Herosape and Magic:AotP Cryptolith Map Contest

[lefton4ya]

Herosape and Magic:AotP Cryptolith Map Contest

Download Cryptolith Maps.pdf for build instructions of all maps. Also, see the finished Poll.

Originally Posted by Kajoq

With the release of the 'Shadows Over Innistrad' expansion for Arena of the Planeswalkers, we have been given access to a new 'official' Heroscape Terrain piece!
As someone who is relatively new to the scene (came in through AoTP) I'm interested to hear you guys think about the possibility of seeing Cryptoliths being accepted as an official terrain piece for competitive heroscape?

Map & Contest description and requirements in Spoiler.

Spoiler Alert!

I agree with the above and would love to see Cryptoliths on maps in both Heroscape and Magic:Arena events. These should be used for both tournaments as well as home games for both games. Therefore, I am sponsoring this contest to try get all you excellent mapmakers to make tournament-worthy maps that feature Cryptoliths. I am asking for entries by November 27, and then I will post a contest poll and I will either ship the winner an original Magic:Arena Master set or buy him/her $15 of terrain or figures from a site sponsor or one my items for sale. The more maps we have, the more likely they will show up in tournaments, as well as getting Magic:Arena players some more map options in home games.

General Requirements
Competitive generally symmetrical maps used for both 1v1 match-ups for Heroscape and/or Magic:Arena AND 4-player matchups for Magic:Arena. Two player start zone limited to 24 spaces, also with 4 designated spaces for Plainswalkers in 4-player games (team or free-for-all). Each person may submit up to two maps, but they must use different sets of heroscape terrain.

Map Restraints:

• All maps must use at least one Arena of the Planeswalkers:Shadows Over Innistrad (SOI) set, using at least 2 cryptoliths from the set and at least two 48-hex mats, using either the sand/road or black/wierded space side of the mats. Using all 4 mats and 3 cryptoliths are preferred, but not required.
• If using the black/wierded spaces side of the map, you must come up with a scenario/rule specifically for the wierded spaces. Suggestions include making them the same as other heroscape terrain such as shadow, slippery ice, water, lava, or the pit trap, combining them (i.e. shadow water) - or come up with your own, but it cannot be generic terrain. You may optionally also designate the black, non-wierded hexes as shadow.
• Optionally add either a second SOI set or an original AotP set (not including Bonus Walmart Edition). If a second SOI set is added, you may use up to all 6 cryptoliths. If adding an original AotP set, a max of eight (8) 48-hex mats may be used.
• A minimum of one and a maximum of three total Heroscape sets, but preferably only one or two Heroscape sets. Remember, if you submit two maps for the contest, each must use a different combination of sets.
• Only one of Rotv OR SotM Heroscape master set 1 or 2. If no master set 1 or 2, you may have up to 2 of the D&D or Marvel master sets (2 of one of the sets or one of each). You can also have no master sets of terrain.
• If you used a Rotv or SotM or 2 other master sets, then you can have up to 1 of any other terrain set. Otherwise, you may have up to 2 of any other terrain set, including 2 of the same, except a max of 1 Fortress set.
• You may use Heroscape treasure glpyphs and/or Heroscpe and Magic:Arena power glyphs power-side up or down, except you cannot have the Knowledge or Recall glyph power-side up. The only real designation you must make is if using the Healing glyph power side up, you must specify if using the Magic:SOI or Heroscape:RotV rule.
• You may also add other optional scenario-specific rules, such as different rules on the cryptoliths, or an effect caused by being on the wierded spaces, but the map should be designed for both tournaments and home games in mind.

How to Make and submit a map printout:

• Virtualscape currently does not have cryptolights or AotP mats; therefore there there will be a few changes outside of the normal (unless someone can figure out how to add AotP terrain )
• For AotP mats, you will have to use normal heroscape 1-hex pieces to represent. For sand, water, and road: use sand, water, and road; for black & wierded spaces: use either asphalt and concrete OR shadow and ice, or any two terrain that you must designate in map notes. Make mats Level 1 of the Virtualscape build - any real hexes over top of it or even on the table next to it start at Level 2.
• For cryptoliths, use a straight Fortress Wall (if you are using the fortress set, then use either an underbrush or tree and designate in map notes)
• For SOI Glyph of Healing power side up, use the Heroscape Glyph of Kelda (Healer), just designate in notes if using the SOI glyph rules (which I personally like a lot better). For other Magic:Arena glyphs, use the Heroscape counterpart (Power +1 = Astrid , Toughness +1 = Gerda , Move +2 = Valda). Again, Knowledge & Recall cannot be power side up.
• Make two 24-space start zones of 2 different colors, but make two of each of those start zones a 3rd color that will be used for the 4 Planeswalker startzones in a 4-player Magic:AotP game. Preferably spread the 4 start spaces out as evenly as possible.
• You will have to physically build the map and take a picture of it. This means you need to own the sets! Put on a white or wood table if you can and center it as much as possible. If this is a deterring factor for you to enter the contest, I can build and take a picture for you.
• Send the VirtualScape build printout and map picture separately - I will combine with my PDF skills. To enter the contest, PM me and I will PM you my e-mail address where to send files attached to an e-mail or links to webhost such as Google Docs or media fire. I will edit the PDF printout to have the photo on 1st page and upload the finished map PDF to heroscapers download section and post on this thread.

I suggest you follow guidelines in my Cartography Philosophy, but it is not required. Playtest and tweak as necessary, don't just build a map in VirtualScape and submit.

If you have any questions feel free to post a comment here.

Maps:

By @lefton4ya :
Mountain Over the Shadow
All Black & Wierded Space terrain on AotP mats count as shadow and give one additional defense dice to all but huge figures.
Weirded Spaces are "Fog" and also count as two spaces when moving onto (same rule as slippery ice) in addition to shadow rules.


By @BiggaBullfrog :
Circles Over Innistrad and Highways Over Innistrad are sister maps, by which I mean they both use 1/2 of an RotV (less than half, actually; if you built them both you would still have a few pieces left over).

Circles Over Innistrad


(The glare makes it tough to see but there is a ring of weirded spaces around the central glacier/Cryptoliths.)
Weirded Space Rule: Small, Medium, and Large figures on at least one Weirded Space roll an additional defense die against attacks from non-adjacent figures (same as Jungle Terrain).

Highways Over Innistrad


By @quozl
Frozen Crypt
Weirded space rule: Just like a shadow tile except it works for all sizes. In addition, if you start your turn on a weirded space, you may take a wound in order to move an additional 4 spaces.


Shadow Crypt
Weirded spaces give +1 Defense when attacked by a non-adjacent figure or -1 Defense when attacked by an adjacent figure.


By quozl's daughter, Louisan:
Road Through The Desert Swamp


Ruins of the Castle on the Lake


By @Dragoon :
Cryptolith Forest Road

[BiggaBullfrog]

Cool, another map contest! I'm glad to see something encouraging cryptoliths come up cause I'm really interested to see if competitive play would work with them.

Quick question about the rules as far as sets used: So if I were to do 2 submissions, each has to have a different set combination. While I was thinking about it, though, I had the idea of doing half an RotV set for one submission, because that's still a good amount of terrain and not all of it is needed with the 48-hex mats. So if I did this, could I use the other half of the RotV for my other submission? Basically they would intentionally compliment each other.

This is still hypothetical, but I wanted to get it out there because I could see it being a good way to build AotP-based maps, using RotV but not going overboard with terrain or leaving too much just sitting back in its box (or in my case, plastic bag).

[lefton4ya]

@BiggaBullfrog Thanks - you won my previous map contest when you were just starting out as a mapmaker, so I am looking forward to your entries as well as hope you have some good competition.

As far as your question, I think using 1/2 an RotV is a great idea as if you use 4 48-hex mats, its like having 8 24-hex pieces so you don't really need that much extra terrain. I would still say add 1 terrain expansion to at least one of the maps, just to vary the submissions so people can play on different terrain. One idea is to add RttFF or a Fortress set with one using the sand/road mats, and another use the black/weirded mats. It's just a suggestion - both submissions can use the same side of the SOI mats as long as there is at least one different Heroscape set.

[TREX]

@lefton4ya , When I seen a map contest come up I got excited(as I could not participate in the previous one I helped manage.) The points that have deterred me from making one are: AOTP tiles are not in Virtualscape
2: Having to come up with a scenario for specific tiles like the weirded spaces. Mainly the first one. I have all of the Planeswalkers sets, I even have two of the first two releases. This is just a bit more inconvenient to make a map for this, that is why I probably wont contribute. I just wanted to throw this out there if there wasn't as much success. Trying to help.

[lefton4ya]

@TREX I know VirtualScape not having AotP mats and cryptolighs is an issue. However, the mats can be made in VS using normal tiles with substitutions only if you use the black/weirded spaces. However, you don't have to use the black/weirded space side of the mats, you can use the sand/water/road side and those are all in virtualscape. As for cryptoliths, fortress walls are the same height and honestly someone without AotP can use the crytolith rules and proxy walls if they really wanted to. So the only thing you have to do extra here is build using real materials and take a picture instead of using the VS 3D map printout. If this is a deterring factor for enough people, I'd be willing to build the maps and take a picture myself for everyone, but obviously I prefer not to, especially since I really hope mapmakers are building the maps in the real world anyway and not just in VirualScape.

PS - I changed the submission deadline to November 6.

[BiggaBullfrog]

Originally Posted by lefton4ya

@BiggaBullfrog Thanks - you won my previous map contest when you were just starting out as a mapmaker, so I am looking forward to your entries as well as hope you have some good competition.

Ha, I'm glad you remember that. That was a good contest, and I think my winning entry was actually one of the best maps I've made. I've actually been meaning to throw it up again for a couple games.

As for competition, another option is I could just enter 2 entries and no one else enter any. Then I technically have competition, but still win.
Kidding, I really want to see what other people can do with this stuff too.

As far as your question, I think using 1/2 an RotV is a great idea as if you use 4 48-hex mats, its like having 8 24-hex pieces so you don't really need that much extra terrain. I would still say add 1 terrain expansion to at least one of the maps, just to vary the submissions so people can play on different terrain. One idea is to add RttFF or a Fortress set with one using the sand/road mats, and another use the black/weirded mats. It's just a suggestion - both submissions can use the same side of the SOI mats as long as there is at least one different Heroscape set.

That's funny, those are the exact combinations of sets I was thinking of using. I'll definitely be experimenting with different terrain - I've spent the last couple nights experimenting with the road hex side of the mats (more just quick building and takin down than actually playing so far, though I got a couple games in) with half an RotV and a RttFF. I've been surprised at how well they mesh cause the maps end up looking pretty good.

I think one challenge I've come across is that the mats are so asymmetrical. Lately I've done symmetrical maps so much that it's tough to not just put tons of terrain on top to make it symmetrical, but what I think I really want to do is just make it semi-symmetrical (like Ticalla Sunrise or Elswein Plateau - both of which happen to be among my favorite maps ever). Also having so much terrain pre-determined by the mats can make thins difficult, but I think as I experiment more I'll be able to bring out the best of them, and I think the maps that can be made with them have great potential to be really good.

Originally Posted by TREX

@lefton4ya , When I seen a map contest come up I got excited(as I could not participate in the previous one I helped manage.) The points that have deterred me from making one are: AOTP tiles are not in Virtualscape
2: Having to come up with a scenario for specific tiles like the weirded spaces. Mainly the first one. I have all of the Planeswalkers sets, I even have two of the first two releases. This is just a bit more inconvenient to make a map for this, that is why I probably wont contribute. I just wanted to throw this out there if there wasn't as much success. Trying to help.

I personally don't see the Virtualscape restrictions as a big deal. If you use the sand/road side it meshes just fine, and if you use the weirded side then lefton4ya's suggestion of using concrete/asphalt would work great, I think. It might be a little bit of a pain to do that big of blocks, but nothing terrible for sure.

And for the weirded spaces - having to come up with specific rules for them is no worse than coming up with specific traps for Treasure glyphs. I think it will challenge people in a good way to come up with cool effects, and if you don't want to come up with something then it's easy to say they have the same effect as road spaces (weird road?) or shadow spaces. I'm thinking that if all else fails and I want something easy I'll make them a kind of super road where you have the option to double your movement at the cost of rolling an attack die to see if you take a wound. Of course I need to mess with the mats themselves to see how easily they allow for that kind of effect, but it's an easy start.

[quozl]

I just found this. Shouldn't it be in the Contests forum?

How many entries have you gotten so far? My daughter and I would like to submit some entries but we're wondering if the deadline could be extended.

[lefton4ya]

@quozl yeah I will extend the date out as no entries yet. My computer crashed and I've been busy, otherwise I would have attempted to make custom wierded tiles and the 48-hex mats for Virtualscape, as that might be a contributing factor in low enthusiasm. However, with no cryptoliths in VS, people will have to take a picture of the real map anyway.

[caps]

The trouble with the 48 hex mats is rotating them.

[Smurf_Scape]

Bump. Bigga how goes your entries?

[BiggaBullfrog]

Here's entry #1:

Uses: 1 SoI, 1/2 RotV and 1RttFF

I'm not head-over-heels for the aesthetics, so I'm keeping it in the back of my mind to try to come up with a way to make it look a bit better. I have been very impressed with the gameplay on it though. The tons of road spaces make for very fast engagements, though there is plenty of high ground to go for if you want to.

The cryptoliths on this one are all near higher ground, making it a risk to put a figure on one. The two by the road are also very vulnerable to attacks. The glyph of Gerda on the south balances that side of the map against the third cryptolith on the north.

Because I don't have super easy access to Virtualscape, I'll upload the file later, which will also give me time to make any aesthetic changes if I come up with them. I'm currently working on the second entry, currently working with the other half of RotV and a TT on the weirded side of the mats.

[Smurf_Scape]

@BiggaBullfrog Looks great man, I'll have to try it out when I get SoI. :]



Can't wait to see other's maps.