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  What technologies do you use to create maps for use in dungeons or the overworld?


   I guess at this point I'm more interested in overland. I'm looking to rehaul some hand drawn maps from the mid 1980s that I drew for my campaign. While they have gotten a few redraws over the years, it would be nice to use some existing technology with interesting fractal coastlines and other cool features. I think what inspired this is seeing Chris Perkins maps from Iomandra. Any input would be awesome.


 
    

I don't always use electronic means to create overland maps, but when I do, I use hexographer.

So if you like hex maps, that is a possibility.

Thanks for the pointer. Certainly reminds me of the FR boxed set I owned in the late 80s. 

Dec 14, 2012 -- 5:04PM, FluxPoint wrote:

Thanks for the pointer. Certainly reminds me of the FR boxed set I owned in the late 80s. 

I would check out cartographersguild.com.  They're dedicated to it over there, with lots of tutorials available for different programs.

Also, Maptools is great for making maps as well.

cartographersguild is a good resource. They have a couple of software packages there linked.
Maptools - - - of course!


I've also started just crafting by hand in gimp. Using a fractalized path to help with coastlines and the like. I'm mostly happy with how it has turned out so far. Still a lot that could be done.

If you have the ability, I think the best way is to draw it in a program like gimp or photoshop. Idealy with a tablet. If you make it really high resolution, you can include lots of details you can't do by hand. Make sure you estimate the size you want the file to be, and check your computer can open, save, and save it without issue. You can then take the file to a kinkos, office depot, staples, etc and get it printed. It's around $15 for a 32''x20'' color print.

I ended up doing things by myself in gimp. It is certainly the most professional map I've ever created. I simply can't believe there aren't some more automated methods of doing this. I plan to make a few scripts to help me make maps in the future via gimp. Perhaps once things are automated the 'sameness' forces the whole thing to collapse under its own weight and thus doing it yourself is the only way - I don't know.

If you get those scripts figured out I would love if share them. Map making would be much easier if you could draw a general curve for a coastline and have it generate the wiggles for you. Depending on how it's coded, you might even be able to adjust the "roughness" of the coastline, and how often things like bays appear.