Bandit Camp, Adept & Expert (Patreon)

This week's map is the bandit camp, which tied for 4th in the poll from a month ago, and this map was tougher to make than I thought. I mostly didn't want to repeat the Watchtower map (I'm not very into that one) from a month ago which led to me second-guessing myself about almost everything. In the end I just pushed through it and just finish it. Hopefully that haste doesn't show, because I think a lot of the map came out great. 

Also, this week you guys get a bonus additional 'empty' version of the map (minus all the props and man made things, just the ground and rocks). Who am I to imply that there needs to be a camp here? ;) It's bundled into the zip at the bottom of this post, so check it out! I think it will probably be handy for some of you. 

Anyway, lets talk about the map!

1. My plan for this map was to use up the space well and imply that a full frontal assault may not be the best idea. As usual, I block out the map using a large brush (so I don't get tempted to draw fine details) and get an idea of the space I'm dealing with. After that, I shaded in the vertical faces so that the map reads better at a glance. I keep this rough sketch somewhere I can see it while I work on the second step, often I cut the opacity down to around 15% and just draw on top of it (it's not tracing! Also, who cares if it is tracing, it's my drawing anyway!)

The camp itself was a little bit of a conundrum for me. How many people are in a bandit crew? What kind of supplies would a bandit crew have on hand at their camp? What makes a bandit camp look different from anyone else's? I answered each of these questions by doing what I always do, making the map vague enough that it could be used any way the DM wants. I don't know why I insisted that it had to be a camp for bandits, but once I moved past that, the map got a lot easier to make. So I focused instead on making it a fun map instead of a bandity map. 

I can't help myself when it comes to making little routes for stealthy players, who I feel like need all the help they can get. The fiction I had in my head was of a rogue slipping behind the sentry and climbing the ledges on the left all the way around the camp and slipping down behind the large tent, cutting open the canvas and catching the bandit leader in his sleep. Usually I don't like to give too obvious of a route as that, but come on! If someone pulls it off without being seen then it would be awesome!

2. Man, I'm starting to get real sick of drawing rock walls. I think my next one will be another interior (like the throneroom map) just to get away from cliffs. 

When drawing outlines, I use a size 15 brush and try to keep a very loose grip on the stylus which leads to a bit of inconsistency in line thickness. I exaggerate it a lot more in the rock wall lines and that gives them the illusion of being very detailed (or at least more detailed than they are). 

I messed around with using slightly different brush sizes while drawing the grass details. It ended up looking very messy, which I cannot get behind, but I think someone else would like the look of it. 

So don't shoot me, I did reuse assets while making this map. Does anyone really care if there are only 2 different barrels or 1 crate mirrored? I try not to be obvious about it, but I still feel a little like its cheating. The tents all use the same outline and I drew the details in individually, which I feel like is a solid compromise. 

3. Color! Don't you love the feel of a clean map? I know I do. I was pressed for time this week so I gave everything slightly less detailed color (less mottling than usual). I actually like the way it turned out, which is a surprise, so maybe I'll keep it up. 

I wanted to make the shadows a bit more detailed this week, and boy was that a pain. Yeah, most shadows came out alright, but something is off about the big tent. I still can't quite put my finger on it, but I know I'll figure it out in a day or two (a day or two too late).