Mapmaking

[Eldred]

What sort of programs/websites/(pencils?) do you use when making maps for your campaign? I'm use MS paint, but only because I can copy the picture into a text document and have it all together ready to use. And I haven't had much luck in finding better programs to use.

So, how do you make maps?

[Attilargh]

I have used this nifty little thing called AutoREALM, which is not half bad. You can even save the result as a regular image.

Usually I just use a pencil and the back of some paper I have handy, though.

[Saph]

I don't, but I'm lazy. I just say that the PCs navigate through the dungeon at the speed of plot. If they need a tactical map, I'll make something up.

If I want a detailed map I'll go to an architectural site and download the floorplan for a real building somewhere, then change the references.

- Saph

[Peregrine]

Heh, I just posted in a thread on mapping in the homebrew forum, and then came wandering in here, not even necessarily looking for a thread about maps. But I can recycle what I said there.

Nobody in their right mind draws maps the way I do. I draw them in pencil on graph paper, then transfer them into Paint. Pixel by pixel. One colour for land, another for sea. Depending on how finely you transfer the detail, you get an extremely accurate digital representation of your hand-drawn masterpiece, it looks great (at least when zoomed out a little), and it's extremely versatile.

Examples (the first is as drawn in, the second is after using edge detection to turn it into a line map):


This is of course for regional maps. For the internals of dungeons or whatever, I'm planning to do up digital tiles and stuff so I can assemble useful grids. I plan to investigate various methods for drawing mid-scale maps of villages and the like, since they really aren't ordinarily laid out on a grid.

[Morgan_Scott82]

Photoshop.

I start out with pencils for a basic landmasses and outlines then I scan the whole thing into photoshop and then parse out layers for each view of the map I'm going to want e.g. Topographic, political, geological, symbolic, etc.

[TheThan]

I use PhotoShop too, however I do it a bit differently. I draw the map out in PhotoShop and apply layers to create things like traps, treasure locations etc. since I do most of my Dming online anyway it works great.

I also got a graphics pen for my computer so now I can hand draw maps and not have to bother scanning them in. buahah!

[Winterking]

I have always enjoyed drawing maps of imaginary places, so all of the maps for my campaign & games are hand-drawn. I generally start with pencil (mechanical, for the smallest lead size), only to draw over the pencil lines later with various micro-tip pens. I've also done some enlargements of a section of the main map, using pencil and black ink to give my players a closer idea of what the world around them looks like.
When making multiple maps of the same place, whether for different information (national borders, terrain, trade patterns, etc) or on different types of paper (lined notebook paper, unlined white paper, posterboard), I will often trace or photocopy the original outline, but the rest gets done by hand.

This is time intensive, true, but I enjoy it--the drawing is calming, almost meditative, and it lends my maps a truly personal appearance. (Now all I need to do is figure out a technique to draw forests that is neither too abstract--diagonal shading--or silly-looking) Plus, it helps with world-building.

[Galathir]

I use good old graph paper and a pencil for dungeon maps, and generally draw everything else freehand. I like adding a lot of detail to city maps and such, and might spend hours on a single one.

[LoopyZebra]

AutoREALM is okay. I use it for my (campaign, i.e. continent/regional sized) maps, but because it requires a lot of playing around with to get it to work. I'm still not sure how to get it to turn some fractal lines into a complete shape. This leaves me with importing the map into MS Paint for fine editing (and coloring). Works well for tactical maps though.

Here's a couple of examples of what I do with it:

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Sawreven, made for JackMann:


Most recent tactical map for my Kelthala game:

[AmoDman]

Campaign Cartographer can offer some decent looking maps...but is ridiculously wonky and had some sort of programmer from the 70s design its interface. (CC2, anyway, but I think 3 is similar...)

[RandomNPC]

i have a few notebooks of graph paper, and a few notebooks with graph paper paperclipped in where the notes to the finished maps for easy reference, if the key doesn't provide enough info.

[Annarrkkii]

I saw an advert in a Dungeon magazine for some kickass dry-erase puzzle pieces—each one marked with 1-inch grids, or maybe it was hexes—that you could put together as needed and draw on with markers.

I also built myself a board with a sheet of plexiglass on a doorhinge that opens and closes, allowing me to put in blank or outlined graph paper, and dry erase on details as they become relevant.

[Bryn]

I simply use Inkscape, since I'm used to its use, etc. Here is an example of one of my Inkscape maps:


For smaller-scale, more realistic looking stuff, I use Blender, an open source 3D package comparable to commercial software such as Maya or 3DS Max. Wikipedia article.

Here's an example of a map I made in Blender:

That is naturally not the best example of Blender's capabilities.

[talltwin36]

Annarrkkii

What you saw was called Tac-Tiles. I have a set and my players and I love them. They are very versitile during gaming sessions. A little on the expensive side, but wonderful otherwise.

Contact me if you have any questions. The guy who makes them only sells them over the internet.

msquared

[I_Got_This_Name]

I'll third AutoREALM. It's a decent program, although I'm still learning it, so my maps are ugly and I have to struggle with it a bit.

Nonetheless, it beats pencil and paper for when you have to go back and edit something.

[Matthew]

I simply use Inkscape, since I'm used to its use, etc. Here is an example of one of my Inkscape maps:


For smaller-scale, more realistic looking stuff, I use Blender, an open source 3D package comparable to commercial software such as Maya or 3DS Max. Wikipedia article.

Here's an example of a map I made in Blender:

That is naturally not the best example of Blender's capabilities.

That is so cool.

[Cybren]

yeah I use autorealm. If you're familair with CAD programs it will be easy to pick up. Some of the stuff isn't as user friendly as it could be though.

Here's a wayyyyyyy unfinished map I did based on a friends sketch for our campaign setting.

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Here's one I did a while back.

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[Solophoenix]

I am lucky enough to have a friend who is crazy about map making, he uses paint shop pro I believe.

Example