How do I map a cave?

[Tekila]

Hello fellow cartographs,

I tried searching the tutorial-topic already but I couldn't find any advice on what I'm trying to do. Maybe I've overlooked it, since there are so many threads there. Sorry if that is the case.
But for the time being I'll just ask here:


Do you have any advice on how to map a cave-system?

The basic idea for the fantasy-world this cave, that I want to map, is in, is that there is one kingdom of a "demonic" (not really demons, but since I lack a fitting term I'll stick with it for now) race etc.
They settled their kingdom in a very huge multi-layered cavesystem and widened it. Much like ants build their colony-homes.
I tried to sketch it out before ( here ) but I didn't like the outcome and with all those different heights for each room the classic top-down view doesn't seem to work very well. I don't really want to make several maps for one cave.

Any advice or tutorials on that matter in general?

[Mouse]

Hi Tekila!

I would think that the dungeon mappers would probably have far more wisdom than me, but I just wanted to say that I don't think there is anything wrong with mapping a cave system from the side - why not, is what I would say

Most of the maps of the ancient underground city, Derinkuyu in Turkey are side on - just like yours

(that link is to a google search I did for maps of the city. There are lots of images there, but there are also maps, and they are all side on)

[Abu Lafia]

Hi Tekila, and a belated Willkommen! Had a peek at your maps and i love the stuff you do. The sketch you made of your cave looks pretty awesome and really would be worth fleshing it out a bit more imo. If you want to go for another perspective, maybe an isometric view could solve the problems you see rightly with a top down view. Torstan aka Jonathan Roberts has made a nice tutorial (it's in the middle of the page... here is the tuto about coloring it) about these. Maybe it's helpful. Looking forward to see more of your work.
Grüße,
AL

[Tekila]

Thanks for the many replies, and especially for the link to the tutorial.
I've been on fantastic maps so often I do wonder how I missed that. Helps a lot, as I always had trouble with perspective on these kind of maps.

Since this thread is open let me add another question:

Are there specific rules for natural caves? Things that would help to be kept in mind?

[Mouse]

Remember that I'm speaking without any actual dungeon experience, but I don't think there are any 'must do's', or 'should never be done's'.

Fewer rules mean greater freedom to be creative

[Tekila]

@Mouse True to that, but it doesn't hurt to have a clue of the realistic thing in order to make it believeable, you know?
But I'll sketch out something and open a WIP later

[Mouse]

That's probably the best way - to just get a start on it and see what people think.

Looking forward to seeing your new WIP

[Josiah VE]

That sketch is wonderful, looking forward to what you'll do now.

[gregorius]

Regarding realism, you should have (somewhat) arched ceilings. Weight needs to be distributed accordingly.