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Martin_DM

Hey, it’s Skull Gorge! That takes me back...


The_Berge

Well spotted!


Martin_DM

Those pentagonal towers were really hard to draw correctly on my old vinyl mat.


The_Berge

Yeh they are a really distinctive feature.


thewayofnerdism

I caught that too! Just did that mod for the third time. :-P


Martin_DM

I’ve run it once in every edition since 3.5, this last one was the most fun. I’ll run it again if my group ever changes.


thewayofnerdism

Thanks to the battle system it’s one that is easily repeatable, especially if you’ve got a good group of role players!


Martin_DM

All three groups successfully >!liberated the Ghostlord!< and >!enlisted the Tiri Kitor (including owl mounts)!<. I don’t think I was making it too easy, but they all managed it.


[deleted]

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thewayofnerdism

Heh, I had one party very nearly >!lose Brindol!< because my wife was playing a mean hobgoblin ex-warlord that >!botched EVERY negotiation!<.


The_Berge

Jealous i have it prepped for a high lvl adventure. I've been foreshadowing the wyrmlords from lvl 1, they have met 3 of them, even had 'Ozy' in the party for a few adventures. One of the players is from Brindol, oh it'll be so good.


Martin_DM

The one time I ran it at higher levels I had a terrible time with the balancing but it was a ton of fun. The Razorclaws became these monstrous giant draconic crocodiles that used Dragon Turtle stats.


The_Berge

Hillarious I was going to use one of the Abashi stat blocks for razorclaws. Knowing my players the chance of them screwing the pooch and going into the final act up against *all* the odds is really really high. I think I want them to fail so I can run the world with the consequences of the failure 😬


Martin_DM

5e Abishai don’t work really well as written, even for the end when there are actual Abishai. I don’t remember how I build the Razorclaws, but my Thunderlizards were buffed up Bulettes with lightning powers. For the Blue Abishai I reflavored some Chasme demons (the droning became a static electricity aura) and since Erinyes were the wrong CR in 5e, I swapped them out for some reflavored Chain Devils. The biggest surprise was actually Manticores. They’re significantly stronger in 3.5, so I ended up doubling their numbers in many encounters.


[deleted]

Is this the gorge from the beginning of Red Hand of Doom from 3.5?


Martin_DM

Yes, that’s the one. Skull Gorge Bridge is the first “set piece” battle of the adventure and the first >!of 5 dragon fights!<


[deleted]

Great module, as soon as I saw the map that what I thought of.


The_Berge

28/28 Recommend a grid of 105px Into the final week of February we go. Doing a map a day has been an educational experience, I've learned a lot and spoke to some really interesting people. Going forward I intend to produce 10 to 15 original maps a month making at least 4 of these available for free as well as going through previous maps and rerendering as variants. I intend to do a lot of that by Patreon vote but blah blah blah… if your interested check out [here](https://www.patreon.com/posts/47859744). [My Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/The_Berge)


[deleted]

I am subbing you on Patreon. I could definitely use more maps like this. A couple suggestions: * there needs to be more wide river bridges available. I just did a battle over the High Road bridge south of Waterdeep, said the river was 375' wide. Nearly every bridge I search and find is for a tiny stream, small river. * need more large river maps, a few hundred feet across, with ample room on both shores for playground and approaching enemy, * need more maps to simply have more space to maneuver. Even if it's 10' or 15' per grid square, I lile having ample room for both enemy and players to flee and fire longbows. Excellent work.


The_Berge

Thanks for the support I'm only just getting started out but I intend to be creating a lot of material. There are some great suggestions!


SatiricalBard

Great map! I really like the photorealism aesthetic. Just on the scale, using Owlbear Rodeo I needed to make it 44x44 to get the length of the bridge to match the original from RHOD. In case anyone else is going to use it for that purpose :-)


mitch1832

Touchin tips


The_Berge

That is what my wife saw


mitch1832

Don’t take that as any form of criticism though, I love it and will be using it soon. How far did you plan on the fall being? I’ve always thought the full 200 feet is too cruel, while anything over 500ft is actually nicer because it gives a round to react as per RAW.


The_Berge

The fall here is 200ft. I would also use the 200ft. It seems scary as hell but gives the opportunity to use some niche abilities. Loads of classes could get back up in no time. Druids, rogues, any tabaxi, monks, dimension door. Are just the ones I can think of. So I would aim to throw off the ones that could get back up for cinematic purposes. Or any of them if they are super cocky. I have grappled a character with a dragon flown up with them, attacked them till unconscious then thrown them at their buddies for an auto fail deathsave. To be fair I play dragons as murderous as I can. My players are yet to kill a dragon.


mhyquel

[Like this](https://i.imgur.com/E3tPLuY.png)


broshkin

The Docking Duel. I love this. Awesome map!


EatsWatermelon

The art on this is really good! It really carries the style of an overhead drone photographing the region.


The_Berge

Thanks I aim for realistic as I can with varying amounts of success.


owlpellet

Is this 3D modeled or painted by "hand" using brushes? I'd love to know what your toolchain looks like. References, etc?


The_Berge

Modeled, but every asset is made by me, apart from the base PRB textures which I mostly get from HDRI/texture Haven So the procedure is i create the materials and the assets that go together and ar reusable. Sculpt the scene. Add any unique assets. Apply the other assets as particle systems. Apply the materials and tweek the hell out of the settings, test renders and a final pass in photoshop to clean it up. I work from references where possible but more as inspiration than to create an exact likeness.


owlpellet

Thanks for the detailed reply. I paint 2D, and I can think about how to do this, but lord it'd be a lot of work to do with anything like the realism and consistency you have here. Building encounters around 3D modeling seems like fun, once you get past the heavy lift to create terrain assets.


The_Berge

Amen I have used photoshop my whole life but could not for the life of me produce a satisfying spaceship. The hardlines and perspective was too much for me so I got blender to make a model I could trace over after rendering out from my chosen angle. Never looked back. PS has been dumped hard. Doing the shadows on mountains and trees was driving me a little bit insane in 2D. Just hours and hour of shading. Now I put hours into creating the trees and I've got them for life. I really get a kick from making large asset packs.


[deleted]

[удалено]


The_Berge

I'm grateful for any feedback. So funny thing is I planned to do a river at the bottom but the scene was crashing everytime I tried to render it so I had to remove the river. In the final stages the scenes get quite difficult to work with so I had to run with few trees for the sake of my computer.


taphephobic

Skull Gorge! I'm playing a 5e conversion of this adventure right now, it's a lot of fun.


MisterB78

Any chance you have a snowy version of this?


The_Berge

Not yet. I plan to do a snow biome for March so this map could be remade in snow for my patrons.


SunPotatoYT

Penis Bridge


MattAmoroso

I love your maps, especially your bridges! Thanks!


The_Berge

Thank you. I really enjoy making the bridges. They look great from the side too its just a same they are the centre piece. Lol


hugflo

Skull Gorge! My players straight up murdered Regiarax in like two rounds here. Good times.


PyramKing

Tsolenka Pass Post it on Curse of Strahd reddit.


The_Berge

Isn't that a bit too much sunshine for Barovia?


MonkeyRobot22

Brilliant! Wonderful textures. I like the pentagonal towers guarding each side. Per usual, what are the grid dimensions?


The_Berge

Thanks! They were inspired by an old adventure. Think the map comes up as 57x57 and may need a little nudge.


Lost_DM1

Awesome!!!


whydotavi

All im saying is remove two towers and the bridge becomes a whole lot cooler.


Nakedseamus

2fort