Cheerful Courtyard, Adept & Expert (Patreon)

Welcome back! This week the alternate version of the map is with palette that more closely matches the rest of my library, vivid greens and pale beige stone. This version should lead into the rest of my maps a little easier and has a more fun and cheerful vibe than the regular version. I'm actually not too sure who I would pit my players against in this version of the map, it really doesn't have the same grim vibe as the other one, but maybe some Fey would do the trick.

Anyway, let's talk about it!

1. I've chosen not to include the 7 different versions of this map I've sketched (with varying amounts of castle walls surrounding it) as this post would be 5x as long, but believe me when I say this was a tough one. My biggest problem was the word 'courtyard', which turned out to be more ambiguous than I expected after I had done some research, especially when considered in the context of a castle. It was pretty tricky to figure out a nice compromise here, as my first inclinations were to either place it as a Grecian-style open air courtyard or as the front door approach to the castle. And, when I'm not sure what to do, I err on the side of utility. I think this map could be used in either context (and more) with not too much imagination, and should appeal to the majority of patrons. I hope. 

2. This map required me to finally go ahead and make a solid cobblestone texture for myself, which I've been putting off for a while. With a little work I can make it repeatable, so that will show up on the next token pack I assemble ;) Otherwise almost everything else was drawn about the same as always (other than the hedges, which I've now drawn once and can't look at without thinking they look hairy)

Something else I considered at this step was the scale of the image. Usually I keep a mostly transparent grid on screen until I start coloring, and here I started to consider increasing it to 30x30 rather than 20x20. 20x20 is pretty small compared to my typical map, but I felt it was necessary to keep the frame small for this one. However 30x30 also fit pretty well, making the paths off-screen 3" wide and the hedges about 2/3" thick, which I liked the feel of. However a lot of things didn't fit quite as well on the grid, such as the rounded portions of the hedges and the corners, and that's what made me switch back in the end. 

3. This version of the map was actually the one I started with, using my regular palette. I had intended on making a more subdued version of the map, and after it had made it I realized that it might do better as the regular version. This was mostly to test the waters, see what the people have to say about more subdued colors in my maps, but I also felt that it fit the tone of DnD a little better, which is what my maps are typically used for. I don't think in the long run I'll prefer it to the vivid colors I use more often, but sometimes you have to try something different.

Cheers!