Arid Clearing, Adept (Patreon)

Hi Adepts! This map is the Arid Clearing (25x25), and your alternate version is a cool gray recoloring! I tend to lean toward this type of recoloring when working on particularly rocky and mountainous maps as I think it makes it a little more versatile for people who want to avoid desert vibes in their campaign. I think the cooler colors instead feel more appropriate for your more typical traditional fantasy settings, with Skyrim-y Scandanavian mountains that come stock with crumbling forts precariously clinging to the cliffs.

1. As was brought up by one of my Master patrons, I don't any multi-purpose rocky clearings in the archives; everything I have is littered with paths, ruins, and other limiting setpieces. So, I wanted to put together something with the same amount of usefulness as the Forest Clearing, but for vaguely mountainous/desert environments. This means I was limited to rocks and ledges, which isn't so different from a cave or volcanic map, so it's not at all out of my wheelhouse. 

Since the idea was to make a clearing, at least the center of the map should be fairly empty (for activities), into which I drew a recessed center which adds a bit of interesting open space for DMs to add important props, characters, or monsters. The areas outside of the center provide varying amounts of cover and height, and never both. Also, I added spaces at the edges of the map where there could be more implied off-screen, but they're also tight enough and near enough to rock walls that the DM could simply say that they get cut off just feet outside the frame. 

2. Due to the rockiness of this map, I thought I'd better include a handful of extra large boulders. Unfortunately, I don't often need rocks that big, so I needed to draw some fresh ones, but as it turns out I still remember how to draw them. 

I wasn't too sure what kind of texture to give the ground. I liked the thought of this being somewhere in between a rocky and sandy map, but considering how I like to detail the ground there isn't much room for compromise. The compromise I came up with though is my typical dirt texture with big cracks cutting through here and there, especially near the ledges. 

3. I don't know what I did differently this time, but I really messed up something in my lighting that made tweaking the colors extra difficult. I think I leaned less on color and lighting overlays than I typically do, and more on the actual painted lighting. While that's fine for the regular version of the map, it made making alternate versions very tricky without having to go through the process of re-shading most of the map. Hopefully, that makes sense. 

Anyway, it came out with pretty interesting lighting, kinda shiny actually, but satisfying to the eye at least.