What would you include in a Gothic Horror map symbol set?

[MichaelTumey]

I'm looking for ideas to build a set of 50 photo-realistic map symbols to fit the theme: Gothic horror.

I've created 8 coffin/open graves of various types that I plan to include, as well as several corpses and mummified dead to put in those graves. I plan to create 6+ torture devices - iron maiden, etc. I want to create 6+ map objects that depict a vivisectionist or flesh golem laboratory, including a full set of 19th century-ish medical tools as a single object (to place next to an operating table) and an operating table (something Frankenstein-ian) and body parts.

Other items like oppulent furniture for some aristocrat, just seems too generic to fit specifically gothic horror, although, yes, the more aristocratic dark lords definitely fit that theme, it doesn't sell 'gothic horror' enough to justify being included in a themed map pack (although an ornate bed, or a piano is not out of the question.)

I've come up with 20 - 30 items, and I want 50 to complete the set, except I'm drawing a blank on what I should ideally include. Any ideas?

Consider that these should be items of objects and things you'd place on a map. Lots of concepts fit gothic horror, but what artistic elements sell the same theme?

[MichaelTumey]

What? No suggestions?

OK, posting this same question to several map-making G+ communities this is what I will probably add to the set based on responses there:

Fortune Teller accoutrement - tarot deck and tarot cross layout of full reading on a table, and box to store cards in. I might add astrological charts partially rolled, maybe a crystal ball, round table with ornate tablecloth, and maybe some curtains and/or hanging beads (though I don't know how I'll do a top down of the latter.)

Ghostly Effects - a semi-transparent ghost, shadows on floor with no one standing there, a whispy shadowy figure, various miasma clouds in red, white, pale blue and green, glow emanating from woman's corpse in glass coffin, ghostly orbs.

Masque of the Red Death - piles of plague victims, corpses on a great pyre, wagons full of corpses, miasma burning torches.

Window cast light/shadow - stained glass cast light, ornate panes cast light/shadow, wrought iron gate cast shadow, window cast light with figure peering in.

Some Statuary - marble busts, a few statues, ornate tombstones, stone gargoyles, ornate stone gazing pool (with ghostly drowned figure within).

Random Ideas - small flock of bats, perhaps some hanging bats, perhaps a full murder of crows...

If I get enough ideas, I might make this a 100 object set - but I need more ideas (hint, hint...)

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

I really like the idea of shadows and light cast from windows. Nice way to make a vertical object into a top-down view.

Some random thoughts:
Candelabras, chandeliers, rats, skulls, organs (hearts, entrails, severed hands, etc), bookshelves, grand piano, pipe organ, church pews, altars, summoning circles, banquet table (full of rotting food?), suits of armor, a discarded locket, books on the floor, iron maiden, rack, jacob's ladder, random piping and bubbling flasks, claw gouges in the floor, letters in blood (all 26 as separate tiles?). curtains, tapestries, 4-poster beds with canopies, impaling spike, cauldron, dolls (regular and voodoo)....

[MichaelTumey]

How about Madam Eva's vardo...

[Zilfer]

Looks cool

[MichaelTumey]

Here's another, this one done entirely in 3D (except for some color tweaking in the skin, lips and hair for the corpse girl). Note: I realize the girl seems to have 2 sets of eyes, that's due to refraction in the glass and done deliberately, though I didn't know it was going to split the eyes. I let the refractive settings in the 3D make the call, and I make no judgements - it is what it is.

This could work for any recently dead girl for a story, it could be a version of one of the dead Tatyanas, or make for a creepy Snow White... enjoy!

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

This could work for any recently dead girl for a story, it could be a version of one of the dead Tatyanas, or make for a creepy Snow White... enjoy!

Or Aurora Shadowborn, a Ravenloft character who does rest in a crystal coffin, in fact...

I like the vardo a lot! I probably would have cheated on the refraction to "fix" the eyes. I recognize what you're going for as far as realism, but if someone doesn't know that, it looks like a mistake. :/

[Zilfer]

This could work for any recently dead girl for a story, it could be a version of one of the dead Tatyanas, or make for a creepy Snow White... enjoy!

Or Aurora Shadowborn, a Ravenloft character who does rest in a crystal coffin, in fact...

I like the vardo a lot! I probably would have cheated on the refraction to "fix" the eyes. I recognize what you're going for as far as realism, but if someone doesn't know that, it looks like a mistake. :/

I was one of those...... and then i read ron's comment and got it. xD ah!!!! I'm normal people!

[MichaelTumey]

I added some thin white lines (partially transparent) at the pane edges to heighten the sense of flat glass panes cut and in place in facets as the coffin lid and am keeping the double eyes.

I tried to re-render the 3D after, resizing the girl, moving her down, increasing the glass highlight and reflection, lowering the refraction amount, even raising the sun higher in the sky. Every new render had a different problem. Although the eyes weren't twinned, in one case the mouth was cut in 2, in another the lower lip disapppeared, in another (when I moved the girl down) her toes peaked out of the glass... so after six tries, I gave up, and considered I was spending too much time trying to fix it. So I'm keeping it.

[blackaeon]

Only things I could come up with are Victorian accoutrements like a top-hat, monocle, etc, or maybe the Symbol of Ravenloft and some other related sigils.

[MichaelTumey]

Here's a coach, coachman and horses with proper tack. I created versions with the roof removed over the passenger section, and the full coach... enjoy!

Michael

[MichaelTumey]

Here's an aristocrat's home/office desk - an ornate desk and chair with fabric (based on 18th century furnishings), an open book, some loose sheets of parchment, a ledger account sheet, a quill and inkwell, a candelabra, wine decanter and wine glass with stopper and wine, and a flint lock pistol peeking from the open drawer. Because all the detail objects are separate just stacked on in layers on the desk, I can offer the individual objects as stand-alone, thus getting multi-purpose use out of the work that I do. Oh and not the first time, but I like the juxtaposition of including my own hand-drawn maps as part of other photo-realistic maps - so I did that here as well.

Someone commented that nobody puts in this level of detail in map icon sets. My response, I never look at other people's sets, so don't know what to expect, so I base all my design decisions by my own standards - which are pretty high.

Enjoy!

Michael

[MichaelTumey]

Working on 3+ story small gothic castle with cellar, catacomb levels, castle grounds, and perhaps a small local region map with castle sited on it. I'm doing all this for inspiration in coming up with the right ideas to create more gothic horror icons to fit the theme - its better than randomly designing objects without context, one at a time (it gives me solid direction to pursue). You can see the work-in-progress map on my G+ community (there's too much detail and scale already to post a usable image in this thread).

For example the kinds of ideas it's inspiring me to do, just looking at the main hall. That dining table needs to be filled with a full banquet, roasted pig and other culinary delights, serving trays, place settings, candelabras, etc (which is also inspiring me to create a rotted version of the same...), I plan to created mounted elk and boar heads to place on the wall south of the dining table. I plan to create a small chapel altar on the opposite wall of from the "throne" side. So by creating a map, I already have a better idea on what I need to create.

[alhoon]

I'm looking for ideas to build a set of 50 photo-realistic map symbols to fit the theme: Gothic horror.

No idea, but I'll pay 5Euros in kickstarter if it's there, just for 50 such tokens. Yes, I'm willing to pay 10 cents/token. That's how much I need such things (and that is, a great lot since I don't have much money).


If you HAVE to have some ideas from me: Dark-colored stuff. Brooding stuff.
Wooden Tables? Make them darker wood and a bit eaten at the sides.
Curtains? Dark and shadowy.
Chairs? Dark wood.
Bed? Gray, somber covers.
Carpets, carpets, carpets. Some moody, gray/dark patterns there. Along with a few of these: http://www.visionbedding.com/Rugs/Gothic.php

That kind of thing.

Madam's Eva Vargo:
If I may, while I like that work I could suggest the following and I think it would improve the mix:
Some stuff to be more vivid, painfully colorful while some stuff to be grayer and somber.
For example the wood of the chairs the floor etc, instead of a light gray, it could be a mix of deep brown stuff and dark gray stuff, while say, some of the pillows (or the tablecloth) to have very, very vivid red and green, like in the 240+ scale.

[MichaelTumey]

Excellent feedback, Alhoon! I can certainly grey up or otherwise darken (age) the wood, I will shoot for more sombre colors, also I can do 2 sets of some of the stuff, existing colors and sombre versions.

Right now I'm creating the banquet table of fresh food: roasted pig, bread, a bowl of beets, a bowl of potatoes, gravy bowl, etc. for the dining table in the great hall of my castle (linked above.) But I was also thinking of doing one with rotten/dry rotted pig, maggotty and rodent infested table of scraps, cobwebs hanging off the candelabra and other utensils, finally place dessicated corpses in various poses sitting around the table, with cobwebs to the floor hanging off them. Both versions fit "gothic horror", I think.