The Red Quills is a mapmaking channel that is created and operated almost exclusively by Ryan, who draws the maps and narrates the videos. We started on the 1st January 2024, and we're growing really well, trying to share some mapmaking joy around for others with fantasy worlds that they want to stand out.
Didn’t really answer the question. Wealth is not simply “taking”. Wealth is also obtained by creating. Creation is an act of the mind and will. This idea needs further development.
Great video! As to a better way of doing the digital editing: I'm not sure what software you're using and if this is going to work with that software? But I use the following method in GIMP, which is a free open source alternative to Photoshop: - Use the original scan file where every tile is present. - Create a background layer, make it the bottom layer, fill it with black. - Add what is called an *'Alpha Channel'* to the original layer with the tiles, by Right-clicking the layer and choose: 'Add alpha channel'. _(This will allow you to delete sections of this layer and have the background layer colour show through these deleted sections)._ - Use the *'Select by Color'* tool to select all of the white paper background colour on the layer with your tiles. _(In GIMP this tool is selected by pressing: Shift + O. This tool is similar to what I assume is called the 'Magic Wand' tool, that you use in the video. Except it selects the specific colour you click for the entire layer)._ - If parts of this selection "overflows" into the tiles-section, as in 18:12. In GIMP, while using the *'Select Tool'* you can press and hold in the Ctrl-key and then select the part that is "overflowing" to make it 'Deselect' that part. - Then delete the selected colour. - Then with the *'Select Tool'* you can select each individual tile, on the original scan layer. _(As you did, when you cut them and saved them as .png files)._ Instead, use your selection to create a new layer by pressing: Ctrl + C to copy it.Then press: Ctrl + V to paste it in as a new layer. - In GIMP the new layer will appear as a *'Floating selection'* in layers. Right-click that layer and choose: 'To new layer'. This way you will be able to select each tile and copy and paste it as a new layer that you can then manipulate, whilst keeping everything in one single file. Basically this is short-cutting having to save each tile as a separate image and then importing it into a new file. Hope this helps and makes sense!? :)
You can then give them a number that you can have a die roll to generate random caves. Elemental plane of Earth would fill out a lot easier this way. Just roll for the piece the players enter, then boom, dead end...
@@RedQuills Actually, you will run into a problem with this method: Missing constraints... You can't just add random modules to one another without getting non-functioning maps... What you'd need is a constraint solving algorithm... the most popular ones are WFC algorithms (WFC standing for Wave Function Collapse), which are mirroring the way a Sudoko is solved: - Each module gets a list of possible neighbors for each side - The algorithm is surveying the grid map and decearning the "entropy" of each cell (so based on the possible neighbors of each adjacent cell, how many options are there for filling the cell in question?). - The algorithm then fills out the cell with the lowest entropy (or a random one if the entropy for all remaining cells is equal). - This is repeated until the algorithm filled out every cell within given coordinates... This fills out a 1000x1000 cell map within a minute, which you can then edit by clearing and refilling cells with selected modules, which you can then export to an image file... I've been working on this in 3D which requires a magnitude of constraints more and has a very limited number of ready-to-use plugins.... and without any experince in programming or digital game development it took me about a week to set it all up... This might sound complicated, but for a 2D map the setup would take 1-3 days, given you'd use the Godot Engine (open source and beginner friendly) and download one of the many free WFC-plugins... Actually, I just downloaded the modules and will set this up for fun :D An analog approach, where you are rolling for the next module to be added isn't really feasible I think, because the tables players would roll on, would need to be changed with every adjacent tile placed in the vicinity of a yet to be explored path... So you will have the same time consumption problem you are facing right now, just while you are playing :D
Of course! I used to have specific sections of the video for them, but I make so many! List here: - Montmartre A2 180gsm paper - Montmartre travel watercolour paints (ochre, purple ink, blue ink, black, charcoal ink) - Artliner 0.6mm black fineliner - Artliner 0.4mm black fineliner - ArtPin 0.1mm black fineliner - ArtPin 0.05mm black fineliner
Cool video! Seems like a similar idea to making physical modular terrain tiles, but for a VTT. Could be helpful with some additional tiles, especially if your particular VTT allows easy drag and drop.
nice one. I used to do similar things. There is a few things you can do to make the digital part a bit easier, if you're working on toshop :) make a blank file with a grid made of rulers and check the magnetic properties, it will be you're starting file to make a new map with your assets. If those have at least 1 cleaned 90° angle, it will make the snapping easier. To ease the 90° angle part, don't delete the blank part, use the product mode for your layers instead, that will allow you to make rectangular tiles, that will perfectly snap on your magnetic grid :) and don't do a files per tiles, do a big files with all your tiles on it and put each one on a properly named layer : you'll just have to have this file and your final map files open side by side, and you'll be able to slide layers from one to another :) i'm not sure wich software you're using, but gimp wich is free must be able to do similar things :) nice work, i love the watercolor render for maps :)
I think you should trust your instincts more often. You early on mentioned that you might need more pieces and you are correct. There are so many variations of a map, and this isn't even including pieces within each tile that can be overlayed to make them even more unique. You could include, gas vents, streams of molten lava, purple worm tunnels, umber hulk lairs and so on. You are definitely on the right track, your just not finished. Procedural maps can be simple or complicated depending on how much complexity you want to invest in it. Great job always love watching your channel, I find it relaxing. I am no artist so I love watching one at work. Cheers.
Perhaps a longer project: more tiles, more time to integrate digitally, more tutorial on programs specifically designed for it, and run together into a module at the end to show an example.
@@RedQuills There is a fantasy RPG called d100 dungeon that uses this exact method and they have pics on line, there is about 100 pieces in that one procedural dungeon, you can look at the images to give you some ideas.
I wonder if you'd have better luck using some other software, something that would allow you to more easily snap the tiles to a grid. Considering their relatively uniform size I feel like that might help when constructing maps with them! In any case I love your style and the relaxing nature of your videos, great work.
Thanks, David. I think that I'll look into it in the long term, now that I know how the illustration portion went, and make an updated video sometime next year.
Will do - I've used both before (I'm assuming DungeonDraft?), but I try to work exclusively with handdrawn stuff on this channel, so I wanted to see what I could do. Thanks for watching!
I made so many of those when I was a kid! I burned through giant graph sheets, just for fun. Never even played them. I think I started at 6yo and now I'm 44.
How do you use maps like these? It's such a beautiful map and so time consuming to make, but with all the secrets drawn on it you can't exactly show it to your players.
Easy! I upload them and use a digital program to erase the notes, and print out a bigger, noteless copy to use as the encounter map. I keep the original behind my screen to refer to.
Oooh, I love a "rings of security" model of adventure design for heists; reversing it for something like a prison break is really interesting, where you start with an encounter too hard for you to deal with, then need to run through more manageable ones with the threat of the one(s) you avoided looming behind you in pursuit.
This video's audiobalancing is off. Most of the audio is coming out of the right side instead of both. I'd love to see the video, but this made it unwatchable for me :(
Your group is really lucky to have a DM like you! Again a beautiful and useful map that every DnD group would be happy to have at their table. Just out of curiosity: What do you do with all those maps after you used them in your campaign? Do you hang them on a wall like the piece of art they are or do they disappear in a folder?
They're great players - they deserve a great DM! Some of them are handouts, which I give to them; some of them are core maps, which I hang up somewhere; a lot are one-offs, which I scan and upload to their Dropbox and otherwise just store.
Some castles could be simply abandoned, without ruin. Perhaps the water ran out, or some sort of disease killed everyone, but the walls stayed. Now a haunted fort where the guards still stand watch.
15x15 foot squares is an interesting idea, definitely helps with encounters that need more distance (especially with noise travel) but might be tricker during combat. Could be combined with theatre of the mind I think to get the benefits of both
@@RedQuills i used to make space pics by coloring the stars with crayons, then color the sky with marker. The ink avoids the wax, so this might work with the watercolors as well.
Fair question - I scan and upload them: depending on whether the session is online or in person, I can use it digitally or reprint to a larger size, in this case from A2 to A0.
How big is that paper? Do you think is optimal for creation of dungeon with s proper size? I have been searching for a manual tool to help me bust I need the where to start.
