Underdark Spider Caves

[Legacy_3RavensMore]

               Just an update note.  After 2 1/2 day NWN/PnP party, every one of my 7 players had nothing but heaps of praise for your Spider Caves.  I don't know how many said a derivative of "this is NWN?"  The complained when they'd cleared out all the levels.  I spent five months on a vast, elaborate, and highly decorated tower/crypt, and they enjoyed the Spider Cave areas that I spent 2 days building more.  At the risk of repeating myself...fabulous work with this set.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               that goes down like sugar:) . What else to say... i already did some new tiles for the caves...
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_UA DM]

               Baba Yaga,

A couple more quick questions... when you wrote about a great cave and a raise lower feature did you envision a tile set like the bioware underdark which had no roof but one could build tiers or teraces with the raise lower feature? Or did you mean something like the great cave in the spider cave tile set which I beleive is at least two tiles high?

My underdark expirence is limited to the "D series" from AD&D a long time ago. When I think of a great cavern I think about the gigantic cavern at the end of the D3 module with the Drow city and the various little merchant strongholds are amongst these giant forests of fungi. Actually one of the pics that were posted by Carcerian is an image of what the players would have seen when the entered the Vault of Drow.

Anyway one more question about the fungi forest tiles. Would these be a 1x1 tile with a giant toadstool on it kinda like bioware had in their tileset? Or is this a group 2x2, 3x3 or larger of a whole bunch of differant fungi (some taller than the player and some smaller) such that it would block movement and be like the player was walking around inside another ecosystem? I always thought that a "fungi forest" would provide a differant look to the cave setting.

Sadly if I only new how to make models I would have built a fungi forest tiles.  I just haven't found anything that provides a sense of emersion.

UA DM
               
               

               

                     Modifié par UA DM, 30 mai 2012 - 02:01 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Drewskie]

               

My underdark expirence is limited to the "D series" from AD&D a long time ago. When I think of a great cavern I think about the gigantic cavern at the end of the D3 module with the Drow city and the various little merchant strongholds are amongst these giant forests of fungi. Actually one of the pics that were posted by Carcerian is an image of what the players would have seen when the entered the Vault of Drow.

I've read through the g&d series as well and must say this work is reminiscent of the "Descent into the Depths of the Earth" transition after being introduced to the tentacle rod wielding drow at the end of G.  Those are my favorite works of eg Gygax and must say this comes closest to bringing them to life.  I never have been able to get ahold of a copy of "Queen of the Demon Web Pits", though, which concludes the series.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               UADM:
The raise lower is for the caves terrain so with a roof and for the fungiforest tiles im not sure exactly what they will be alike. But your ideas sounds good to me and i try to create something like you described. A different ecosystem then within.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Rolo Kipp]

                <wishing he had a...>

You can find a wonderful bit of inspiration for fungus cave ecosystems in Miyazaki's masterpiece Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds. I truly love the imagery:








(notice Nausicaa for scale in the lower left corner ;-)

<...squirrelfox>
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Rolo Kipp, 01 juin 2012 - 04:18 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_NWN_baba yaga]

               thanks rolo:) and i think there is some weird connection between the look of "underwater areas" and strange places in the underdark....
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_UA DM]

               

NWN_baba yaga wrote...

UADM:
The raise lower is for the caves terrain so with a roof and for the fungiforest tiles im not sure exactly what they will be alike. But your ideas sounds good to me and i try to create something like you described. A different ecosystem then within.

Hi Baba Yaga,

Here is the description that led me to the fungi forest idea.  Its from the module "The Vault of Drow".  This is describing the "fungi forest" environment deep beneath the earth.

"As the party proceeds down the road they will observe that the countryside beyond the gorge is filled with abnormally large lichens, large and small crystalline growths, and fungi of all sizes, shapes, and description.  There are shelf fungi, morels, branching types, puffballs, horsetails, and more conventional mushrooms as well.  Various sorts of yeasts, smuts, rusts, blights, and molds of huge size grow upon some of the toadstools and strange fungi.  These growing things all thrive upon the radiation of the "stars" and "moon" above (talking about minerals imedded in the cavern roof some several thousand feet at the center of the cavern dome), or the fertilizers spread about them by slaves and servants of the inhabitants of the Vault, the Dark Elves,.  The huge growths form regular forests and brakes which the Drow use for all manner of things.....

So I was thinking that this describes a differant eco system under the earth.  Its differant from the caves and tunnels.  By adding 6-8 tiles of "fungi forest" to your tile set you will in effect be creating a new eco system.  So instead of players just seeing caves they will come into this new environment.  There are a number of monstes native to the fungi forest ecosystem that are allready included in NWN some of these include giant spiders, gray ooze, ochre jelly, umberhulk, bullette, troglodyte, trolls, bugbears.  Other creatures which could reside in this setting could be shriekers, violet fungi, shambling mounds, yellow mold patches, and the list goes on.  I don't think any of these other creatures are in NWN but I think some people have made custom models.

So how to make this....  would the easiest option just be to make 1x1 tiles with various groupings of fungi forest on them?  This maybe easier and less time consuming than using some type of terrain tile.  Not sure how pathfinding works but I think each tile is 30 feet x 30 feet.  So for example could you make tiles with the following configuration (X = no walk - ie mushroom and other fungi and O = walk).

Example 1 (Straight "corridor" Tile)

XOX
XOX
XOX

Example 2 (Turn "corridor" Tile)

XXX
XOO
XOX

Example 3 (No Walk Tile - All full of fungi)

XXX
XXX
XXX

Just an idea.  But this way with 6-8 of these differant 1x1 tiles then level designers could lay out "forests" with pathways ("Corridors"). through them.  Making a couple of groups would also add a little more flexability for designers.  For example you could have a 2x2 group that included a pool of water in the middle (could be walk or no walk) but this would make a "watering hole" for creatures living in the fungi forest to come drink.  Some other ideas for individual tiles would be a sinkhole located in the forest.  This could be used as an area transition to a cave complex below the forest.  Just think a designer could make a script or something that would make a carrion crawler emerge from the sinkhole if the adventurers stay to long.... 

Anyway the prospect of seeing this developed after 10 years of NWN is very exciting.  I have more ideas.  Let me know if you need anymore inspiration. 

Thanks for considering this.

UA DM