Decor for vaults


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Halls Hopper

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Joined: Thursday, 30th May 2013, 18:35

Post Sunday, 2nd June 2013, 20:56

Decor for vaults

I'm trying to make a hobbit hole vault, and need some ideas for nicely decorating it. Since they're hobbits, they need some nice furniture and stuff. I've given them a garden and a fireplace, but have no idea how to make a good dining room, bed room, ect. Anyone have any tips?

Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Monday, 3rd June 2013, 04:15

Re: Decor for vaults

KennySheep wrote:I'm trying to make a hobbit hole vault, and need some ideas for nicely decorating it. Since they're hobbits, they need some nice furniture and stuff. I've given them a garden and a fireplace, but have no idea how to make a good dining room, bed room, ect. Anyone have any tips?


I sort of feel like "don't bother, it's not necessary, just suggest some flavor and let the player fill in the rest" is not the answer you're looking for. It is, however, the only answer I can give you.

Halls Hopper

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Post Monday, 3rd June 2013, 04:26

Re: Decor for vaults

Yah, that's not quite what I'm going for. I was really hoping something would exist like the sarcophagi in some of the crypt vaults to suggest the flavor a little more blatantly.

Tartarus Sorceror

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Post Monday, 3rd June 2013, 19:59

Re: Decor for vaults

KennySheep wrote:Yah, that's not quite what I'm going for. I was really hoping something would exist like the sarcophagi in some of the crypt vaults to suggest the flavor a little more blatantly.


The sarcophagi are just renamed/recolored/retiled granite statues, IIRC. You could, theoretically, plop down a statue, rename it to "end table", color it brown, and ask somebody to whip up a tile for it, but the devs tend to frown on too much of that kind of flavor-only renaming of vault elements. Just a few small rooms with a yard of some sort will usually suggest a house of some kind. Maybe put a porridge in the kitchen for emphasis.

Halls Hopper

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Post Tuesday, 4th June 2013, 00:28

Re: Decor for vaults

nicolae wrote:The sarcophagi are just renamed/recolored/retiled granite statues, IIRC. You could, theoretically, plop down a statue, rename it to "end table", color it brown, and ask somebody to whip up a tile for it, but the devs tend to frown on too much of that kind of flavor-only renaming of vault elements. Just a few small rooms with a yard of some sort will usually suggest a house of some kind. Maybe put a porridge in the kitchen for emphasis.


Hopefully the dev's won't mind just a table or two being added, that's really all I need to show the difference between a dining room and a mere porridge depository.

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1888

Joined: Saturday, 9th July 2011, 20:57

Post Tuesday, 4th June 2013, 00:38

Re: Decor for vaults

KennySheep wrote:Hopefully the dev's won't mind just a table or two being added, that's really all I need to show the difference between a dining room and a mere porridge depository.


The question, though, is: how important is it actually, to show the difference between a dining room and a porridge stash? With a yard, food, fireplace, windows, etc., most people will get the idea of "somebody's house" -- the exact floor plan of the place is not really necessary for the flavor. One could, theoretically, redefine existing features for every feature in the house: statues as tables and counters, fountains as sinks and toilets... but at some point, it's best to just trust that the player will get the rough idea of the flavor you're going for instead of putting down every single detail.

Halls Hopper

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Joined: Thursday, 30th May 2013, 18:35

Post Tuesday, 4th June 2013, 02:09

Re: Decor for vaults

nicolae wrote:The question, though, is: how important is it actually, to show the difference between a dining room and a porridge stash? With a yard, food, fireplace, windows, etc., most people will get the idea of "somebody's house" -- the exact floor plan of the place is not really necessary for the flavor. One could, theoretically, redefine existing features for every feature in the house: statues as tables and counters, fountains as sinks and toilets... but at some point, it's best to just trust that the player will get the rough idea of the flavor you're going for instead of putting down every single detail.



In the end, it's not particularly important to show the difference between a dining room and a stash. You could really say the same thing about showing the difference between someone's yard and the regular floor as well. I guess I just find the line crawl has drawn to be arbitrary. Having trees, tombstones and statues as essentially the only default available furniture makes some flavors easy to achieve, not so much for others.

But, as has been said, this doesn't matter all that much.
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Dungeon Master

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Post Tuesday, 4th June 2013, 09:40

Re: Decor for vaults

I think it's better if vaults are more subtle. We don't need useless furniture which the player will wonder if they have any gameplay effect. If there are several way to interpret what's there, it's fine.
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KennySheep

Dungeon Dilettante

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Post Tuesday, 17th September 2019, 14:07

Re: Decor for vaults

You could go a little off-Tolkein with your hobbit hole. Sure, it would be filled with Hobbits, slings weapons, and STUFFED with food.

But save yourself all the decor issues and just make the hole a dark, claustrophobic cave. Weirdly shaped, small rooms, winding passages, that sort of thing. Will it look like Bag End? No. But presumably these are going to be evil hobbits that attack you for no reason, right? So these Hobbits probably shouldn't be living in a nice place.

Oh, and there should definitely be one magic ring somewhere in the hole. Obvs.

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