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View Full Version : Need Advice on Deck Plans and Battle Maps



Palanan
2012-04-03, 07:46 PM
I'm just starting up a seafaring campaign, and I could use some advice on how to transfer deck plans onto a standard one-inch battle grid. During the opening chapters of the campaign, the PCs will spend nearly all of their time on one or two ships, and I'd like a scale map of each ship for combat and general positioning.

I'm interested in actual historical designs, so after a lot of library research I found deck plans for the sailing ships I wanted. I've photocopied and enlarged those at my local copy store, and at this point I have hardcopies of the deck plans at the proper size.

Trouble is, I'm at a loss for what to do next. Ideally I'd like to scan those hardcopies into...some sort of software, and then line them up on a one-inch grid...somehow. And then print it off on poster-sized paper. The exact details elude me, so that's what I could use some advice on.

I have a basic graphics program (very, very basic) but I've never actually tried to scan and import a file. I'm also not sure where to start looking for a background with a one-inch grid; I don't even know what format it should be in. --I could try making one, of course, but that would be tedious, time-consuming and prone to all manner of hassles. Can anyone suggest a better alternative?

DaMullet
2012-04-03, 07:50 PM
Is there any particular reason the usual scale of 1-inch to 5 feet doesn't swing with you? If you have them scanned in to pretty much any photoeditor you can resize them until they fit that, and then add gridlines.

Ravens_cry
2012-04-03, 08:04 PM
Here (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/mwa/archiveall) is the D&D Map-a-Week archives.
I'm pretty sure there is some deck plans already put on a grid.

AsteriskAmp
2012-04-03, 08:47 PM
I'm just starting up a seafaring campaign, and I could use some advice on how to transfer deck plans onto a standard one-inch battle grid. During the opening chapters of the campaign, the PCs will spend nearly all of their time on one or two ships, and I'd like a scale map of each ship for combat and general positioning.

I'm interested in actual historical designs, so after a lot of library research I found deck plans for the sailing ships I wanted. I've photocopied and enlarged those at my local copy store, and at this point I have hardcopies of the deck plans at the proper size.

Trouble is, I'm at a loss for what to do next. Ideally I'd like to scan those hardcopies into...some sort of software, and then line them up on a one-inch grid...somehow. And then print it off on poster-sized paper. The exact details elude me, so that's what I could use some advice on.

I have a basic graphics program (very, very basic) but I've never actually tried to scan and import a file. I'm also not sure where to start looking for a background with a one-inch grid; I don't even know what format it should be in. --I could try making one, of course, but that would be tedious, time-consuming and prone to all manner of hassles. Can anyone suggest a better alternative?

If you already have the deck-plans properly sized at whatever feets per inch you want, and simply want to overlay a grid when copy-printing, you could use a transparent sheet grided with black markers, or print over a transparent sheet a scaled grid.

If you however want to make everything digital and simply print you'll need to scan them, depending on size, you could need a print-shop scanner or a house one could suffice. To overlay a grid on editing software you normally copy it from elsewhere and apply Alpha Conversion to get transparency out of the white and remain with the black lines and then copy and paste that as much as you need until the area is covered or resize the grid to the proportion you want (you'll be relying in the ppi proportion for how big a square will look when printed).

If what you want however, is on line with adding a sea background, textures and a grid, you'll need some more heavy editing and if you are not really familiar with image editing, would be recommended to take it as a request to Arts and Crafts.

Palanan
2012-04-03, 08:51 PM
One inch to five feet is exactly what I'm aiming for, and that's why I had to resize the original diagrams with the copy machine. The books have the deck plans printed at a smaller scale, anywhere from 1/48 to 1/100 depending on the ship.

And yar, the Map-A-Week archives were one of the first resources I went through, and unfortunately I found them completely wanting. The deck plans I'm working with are professionally drafted and much more detailed, and as historically accurate as the research allows.

What I should ask, maybe, is whether anyone can recommend a good editing program with an easy way to add gridlines. Other than using a line tool to add each one individually, I really have no idea how to do this.



EDIT: Swordsage'd by araveugnitsuga while I was typing. I won't need anything too elaborate for the background, so I won't try for an ocean texture or the like--just the ship on whitespace, with grid lines, would be fine.

AsteriskAmp
2012-04-03, 08:53 PM
One inch to five feet is exactly what I'm aiming for, and that's why I had to resize the original diagrams with the copy machine. The books have the deck plans printed at a smaller scale, anywhere from 1/48 to 1/100 depending on the ship.

And yar, the Map-A-Week archives were one of the first resources I went through, and unfortunately I found them completely wanting. The deck plans I'm working with are professionally drafted and much more detailed, and as historically accurate as the research allows.

What I should ask, maybe, is whether anyone can recommend a good editing program with an easy way to add gridlines. Other than using a line tool to add each one individually, I really have no idea how to do this.
Anything that loads pngs with transparencies should work.

What software do you have?

Palanan
2012-04-03, 08:57 PM
Software...heh.

It's best to assume I've got nothing, because that's essentially the truth of it. I really don't have much experience with image editing, and no current software. If there's anything that can be downloaded, I'd be willing to try it.

AsteriskAmp
2012-04-03, 09:26 PM
Software...heh.

It's best to assume I've got nothing, because that's essentially the truth of it. I really don't have much experience with image editing, and no current software. If there's anything that can be downloaded, I'd be willing to try it.
The Gimp is free, it's a free almost photoshop. It can be rather hard to use, but what you want isn't much. You simply need to know how many pixels per inch your image is and copy paste a premade grid, apply colour to alpha with white selected on the grid, resize to desired size for the grid and copy paste grid and put it side by side with before pasted batches until all your area is covered.

Alternatively, if you feel you can't do this, you could mail your maps to me and I'd do it for you.

Palanan
2012-04-03, 09:54 PM
Thanks greatly for the advice and the offer to help, I sure do appreciate it.

I've heard about Gimp, so I'll give that a try, will follow your instructions and let you know if I have any questions. Thanks!