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Making Maps, Want Feedback.

So I've been working on some battle maps within roll20 for a campaign I wanna run later on this year, I build them piece by piece (usually 3x3 tiles) I try to have some height in them as that really adds some flavor to them. The hardest part is getting the shadows right and finding tokens that fit with the view. Basically what I do is just manipulate the layers and tint colors. Here are the first 4 I've done, some feedback would be great, if you see something I messed up on please let me know, or if the shadows aren't right. Any links to workable tokens would be wonderful as well.
1475518856
Gold
Forum Champion
I like how you made the impression of cliffs, dais, height changes here. Check out the module Lands Of Belfum on Roll20 Marketplace. I think that you might like the art perspective and heights, and it has 118 maps already made. Plus dozens of monster tokens included. &nbsp;Plus it has a plot/story/module but you could totally skip that and just use the maps and tokens if you wanted. &nbsp;Not saying your homemade maps aren't good, they are, I'm just suggesting that this particular Marketplace pack could save time and would be compatible with your perspective style for heights. <a href="https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/module/21/la" rel="nofollow">https://marketplace.roll20.net/browse/module/21/la</a>...
Thank you for the feedback and suggestion, I've never bought a module before. How does getting the maps and tokens work?
Your maps looks solid, be proud of them.&nbsp; But if you want some criticism, here ya go: the grid looks bad, you might try dropping the grid entirely. Grids looks awful.....and I read(from one of the best battlemap artists) that grids are "amateurish". I think I agree, but I could understand how someone might be used to them, but not me.&nbsp; Since you you seem to like shadows(and your shadows look great) you should consider the upgrade to dynamic lighting, it's awesome, and you will not have to make shadows anymore. $5 a month, if that is too much you should rotate the $5 to a different member of the group each month.&nbsp; Gold always gives great suggestions and is a veteran around here(and he also champions my love of 2e), but if you enjoy making maps, keep it up. Use other maps as references so you can see what other artists do. Nothing beats a custom map made it's Dm love.&nbsp;
I am planning to do dynamic lighting once I run the campaign (I'm just setting it up as I'm quite busy as of now) I have always used a grid in my games, and I feel squimish at the thought of not having one. Without grids in your game, isn't it really hard to move your tokens around? Do you keep the grid tranperant so they can still snap to it, or remove it completely? Thanks for your feedback, I'll definitely look at some other maps.
1475681017
Gold
Forum Champion
lavathor, Try changing it to transparent grid (in the Page settings, grid Opacity slider), like you said they can still snap to it. See if you like that. My maps are usually set up in this way. Regarding the module from Marketplace and getting the maps / tokens --- with a Pro subscription you can use Transmogrifier to transfer pages containing maps and tokens, into your other games. Without access to Transmogrify you can only run the module maps in the actual module game (You can make unlimited games of a module after purchase).
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Edited 1475683583
Working within Roll20, my suggestion would be to add lines to the borders of your cliffs, and where transitions appear, that extend a bit beyond your square borders. Think of it like inking a comic. We can see what you have with the cells you placed and the shadows you have, but putting a border at the edge of the cliff will help define it. Since you are using everything squared off, alt + the draw square tool would probably allow you to accomplish this by making the cube essentially one thick line. Concerning grids, using them or not is up to you as GM. I frequently run with both on my maps. We just ended an arc in this town map for example:&nbsp; Setting the distances of the grid, sometimes its a good call to cut the grid and just use the measure tool to determine distance. In this one we still used the grid, but the edges tend to be "soft" as in there are frequently times where they don't line up exactly perfect with the grid (like around the edges of the houses or inside some of the rooms). Since grids in most games represent wonky sizes (like 5ft by 5ft) there is a degree of "squeeze" here thats up to the GM to allow or not depending on situation. It's pretty easy to get used to in time. I personally like setting distances entirely by the measure tool and letting players be much more organic about where they move and how their spells operate. Rules are just tools, after all, and generally grids were made as a way of simply allowing movement when measuring was too difficult to handle easily on tabletop. With Roll20 doing the lifting, I find it plus the move-and-tap-spacebar to indicate waypoints makes for much more interesting play on the table. Your miles may vary though!
The spacebar tap move is wonderful. @gold I'm going to give the transpearnt grids a try, it seems funky to me, but I'm hopeing it will make the games feel more real. I'm not sure what you mean by the "inking" adding borders to the cliff, could you give me a example of one?