Miscellanea RPG Maps
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The Grand Canal (33x17)
🕑 Added 2021-07-23 16:53:32 +0000 UTCGood morning! Wrapping up the Lagoon Cities theme for the month, this week's map is based on Venice's Grand Canal. Terracotta rooftops and several access points to the canal should provide plenty of verticality, and the bridge provides a natural chokepoint. If you're in need of an interesting use for this map, I cite Skerples' breakdown of the War of the Fists:
Stone bridges formed an ideal battleground. They separated feuding parishes, allowed for crowds of spectators, focused the action onto a narrow and easily contested point, allowed for clear victories and defeats, counterattacks and feints, and an easy escape from the press of combatants. Diving into the water (especially when the canal was full of boats and spectators) might not be appealing, but it (usually) prevented accidental deaths by crushing. Deaths by drowning, especially in the early days of stick-fights when armour was worn, were still common. The bridge also elevated the participants, both psychologically and literally. While providing a clear view for spectators, it also helped the combatants spot the approach of the sbirri, the secret police.
Variants
- Supporter: Day and night as standard, plus a rainstorm and a sky-bridge variant with some beautiful hand-painted clouds beneath the bridge instead of water. Seriously escalates the risks of falling off.
- Enthusiast: In addition to a set of maps stripped of bridges - perhaps the sky-gap one could be used for airship docking too? - the Enthusiast tier gets a really weird variant I've labeled the Midnight Hour. Sorta looks like Hell is reaching out to seize you.
- Benefactor: I'd feel bad if I didn't include a set of underground variants to go with the others, so that's what the Benefactor tier comes with. Bridge, no bridge, and a lava chasm (with or without bridge) are included! Dwarves optional.
The free map is as usual attached to this post.
Technical Details
- Resolution: 4,620 x 2,380
- Map Size: 33x17 tiles
- Grid Size: 140ppi
Downloads
Supporter: The Grand Canal
Enthusiast: The Grand Canal
Benefactor: The Grand Canal (RAW)
Downloads include all content from the previous tiers. Raw files require 7zip and a good bit of technical knowhow, see raw file master post for details or ask me if you're confused. (You probably don't need them if you don't know what they are!)
Notes
War of the Fists is worth reading. Coins & Scrolls is also worth reading.
I bet you could chop off one side of the no-bridge maps and use the other as a shoreline-type map.
This theme feels kinda like it went on longer than the others. I bet it's because I used the wildcard at the start of the month instead of in the middle of it.
Thanks for reading! If you haven't yet, don't forget to vote in the map theme poll for August!
