D&D 5E Murder in Baldur's Gate Community Resources

RealAlHazred

RealAlHazred

Frumious Flumph (Your Grace/Your Eminence)
Originally posted by AlHazredLiane the Wayfarer:

There have been similar threads in previous seasons, and I think we need one more now, since there's more DM prep work.

Alphastream1 mentioned in another thread that he made a map gallery to keep track of his D&D Encounters maps. I did the same, and looking them over at the DungeonsMaster.com Encounters map gallery I think some seasons will be more useful than others. What I saw as useful right off the bat (I only went as far back as Season 4, since that's when I started DMing Encounters):

  • Season 4, Town Square/Rough Ice: The Launch Weekend materials come with a good town square map, but not every open-streets encounter will take place in the Wide. This makes a good place in the Upper or Lower City to have your clandestine meetings.
  • Season 5, Tavern/Trail: The tavern map could represent any of several watering holes in the city. Considering the amound of space around it, I would expect the Outer City (except Little Calimshan) might be the best place for it. The trail could be used in the supplementary Exile scenario in the Events Supplement.
  • Season 5, Bridges/Town Streets: The bridges would be pretty useless since there aren't any streams around besides the River Chionthar, and the street is just a crop of a larger map they released later.
  • Season 5, Dungeon/Warehouse: The dungeon won't be useful unless the PCs spend a lot of time in the Undercellars, but the warehouse is great. You could plop it down anywhere near the river. It could be the entrance to Wyrm's Rock for Stage 9: Weapon Smuggling.
  • Season 5, Farm/Graveyard: The farm could be placed anywhere in the Outer City, except Little Calimshan. The graveyard could represent the Szarr family crypts in the supplementary Planted Evidence encounter in the Events Supplement.
  • Season 5, Temple: Probably won't come into play unless the PCs decide to go to one of the shrines. There are a few in the city: the Rose Portal (Lathander), Shrine of Suffering (Ilmater), Unrolling Scroll (Oghma), and Watchful Shield (Helm).
  • Season 6, Intersection/Burning Gate: The intersection could be anywhere in the Upper or Lower City. I'd use it for Stage 6: Arson. The gate is the same as another one, but with the addition of fires - this could be used for something later in the season, when the city starts becoming a powder-keg.
  • Season 6, Tavern/Dock Area: Either of these could be useful. There are 11 taverns, inns, festhalls and cafes on the map; this would make a good festhall. The dock could be any of the ones in Gray Harbor; it can be used in the supplementary Scuttling the Fleet scenario from the Events Supplement.
  • Season 6, Sewer: Again, probably won't come up unless the party decides to try the Undercellar, or to break into/out of one of the larger city structures. If they get imprisoned in the Seatower of Balduran, this could represent a secret passageway out if necessary, as indicated in the "Jailed" sidebar on page 17.
  • Season 6, Waterfront Area: This could be anywhere in Gray Harbor. It's considerably larger than the earlier one, so it would be good for a scene of heavy action. It could see use in Stage 2: Flaming Fist Thuggery, Interlude 2: Harbormaster,  Stage 8: Riot, and Stage 10: Public Executions. It can also be used in the supplementary Scuttling the Fleet scenario from the Events Supplement.
  • Season 6, City Gate/Waterside Warehouse: The gate might work for one of the Basilisk Gate in Stage 1: Tax Rebates and Stage 10: Public Executions; later, when the riots start, you can use the burning gate above. The warehouse could be adapted for one of the structures in Wyrm's Crossing, particularly Danthelon's Dancing Axe from Stage 1: Search and Seizure, or Horgold Hadru’s pottery shop from Stage 3: Hands Off; in this interpretation, the railing represents a drop to the river below.
  • Season 7, Town Gate/Cavern: The town gate could be used for the entry to Little Calimshan.
  • Season 7, Hedge Maze/Feasthall: Duke Torlin Silvershield has a hedge maze on his estate. The feasthall could work for a private soiree with one of the bigwigs in the city.
  • Season 7, Plaza/Entrance Hall/Sanctum: The entrance hall could work for one of the temples in town; not one of the Gond ones, but maybe the Water Queen's House (Umberlee) or the Lady's Hall (Tymora).
  • Season 8, Street/Unholy Fane: The street area is pretty useful, and has part of a tavern on it for when those tavern brawls inevitably spill out onto the street. It could come up in any of the Stage 2 scenarios, or again in Stage 6: Old-School Dueling. It's also good for the supplementary When Animals Attack or Loose Tiles scenarios from the Events Supplement.
  • Season 8, House and Barn: This could be any of the smaller, seemingly-unimportant peasant houses in the Outer City.
  • Season 9, Tavern/Mansion: The tavern is good. The mansion could work for one of the nobles.
  • Season 9, Catacomb/Cellar: The cellar portion would make a good lair for the alchemists in Stage 10: Smokepowder Plot.
  • Season 10, Catacombs/Lower Fane: The catacombs map could work for Stage 7: Kidnappings.
  • Season 11, Town Streets: This map could be used for a number of circumstances. Most especially, it could be used for Stage 8: Riot or the chase of Stepan Groat in the supplementary scenario Legal Trouble in the Events Supplement.
  • Season 13, Tavern/Sewer Entrance: The tavern could be used as the Hamhocks Slaughterhouse in Stage 7: Closing Baldur’s Mouth.
  • Season 13, Tavern-Ship/Two-Story House: The tavern-ship can work well for the Low Lantern tavern which figures in Stage 1. The house could be the Oasis, which can feature in Stage 1: Search and Seizure and Closing the Vice Dens.
  • Season 13, Castle: This could represent the Seatower of Balduran for Stage 10: Prison Break; it's not accurate, but we're not going to get a full map of that structure so we need to improvise. The second story and roof of that structure may also come in handy during Stage 11: Murder is a Riot.

Lair Assault also had a few maps that were good for this:


The Launch Weekend map for the Wide, comes up in Stage 7: Massacre and may again in Stage 11: Murder is a Riot.

If you really need help coming up with vast stretches of city because your party plans on winning their Urban Explorer badges, then let me recommend the excellent Dave's Mapper site, where you can select "City" in the drop down menu and get pre-made sections as large or small as you need.
 

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Originally posted by Vobeskhan:

Excellent post and suggestions.

Another possible one for the Seatower could be the "Dwarven outpost" map from the "Vaults of the Underdark" map pack.
 


Originally posted by Vobeskhan:

Got my daughter to create me some token/pogs or the named npc's for the Launch game and season

www.dropbox.com/s/ktjzxis8otb6u5g/npc-to...

After having spent some time looking through my tokens for further choices I have come up with the following:-

General crowd npcs - as many of the gold ringed npc/player tokens as I remember to take with me.

For the assembled watch members I'll be using the Iron Circle type soldiers from the DM kit/Monster Vault sets.

For the set events I have chosen tokens from the Threats to the Nentir Vale set (mainly as I dont use them often)

Event 1 - Merchant = Tigerclaw Brave 1, Thieves = Mist Mage 1 & 2.

Event 2 - Crossbowmen = Ravenroost rogues 1-6.

Event 3 - Warriors = Phantom Knights 1 & 2.

Event 4 - Warriors = Phantom Knights 3 & 4, Viekang = Prince Halvath, slayer = Tar devil.
 

Originally posted by Alphastream:

If you really need help coming up with vast stretches of city because your party plans on winning their Urban Explorer badges, then let me recommend the excellent Dave's Mapper site, where you can select "City" in the drop down menu and get pre-made sections as large or small as you need.
Click to expand...

Excellent map ideas, thanks! In addition to Dave's Mapper or tools like PyMapper that allow pre-creating maps, I would strongly suggest DM's purchase a vinyl battlemap. It was customary throughout D&D's history for DMs to simply draw maps as needed with a battlemap, and that is an important and good skill to practice during this season.

What a battlemap really allows a DM to do is to respond instantly to what the PCs are doing. Murder in Baldur's Gate can provide an amazing open-play experience. During my playtest I found that some encounter locations were obvious, but others were not at all. My players would often surprise me by deciding to engage an enemy in an unexpected place. Having a battlemap let me respond instantly and draw what made sense, rather than force them to go to the map I had brought with me.
 

Originally posted by geoharpst:

Cudos to AlHazred on the map lists/laws declarations and Vobeskhan for the NPC tokens!  I'll be using them and sharing them with my DMs.

Would it be possible to get a map list in events order?  I'd prefer to take only a few maps each week rather than lugging a whole folder full that I then have to use time searching through.

Yes, I plan to have a dry-erase 1" squares game sheet handy but I'd prefer to not have to use time drawing.  My DDE sessions have gone long because of a lot of new players so I need to keep other things to a minimum to compensate.  Even using actual dungeon tiles use too much time, for me, unless they're pre-arranged.  I prefer to have the map all laid out and ready to go when the players sit down ... even if I have to have 2 or 3 maps laid out.

Thanks, again!
 

Originally posted by Spykes:

Season 7, Hedge Maze/Feasthall: There are no hedge mazes in the module.
Click to expand...

Actually, there is. Page 16. "Duke Silvershield is most proud of his topiary maze." 
You can see it slightly in the picture on the next page as well.

I'm still reading so I'm not sure if it's usable material or not, but hey, if it is, we have a map. 
 

Originally posted by AlHazredLiane the Wayfarer:

[MENTION=6749597]Spykes[/MENTION] is correct. I noted the hedge maze only in further, deeper reading of the setting book. What I should have said is, no hedge maze is specified in any of the given events. In any case, I have updated my first post.

As far as the list goes, even before [MENTION=4280]Geo[/MENTION]harpst suggested it, it occurred to me that I might have restructured it by events. The problem here is that there is no guarantee that the players will decide to go any particular route. I will suggest some maps that you bring every week, as they represent some of the most common scenes for action.

Specifically Useful Maps:

Generally Useful Maps:
 
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Originally posted by Vobeskhan:

I realized the structure of the module allows for people to add events as they will, just making sure to keep the tensions running high in the city. I've started another thread(x) to collect additional fan-made events for the season.
Click to expand...

Excellent break down for the maps and a brilliant extra encounter mate, love how you brought Lady N back into play, some of my newer players wont know her but the longer playing ones will pick up on it.

Another suggestion for general street map for you, the battlemap from the Shadowfell box set if you have it, quite a "grim" city street layout.
 

Originally posted by AlHazredLiane the Wayfarer:

I've been unhappy with the options Encounters DMs have as far as maps for the Lower City. The only real "streets" maps we've gotten I listed above -- one in Season 5, which was a crop of one we got later in Season 11 ("Town Streets"). It's got wide-open street areas, some trees, and a few small houses/shops. This was a copy of a map from the module P1: King of the Trollhaunt. (Incidentally, check out the rest of the photos in that Flickr set for a good "shopping list" of old supplements worth getting for the maps.)

Meanwhile, in the setting book, it says the Lower City is a "great crescent of steep slopes descending to the docks, [packed] tight with conjoined, slate-roofed buildings that are made of stone and feature window boxes and stout shutters in vibrant hues. The Lower City’s narrow alleys access interior courtyards and other streets. Stone buttresses often span its roadways, literally holding apart the upper floors of structures that face each other. Even though some of these narrow supports act as pedestrian bridges, they are most often used by pigeons, gulls, rats, and cats. Lower City citizens are accustomed to their noisy, cramped existence. As the long-ago sage Asturgel of the Gate wrote, 'In the Lower City, we live and work atop each other untidily.'" So, the Streets map above might fit for parts of the Upper City, but not for the Lower.

Recently, while browsing the shelves of my FLGS, I came across the Paizo product Gamemastery Map Packs, and loved the Marketplace and Rooftops sets. These are 5"x8" map cards with an overhead view 1-inch gridded map on one side. The cards are laminated like the Paizo Flip Mats (of which I already own several sets) and my test confirmed that dry-erase, wet-erase, and permanent marker all wipe off. I think these will be perfect - you can make any configuration that suits you, and then, if a chase starts, remove tiles from one end to extend the map in another direction. The grids line up with every other map product out there, so you can lay them on top of your Encounters maps, your Dungeon Tiles, and just about everything else out there. The art is all done by the same guy, so everything matches. Best of all, they're easy to store.

Now I just need to make a PyMapper tileset and I'll feel prepared for every eventuality.
 
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