For those of you who have found my SketchUp models useful for creating and developing visual aids, my new GENERICA SketchUp project kicks it up a whole other notch! Mr. Hook’s GENERICA models are meant to be the virtual LEGO of D&D mapping tools. With GENERICA’s pre-scaled, pre-textured wall units, you can build your own 3D models AND produce perfectly readable RPG maps when viewed from the top down!
This project has been a labor of love for me. After a couple of false starts and various file-size quandaries, I think I finally have most of the kinks ironed out. The main objective of the GENERICA SketchUp project is to allow Game Masters to construct RPG maps which can also provide exterior AND interior perspective renderings of said maps. GENERICA Castle sets kick things up yet another notch with modular towers, stairwells and wall-walks you can quickly and easily re-arrange to fit your own castle designs.
Rather than post every single SketchUp component separately, I have compiled my GENERICA modules into “Wall Set” collections, sort of like a box of building blocks you can use to build your own RPG maps with. For each uniquely textured Wall Set, I have also created a corresponding model to demonstrate what sorts of structures can be built with GENERICA wall sections. So the GENERICA Wall Set: Inn model contains all of the individual building blocks which have been designed and textured to facilitate the construction of inn and tavern models. Whereas the GENERICA: Inn model is a fully furnished and designed structure which has been divided into separate floors.
The way in which I’ve divided the grouped GENERICA components into separate floors is a rather important feature which enables you to hide the floors above to reveal the floors below when generating top-down RPG maps for each floor. I have provided textures for various flooring materials, but I can’t supply you with every conceivable floor plan, so you’ll have to create your own floor sections (or modify the floors provided). Likewise, I can’t provide you with every conceivable roofing solution, so there are no GENERICA roof components per se. However, I have invented several roofing solutions for my own GENERICA model designs which can be modified or rebuilt to meet your own roofing needs.
All GENERICA wall sections are meant to fit a standard 1 square = 5 feet RPG tabletop gaming grid. Each wall section is 10 feet tall. The floor space in between each storey is 1 foot thick. Most “ground floor” sections have an additional foot of material at the base to represent the building foundation.
Here is the link for Mr. Hook’s GENERICA: RPG Cartography collection at 3D Warehouse:
https://3dwarehouse.sketchup.com/collec ... 24d90155e1
Sample images (these are raw SketchUp renders with no enhancements):
This is what a typical GENERICA Wall Set looks like, just a jumble of building bits. This is the Barn texture set.
I made this horse stable building using GENERCIA Wall Set: Barn modules.
Viewed from the top down using the Parallel Projection Camera, you can generate maps by hiding the roof and the upper floors. Of course, this only works if you’ve grouped the roof and each storey separately, which isn’t really very hard if you utilize the parallel projected side and front views when making your selections.
Here is my first big GENERICA model: the quintessential Inn.
Perhaps your adventuring party met around a tavern table much like this one. You can see the service window to the kitchen on the right and a wooden stairwell on the far left.
From the second storey balcony looking down into the dining area, you can see the doors to the individual rooms around the periphery.
So here are the floor plans for each of those two stories on the Inn model. The third storey was only roofing. The room above the kitchen is supposed to be the innkeeper’s room and the rooms with small balconies on either side are the honeymoon suites.
I’m particularly proud of my church model since I was able to incorporate flying buttresses and even made my own gargoyles.
As you can see looking down the center aisle, even though the church is three stories tall, the first floor takes up the first two stories, while the surrounding balconies lead to directly to a parapet on the roof of the second storey.
So this is only the ground floor of the church which shows you the sepulcher tucked away behind the arms of the ambulatory.
Here is the 3D perspective view of GENERICA: Mansion. Like the church, the ground floor actually takes up the first two stories, while the master bedroom and the private library are located on the third floor.
Again, the whole point of the entire GENERICA project is that you can hide the upper floors in saved SketchUp scenes to generate perfectly readable RPG maps in the top-down view.
GENERICA Castle sets are a little different in that the wall sections are much thicker and that the battle grid is much larger. The modular tower cross-sections can be stacked and recombined in a myriad of ways with windows and doorways pointing in various directions. Here on the overhead map you can see the King’s Court situated on the south side of the map, connected directly to a Feasting Hall on the right. There are two barracks buildings adjoined to the inner baileys on either side of the northern courtyard.
For the castle pics, I turned on the shadows to help add a little more depth. Here is a lovely view of the drawbridge.
Since the crenellation is technically a part of the walls, I colored the tops of the merlons with the same dark grey color as the rest of the wall sections. In SketchUp you can easily edit the texture to be a lighter shade of grey for rendering purposes.
This if the view from the southeast watchtower looking down into the main courtyard. With SketchUp’s easy-to-use camera positioning tool, the possibilities for creating RPG visual aids with the GENERICA modeling system are virtually endless.
