Desert Waterfall, Adept & Expert (Patreon)

Hi Adepts/Experts! Your alt version this week is another snowy map, a highly suggested terrain that only rarely comes up, and better yet this one should light up really well with the other winter maps I've made (Winter Outpost and Winter Ruins specifically). 

If you haven't seen the main post for this map, I made this one with James of James' RPG Art, who made some excellent immersive art to accompany this map. Check out his Instagram for a gallery of stuff he's made- he's done a lot of awesome Curse of Strahd art!

1. The layout for this one was inspired by Havasupai Falls, a beautiful part of the Grand Canyon with a nice oasis-like atmosphere. Using pictures of the falls as reference I added some additional boulders and walls to use as cover and make the water traversable terrain. James later suggested adding a cave behind the waterfall as a goal for the players to work toward or as a way to tie in another map, and I think it was a great idea. Even without another map it will do well as a monster's den or a small chamber for loot to be hidden in.

2. While most everything here is fairly stock for my maps, many assets used this week aren't exactly common inclusions. My last solid attempt at a waterfall (Tiered Waterfall) ended up with skewed and dizzying perspective, and since then I've only included much smaller waterfalls in any map that requires them. I carefully approached them this time with the goal of keeping them looking natural, and I think I mostly succeeded, though they do look a little stiff and a little too posed. 

Something else that I didn't foresee was how similar the water and sand would look without coloring. I had to stop myself a couple times from letting them get too similar, sometimes mirroring each other where they met, but it's important to remember that coloring will usually cover all sins. 

3. The idea behind the coloring was that the blues of the water would really pop when put up against the red rock and yellowing sand, making for a very interesting picture to look at (which is always a goal of mine). The lighting was a little tricky though, as I once again shaded with the light source coming from an unusual direction that I'm not too used to. Since James provided me with his rough painting a week beforehand I used it as a guide for my part, imitating his lighting as best I could so as to keep the pictures lined up.