Unorthodox DM's guide to Backgrounds

[BestMori]

lmfao what's popping baby


Alright, so in our last episode, you learned how to make props to pretty things up. Now, you're going to take this a step further and experiment with this in some cool ways.



recap here and understand it before moving on: https://chronicles-of-esshar.com/forum/s...p?tid=4912

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so yeah you can teleport between really cool maps like that one snow map, or coc qasmoke

sometimes that's not enough though so we'll make one like you see in the demonstrations here





So, if you remember the prop guide, you can probably have an idea of what's going on here. Same as before, we're just layering sprites creatively, except taking it up a notch. Before we begin any of this, we'll need to actually choose a map that we need. Maybe you're looking for an interior, special location, or you want to add some flare to an existing spot. We'll break that down.


Let's start with the first image, the lovely map that doesn't actually exist. 



Just a chunk of earth + recolored water! And with experimenting, you can get the same result as I, or maybe something different. Now, a quick word on the map, as that was actually made by hand, the first of two ways I'll be showing on how to do a scenery.


If you're making your map by hand, you're going to need map tiles. You're looking for something like this: 

Channel your inner Avee and map things best you can for your event. I use Pixlr Editor (https://pixlr.com/e/) for all my image editing, it is free and it's like a stripped down version of photoshop. It's really good and you can make memes pretty quickly so it suites my needs. If you have anything else, or- you know, the actual photoshop, feel free to use that instead.

Before doing any of that though, let's see if we can shave off some of the workload to make this easier on you. There's a really nice sprite cutting software to speed some of this up called Shoebox. (https://renderhjs.net/shoebox/)

Follow the instructions on how to use it on the website. What it does is take spritesheets that you feed it and will automatically cut out the image. 

This is an example of something I cut out with Shoebox to make procuring sprites way easier. You just upload and it's done in seconds, extremely helpful with maps or characters. The way you build your map is completely up to you and to the nature of your event, but get creative and see where you can exercise some freedom with the scenery.

A way I try to think of it is how many areas the characters will realistically travel to, and then think about ways to substitute some of these locations with in-game ones to reduce workload. What you have at the end is how much you need to create from thin air.

So for example, ...



Snippet from Pirate Event. This was a physical map item the players could pick up and look at, you know- for fun! Try to think about the journey and what will need to be mapped.

What is the intro? What is the end?

Docks --> Sea --> Island --> Final Boss Den

There are already in-game docks in Osrona, so you can use those if you'd like! Or, those can be mapped.

If you plan for people to be able to walk around the ocean as if they're swimming, (Fishing Minigame, maybe? Exploring a shipwreck?) you'll need that mapped. So you would use the ocean tiles up there ^^

There are in game islands! You may use that and just decorate it a bit. What constitutes as the final boss is up to you, but I prefer when big scary monsters have big scary maps.

For me then in this workload, I'd need two maps. You decide what works for you.



So, that is the method for hand-made maps. Fire up an image editor, form the map, export as .png, and then slap it into the game. This is without a doubt a heavy amount of work, especially for something that'll be consumed in three hours! But hey, not only will the event kiddos love the work you put in, but you'll feel really artsy too!



.. But what if I told you there was a quicker way?

Enter part 2, Clever Cropping



These maps were not personally made, but instead cropping parts of a much larger map image found online. The beauty in this is that it is one image (or a collection of images) cleverly placed on the game tiles to give the effect that it is a full scenery. You can even see where this illusion fails by noticing the map errors around the shadows in the samurai picture (top-center) or the house being slightly misaligned in the snow picture (center-left)

(((img limit)))

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Both are just parts of a larger, 3-part image.



Now, this sounds really good actually! Amazing! But what's the catch?


Oh you.


Oh sweet-sweet you.


Yes, there is always a catch. On BOTH maps (hand made and clever cropping) the players will not be able to actually fight on them. Projectiles will take the lowest layer, that is UNDER the map, so the party will not be able to see where they are firing spells. Also, the party will not be able to see dropped items.


You can drop items when SETTING UP, if you remember what I said about layers in the first "Props" thread. You could for example put a chest on the ground using what you know, and bring it to the top layer. The players may see this, and they might take it (Or RP with it!) However, when it comes to dropping items during the event on the map? Avoid this. The reason why is because those freshly dropped items you may be giving out (Such as a reward, a note, or anything of that nature) will fall on the lowest layer, under the map.


Weapons, Armor, Amulets, Hats, that sort of thing. Those in my testing will always go to the lowest layer, and therefore, under the map. 


So, as you're probably guessing, these maps are better suited towards being a canvas for the RP. If you plan on the group starting a fight, consider either taking pieces of the map to still keep the immersion, such as trees, hills, rivers, and using that to decorate the scene. Or, you could go really old school JRPG and make a separate, decorative map, for fights. 


You could do this by sectioning off a piece of the world, put some skulls and bones, and then teleporting the players to this location anytime a fight is about to take place. When this is finished, teleport them back to the map to continue their RP.


Something like this for example. Just drag the player into the Celestial Battlegrounds and molly whop them.




Now, one last note before we're finished.
You've probably noticed the particle effects, or even in the second image, rain, thunder, and clouds. The clouds are a fun test of the parallax effect.


The clouds are a crop from this beautiful pixel art from noirlac (go check out his stuff it's really nice!)


To get an interesting parallax effect like what you saw up there, just simply flip the image and make sure it connects properly. This produces a sort of seamless "endless" loop. Place both images down, the original, and then the flip at the end piece. Continue doing this until you have the desired length.


You can use this for Mountains, Clouds, Forest Backdrops, or anything else you can think of that would have an "infinite" sort of background.


For the rain and the hazy blood mist particle effect? Those too are just sprites layered on top of sprites, placed in an interesting spot to give the scenery more pop.


Another example of the Parallax effect on another animated prop. The long streaks of red are actually made of about 20 different sprites, all the same. The Demon and RP bubble are a set piece all on their own, their own individual sprite.

This is probably the best showcase of all the things covered here by AoriaDM.




That's pretty much it, now you can make your events look really cool and stuff. All of this was done on the Space Map. It's a good blank canvas with plenty of room, so decorate to your heart's content.




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