How I Made an OPEN WORLD Map

DOWNLOADABLES & STAT BLOCKS: The Red Quill Patreon - / redquills
READ MORE: Making a Modular Gridmap - red-quills.com...
We've reached about as large as I can create a gridmap on a single piece of A2 paper, and I crave more! So I'm trying something new and daring - I'm going to try to make my own modular gridmap tiles, which I'll paint and then upload, to hopefully be able to create endlessly generative maps.
Or perhaps my hubris has grown too great.
In any case, this is my attempt to map the Elemental Plane of Earth. I'm pairing this map with Conflux Creature's stat blocks for various kinds of earth elementals, so that's very fun!
CHAPTERS:
03:48 - Designing an Open World
07:35 - Benefits of a Modular Map
13:01 - Earth Elementals
15:15 - Case Study
Credits for this episode:
Music: "Bells of Raspora" by S. Falzon
Stat Blocks: "Earth Elementals" by Conflux Creatures
Images: "Earth-Cult Elemental" by A. Miller, "Rubblehulk" by R. Swanland
#dnd #mapmaker #maps #dungeonmaster #ttrpg #painting

[@michaelanderson2166]

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]

That would definitely work!

[@necro5000]

​@@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

[@ansfelt8154]

Just found your channel and it's a little gem. I look forward to bingewatch !

[@lakeneldredodonnell6125]

I made a mix and match tile set just like this for a moving dungeon one-shot!! It used 100% of my brain power to set up

[@RedQuills]

That was my problem by the end! No brain left

[@ADN1974]

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 :)

[@RedQuills]

Dang, love that process. Noted!

[@F-Rank]

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!? :)

[@johnplesia5154]

Absolutely beautiful watercolour though!

[@RedQuills]

Thank you!

[@RadioactiveGamerZZ]

Loving the videos, would you consider walking us through the equipment you use?

[@RedQuills]

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

[@MoxOwl]

Great videos here....keep it coming

[@RedQuills]

Thank you! 🙏

[@jonhaynie1987]

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.

[@RedQuills]

With a bit more thought, I might come back to this with a program in mind and more tiles!

[@DavidtheBard1]

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.

[@RedQuills]

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.

[@jamesrizza2640]

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.

[@RedQuills]

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.

[@jamesrizza2640]

@@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.

[@gabriellabelle3915]

Look to see what two minute table top does with dungeon raft and wonder craft.

[@RedQuills]

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!

[@gabriellabelle3915]

@@RedQuills I was talking about the snapping aspects of the assets after you have drawn and scanned them to make that part quicker

[@RedQuills]

@@gabriellabelle3915 ah, very cool!