Scifi Map Design

We talk about how to convey the themes and dangers unique to Scifi through an adventure map! Thank you, Sean, for the topic suggestion!

Twitter: @kylelatino

[VictorWyatt]

This looks like an excellent map for a Mothership game. I'm getting so much setting inspiration from your videos. Keep it up.

[barefutyello]

You made me think of two different fantasy settings with a sci fi element of either finding a spaceship in some ancient ruins or at the center of a lush forest that providing life to the area around it because of the ships technology.

[brirudd]

This is fantastic! I actually watched twice, because you said some things that I wanted to give some further thought.

[telstarradio]

Thank you thank you thank you 🙏 I’ve been trying to define the difference between fantasy and sci-fi games and you nailed it! That map is awesome, the detail is great, I just want to look at it and get lost like in those old Star Trek cutaway images from the 90s

[hakbash]

Very nice. I love it. I never thought to make my RPG maps in 3d. I’m going to give it a whirl. 👍

[mauriciogastonpirizgonzale]

01:16 It depends entirely on the story you are telling or the interpretation of the message that can be drawn from the story you are presenting. I think something more intrinsic to science fiction, or perhaps Space Opera, is discovery and the promise to keep growing/expanding. A story in Warhammer 40k will have hopelessness, fear, hatred and oppression as its main feelings. But in Star Wars fate has a very important role, and there are medieval fantasy stories that lean more towards a feeling of hopelessness or desolation (although they are usually dark fantasy rather than epic fantasy). Warhammer 40k for example is actually a dark fantasy Space Opera while Star Wars is an epic fantasy space opera, the science fiction in those is rather decorative... replace the space with ships or submarines in a big ocean/sea and that's it, you have the same.

[Earthangel]

So beautiful. Great map. A how to hand draw a spiral galaxy star map would be cool. And how to draw nice symbols for different worlds. Like e.g. in the case of 40K Hive Worlds, Forge World, Mining Worlds, Death Worlds, Maiden Worlds, Fortress Worlds, Trade Hubs, Shipyards, etc.

[Laz]

I love your maps so much, I aspire to reach this skill level some day

[maxboxeth]

I like the firefly and borderlands scifi settings!

[capesword]

It's kind of funny. I'm doing some of my own art for Spelljammer from 2E AD&D, which is oddly the opposite of what you describe. It's neither a fantasy about destiny nor an uncaring universe. Physics in this place feel more whimsical and silly, but at the same time people are still people. So there's plenty of room for intrigue and high adventure.

[matthewryall]

Excellent video, i love isometric maps. I often find most ttrpg maps lack verticality, somthing often very present in sci-fi.

[matthewdelange]

Wow, great shape language- have you looked at the Halo series? For me, it's somewhere between science fiction and science fantasy. The setting is more science fiction, but the characters are more science fantasy. Could expand your horizons in the genre. Great vid, inspired me to draw my maps on paper before making them in 3D. I liked your explanation of picking a view, rather than preaching the view's virtues as the only view. Thanks

[johnterpack]

There were plenty of episodes of Star Trek that could have been an RPG adventure. They were always running into homicidal aliens. Even generic quests could be wrapped in sci-fi dressing. Klingons and Vulcans instead of Orcs and Elves.

Ship maps could actually get very interesting if you step away from the movie/TV tropes and think about what ships might actually look like. A lot of stuff is ignored in the ships we typically see. At the very least, the scale of it is never acknowledged. A ship meant to spend months in the void would need to be bigger than an aircraft carrier. Imagine the size of the water tanks it would need to supply a crew of a few thousand for a year. Fuel tanks for the thrusters. The reactor room, regular maintenance facilities, spare parts and materials storage. You really need an entire town in space. Then it's just a matter of figuring out a logical layout. You can't have the bridge at the complete opposite end of the ship from engineering. You probably don't want your food stored near the reactor. When I get to the point in my game where I'm designing the ships I'm planning to go bonkers and obsess over these sorts of details. Because the only way I'll ever get the realistic space game I want is if I make it myself.

[yotan]

While it's not the best movie the whole way through, Event Horizon has some truly excellent theming and set dressing that I think you could really benefit from!

[blakewillis]

You said pound of flesh but another mothership modual is gradient descent. Its a whole space station crawl with some excellent themeing and intersting challanges

[Nyarlathoteplol]

Is going through the alien central mass in what I assume is the cargo bay the only way to get to the lab? I ask because I feel like getting into the lab, raising the shutter off of a window, and seeing the alien's eyes pressed up against the glass would be a GREAT reveal for the creature, but it's not doable if you have to have already gone through it to get there.

[GPBlue-zlsx]

Do you have a sci fi city map making tutorial? I need to make a capital city hub for my players...

[yasamina]

It's the geatest map i had ever saw🤩🤩

[nikkipeoples-xcws]

Hello, are you for hire to build maps for authors?