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BardicDuelist
2007-06-02, 09:30 PM
I don't know is this should be in PbP games, but:

Does anyone have any advice for using maps in a PbP game on this forum?

Pink
2007-06-02, 10:25 PM
The credit goes to Morgan_Scott82

basically using a combination of a spreedsheet program, MS paint, and photobucket a DM is able to make a easy to read and navigate map. the following is an example my party is using.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v247/pink_lugia/houseflr1.jpg

navigation uses the battleship system. a Key to decipher the letters is added in the post and things work out nicely. The trick is setting the size of the spreedsheet cells and their borders. you need to set a thin border to all of the cells otherwise it's just blank space. Then you copy and paste into MS paint, then save and upload to photobucket or some similar site.

LoopyZebra
2007-06-02, 11:25 PM
I simply make a map in AutoREALM (free download), then copy and paste it into Paint, then upload it to Photobucket. I find that tying the map to some predetermined system (such as the afore mentioned Battleship), also helps speed combat for giving precise movements. As a side note, I like to use the character's speech color as the color of their piece on the map for quick reference.

Example:
http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f277/LoopyZebra/DnD/cavesround6.jpg

Although, admittedly, once you've determined the grid in Excel, pink's method does sound quicker.

Pink
2007-06-02, 11:37 PM
It is suprisingly quick, especially if you make up a huge template file to start from each time. Also, colours are fairly easy to add with excel, I'm just a slacker and like black and white enough.