[This map was created and this article written by forum user anomiecoalition.]

Mapping has become one of my favorite escapes from the drudgery that is graduate school.  Whether it’s developing a mystical environment from scratch or recreating a classic adventure, I look forward to spending a few hours playing around with CC3.  Lately it’s been the latter, and I’ve found quite a few gems mining my mini-library of TSR adventures.

This particular map is a reproduction of a “Buried Temple” encounter in the “Master of the Desert Nomads” module (X4).  Our adventures leave the comforts of a desert oasis to investigate a recently unearthed buried temple – Once inside they’ll discover all manner of nefarious creatures, but should they survive, the rewards will be well worth the effort.

The most challenging aspect was trying to find a way to depict areas that are both above and below ground on the same map.  I spent a great deal of time (and got lots of great suggestions from others on the Profantasy Forums) messing with my underground section.  After creating my underground walls, I multipolied the area outside the walls and placed that shape on my Background sheet (which sat below my wall sheet on the list).  From there I applied a subtle edge fade inner effect so that the sand was slightly covering the wall.  I then multipolied the area inside my underground wall, applied my sand fill to that shape, and then added a transparency effect to that sheet.  My hope was that these two techniques would give the view the impression that this area was underground.

After that, it was just a matter of dressing my dungeon utilizing various symbols from the CSUAC and textures from CGTextures.com.  I also created a bunch of sand dune sheets (edge fade inner and glow effects) to muddy up the background.   I’d be lying if I said that I was completely satisfied with the final product, but I think its human nature to demand more of yourself.   I made a lot of mistakes with this map, but I learned even more. ..And I can’t wait for my next opportunity to start the cycle all over again.

If you’re not tired of my Desert Maps, you can see more in full resolution on my blog:  http://drunkennerdery.wordpress.com/