Hiya Adepts- here's the Desert Rubble (50x50), a nice and big desert map with a staircase down to probably a spooky desert tomb or something, I haven't really thought that far ahead. Maybe I should make that next?
Hey, I made an underwater map as your variant! It's been a super long time since I've done one of these, it's a bit of a puzzle to give the impression of being underwater with just colors and shading but I think I got there.
Oh and also you're getting the version of this map without the ruins- nice! Spook your players by having them cross swaths of open sand, anyone who's aware of Dune should approach this with caution.
This sketch went through a lot of adjustments, I think just about every part of this initial drawing has been moved, scaled, or removed before reaching the next stage. The details aren't that important, I just wanted to give the impression of a somewhat hidden ruin nestled here among the rocks in the desert, the kind of place you'll have to search for and might be cursed as all hell.
I think the main thing that made me adjust the sketch so much was how evenly spaced many of the big boulders were, it felt unnatural. I scaled up a few of them and cut a couple of the smaller ones, that looked much more natural to me. I also felt pretty good about cutting the rock wall in the bottom left corner, with it gone that part of the map feels like it could open out onto the open desert or maybe just cliffs further off-screen, it's more open ended this way and that's always a plus.
I've been really fighting these cliffs and rock walls recently, I just cannot settle on how to make them look as desert-y as I want. This version, with the striations and lots of tiny ledges, feels pretty good. It's a lotta work though.
The ruins are kept intentionally simple. I don't like adding statues or symbology to ruins because you never know what kind of storyline a party might be coming here with. This might be the crypt of an ancient wizard that was sealed away or the tomb of an honored warrior king, but if I add devil statues and pentagrams then that leads the story in a certain direction. I'd rather under-detail and keep it open-ended and simple.
I finally decided to try out some textures for this map, as a trial. I think subtlety is key here, and maybe I should lean towards being even subtler in the future. It does look sandy though, can't deny that. We'll see.
As for the palette, I stuck with the one I established for the Desert Gorge. The orange-tinted rocks work well with the slightly brighter sand colors, and the greens of the plants shine through in a few spots while largely feeling nicely arid.