Fantasy World Cartography

[The Vorpal Tribble]

Ok, I'm looking for a program to at least make a basic continental world map. Preferably free, but under $100 at least. Seriously, why do these things cost upwards of 500 smackers?

[Trog]

I can do it I think. Depending on how much detail you are talking about. PM me with the details. :smallbiggrin:

Edit: Whoops. Misread the post. :smallredface: Software. Right. I'd recommend Inkscape which is free and can run on either a PC or a Mac (provided you load the appropriate software off of your system disks). I've never actually used it but it's supposed to be very like Adobe Illustrator which I have and use for maps.

[Icewalker]

Well, I use AutoREALM (http://autorealm.sourceforge.net/)for my mapping stuff, both world and dungeon. It's not fantastic, but it's free. It has fractal line stuff for coastlines, which is nice.

It's very simple in terms of product though. If you're looking for something really high scale, then I can't help you.

[Moff Chumley]

Any available for mac? >.>

[thubby]

any art program could give you something basic, even paintbrush has a grid function.

[Zeta Kai]

GIMP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP) is link Adobe Photoshop, except that it's completely free. The Cartographer's Guild (http://www.cartographersguild.com/) can teach you how to use it to make beautiful maps.

[/thread]

[Winter_Wolf]

Profantasy produces and sells Campaign Cartographer 3 and a whole lot of accessories that are completely optional. The basic CC3 program will allow you to make overland maps in a variety of scales and styles. I have a copy, although it sees very little use on account of I don't actively play and don't have as much time to fiddle with the thing as I like. It does have a rather steep learning curve, being essentially a CAD program for making fantasy maps. It was under $100 US when I bought it, but that was a few years ago, so it may or may not have changed.

http://www.profantasy.com

Oh, and it has tools to allow you to place various symbols, like say mountains and trees (and a lot more) by selecting the type of symbol you want to plop, and just clicking on the map area. When you feel up to it, you can fiddle with macros and such and do all kinds of cool stuff, but it's really a lot of trial and error or tweaking other people's ideas to fit your vision. The website will give you more details, and you can see some sample maps created with the various programs.

[Dallas-Dakota]

GIMP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP) is link Adobe Photoshop, except that it's completely free. The Cartographer's Guild (http://www.cartographersguild.com/) can teach you how to use it to make beautiful maps.

[/thread]
Seconding this post entirely!

You beat me to the punch, Zeta.

I wanted to recommend Carto guild. >.>

[Blayze]

There's always Fractal Terrains.

[infinitypanda]

Seconding this post entirely!

You beat me to the punch, Zeta.

I wanted to recommend Carto guild. >.>

Thirding. GIMP and Cartography Guild pretty much cover everything. You can even do random gen with clouds + threshold + more clouds + wilbur.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

I can do it I think. Depending on how much detail you are talking about. PM me with the details. :smallbiggrin:

Edit: Whoops. Misread the post. :smallredface: Software. Right. I'd recommend Inkscape which is free and can run on either a PC or a Mac (provided you load the appropriate software off of your system disks). I've never actually used it but it's supposed to be very like Adobe Illustrator which I have and use for maps.
Hey, if you're willing. Just dunno how to show you what i had in mind without doing the drawing myself.

Problem with all these links though is I absolutely stink at drawing. So if it's mainly freeform, I won't have much luck.

[Dallas-Dakota]

(Rough) sketches? People(like Trog or me) can always make new/final versions, with you telling that person what to change/improve.

If you had that person on a chat program, contact and sharing versions would be much easier.

[The Vorpal Tribble]

AIM = VorpalTribble

Yahoo = Awakened.Dreamer