World Cartography Software

[Lateral]

Does anyone know a good free, Mac-compatible program for creating world maps? I've been working on a campaign setting, and I'm at that stage where I'd like to put the world together (at least in broad strokes, to get a feel for how conflicts in the setting might play out), but I definitely don't have the art skills (or time) to do it by hand.

[Celcey]

I don't know about any mapmaking software beyond the fake versions of paint, but if you're just looking for a map of the world, donjon's fantasy generator is pretty good for it. You can use it for a lot of stuff, not just worlds, so it's pretty useful. Here's the link to the world builder part: http://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/world/

[Aedilred]

Does anyone know a good free, Mac-compatible program for creating world maps? I've been working on a campaign setting, and I'm at that stage where I'd like to put the world together (at least in broad strokes, to get a feel for how conflicts in the setting might play out), but I definitely don't have the art skills (or time) to do it by hand.

Best advice I can give you is to visit the Cartographer's Guild (http://www.cartographersguild.com/forum.php), which is a forum specialising in fantasy cartography. There are a few tutorials floating around there on how to create great-looking maps, although there's no substitute for practice.

I use Photoshop for my maps; Gimp is also a popular choice. It is possible to create good-looking maps in Paint and the like, but I find the extra features of the higher-powered programs very helpful.

[Totema]

I second GIMP. Cartographer's Guild has a bunch of tutorials for making beautiful world maps using it. It's also really modular, and there are a few add-ons that can help out a lot.