Dungeon Mapping Symbols

An assortment of dungeon mapping symbols. A number of these are adapted from caving symbols I figure they are good enough for people that actually crawl about underground they are likely to be good enough for me.


(click to get larger image)

Dungeon Planning Graphics

One part of building the BigDungeon has been wrestling with the whole thing (or at least large chunks of it). Keeping track of one level at a time conceals interactions and just how big a dungeon can be. I worked up a few illustrations to experiment with different ways to work on the BigDungeon.
I worked up a set of colored levels in Adobe illustrator, here they are one over the other in 2-D:

(click to get the full size image)

Here's the same place in a 3D-ish view:

(click to get the full size image)

I'm very visual and prone to do "studies" on a subject to see if I'm taking the right approach. The overall advantage of the two maps as presented is pretty minor but it did show me sticking to the same representation for the entire development of a large and complex space like the BigDungeon is not the way to go. Having more then one way to see the place is key.

December already?

Been a while since I posted here. I've been doing a fair bit of hand wringing and false starts getting things ready for this site. Presenting a megadungeon in a format that others can use is a pretty daunting task. Fiddling with this site and a commercial product I have in the works made it all to obvious how tough a task it is. Makes sense to me now why most published adventures are relatively tiny.

The BigDungeon entrances and a few levels should be seeing their way to being posted online in the next couple months. I'm going to take a more relaxed and less formal approach than I have been girding myself to and flailing about to find.

BigDungeon isn't dead it's sitting in the shadows and growing.