Map making programs

[Loki_42]

I recently realized that a large part of my roleplaying collection is online, and have been doing all my adventure designing on the computer. This is making somewhat hard to make the necessary maps. I want to know what everyone's suggestions are for preferably free, easy to use map making software are. Please help.

[randomhero00]

IMO make your own. They aren't hard. Look at real world maps and mess with them. Rearrange stuff. It feels a lot more realistic.


edit: for instance trace most of africa spliced with australia, then add in towns and cities from england and the US.

[OracleofWuffing]

I use Photoshop/Gimp for drawing the maps, then throw it into MapTools to play on it.

[flabort]

Do you mean large, overland maps, or dungeon maps?

either way, I can't help you, as my best recommendation would be '1/2 cm grid paper and pencil crayons'.

[Savannah]

I use Photoshop elements (not free) and occasionally MapTools (free) for my maps. I know people who use Gimp (free, but in my opinion not very easy to learn). You could also check out the Cartographers' Guild and see what people are using there (and they have gimp tutorials, I believe).

[Loki_42]

I'm talking about Dungeon Maps, I can handle the overland stuff well. I just like designing the dungeon while populating it, and that's what I do on the computer.