Improved Modular Deep Roads Tileset Board
This ended up being too big to make a slab. A long time ago, I was a game developer with Mythic Entertainment, then Bioware. Among my shipped titles are Dragon Age 1 and 2. Based on PrincessOfP0pcorn’s Deep Roads slab, I wanted one that felt a little more like the Deep Roads I worked on. I’ve essentially redone the floors using the cyberpunk industrial tiles for aesthetic purposes, added lava flows on each tileset, added lava “sources” aka dribbles and falls, increased the walls all the way to the top, and broke down a couple of components in case I needed to shorten/lengthen the bridge or a road slice. I also found myself needing changes in elevation because I’ve made a large Deep Roads map for my campaign, so I built a Deep Roads staircase complete with a couple of cranes. And since I am prone to making these sprawling gargantuan maps, I added a “legend” of sorts into the green cover tiles so that I know what each section is and can find it relatively quickly on the map.
This board contains two long straight-aways, a bridge, a gate, a staircase w/cranes, a 3-way T intersection, a 4-way intersection, and a turn. I also included a couple of cut-paste props from various tilesets that you may find useful. Also included is my set of tunnels, in case you want to add little bolt-holes along the way. The second straight-away contains a broken pillar, and I’ve included that pillar’s “greebly bits” as a prop set so you can mix and match. I also made the top of the pillar broken, in case any of your players are like mine and make use of the free-look camera and examine the ceilings of things. You can quickly swap out what columns are broken if you want a damaged Deep Road segment like I do with mine. The rooftop marker for that is a solid line and a dashed line.
Any gaps in between pasted segments can be easily shored up with some cliff faces, rocks, etc. You can supe up the lava flows by adding orange fire from the medieval lights category, I think I left those out on most of the tilesets (the staircase uses them for “lava-falls”). I got best results on my Deep Roads board by hiding the flames about 90% of the way under the lava (aka, golden pudding haha). That way it looks slightly alive but the light tends to bounce off the rocks as well as make the lava glow a little. That was one thing about the Deep Roads we wanted as a theme: the dwarves used the lava as much for light as it was heat.
About the cranes: I added some cyberpunk props from the industrial category, namely some cogs and wheels, to make the lifts a little less feudal peasant-powered. You can remove the cranes and/or sub in your own, if that’s not your feel. On the lifts, I’ve put in four hide-volumes–one on each cargo pallet. Hide/reveal them at your leisure, to simulate lifts going up/down. I was contemplating converting the bridge into a drawbridge with a similar hide-volume for the up/down status, but haven’t quite worked out how, yet. That may be its own slab later.
Please credit both Princess and myself if you use these in your published boards/slabs. This rework is as much theirs as it is mine.
