Chapter 2 underway

...albeit slowly. After only debugging, spell checking and stat-tweaking in the toolset for the past few weeks, I actually got down to building again last weekend. It's been a while since I sat down with a blank canvas in front of me, and I'd forgotten how daunting that is in area creation - despite my pages of notes and scribbles.

The first area leads the players to the coast, in search of the hidden militia training camp. I did a lot of grassy plains and cliffs/mountains in chapter 1, and it's moreof the same - trying to add in some differences tho - I think that it'll be the sounds that make the real difference

I'm by no means the fastest area builder, but i thought I'd post some shots every few steps along the way - to show things taking shape.

I'm going to use some 3D combat again - there's two main encounter in this area, and the first will involved the party being pinned down. I think the one thing missing from the many RPGs is an appreciation of the way buildings/areas can be made defensible, and tricks that were used by medieval craftsmen to acheive this - funnelling the enemy through a tight gap so archers can concentrate their fire, etc. I think these sorts of things can be just as fun in D&D as the standard dungeon - form both sides. As a player its fun to plan attack and defence strategies.

Most of my time so far was spent trying to come up with tricks to have players be able to walk under bridges that they can also walk over - the walkmesh doesn't allow this in exteriors as far as I can tell, so I've played with several options. IN the end they all got a bit messy/convoluted, and it would have detracted from the play, so I've opted for a rope slide/zip-line instead - simple = good