3rd Geomorph Set - 6

This is the last of this geomorph set. Only 11, as the 12th one I screwed up.

Caves, a deep well, a statue alcove...

3rd Geomorph Set - 5

Sinkhole

Crossing a ravine with a raging river!

3rd Geomorph Set - 4

Ok, so this one doesn't really fit the theme, except that there's a pit trap.

Many levels...and no easy way to cross!

3rd Geomorph Set - 3

Broken Bridge...

Waterfall

3rd Geomorph Set - 2

Bottomless pits, bricked up passageways, and escape tunnels...

I wonder how far down those stairs go?

3rd Geomorph Set - 1

I call this set "Long Way Down" for pretty obvious reasons.

Those are supposed to be rope bridges...

Careful... there's no railing!

Balticon Sunday Geomorphs 6

More bricked up doorways, and some statues!

A hidden crypt! Maybe a vampire's hideaway?

Balticon Sunday Geomorphs 5

In the last week I've jumped to 101 followers! I expect several of you arrived from the Underdark Gazette, but wherever you came from you are welcome!

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There aren't enough stairs in geomorphs, or bricked up doorways!

Balticon Sunday Geomorphs 4

I'm working on a new set that I'm calling "It's a long way down" but for now enjoy yet more Balticon Geomorphs!

Balticon Sunday Geomorphs 3

My first set of geomorphs have been added to Dave's Mapper!!

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A bunch of statues, a secret room, and a pit trap. Fun times!

Finding those secret doors may help

Balticon Sunday Geomorphs 2

I e-mailed Dave of Daves Mapper about getting my geomorphs up. He told me how to format them, so sometime in the next week or so I'll be reformatting them and sending them on to him.

Until then, I hope you continue to enjoy!

Balticon Sunday Geomorphs 1

Some sort of mechanism causes these rooms to shift.

I wonder what's in all those little rooms? Orcs with pie?

Why Geomorphs? & Post 400

Up until Balticon I’ve been avoiding drawing geomorphs. As I’ve said before, my previous attempts have been generally uninspiring, and they’ve gone into the recycle bin (sometimes literally, sometimes figuratively). So what made me decide to do two dozen while at Balticon?

There are a couple of reasons.

1. I wanted to do something with my hands while sitting in panels. While they can be interesting, they don’t always keep my complete and undivided attention. Virginia addresses this by knitting. Now I’ve tried knitting, and the results are less than pretty. Rabid weasel in a sweater box was I believe the best description of my attempt, and while I could devote the time to learning the skill, I’ve decided that I have enough hobbies, and don’t need a new one, plus I would have to have my own yarn stash, and where would we put it?!?

I can’t really paint minis, as there isn’t the space or even the surface to do it. Model and terrain making is right out for the same reasons. Writing uses too many of the same parts of the brain that I use to listen with, and that brought me to map drawing. All I need is a pen or pencil and a piece (or pad) of paper (graph paper ideally).

Ok, so I’m going to map. What to map?

2. I can’t really work on my megadungeon. There are things I have planned that will require access to my binder, and more concentration than I want to devote to it. I could work on some random dungeon, but when I tried that I could feel myself thinking about the megadungeon. I needed some form, some structure, maybe a goal... The first thing I thought of, when I thought about structure, was geomorphs.

Seeing as I was just planning on keeping my hands busy, this seemed like a good solution. I opened up my notebook, and started marking out 10x10 grids. Once i had them ready, I started drawing. I found that I could work on geomorphs and listen to the panelists, so my goal was accomplished!

Now that I’ve done these geomorphs I do have a few thoughts.

1. They’re fun! Having the limited structure of 100 squares really helped me get to it and get mapping. I didn’t spend much time dithering or worrying about making a bad or boring geomorph. That isn’t to say that I didn’t. There are a bunch that I’m perfectly willing to admit are completely boring! But because it’s only a single geomorph on a page of geomorphs, it didn’t really matter! I’d just wrap it up, and move on to the next one.

2. It’s harder than it looks. Making geomorphs is actually pretty easy. With 100 squares and 8 entrances each geomorph is a quick project. Making interesting geomorphs? That’s harder. Ok, sure, if every geomorph was interesting and cool with a neat gimmick they’d all lose their value as interesting. You actually need relatively boring spaces to make the interesting bits stand out. Finding the right balance? Again, hard.

3. It’s harder than they make it look. The gold standard of old school mapping has to go to Dyson and Stonewerks. I say this a lot, but believe me, I think it even more often. They have the skill and the tools to make their maps look awesome. My maps don’t look like theirs, and without some time and effort spent learning to emulate them, they never will.

And that’s OK! My maps look like... well... MY maps. I have my own style, and no it isn’t as refined, or as pretty. But I’m learning. I’m working at it. I look at these geomorphs, and I can see where I need to improve. It’s even more evident when I scan them in at a high resolution and see them blown up on the computer!

So what next? The Sunday geomorph series starts tomorrow, so there's that. But will there be more geomorphs? I don't know. It's certainly fun, and should future occasions arise where geomorphs would keep my hands busy... We'll all just have to wait and see. Either way, I do plan on working on my maps, and making them look better!

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Also, just a quick note that this is my 400th post! Go me!

Balticon Saturday Geomorphs 6

This marks the end of the first set of Balticon Geomorphs. The second set will be along presently...

A big statue, a bricked up doorway, and a long corridor

Balticon Saturday Geomorphs 5

You'll notice the corridor extending beyond the geomorph edge...

Lower elevation sections are great for filling with a foot or two of water... dark water that might be hiding something...

Balticon Saturday Geomorphs 4

I based this first one off of a vertical geomorph by Stonewerks called Bastion.

This one has a big room with two over looking balconies. I wasn't really sure how to show the elevation.

Balticon Saturday Geomorphs 3

Here are geomorphs 5 and 6.

This geomorph includes both a bricked up doorway and a secret doorway.

Balticon Saturday Geomorphs 2

The next geomorphs in the Balticon series.

Balticon Saturday Geomorphs 1

I completed a total of 24 geomorphs over the course of Balticon, half on Friday and Saturday, and half on Sunday and Monday. Over the next couple of weeks I'll be sharing them 2 at a time, pretty much in the order that I drew them in. They aren't nearly as pretty as those by Stonewerks and Dyson. I'm not sure what post-production work they do, but these are simply scanned in and cropped.

Vertical Geomorphs

I’ve tried my hand at geomorphs a couple of times, with nothing that I think of as success, especially when compared to the amazing efforts of Dyson and Stonewerks. This is why you’ve not seen any of them before. However there was a recent call by Jeff Rients for some vertical geomorphs, and the aforementioned Dyson and Stonewerks danced like the map-making monkeys they say they aren’t.

Today stonewerks posted a nifty dungeon with a tentacle monster on it, and I was inspired.

If you can’t tell, this was drawn on a yellow post it note.