Merchant's Guild Hall
by Dave67I started mapping out the hall in MS Paint several months ago, and going straight be the maps given, it was horribly convoluted, with some places just not matching up floor-to-floor at all. Then I thought about redoing vast parts of it, thinking that this was a rebuilt hall, as the original suffered substantial damage in initial bombardments during opening attacks on the city during the Great Nomadic War. The first thing I thought about was, "Why not a multi-tier theater?", which would make it a proper theater, more in line with some of the things mentioned in the description.
So I started with adding a dress circle and balcony level to the main auditorium. (This also gives enough of a fly-space above the stage, which is usually 2 1/2-3 stories tall.) Next was thinking "Okay, we have a grand banquet hall and ballroom, but where's the storage for all the tables, chairs, etc?" (I've been involved with fan-run conventions since '97 up until a couple of years ago, so a lot of those behind-the-scene details rubbed off on me.)
While I was working on all this, I put it aside and put together a smaller concert hall for my friend for his one gaming group - because he didn't want to divulge all the little secrets to his player that puts together most of his maps for the group - and have decided to use some of those ideas as I get back to working on it.
So, here is a rough plan of what I had:
Sub-basement: Pretty much not changing a thing, aside from wall placement for support above.
Basement: Expanding the dressing room area, but reducing the 'dungeon' area severely - as I think those cells are just TOO big - and putting in more dedicated storage space. Only other changes would be to change the spiral staircase to a square spiral, and have the ceiling heights in the dressing area only 15' as the auditorium above would be raked (sloped) down. As well, there would be basement storage and work areas for the kitchens.
Understage/Orchestra Pit: This is something new I added in my friend's maps.
Ground floor: The main entrance swung from the south end to the east end, to be replaced on the south end with retail spaces that the Guild can rent out. Also, was thinking of putting in a small restaurant/coffee shop next to the kitchens - something else I put in my friend's theater.
Mezzanine: Thinking the only things here would be some private boxes in the auditorium (I'll talk about this in a moment) and the banquet hall above the entrance.
Second floor: Dress circle in the auditorium, as well as offices for the running of the hall.
Third floor: Balcony in the main auditorium. Gangways over the stage, and more offices.
Forth floor: Ballroom, ballroom storage, meeting rooms, guardroom, and public areas for the Guildmaster.
Fifth floor: 'The Pit', staff accommodations, guardroom, and private apartment for the Guildmaster.
Sixth floor: More or less as is, with the treasury, staff messhall, and stairs up to the observation deck.
I did add in private boxes on either side of the stage, with four boxes each side, on the ground, mezzanine and second floor.
My biggest problem is how high I should have the floors. The standard 15', which would give a working space of 12' - 1' from the actual floor structure plus another 2' of dropped ceiling for duct work and such - or go with 20'? At 15' each, it would be 105' tall, before the observation deck.