How To Draw Dnd Battle Maps
In this article I hope to answer the historic period one-time question: How practice you create your maps, Ross?
I have been cartoon battle maps since 2022, and my method has evolved significantly along the way. I have no doubt that it will evolve some more in the future, only this post will at least serve as a useful time capsule for my method in 2022.
In these 5 years I have broken the map-creation process downwardly into these stages, and I'll explain each in turn:
I must take a moment to mention that this is the method that works for me, and in that location's probably a different method that will be right for you! Give information technology a try, keep what you like, drib what y'all don't, and explore from there. That's the secret to whatever artistic journey whatsoever.
The Draft
It'southward time for that same lesson they teach in every art class you'll e'er take: thumbnails!
This stage has a single goal, and that'southward to explore composition and find "the one" to follow through with. In general, this means to describe a wide range of small-scale "thumbnails" and sketch as many varieties of the basic floor plan equally you can imagine. The first thing to come to your head is often skillful but, v or half dozen thumbnails later, you are likely to find something great.
You would exercise well to remember nearly aureate ratios, big-medium-small, and other compositional rules that are beyond the telescopic of this article. That said, fifty-fifty an amateur tin draw xx different versions of something on a piece of paper, concord information technology at arm'due south length, and selection out the best one. And, if you tin can't, very frequently the person to your left can!
Subsequently settling on a thumbnail composition, you should transfer this to your newspaper as a last draft that you will afterward ink over with your proper line art. I recommend printing out a canvass of graph newspaper from Incompetech for this stage (more than on The Filigree later).
Transfer your chosen thumbnail to this canvas with a pencil and a calorie-free touch, every bit y'all'll want to erase it later you've fatigued your final line art over the acme. I personally use a brilliant blue colored pencil for this, and I remove it digitally with Photoshop's color select tool.
That covers the method, but what exactly makes a expert boxing map draft? Permit me to share some of the things that I like to consider…
The Encounter
We're not drawing art to hang upon a wall or grace your desktop. No, our drawing demands claret to be spilled upon information technology, for it is a battle map!
Well, yous might also use it for a skill challenge, a thespian base of operations, or any number of things, just nine times out of ten it's going to be the phase for combat or some kind of action set piece. Suffice to say, keep at the front of your mind your map's purpose and how information technology'southward likely to play.
Allow'southward interruption our encounter down into pieces…
The Clash
In the opening rounds, where will our heroes and villains brainstorm, and where are the melee characters going to meet? In my opinion, you should aim to give these characters as many options every bit possible. You desire to inject as much choice and strategy into the opening circular as you can.
If the fighter leaps into the main chamber, the enemy orc might feint and take a flanking route instead. Will the rogue motion to intercept, or will they take path number iii to strike at the enemy healer at the back?
I tackle this primarily by offering several feasible routes from one end of the map to the other. You might also provide ii or more advantageous points – for example, high ground or active hazards (more on that later on) – to force the fight to have place on several fronts.
That said, a asphyxiate-point battle or other simple clash is its own unique come across all by itself! Not every battle should be a chess match, and variety is often the nigh important thing. It's nice to let your big fighters "agree the door" every now and then.
The Slog
What comes subsequently The Clash? All too oft information technology's a sequence of rounds of rolling dice and working from strongest power down to weakest power without a whole lot of moving around. In my opinion, this should be avoided at all costs! Though much of this comes down to the system you lot're playing (how powerful opportunity attacks might exist) and the encounter pattern (how meaty the enemies are), we can likewise use our battle map to address the result.
The most powerful tool in our map-making belt will be, for lack of a improve phrase, boosted or alternate goals that go across killing all of the opponents. Goals that strength the players to reach and hold McGuffins, interact with objects on the map, and practice other things besides slinging damage dice. For example, a sacrificial pit to which a conveyor chugalug is conveying hogtied civilians, phylacteries to interruption, or runes to erase which are empowering the big boss.
Just like The Clash, this is a rule that you should suspension often in the proper name of variety! A unproblematic "team decease match" with an opponent is e'er good fun, we're just trying to avoid being predictable and letting every fight become a "meet in the center and roll dice till in that location's a last man continuing" situation. You can apply one or all of these tips to accomplish that.
Hazards
Hazards – and interactable objects in full general – are maybe the about potent tool that you can employ as a map-maker. I similar to split them into two classes:
- Passive hazards are immobile things such as chasms, traps, and zones of wild magic. These are simple and constructive ingredients to broil into your boxing maps, and can add a meaning corporeality of peril to the encounter! Go wild, but I would like to offer this one piece of advice: What happens if a player character falls prey to one of these hazards? If they fall into the bottomless pit, where do they end up and how can they join the political party once more? I often include stairways and elevators on maps that feature drops such as these because, assuming they survive, I'd like to be able to go on where we left off before the see. In another way of putting it, I don't want the stakes to be as well bully unless the heroes are facing a worthy opponent.
- Agile hazards are dynamic things such as advancing flames, manually-operated traps, and interactable objects. In essence: things which tempt (or forcefulness) the combatants to move. They need non threaten your players with damage, either; I call back information technology'southward often improve to tempt your players away from their standard attack cycle with things like lever-operated traps, powerful scorpion turrets, and rickety, collapsible walkways that they can use to bargain even more than damage to their foe. That said, move-or-else hazards like aging flooring sections and creeping lava also piece of work a charm!
Hazards are an endless source of fun, but also something to use sparingly. Too many hazards on a single map is stress-inducing – just one set slice hazard will do! And, to harp on the aforementioned indicate equally before, it'south all-time to avoid beingness formulaic. Use variety as your central guiding principle.
The Grid
The grid is our unique artistic limitation as map-makers, and where we let the game supersede the art. This is hardly a bad thing though, limitations breed creativity!
I recommend forgetting the grid when thumbnailing, but paying careful attention when drafting your final pattern. Again, you can print off graph newspaper from Incompetech to assistance you with this stage. Just remember to use a low-cal color that you can digitally remove after.
Your rule of thumb is a simple question: is the terrain type clear? Is it clear whether each filigree foursquare is passable or impassable (or hard terrain, etc.)? If you bake the answer to this question into your map then your players will non need to enquire it in the midst of combat.
On classic black and white boxing maps this is accomplished with symbols and shorthand, only we can utilize those same tools even with a colorful work of art! Personally, I use these two techniques:
- Fill the grid square enough so that it'southward dominated by 1 terrain type. This doesn't mean yous must draw every feature at ninety degree angles, only that you should strive to avert whatever squares that are disruptive. Equal parts flooring and wall, for example. Your angled wall might pitter-patter into a passable floor space, but you should endeavor to let ane terrain type "own" that space so that it's clear at a glance. At the finish of the day, your goal is just to avert the need for your players to ask questions like "tin can I stand up here?" equally much as possible.
- Utilize patterns to communicate certain terrain types. In particular, difficult and unsafe terrain. Think about the ways video game designers communicate long grass that you are able to sneak around in; it's ordinarily grass of a uniform type, color, or height. Nosotros can use the same method of shorthand for all sorts of terrain. For example, I accept a sure pattern for rubble. At the get-go of the encounter I point and say "this stuff'southward difficult terrain" and, because it's uniform in pattern and color, the players internalize it from that point on.
At this stage you lot have your paper or canvas before you lot and a semi-transparent typhoon drawn upon information technology. You've defined the grid, the major and minor shapes, and whatever obstacles and features you programme to draw.
Your draft can be as detailed or simple every bit you like, information technology all depends on your conviction in the line art stage. You might draw every detail and leave no decisions for inking, or you lot might simply cake in vague shapes and areas and proceed with non much more than than an enlarged thumbnail. Find what'due south right for yous, and call up that y'all can e'er draft more details in fifty-fifty afterward you selection up your pen!
The Line Art
I draw my line art with paper and pen, but these steps will likewise guide you if you're drawing digitally. All this stage actually entails is finalizing your draft lines, adding details, and – optionally – shading.
For boxing maps specially I utilize assuming and fine lines for different purposes.
Assuming lines
You might think of these dark, thick lines as the map's skeleton. I use them to ascertain important features of the map, such as ledges, impassable walls and objects, and features that need the player'south attention. They should be used sparingly for just this reason; they will fail to stand out at all if they are used too liberally.
Assuming lines can also be used to propose grade in at least two means. The kickoff is for objects very high up, to suggest that they are larger and closer to the camera. The second is to use them sparingly in areas of deep shadow; I often speckle the dark side of treetops with bold clumps of leaves, and this does wonders for making them appear more 3-dimensional.
It'due south a little flake of an oversimplification, merely it may aid to retrieve of bold lines equally necessary lines and fine lines as unnecessary lines. You could play out the battle map if all you lot had were assuming lines because, to reiterate, you would at to the lowest degree take the skeleton in identify.
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These branches are close to the camera and fatigued in a bolder line to suggest so. -
Bold lines define the walls and ledges – you could play on this map even if those were the only lines! -
Bold lines are interspersed with the leaves here to give the treetops form, and used as a stark outline to separate them from the grass.
Fine lines
Fine lines are for the many details, texturing, and other flourishes y'all wish to include on the map. For battle maps in item we use fine lines in society to avoid distracting too much from our ever-of import grid. As a rule of pollex, I would reserve fine lines for two things:
- Textures, such every bit the tiling on a dungeon floor, leafy copse, and grassy plains.
- Prettifications, such equally clutter on a desk, cross-hatched dungeon walls, and hatching in deep shadows.
Always attempt to suspension upwardly large patterns and avert carpeting maps in evenly-applied detailing. A map with a large, even blanket of detail is rather boring to the eye, and it would be amend to cluster these details in big-medium-pocket-sized areas. Also exist mindful that detail (if used in this measured way) draws the attending of the viewer – if you take some cardinal feature on your map, it deserves the biggest serving of item!
Cross-hatching is a great technique for texturing and shading and at that place are more than than a few ways to exercise it. When y'all use information technology, keep in mind that it can be mistaken for a blueprint and that many players might read it as "impassable terrain" due to it existence and then widely used for walls in dungeon maps. It too constitutes a lot of detail, and so be mindful once again of your big-medium-minor areas.
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Here I use cantankerous-hatching for shading immediately under the copse and in the treetops themselves. Yous can run into how information technology suggests a purlieus. -
Here I use cross-hatching to mark the impassable stone walls to this dungeon. -
Here I apply a course of hatching to ascertain some dramatic shadows. Employ with caution!
My Pens
As for the pens I use, these change all the time and I hesitate to make any recommendations. When I began I was using a simple, blueish brawl-point pen, and present I use an array of fine liners and castor pens from Pigma. I'thousand however exploring dissimilar pens almost calendar week by week so I don't currently have any that I swear by – just use what you lot personally bask and, if you lot have the money, try out a whole bunch of pens to find a favorite!
If yous're new to drawing with pens then I would recommend grabbing a brush pen and a 0.1mm fine liner. If you lot can only afford one, then grab the fine liner.
The brush pen takes some practice to use, just is my favorite pen for bold and varied lines. Take information technology rather slow when you commencement out and over time you volition be able to pick up the pace without spoiling everything. I use a brush pen in item because you can vary the thickness of the line but by altering the force per unit area and angle of your stroke, fifty-fifty allowing you lot to taper gradually betwixt bold and fine lines.
The fine liner is hard to go incorrect with! It will be your tool for all the fine lines (as you've probably guessed) and, in a pinch, you tin go back over your lines again 1 or ii times to create a bold line too.
It Must Be Said: Practise Do Makes Perfect!
It wouldn't exist a proper drawing guide without me echoing this timeless saying!
I of the reasons I gloss over pen recommendations is because your tools are almost inconsequential when compared to your skill. And then much of line quality comes down to musculus memory that tin can only be acquired through do, exercise, practice. When you run across an artist depict a perfect circle in a single stroke, it's practice. When you watch them describe a effortlessly straight, even line, information technology'southward exercise again. When a few hand twitches can produce the leafy profile of a tree, that'southward too do.
When you start out, expect your lines to wait awkward an non-expert. It'south only natural! The more y'all depict them, the amend they will get, plain and elementary. Be encouraged in knowing that every line y'all draw is another footstep forward on your artistic journey.
That said, in that location are some tried and true techniques out in that location, such as how to concur the pen, how to utilize your entire arm, and whether to push or pull for certain strokes. These general techniques go beyond the telescopic of this guide and my instruction ability, and so I just wanted to recommend looking them up on YouTube. If yous want to have line art seriously, these techniques will requite you an first-class foundation.
Now, a line art battle map has its own charm and is perfectly usable, but read on if you desire to add colour into the mix…
Flatting; Coloring Your Line Art
In this stride we'll digitize our line fine art and brainstorm coloring information technology. If you've drawn your line fine art digitally, you tin click here to skip to flatting.
Scanning Line Art and Preparing it for Color
Your scanner doubtlessly has a swathe of settings just like mine, but what are the of import ones? If yous're using Windows I recommend utilizing the pre-installed Windows Fax and Scan program and using the settings below, simply read on if your gear up-upwardly is different.
Chiefly yous want to concern yourself with the "Dots Per Inch" (DPI) setting. 300 DPI is the standard for printing poster-quality illustrations, so I always recommend that you use that value as a minimum. That said, I personally scan at 600 DPI and then that I have plenty of wiggle room to dispense the line art; you tin can easily scale an image down without losing image fidelity, merely scaling it up is a whole other ordeal. Suffice to say, bigger is meliorate – Just larger images do accept up more than infinite and crave more than CPU to edit. Experiment and meet what suits you and your hardware.
Too, your scanner may have brightness and contrast sliders, among other settings. I can only recommend that you experiment with these in order to get a clear scan that includes the details you want. For example, tweaking brightness and contrast can brand calorie-free lines done in pencil appear and disappear. Sometimes this is useful for scrubbing your prototype of draft lines, other times you may desire to proceed them.
Your scanner is probably capable of outputting to several different file formats too. Of these, you will desire to export to JPG or PNG. JPG files are unremarkably compressed in some way, so be mindful not to over-compress them and lose paradigm quality, if you are given a compression slider at all. PNG files are larger considering they are uncompressed – start with these if you're unsure. Any you do, don't employ any "scan certificate" presets, as these are tailored towards outputting highly compressed PDF files, which are useless to you.
Importing Your Line Art Into Your Image Editor
Finally, your image is scanned! At present we will import information technology into your epitome editor of choice. Going forward, I will be using terminology from Photoshop primarily, but your image editor should also be capable of these steps unless otherwise stated. If yous're not certain how, try Googling "how to [step] in [your epitome editor]."
Getting your line art ready to colour is a simple, three-footstep process:
- Create a new sail
Remember the DPI setting we used when we scanned our line fine art? Make sure to enter that same value in your new canvas settings (it may be referred to as PPI/Pixels Per Inch hither) then ascertain the dimensions in inches. - Import your line art file
Dragging-and-dropping information technology into the blank canvas unremarkably works, but your image editor may have a unlike or improve method. Scale and position your line art just where you want it. - Set the layer fashion
Fix your line art layer (in the layers panel) to "Multiply" – this will transform it into an overlay and allow you to colour on any layers placed underneath the line fine art in the layer order.
Yous may too want to tweak your line fine art further with image filters and adjustment layers before standing. When yous're done, simply merge all these layers into your line art layer and and then set that to Multiply as described in step 3.
Flatting – What is information technology good for?
"Flatting" is a term that I borrow from the comic book industry (hither's the Wikipedia page on it). Basically, it is a method of coloring where we carve out our base of operations colors in dissever color "flats." This makes information technology a unproblematic affair to change these colors whenever we need to.
Comic book flatters traditionally apartment on a single layer, defining their flats with distinct zones of highly contrasting colors with difficult pixel edges (using a lasso tool or a brush with feathering disabled). This allows them to select these zones over again at any point using the magic wand or colour select tools – invaluable if you later want to change, for example, the flowers from red to blue!
Flatting in Photoshop
My method is a little different and utilizes Solid Color layers for added convenience; you can double-click these at whatever fourth dimension and change the color using the color picker.
Any time you want to paint using this flat y'all volition do and then using its layer mask. Chiefly, masks are edited in greyscale ranging from black (fully transparent) to white (fully opaque). This ways that you lot volition pigment in white, erase in black, and whatever other value in-between volition be proportionally semi-transparent.
Solid Color layers are automatically created with a filled layer mask, then creating i is likely to fill your canvas from corner to corner. Your first step later on creating a new Solid Color layer is to invert this mask from opaque/white to transparent/black. Only click their mask (come across the image below) and invert it from white to black with Ctrl+I.
Now you lot can start painting your new colour flat using a white brush, defining the actual color using the Solid Color layer! You can apply any kind of castor hither, with every bit much or as piffling feathering as you like.
Here is the Thermal Mines once more after I have filled in the "wood" Solid Color layer mask with a white brush. See how easy information technology is to adapt the color?
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Here I have completed my "wood" colour flat -
I tin can double click a Solid Colour layer and modify the color at any time – convenient!
Flatting is as unproblematic every bit adding more and more Solid Color layers until the whole epitome is filled like a page from a coloring volume. If y'all're concerned with staying within the lines, it'south easier to flat with a loftier-contrast green, pink, or white that will stand up out from the surrounding colors. When you're done you tin go dorsum through them and adjust them to a more than realistic color palette.
Here is our Thermal Mines battle map again once I'g done:
A charming battle map already, I think, and perfectly playable! Something is missing though – only perhaps it's no surprise that color flats create a rather flat looking image! If yous're up to the claiming, our next footstep is to add light and shade…
Rendering; Textures and Shading
In this short chapter I'd like to explain the simple method I use for rendering maps which, in truth, is only an extension of flatting for me; I practise all of my lighting and shading in even so more than Solid Colour make full layers.
The uncomplicated deviation is that I use gradients, opacity, and some homebrewed Photoshop brushes on these rendering layers, which I usually break down into the post-obit in guild:
Glows environment lanterns, fire, and other sources of calorie-free. Often, I personally use a combination of a hard castor and a radial slope to help lift these areas out of the dark.
Highlights are used very sparingly for cogitating surfaces, such as metal and smooth palm fronds. I don't utilise them much at all, just they pack a lot of dial when I do.
I don't often employ special layer modes for glows or highlights, but sometime soft or difficult glow works well.
Hard shadows are shadows with a articulate shape and class, such equally directional shadows cast by trees, buildings, and objects. I apply a foursquare castor with very little opacity and fill these shapes in rather like some other flat, and and then I suit the opacity of the entire layer later on to get the right depth of darkness that I want. I also use this layer for ambient apoplexy, or the shadow that collects in nooks, crannies, and other cramped areas.
Soft Shadows are something I employ for acme changes, gradual slopes, and all other areas of shade which I'd like to be about half as strong every bit the difficult shadows. I keep these on a separate layer so that I tin adjust their opacity separately, giving me a lot more command over the overall dissimilarity. I use a soft castor and the gradient tool for these.
Mottle is the name I've come to use for full general texturing, and this is a layer where I get experimental with brushes and strokes in lodge to suggest grass, water ripples, sand, and other textures. Ofttimes I volition adjust textures I have made in the by, and that's what I suggest you exercise as well! You lot can detect my collection here.
Information technology doesn't seem similar much when these five layers are listed like this simply, working together, they really do sum upwards my whole technique!
One more full general tip I have is to never utilize black every bit a shadow layer color. Trust me! A near-black blue or purple volition always look better, in my stance. As for highlights, I propose a fiery yellowish or orange depending on the context. The reason we utilise Solid Color layers at all hither is so that nosotros can play around with these colors, so commit some time only to experimenting with them. 🙂
Determination
This sums upwards my entire thought procedure from draft to finished battle map. I hope that it serves equally a useful guide for you to try your mitt at making battle maps as well! If your passion goes across your private games like mine has, I besides hope that your journeying will become far beyond this method, and that you lot volition embark on the never-ending, always-fulfilling journeying of developing your own mode.
Adept luck!
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