Bharzul Low City - Complete Variant Set
Added 2023-07-24 13:12:47 +0000 UTCPRINT DOWNLOAD
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KEY & DESIGN NOTES
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This is the complete variant set for this weeks maps. It includes high resolution Day, Night, Clean, Simple & Tile variants.
This map set is part of the Bharzul series.
Background
Bharzul City has 4 distinct districts within the walls, the Low City, Mid City, High City and Stone Palace. Each is built onto a separate terrace on the mountain side and are primarily connected by the grand lifts.
The Low City is where the majority of the population live, and although densely populated is broken into smaller communities that are each self-sustaining for the most part. This leads to friendly competition and rivalries. From the outside many of the buildings seem small, but they often extend into the rock face behind and there are as many streets and passages in the mountainside as out on the terraces.
Many homes on the low city are also places of work. Each community is centred around a marketplace or plaza of some kind where trade takes place, and it is common for each household to have a dedicated space in their home for the creation of curation of whatever their specialty is. In this way trades are usually passed down through generations within a family as children are exposed to them very early on.
Grid Information
GRID SIZE – 34x22(300DPI)
VTT SIZE – 4760x3080(140DPI)
RECOMMENDED PRINT SIZE – A1/ANSI D
Design Notes
Low City Streets – Lower Level
- 01 – Civic Space – Small communal spaces like this ae common throughout the city. Some have specific purposes like shrines or gardens, but many are open spaces curated by the local community.
- 02 – Underground Passage – Those who know the city well can travel around without ever going outside, but for newcomers it can be veery easy to get lost in the maze of interconnected tunnels and levels. This is also a big home advantage if the city were to ever be invaded.
- 03 – Communal Entrance – Many buildings appear to be a single dwelling from the outside but are in fact multiple connected homes.
- 04 – Brewers House
- 05 – Grocers House
- 06 – Engineers House
- 07 – Elevator
- 08 – Waterway
- 09 – Leatherworkers House
- 10 – Scribes House
Low City Streets – Upper Level
- 11 – Barbers House
- 12 – Large House
- 13 – Elevator
- 14 – Waterway
- 15 – Artists House
Low City Streets – Rooftops
- 16 – Roof Terrace
Comments
Hey Ryan, thanks for the feedback! The reason I use strong directional shadows on my maps, particularly ones like this, is to help describe verticality and elevation, add depth, and to show some information about the vertical facades. Having simpler, less pronounced shadows on the night maps would be more realistic, but would also remove a lot of the depth from the maps, making them appear flat. In cases like this I tend to prefer graphical clarity over realism.
Tom Cartos
2023-07-25 10:34:55 +0000 UTCLove the addition of the key
John Forrest
2023-07-24 15:20:43 +0000 UTCThis is a very well designed map for ambush encounters, nicely done! I don't think I've brought htis up before, but I wanted to praise you on your night maps. I rarely use night maps from most creators as I can reproduce the same effect in VTT; they're simply darkened and have lights enabled or both. However, your maps are different. The change in the color palette to bring about the purple really makes it feel more like night. With that said, I do have one minor critique that you can take as you will going forward. :-) In some maps, this one in particular, where there is a large overhead layer the shadows don't "feel" right due to the fact that they are casting shadows as if it were daylight. This is really true of every night map, but it's more noticeable in some than others, and this one falls into that category. One solution (which is obviously more work but only slightly) is to use separate shadow layers for day/night, and only enable the correct one when exporting. What I've seen done is create the day shadow layer first, duplicate it, and then simply reduce the intensity of the shadows in the night layer. Simple physics: since the overall map is darker at night, with less light being cast, the shadows should be far less pronounced in the night version of the map. There should be less contrast between the shadows and surrounding dark areas at night. However, they should still be there (moonlight, etc). It only takes a few minutes, is a simple modification to your Export automation, and the difference in the quality of the maps is... Night and Day. :-P
Ryan Rogers
2023-07-24 14:33:20 +0000 UTC
