10 alcoves, not 6, for example, and the secret passage is wider than the 3.5 version.

    The maps are designed to be used with Maptool. My players have a monitor (ASUS 25” flat) that is laid out with a protective piece of plexiglass over it on which they place their niatures. The maps are presented on the monitor in scale with fog of war in place as well as
    light sources for the characters. This called for quite a bit of detail to be put in these maps.

    The castle itself has a ‘darkness’ effect that I represented by adding a glow of black to the walls. It is a little distracting when viewing it as a fully lit map, but when using Maptool with the light source effect on, it is quite eerie. I have only done this on some smaller test maps as these maps after rendering are quite large.

    This brings me to an important point. I have done all of this and would like to share what I have done but these maps are huge! I created them as pngs for the transparencies, then used irfanview to resize them and convert to jpeg. The more I resize them, the more blurred or pixilated they become. I need some advice on getting these converted properly. I have seen quite a few maps posted here that are quite detailed and beautiful in just a couple of megs. I am having a hard time figuring a way to do this with what I have done. So let’s talk numbers.

    The first floor map is the largest since it includes the castle battlements, drawbridge and surrounding area. It is 13200 x 9000. To capture the detail properly I rendered at 300 dpi. I divided this into 18 segments and resampled each of these to 2 m files so that they could be imported into maptools, then put together again. However, most floors are much smaller since they are just the size of the castle proper.

    To post on this site I am putting the first floor and grounds together and resampling to 3 3 m files just to give you an idea of what I am doing. The whole thing (1st floor and grounds) started as a 137 m file. I then rendered the actual inner castle in 2 separate files. This is all to avoid having the whole thing look like an 8-bit Nintendo game.

    I am sure that there is a better way, short of dividing everything up and posting 18 images per floor, but I am unaware of what that is. I admit complete ignorance on converting these formats. I have a co-dm that has a little more experience with these matters and he also is struggling to find a way to get these manageable yet preserve the detail.

    If anyone has any advice for me on this matter, please speak up!

    I am happy with the results, otherwise. I just hope that I can post these in such a way that others will find these maps useful.

    The 3m maps of the first floor and grounds will be my first post. The approach to the castle will be redone, eventually, after I get better with overland mapping. The courtyard grass I am not concerned with either, as I doubt that there will be much gameplay out there.
    This ground floor was the first that I did. I then worked my way up the floors and did the basement floors last, touching up the earlier floors as I learned to use the program. The inner castle is the most recent render, some mistakes were corrected (such as the fact that there should be no second set of doors when entering the castle).

    Let me know what you think.

  2. #2
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Hmmm, I am off to a fine start. I don't know why only one of those shows up, but at least when you click on them, they do show the upload. Here is the inner castle, then I will post the Chapel and garden.
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    Community Leader Facebook Connected Ascension's Avatar
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    Our image software has had problems for about a year since we upgraded. Kind of a pain but, resave the image then reupload it. It might take 2 or 3 tries.
    If the radiance of a thousand suns was to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the Mighty One...I am become Death, the Shatterer of worlds.
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  4. #4
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Wip

    This should be the chapel and garden area.
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    Quote Originally Posted by Shindig View Post
    This should be the chapel and garden area.
    I have looked at all your maps ... wonderfully done. I have not had a chance to ever run this adventure, so thank you for taking the time to work on all these maps.

    I have a question, this particular map there appears to be some sort of overlap on the middle and right sections and it is throwing me off. Is this the way the map should look?

    Thank you for your time on all this.

  6. #6

    Praise

    Thank you so much for these gorgeous maps!!!

  7. #7
    Community Leader Jaxilon's Avatar
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    Wow, those are great. It shows how much you cared that you spent as much time on them as you have. I hope your players enjoy it as they go through all this. Sure would be great to happen to have a nasty storm the night you run it, eh?
    “When it’s over and you look in the mirror, did you do the best that you were capable of? If so, the score does not matter. But if you find that you did your best you were capable of, you will find it to your liking.” -John Wooden

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  8. #8
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jaxilon View Post
    Wow, those are great. It shows how much you cared that you spent as much time on them as you have. I hope your players enjoy it as they go through all this. Sure would be great to happen to have a nasty storm the night you run it, eh?
    Yes, it is a great way to learn the workings of the castle, too. I also wanted to give it a lot more of Strahd's flavor, hence the black marble in the 'living' areas and dragon rug. I had to switch computers since the one I was on crashed several times uploading, I want to try it out on my newer laptop. I should have the 2nd and third floor posted soon. The third is my favorite.

    Thanks for the comment!

  9. #9
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Wip 2nd Floor

    This is pretty ordinary. The only effect I learned with this level was blurring out the chapel so that it appears as being on the floor below. It works well enough, I think.

    I am still having most of these showing up with question marks in the attachment folder. They are going through, though, but they have to be clicked on. If someone lets me know how to correct this I will. I do not see a way of deleting them out of that folder, I can only upload on top of them.
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  10. #10
    Guild Apprentice Shindig's Avatar
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    Wip 3rd Floor

    There are 3 files for this floor. The first is the full floor including battlements that are accessed from this floor. It decreases the detail quite a bit so I also include the file for just the inner castle at this level. I just overlay this in maptool. The last file is for the study in case anyone wants to put out the fire in the fireplace. I learned shadowing in this level, and it came out really nicely. The candles in the bedroom can also be edited out quickly in case anyone wants to pick them up and use them as a light source.

    This level deviates a bit from the 3.5 version only because they made some changes in that version that don't work well with the original design. Even the folks at Fraternity of Shadows made mistakes in their errata on this, they must not have had the original version for reference. I corrected it and brought it back in line with the original, as it made better sense. It just makes a hall or two wider, and adds more alcoves in the Hall of Ghosts.

    Enjoy!
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