Nighttime Map Creation - How to Color?

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but I wanna put this question out and see if anyone has experience with this situation. I'm working on a large map for an upcoming module. The map setting is a crumbling temple that sits in a clearing, surrounded by thick forests. Most importantly, this also takes place in the middle of the night. I want to have the map give off the best atmosphere possible, especially when using dynamic lighting, torches, and other light sources. With that in mind, I'm trying to do some experimentation, but I'm not convinced of the best course of action. Knowing that the map will be lit exclusively by practical light sources and character vision, which is the best option, in your mind? 1. Create the map as if it's fully illuminated (Dynamic lighting takes care of the rest) 2. Create the map as if it's night, but evenly lit by torches throughout 3. Create the map as if it's night, but accent areas that would normally catch torchlight, and keep nooks and crannies darker so that the map gives off more depth Any advice or examples you can offer would be helpful, thanks :D

I would make the map normal and use dynamic lighting to do the rest. i use 60/-5 for darkvision characters. If you will use the map for daylight as well, you can add a bit of tint to give a gloomier look even when lit.

For night maps, I like to make the map with Dynamic Lighting, but set the vision on the players to be much much larger.  For example, if you had a character that would have a light source setting of 30ft bright, 30ft dim, I'll set it to something like 30ft bright, 200ft dim.  I'd then drop in lights for lanterns or open windows the same way I normally would.  For places that should be more open, say a clearing on a moonlit night, I might drop a lightsource with something like 100/-500 to give it a soft lighter glow.

I would add in a kind of dark purple 30% to 50% on the areas that won't be well lit. And let Dynamic Lighting do the rest.

If you make the map only for night, what if the characters visit the site during the day? Players are creative and do the unexpected...

"... and unfortunately, the meteor completely destroyed that section of the world at dawn..." =D

The Aaron said: "... and unfortunately, the meteor completely destroyed that section of the world at dawn..." =D The narrative approach is also a possible alternative solution to making the map appear NIGHT in the first place. For the module maker, add a note on the GM-Layer:  "Tell the players it is night time."

The module angle is a good point.  I missed that on the first read.  With a module, you can't be guaranteed that the GM will have access to Dynamic Lighting. One option is to make 2 versions of the map in some external editor.  Make the daylight version, then make a nighttime version.  Put both of them in a Rollable Table and make a Rollable Table Token for it and use that as the map.  Have it set to daylight and configured for Dynamic Lighting.  For those without Dynamic Lighting, have them swap to the nighttime version. Another option would be to make the two map images as above, then make two separate pages and archive the daylight version.  Add a note to the nighttime page telling the GM they can get a daylight version out of the archived maps.

"It was a dark and stormy day..."

keithcurtis said: "It was a dark and stormy day..." I actually just setup a map for a dark and stormy day... all the players have 200/5 vision only they can see.  This is a map they were on when it was mid day, so the only thing I've changed is turning off global illumination and changing all their vision: