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Haunted Forest Trail, Adept

Added 2024-07-22 15:58:08 +0000 UTC

I'm back again with another map, the Haunted Forest Trail (40x40)- a classically straightforward forest map. This one has no temples, giant skeletons, or ruins, it just has a little path, a little stream, and a few little ledges, ideal for fighting a handful of bandits or maybe a pack of wolves- you know, classic forest baddies.

Side note: bonus variant! That stream seemed a little too tranquil for me, so now it's full of blood and now the ball's in your court.

1. Yup, that's a forest! I like to fancy up my forests with little ledges here and there, so I filled in a few of the edges with a couple of mid-sized ones- decent for ranged combatants to get a better view. The stream functionally doesn't do much here, but it can create the impression of a barrier and maybe make for difficult and slippery terrain if someone tries running over or up it.

2. After the initial sketch, I fleshed out the details in this map with a lot of extra props- dead trees, rocks, bushes, tree trunks, an additional little ledge. Once I started filling up the map I realized that it felt a little empty, so ambient props brought some life to it and added lots of little details that may or may not come up in combat. Either way, it feels much more lived-in now, which is always the goal.

3. Colors! I think this may be one of my favorite Haunted Forest palettes I've used, a nice middle point between vibrant and subdued. The colors here are a little less intense than those used in the Haunted Henge from last week but still features a good amount of contrast, though I do see a few shadows I should have lightened up a bit. Overall, very happy with the lighting of this map, perfect for a regular ol' stretch of forest.