Sewer Tunnels, Adept (Patreon)

Hi Adepts! This week's map is the Sewer Tunnels (30x25), kinda a niche environment but it might be one of those things I'd be surprised about. In my personal campaign, I've needed a map identical to this no less than 3 times, so maybe it's more useful than I think. 

Your alternate version is a Filthy variation, much darker and grungier than the original. These yucky pipes lend themselves better to more grim environments than I typically make maps for, so I don't doubt this will be super useful for a lot of you.

 Anyway, let's talk about it!

1. The idea for this one was a maze-like series of tunnels with little to no pattern to the layout. This is, obviously, going to upset the people who strive for unrelenting realism in their maps, but I truly think it makes for a better map if there's plenty of inconsistency. 

The style of tunnels I've chosen are the wide variety, perhaps more the kind of thing you'd come across near a junction or within a major city. I thought this kind of tunnel would be more interesting for movement and better allow ranged styles of combat as well as close-quarters. The other kind of tunnel, a cramped 5-foot wide tube with an endless stream of muck beneath your feet, just isn't interesting enough to warrant a map I think, though I'm sure there are ways to make it exciting. 

2. Once again, my enhance grid has proven to be an invaluable part of the process. While absolutely useless for drawing natural environments, urban areas typically follow some kind of grid as is, so having my typical 1" grid cut up into 1/8ths was a lifesaver as I kept bricks, tiles, and paths consistent sizes across the map without having to overlay one on top of the other to compare. At this rate, I ought to update my starter PSD to have the more detailed grid and save myself some time in the future.

Something that struck me while drawing the tunnels was that I was dangerously close to detailing the water identically to the walkways. That is to say, other than the brick texture, I tend to draw water the same as dirt- wiggly contour lines with scratches, bubbles, and puddles to break up the shapes and imply details. I didn't think the similarities would be eye-catching enough that anyone other than me would notice it, but to be safe I made the walkway parts much more wiggly than I typically would, maybe to imply a mossy or slimy texture. 

3. I had such a hard time coloring this map. Hours and hours fell away as I endlessly adjusted colors, shadows, tints, and glare, and in the end, I had to just put a stop to it and settle on something acceptable. I just couldn't come to a middle ground between clarity and darkness, and sometimes I'd reach a good spot only to realize that some mixture of yellow lighting and blue shadows had rendered the map unrelentingly green, so I had to try again. Still, it could be much worse, but this is one of those projects that I could tell could be extremely cool if only I had twice as much time to dedicate to it. Oh well, on to the next one!