Playing with geomorphs, part 1

So as I mentioned in my previous post, I've been messing around a bit with drawing maps lately. While the last post focused on something I made for my campaign, I also decided to play around with the idea of geomorphs. At some point I'd like to play a serious session which makes use of them so I might as well start tinkering. Here's sample #1.

Some notes on it: the scale is 2 squares = 5' and I wasn't aiming for any specific size as much as wanting it to be square.


Things I'd do differently / don't like about this:

  • On a scale of 2 sq = 5', it's surprisingly easy to set yourself up for exterior walls which are N + 2.5' long. Like what happened here. I made this 20x20 squares large... which means each wall from the corner to the opening is (20-2) / 2 squares long... or 9 squares... or 22.5 feet long. That's just awkward. Next time I'll plan how wide I want the sides to be between the openings and plan accordingly.
  • I tried for a thick hatching in the middle and immediately hated it. Light, thin hatching for the win! That looked better overall.
  • I'm mixed on the sketchy coloring of the objects. I think it works well for the crates/chests but looks sloppy on the doors and bookcases.
  • I think I don't like the notation for doors in dungeons. I need to figure something else out.
  • Straight lines which should be straight (like the prison cots) should probably be drawn with a ruler. It seems I have a lot of trouble with straight lines. Similarly, curves should have a curve template. Maybe I'll get something like this in the future.
  • I suck at taking pictures of drawings. I should scan it next time.
  • Wait for the ink to fully dry before erasing the pencil lines. There's a bunch of smudges because I was impatient.
Things I did like!
  • The scale. I felt like I could give thickness to walls which would normally just be a thin, zero thickness line.
  • Detail work feels better. Even though I'm not very good at it yet, I think it looks better than other times I've tried it, simply because it's bigger.
  • The thin hatching and variable width lines. I might go thinner on the hatching next time but we'll see. Clearly it's easier to go from thinner to thicker.
  • The format: this was neat! I felt like the constraints made me focus on what I could fit in and how, rather than my normal freehand mapping which takes me wherever.



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