Desert Bazaar, Adept (Patreon)

Hi Adepts! This week's map is the Desert Bazaar (24x22), and I worked with James' RPG Art again for this one! He made a 1st person painting to accompany this map, which is crazy useful for giving your players a quick idea of the area's layout and energy in the way that maps typically don't. You can find it on his Instagram or Patreon!

This week I made a Sandstorm alternate version for you, with clouds of sand whipping across the battlefield obscuring vision and perhaps causing harm to anyone who isn't prepared for this extreme weather. I always enjoy adding environmental hazards as a way to spice up combat, adding another level for the players to consider besides just killing the baddies. 

1. Going into this map, I wanted to emulate the vibe of Mos Eisley- blocky sandstone buildings with multi-level roofs that are great for jumping around on. The thing that Mos Eisley's buildings are lacking though are ways to get up on top and move around between them, so I needed to add some stairs for the sake of players who aren't so great at effortlessly scaling flat surfaces or making long jumps. Just a few though, I want to make sure that the especially dextrous are rewarded with opportunities for movement that only they are capable of. 

Laying out markets has never been easy for me, for them to feel realistic they must be scattered and random while still allowing for foot traffic to pass through. Tricky to design, but no matter how I design it, as long as I keep it somewhat realistic I don't think anyone can complain really. 

2. Maybe you can tell by looking at it, but I didn't have much opportunity to re-use old assets for this map. In fact, I think the only parts I grabbed from old maps were the palm trees (from the Jungle Camp) and the ladders (from the Sewer Tunnels), which are actually a little tricky to draw in perspective. So that means that I had to draw most parts of this map fresh, which isn't fun when you're trying to wrap up work quickly and play Animal Crossing. 

Oddly enough, I drew each tent and stall uniquely- typically when I need to make several of the same type of prop I just draw 5 and tweak some of the more eye-catching details so the duplication isn't obvious. I think I was listening to a podcast or something and went on autopilot. I'll see if I can turn these stalls into tokens or something and pass them on to you, I'm sure I can find a good use for the extra effort I put into them. 

3. What's nice about working with James on a map is I can't settle back and only use my old palettes, I've got to try to meet him halfway so our products look similar enough. This is a good thing because it keeps me from getting complacent, if left to myself this would have certainly been much less colorful and much more washed-out. 

Side note, I noticed that I had messed up pretty late in the project, can you figure out where? That's right, the two right-most palm trees are just about identical. I took them both from Jungle Camp, shuffled them, and rotated them to nearly the same orientation without noticing. Big whoops, but hopefully not terribly eye-catching.