DM map prep shortcuts

[WarKitty]

I'm finding as a DM I'm often pressed for time, especially on mapmaking. So for example, I need to have several maps for an upcoming city adventure. I also have limited available time for making these maps. Any help or shortcuts?

[JAL_1138]

You may be able to find premade maps online, for free or for sale. There are city-setting supplements for several games thst could be adapted. Interiors can often be taken wholesale from published modules, or made from reskinned dungeon rooms.

[cobaltstarfire]

Inkarnate can make some pretty nifty maps pretty quickly, though it might require some poking around to use it. (it's still in beta and can be finicky). If you have any experience using art programs it should be pretty quick and easy to figure out.

It supports both hex and square grid, and gives you a lot of preloaded textures, colors, and landmarkers to work with.

[EccentricCircle]

Roll20 is mainly geared towards gaming over the internet, but it has lots of resources that can quickly be combined to make a map. It doesn't have a good way to export said map, but i've taken screenshots in the past and stitched them together to make maps of large scale areas.

[WarKitty]

Roll20 is mainly geared towards gaming over the internet, but it has lots of resources that can quickly be combined to make a map. It doesn't have a good way to export said map, but i've taken screenshots in the past and stitched them together to make maps of large scale areas.

Honestly I've been using roll20, and it's almost useless for making maps. There's practically no useable tokens that aren't reserved for premium users.

[Stan]

Honestly I've been using roll20, and it's almost useless for making maps. There's practically no useable tokens that aren't reserved for premium users.

But you can turn any image into a token, just drag it from into the Roll20 page and resize. I usually let players pick their PC images and then crop headshots for player tokens.

For the map itself, I either find one that's close enough or make my own in dungeonographer or hexographer. The furniture and stuff are tokens - I search within Roll20 for things like bonfire or chair and pull them in.

[WarKitty]

But you can turn any image into a token, just drag it from into the Roll20 page and resize. I usually let players pick their PC images and then crop headshots for player tokens.

For the map itself, I either find one that's close enough or make my own in dungeonographer or hexographer. The furniture and stuff are tokens - I search within Roll20 for things like bonfire or chair and pull them in.

That's still a lot of work. Finding an image that's of a suitable view can take 20-30min, plus then it needs cropping and resizing - and you have to do that for every different building and item you have on the street.

[DeathToGazeebos]

Just wing it man. I have given up wasting my time on making maps altogether. They are either too big or small (space wise)for a proper scene I need them for or missing something I wish it had during play or worse , they never get explored at all. Now I list all the interesting features I would want on a certain map and then during play describe it and roughly draw it out when the PCs show up on the scene. GM secret: this allows you to dynamically dial up/down the encounter even further by changing the PCs entry point, lay out etc.
Ex:
A city adventure needing maps for potential encounters.
-ally way encounter needs some trash cans and crates. If I want to challenge the PCs maybe I'd make it narrow forcing combat into a bottle neck. Maybe add low roof for archers etc. If I think they may need an out I'd draw in a sewer grate too .
-etc.

It's the details on a map not the visual that makes it fun. Give it a try. I'd love to hear how it goes for you.

[WarKitty]

Just wing it man. I have given up wasting my time on making maps altogether. They are either too big or small (space wise)for a proper scene I need them for or missing something I wish it had during play or worse , they never get explored at all. Now I list all the interesting features I would want on a certain map and then during play describe it and roughly draw it out when the PCs show up on the scene. GM secret: this allows you to dynamically dial up/down the encounter even further by changing the PCs entry point, lay out etc.
Ex:
A city adventure needing maps for potential encounters.
-ally way encounter needs some trash cans and crates. If I want to challenge the PCs maybe I'd make it narrow forcing combat into a bottle neck. Maybe add low roof for archers etc. If I think they may need an out I'd draw in a sewer grate too .
-etc.

It's the details on a map not the visual that makes it fun. Give it a try. I'd love to hear how it goes for you.

Well when I was playing RL I had a whiteboard map, but you can't exactly do that online. I haven't found a good way to wing a map online.

[JAL_1138]

Well when I was playing RL I had a whiteboard map, but you can't exactly do that online. I haven't found a good way to wing a map online.

Does Roll20 have a drawing feature and a grid? I know Maptools did, although it wasn't very good, especially without a touchscreen and stylus.

[WarKitty]

Does Roll20 have a drawing feature and a grid? I know Maptools did, although it wasn't very good, especially without a touchscreen and stylus.

It does but it's very finicky and not really all that useful.

[JAL_1138]

It does but it's very finicky and not really all that useful.

Sounds about like MapTools, then.

You could possibly show the grid, PrintScreen the grid, paste it into Paint, crop it to get the UI out (EDIT: Might have to reselect and copy/paste the cropped version several times to get enough room to work on larger maps, although you only have to get one decent-sized grid into Paint as long as you save a clean copy once you do), use Paint to draw, then reupload as a background to Roll20, or at least you could in Maptools. The only trouble would be making sure the sizing didn't get borked in the reupload. That's finickier than you want, but it might work better than trying to use Roll20's tokens.

[MrStabby]

Inkarnate can make some pretty nifty maps pretty quickly, though it might require some poking around to use it. (it's still in beta and can be finicky). If you have any experience using art programs it should be pretty quick and easy to figure out.

It supports both hex and square grid, and gives you a lot of preloaded textures, colors, and landmarkers to work with.

I just had a poke about with this. it is pretty cool and really quick to use once you get the hang of it.

It is a little sparse on content at the moment - so limited icons and doesnt have some of the nice features other packages have (like fractal coastlines etc.. It is still pretty good. It is a bit of a shame it is only outside as it does produce very attractive images.

[DeathToGazeebos]

I just had a poke about with this. it is pretty cool and really quick to use once you get the hang of it.

It is a little sparse on content at the moment - so limited icons and doesnt have some of the nice features other packages have (like fractal coastlines etc.. It is still pretty good. It is a bit of a shame it is only outside as it does produce very attractive images.

Thanks for the incarnate link. Never heard of that before may try it for high level continental map.

[Psikerlord]

Hmmm $1 Adventure Frameworks has maps in most of its mini adventures, although there are no city specific ones as yet: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=645444

[shadow_archmagi]

Mapmaking is a fun and worthwhile activity. If you make all the maps yourself, you're depriving your poor PCs of the chance to make something.

But seriously, drawing during the game is great. It's pleasant busywork that keeps PCs on task and gives them a product they personally made- Looking through old maps I drew as a PC is always a delight, esp. with the dumb chickens and dragons people drew in the empty corners. And there's no bigger shortcut than not doing something at all.

Plus, I don't know the exact details of your city adventure, but it may not be important for PCs to know the exact distances between things at all times, or even the relative locations. If "Let's go to the clock tower" is all that counts, no-maps is fine. The only time you need maps is if they're going to be like "Okay so the suspect is going to head to the clock tower after lunch, which is a 20 minute walk along Bridge Street. That gives us a 15 minute window to get from the bank all the way to the guard station..."