Dead End, Adept

Hiya, Adepts- this is the Dead End (11x16), another little city map that makes good use of the limited frame since the subject here is a typically tiny space anyway. If I were making this map a year ago I probably would have tried to make a large series of city streets outside of this dead end, or maybe a series of smaller, branching dead ends winding off of it. I imagine those wouldn't have felt quite as tidy as this one or as satisfying, so I'm going to say this is the best version of that map. Nice!

1. The plan for this map- a dead end. How do you design a dead end? Draw a city street and fill all but one exit with buildings. Make some room in the middle for the locals to fight and give them a well to chuck bodies in. Easy peasy! Beyond that, I always like adding little decks to city maps, it gives small a height bonus to whoever wants it and fills up space nicely in a way that keeps the grid spaces traversable.

   Anyway, I didn't change much about the terrain after this initial sketch, probably because I have better things to do than overthinking how building are arranged in alleys.

   

2. Honestly, very little to discuss for these outlines and details. The brick pattern I'm using for the ground continues to be good enough for me, it read as bricks at a glance and doesn't attract much attention or overwhelm the eye with detail. Thumbs up! If I were smart I'd prepare a png with bricks like these for me to drop in to future maps, but I'm not smart, I'm lazy and need the dopamine I get from completing minor tasks.

   The roof textures, similarly, are still working great for me. These I actually did put aside in a png, thank god, and they've been awesome. These too aren't too eye-catching, but are maybe a little too detailed for my taste. I haven't managed to draw one that isn't, but there we are.

   

3. Remember in the last blog post where I said I can't decide between vibrant and subdued colors for these city maps? Yeah, we're back to subdued. I'm starting to realize that the colors I end up with are vibes-based on a map-by-map basis, so while this grimy back alley gets subdued colors, last week's Little Market gets vibrant colors. I can't decide if that's fine because the colors fit the maps nicely or not fine because the maps won't feel cohesive. I'm leaning toward 'that's fine' because that takes the least effort to fix and means I don't have to do anything.