I sat at my computer last night and just stared at a blank map in Dundjinni for at least an hour. I knew what I want, but yet I could put in a visual form. It was either "I don't have the right texture", "I don't have the right object", or "I don't know how I would do that in this program."
I grabbed some graph paper and again, I just stared at it again.
Why is it that I can describe what I want a map to be, in detail, with words but when it comes to visually mapping it, I struggled to make a single line!?
I thought it was the programs I was using, I've bought Dundjinni a few years ago and I've demoed Campaign Cartographer and yet I still can't get a decent map made.
I watched the Robot Chicken/Chris Perkins podcast at least 3 times now, and I get envous hearing the DM Commentary about how he made that map while flying down for the game. And that map, in my opinion, is really awesome for being drawn. I see the maps that come with modules and in the core books and I ask myself "how did they make that?"
That reason alone is why I haven't done a homebrew campaign for so long. If I can't make it visual for my players, especially using a virtual table top application, then how can I get my point across.
Luckily, I did find a couple of things.
- Rpgmapshare - a really good site for maps made by other people that generous enough to share
- Map Foilio 1 & 2 - I bought these a few years ago and forgot I had them until I found them in my minis/tiles case. I thought about using those as templates for the map making software.
On another note, I had my third intro adventure the other night and it went very well. The best thing about doing these intros is that I can work 1 on 1 with each character and I can tell each different pieces of the history of the world that would fit with their knowledge due to location and culture. I think when the group comes together, it will feel more like they are meeting for the first time rather than knowing with player knowledge how the other character is.
