Overland Maps

[MrStabby]

Looking for a good tool for producing attractive but somewhat detailed campaign maps for D&D and other rpgs.

Something a bit more specialist than general image editing tools.

Any suggestions?

[Keltest]

I use Inkarnate personally. It has a free and subscription version. The free version is good enough if you just want to make a simple "here's a basic map to show the shape of the area" map, but the subscription version has a lot of versatility for going as detailed as you want.

[Melayl]

The Cartographer's Guild are a great resource for all mapmaking questions. You can check their website for options and advice.

[Metastachydium]

I'll second Keltest here. For overland stuff, free Inkarnate is pretty good. If one works at a scale where credible looking watercourses get possible to do with the masking tool, the only paid feature I'd personally miss is the path thing.

For encounter maps, on the other hand, it's far less ideal. Anything beyond the most basic features will likely present an issue,

[jjordan]

I use Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator (https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/) to get my basic terrain and then edit it using Inkscape. I use a lot of overlays to keep track of distances, weather conditions, trade routes, languages, and so on.

[VoxRationis]

I use Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator (https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/) to get my basic terrain and then edit it using Inkscape. I use a lot of overlays to keep track of distances, weather conditions, trade routes, languages, and so on.

Holy crap, that's an amazing tool. It blows donjon's map generator out of the water.

[Atranen]

Not sure if it was what you are looking for, but I like worldographer (https://worldographer.com/) because it lets you easily make hex maps. The free version is sufficient for most cases; the biggest drawback is that you can't change the size of a map after you create it, so no slowly expanding your sandbox. You can also make the terrain all have a white background to make it very printer friendly. The built-in annotations are not so good; usually I'll export the hexes and use a separate program for labels, roads, rivers, etc.

Inkarnate is better if you want a more aesthetically pleasing, 'you'd find this on a wall' style. But it has more of a learning curve and can be harder to use at the table.

[MrStabby]

I use Inkarnate personally. It has a free and subscription version. The free version is good enough if you just want to make a simple "here's a basic map to show the shape of the area" map, but the subscription version has a lot of versatility for going as detailed as you want.
Ah, that helps. I had looked at Incarnate some time ago but couldn't remember the name. I found some things in it a bit tricky but worth a revisit.


The Cartographer's Guild are a great resource for all mapmaking questions. You can check their website for options and advice.

Yeah, that was.my starting point for all of this. I was a little put off as most of the creation seemed to be by image software rather than making but maybe I didn't dive deep enough.


I use Azgaar's Fantasy Map Generator (https://azgaar.github.io/Fantasy-Map-Generator/) to get my basic terrain and then edit it using Inkscape. I use a lot of overlays to keep track of distances, weather conditions, trade routes, languages, and so on.
Never heard of this... looks worth a deeper dive. I need a good bit of time to play with it I guess.

[KorvinStarmast]

Holy crap, that's an amazing tool. It blows donjon's map generator out of the water. I need my wife to leave me for a weekend, to go see her friends in Austin, so I can mess around with that. I suspect that I'd go down the rabbit hole and not come up for air for hours.

[VoxRationis]

I need my wife to leave me for a weekend, to go see her friends in Austin, so I can mess around with that. I suspect that I'd go down the rabbit hole and not come up for air for hours.

"You seem awfully eager to get me out of the house, honey. Is there something you're trying to do without me?"
"Mapmaking."
"Is that a euphemism for something?"
"It is not, no."