Roleplaying
So, we’re gonna make an adventure now, complete with full color battle maps, a nice layout, packaged and ready to be electronically distributed.
OK, this is the introduction to the adventure we are going to recreate:
It’s Marda-Zam, the traditional yearly carnival in the city. It is the day when everyone are dressed in fantastic costumes, even the mayor and the city guards. Eating, drinking and enjoying a good game or two of the traditional game of Bladdish. This is the day when rich and poor, side by side, will escape the burdens of daily life and enjoy Marda-Zam.
The adventure was originally created to kick-off a campaign, so it is really made to get the PCs together. Even if we in 4E normally are adventurers, when the first adventure starts, this will work for some DMs and maybe not for somebody else. My plan is to create an adventure with two different levels, one for first level characters, and one for lets say 7th level. Using the same story, the same maps, just different opponents. Thanks to Jeppe for this idea, this will be a nice challenge indeed.
So, lets look at what the old maps look like, or really, I rather not show you, this is embarrassing, but it’s my stupid idea anyway.
The adventure starts at the Golden Fox, an upperclass inn in the better part of the city. Which city? What ever city the DM finds suits his campaign. So, we have a map over the inn, where the PCs and some strangers are sitting and playing Bladdish, drinking, eating and having fun.
As action will take place in this localtion, both in the kitchen (4) and along the escape path of the thieves, the red line, those areas are most important to have full scale battle maps of. Doing the complete Inn floor in 1″ squares, would probably just be a complete waste of printer ink for the DM.
Note on paper sizes
As most people can print US letter (in the US) or A4 (in europe), the maximum size of a map page is 7.5″ x 10.5″, to enable it to print without scale distortions for everyone. I have learned the hard way that 7″x10″ is a much better size, as when you cut and tape (manually), it is much better to have the cut along a white gridline than in the middle of a square. It is much less visible when you leave some white or cut to much.
Remember that the map has to be composited by several 7″x10″ map pieces by the DM, and you can either just cut like that, or create some oddly shaped pieces, that DM can lay on the table whenever a PC walks around the corner and can see that part. I do both, depending on how the map looks, and in this case, the place is pretty familiar after a handful of hours here, and at least half of the party sleeps here, in the inner dining room that have temporarily been transformed to a huge dormitory (7).
This map, I will create using Dundjinni, one of the map making software packages I have in my toolbox. I will build the basic map layout and add props in Dundjinni. Then, as I always do, I will do some post processing using other tools. If you could use only one tool for everything, there would be no use for any other tool except huge swiss army knives. I always try to use the best tool for each job, and best is a very personal opinion, but for me, best means does the job in the shortest time with as little fuzz as possible.
So, the first raw outline of the Golden Fox looks something like this:
Tomorrow, we will create some nice presets of furniture to put into the Golden Fox, and make it even more comfy.
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