Forest Maps Collection (Patreon)

Hello people!

So if you read through the Survey Analysis I posted previously (results from the 2020 Annual Patron Survey), you would've seen that while there seemed to be a great deal of interest behind larger maps in general, that interest was somewhat equally caught between two options. I said I would experiment between both options and present examples of each of them to you all so we could figure out which (if either) was the best option to move forward with!

Last month's release of the Ruins of Rakmalia map was the first such iteration of exploring what those 'larger maps' could look like, effectively taking the normal production of two battle maps and intentionally building them out adjacent to one another to form one 'mega map'

What you see before you here is the result of that second option, a type of 'map product' I'm going to be referring to as a Map Collection. As my super-fancy gif hopefully illustrates, this expansion is not one, two, or even four battle maps, but NINE. And I'm releasing it all as a single paid post! Now how am I able to do this? Because in this option, I compromised on creating entirely new content from scratch in favor of using assets instead and consequently covering exponentially more ground. 

Effectively I took the time I would ordinarily use in creating a single battle map from scratch and instead focused it into some Photoshop trickery and creative utilization of existing assets to provide further depth and variety on a specific environment's maps. In this case I did this for a forested region to get us started, but if this is something I continue to do in the future it could just as easily be a strategy I replicate for snowy mountains, deserts, urban environments, etc. 

Now what is arguably the best part about this endeavor is that I took the time to not just make nine separate battle maps, but instead I made them all seamless with each other (as long as they're pieced together in the order featured above). This means they can come together to form a 'super map' at an encounter scale covering 255x330 feet in-game. I did this by using the seamless grass texture (available with the Umbrage Hill map from July) and with the help of some Photoshop nonsense to make the road assets blend seamlessly into one another. 

I really hope you enjoy them! Remember this is an experiment that is open to influence so if you think there's something I could do better on a future iteration let me know! If we find these palatable I could see them being a huge boon to everyone, but particularly for new DMs needing to expand their map libraries quickly.

Enjoy!