Mead Hall, Adept (Patreon)

Hello, Adepts! This week's map is the Mead Hall (28x18), better late than never. I started this one before Thanksgiving but had to stop in order to make a bunch of potatoes and stuffing and work with James' RPG Art on the Farm Crossroads map. The map did get a lot better due to the extra time though, so I'm not complaining. 

The Adept rewards for this one are a little different than usual- you're getting both isolated and propless versions (I figured that either of them alone wouldn't be quite enough content for you Adepts). Propless is obvious enough, I took out the Mead Hall props so you can use the layout for whatever else you want, and the isolated versions are a bunch of PNGs of just the building with all the different versions: dark, lit, propless dark, propless lit. These extra versions together give you a whole lot of extra utility and customisability for this map that should let you get real cooky with it if you want, like planting the building in the middle of some city streets or on a cliffside and making it a warehouse or gang hideout. Neat!

1. The interior has changed a lot as I made this map, but it's the same idea I started with- a big warriors' hall with a long fire pit and plenty of seating. As you can probably tell, I took a lot of inspiration from the Companion's hall 'Jorrvaskr' in Skyrim, which is the only reference for a mead hall that I started with. 

Beyond the basic fire pit and seating, I wanted to add a living area for the owner of this place and a storeroom, and after some research I decided to add a raised platform to the side for honored guests. 

2. I just couldn't settle on a layout I was satisfied with. The size of the place was throwing me off a little and I wanted to make sure that the room was filled well and no space was left too empty. For my sake I centered the fire pit and shrunk it a bit in order to be a little realistic, and I also added a lowered area with hard-packed dirt floors which I felt broke up the terrain a little in a fun and Viking-y way. The pit was still too big, leaving me at a loss for what to detail it with, but I decided not to worry about it too much and instead hope that the lighting effects drew the eye away from picking apart my details. 

3. Wow, coloring this was hard. I had a very clear image in my head of what I wanted this to look like, but I just didn't like the execution. I liked the idea of a warm and cheerful hall with plenty of friendly orange lighting, but I just can't stand brown shadows. The blue shadows I do enjoy give the map a cold vibe I didn't initially want, but damn if they aren't much more pleasing to the eye. I settled for a gradient, but this one is probably going to bug me for a while. 

The outside I based off of my previous winter maps, though I decided to detail the snow a little less than I have in the past. It's tempting to think that snow won't look like snow unless filled with all kinds of small details (footprints and other bumps), but I think the crumpled texture I like to use in addition to coloring and lighting get the job done perfectly. The key is that it reads as snow, it doesn't have to look like real snow- as long as you can look at it and know what it's supposed to be then it's good enough, even better if the coloring and lighting is pleasing to look at as well.