The lava didn’t end up looking like I wanted… oh, well.

This time I've cross-posted from our KultRPG community: https://ttrpg.network/post/25438389

If you haven't heard about it, it's a great horror game. My favourite quote is this one:

Kult is another glorious dark game [...] that’s been described as “Call of Cthulhu without all the cheery optimism”

And this is what I posted back in (!kult@ttrpg.network):

I can't recall if I saw an illustration of an entryway to the Underworld or if I just pictured it in my mind while reading K:DL.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, a part of me insists that I saw it somewhere. Someone was creating a chart of elysium, Metropolis, hell, heaven, gaia, and the underworld.

Anyway, I can't find that image anymore, so I tried to start one common depiction of an entryway: a subway. (as usual, I'm not esctatic about how it came out, but I don't have to be)

Perhaps that image I think I vaguely remember disappeared altogether. Perhaps that's what happens when someone draws maps than come closer and closer to Achlys. Perhaps I don't remember because vivid thoughts about the nothingness tend to disappear.

Found this sketch on the back of a receipt at home. I'm pretty sure it predates this community, but can't figure the exact date from the faded text.

It got me wondering... if it were a CVS receipt, would it still qualify as a micro-map?

Also... would you have your players approaching from the left side or the right side?

In the end I'm happy to have ditched the cobblestone in my streets. This works better to build a larger map from several mini tiles.

Another good choice (at least for tiling) was to have each mini map surrounded by streets, or paths.

doodled this today on a letter i'm sending to a friend. thought it turned out pretty okay.

It's about time, isn't it?

Yet another time I draw inspiration from Dyson Logos (if you have Mastodon, I highly recommend following: @dysonlogos@chirp.enworld.org).

After drawing so many tiny caves, I started to feel like I didn't know what to place inside the walls. And the form factor doesn't help, because there's so much I can fit into the paper, and therefore can't rely on an interesting layout.

I eventually landed on this map: https://dysonlogos.blog/2022/01/06/heart-of-darkling-the-mushroom-caves/

Of course! Mushrooms!

Edit: Whoops. Forgot to add the image. Fixed.

Talk about inspiration.

In case you didn't know or didn't catch the reference, this is a homage to Nethack.