Past Acres of Scrubland, you'll find The Cliffs

Well! I'm keeping pace on getting these maps drawn and keyed each day for the #dungeon23 challenge, but finding time to get them added to the PDF has been a challenge all on its own. However! I've managed to carve out some time to get April's area included. So, The Cliffs are now yours to explore.

I knew when I started this challenge, I wanted an outdoor area. Partly to experiment with textures, and partly to give myself a break from the indoor "bricks and tiles" theme that the rest of the dungeon has. It was going to be either cliffs, or an abandoned village. I went with cliffs. Might as well get as bushy as possible and see where that takes things.

I'm not great at drawing organic stuff, but I'm pretty happy with how The Cliffs turned out. Especially the combined map. It was fun to see how all of the different landmarks created a cohesive landscape in the end. When I first plan an area, I'll mock it up digitally using basic shapes, so I can move things around and have some sense of how things will line up from one sub-area to the next. But once I start on the paper version, there's a detachment for a while, where I don't get that full birds-eye-view until each sub-area is complete. It's a bit of a relief when stitching all the scanned pages together, that it all still generally works as a map. If I was to do it again, I might try to give the river some softer curves,  snake it across the map a  bit more, rather than the hard L-shape it has going on right now. An experiment for another time.

I liked how a lot of the focal points turned out, too. The main set piece being the highway bandits camping at the center of the map. I think there's a lot to work with there for a GM, lots of layers. Do the bandits become adversaries, or is there an opportunity for an exchange of services? Can they help you get into the dungeon? Do you help Barbera find a new power source for Bea the Mech?  What does Bea do once she's powered up again? What happened to Zane's missing brother, and how does he react when the adventure party shows up? Does he suspect them?

I think Jorel the chloromancer will also be pretty interesting. There's a good assortment of simple quests built in with him. Collecting eggs, or escorting his father's bones to a dry location (lest he spout vines and turn into a Flora-Zombie). But he could easily get mixed up with the bandits for added complexity. Maybe Jorel's zombie-plant-dad was the one who took Zane's brother? The camp is right beside the graveyard, after all. Yeah, I like that.

I'd say that's one design element I'm going to try and lean on going forward. Create simple layers that can become complex as they overlap. Then leave it up to the GM and players to uncover them and set things in motion.

One more thing to mention that I thought was interesting. I've written a few of the random happenings almost like incomplete short story concepts. Open ended occurrences or sightings that are a little weird, a little fleeting. For those that have the PDF, I'm talking about the Tributary Tribute and the Pale Fisherman happenings. I'm not sure what direction I'll push these going forward, but I like them, and it's something I'd like to explore a bit more in the coming months. 

The Pale Fisherman 

In the distance, a pale fisherman in a straw hat casts their line into the water. Upon approach, a sense of confusion clouds your mind, a distracting thought takes all of your attention. What was that thought, adventurer? When the thought passes, the fisherman is gone.

Reaching the spot where the fisherman once was, sits a weather-worn tackle box, surrounded by thick grass. Within the box, among the rusted fishing hooks and novelty lures, is an item. It is the distracting thought, validated, made manifest. 

Ok, let's wrap this up! If you've been following along with my daily room posts on social media, you'll know that we've just hit the halfway point of the #dungeon23 challenge. Six months! Over 180 rooms! I think the biggest thing to recognize at this point is that if I've managed to complete six months, I just have to do it one more time, then I'll be done! Not sure when I'll get around to porting the next complete areas into the PDF, but stay tuned. It'll happen. Thanks as always for your support!