So after seeing some maps around the site, mainly Iserith's nice session maps, I've come to wonder what programs you guys use to create your maps for your sessions. I'm looking for both dungeon and world map programs.
Hexographer is, to me, the premeire world map. The free version alone has so many features you could choke a donkey with it, and the paid version is outright crazy imo. All it requires is having Java, and there's an executable you can download if you don't wanna run it in your browser.
I don't use dungeons, so I really couldn't advise any on that.
Jenks wrote:
Here's another map that was a lot of fun to make, entirely done in maptool: a drow temple.
Zoomed in a bit more:
Here's one last one -- bonus points for anyone who recognizes this classic dungeon I remade a few years ago in maptool...
Those are pretty darn cool Paul. What's the learning curve on maptool?
learning curve for map drawing is pretty low, but you have to build up a library of images b/c there are only so many that come with it by default. There are some really good tutorials as well. The learning curve for running macros and stuff so that it handles all of the mechanics of the game is a little higher (though not insurmountably so, especially if you start with a framework). If you'd like, PM your email address and I can send you some of my maps and/or image library.
Ok so here are some screenshots:
This first one is the opening of a mine (the contours on the right of the map are the exterior of the mine. It opens into an immediate intersection.
I can cause different black sections to dissapear so that you end up with a sort of "fog of war" effect, as the party explores the caverns:
That grey mist was a magical gas that caused the dead to rize as plague zombies. in the followin slides, the players failed to stop a ritual that activated a huge gout of the zombie plague gas, and caused it to spew out of the mouth of the demon prince statue on the surface. I used animations to cause the slide to move from green and living to blasted and dead as a result of the gas. Recognize the face? That's Ozzie Ozbourne!
And everything dies in it's wake! MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
Who's got two thumbs and is the king of the nerds?
THIS GUY!!!! WOOT!
Awesome, PSuac, just awesome! :lol
Psuac, are those maps ones made with Powerpoint?
Yes, they are all done on powerpoint, and I don't print them out. Instead I use a flat-screen TV as my game board - I put a piece of plexiglass on it to protect the screen. The maps are sized so that 1 square on the grid = 1 inch on the screen. This makes it easy to figure out sizes.
Because PP has animations both within a given slide and between slides, I can automate things like the cloud of death-gas.
If you look at the 3rd slide (the one with the pit full of gas), there were several animations in that. Each of the grey [>] buttons activated an animation. One was a mining cart that the bad guys shot down the trestle bridge to knock players into the misty pit below. The other three made the clouds of mist dissapear, so when a player fell in, I could get rid of the mist around them (there were zombies in there of course).
Because you can animate the transitions between slides, you can even create effects that make it look like two adjacent slides are connected, if you set it up right. one map slides up and the next map takes it's place, so it looks like one continuous graphic. It's very cool.
the hard part was putting together the clip art & texture library and learning how to use power point to that level of proficiency, but there is really a LOT you can do with powerpoint if you know what you are doing. The only problem is the files are HUGE - it's not an efficient system at a digital level.
Well, Psusac, I must say that I am impressed.
...and now I know how Mr. Gone must have felt when I told him the character sheet I made that he was complimenting was made in MSPaint - I almost can't believe the results I am seeing.
AaronOfBarbaria wrote:
you are too kind :-)
I thought I'd post another from a few weeks ago. This is directly from and old school Dungeon magazine map. It was a little harder than it looks to put together, as those old maps were hand drawn and the squares are not perfectly straight, nor do they have exactly the same pixels per square. Hence, it required considerable editing in GIMP first to stretch out small parts of the map, shrink others, smooth over differences, etc. Also the original map was littered with numbers for the key, which I removed in GIMP. Then, I put in a vision-blocking layer and light sources in maptool. The red and black boxes all over the map are the corpses my players left as they explored this place...
Here is a close-up. Not as pretty as my other maps, but the old school aesthetic holds up, I think. The yellow is from a lightsource one of the PCs is carrying.
By clicking on the star, a handout shows up: an illustration from the same issue of Dungeon magazine:
Nice map! Do you have it without all the icons on it? I could totally re-purpose that thing.
Here is a dungeon level done in gimp
Nice! I tried loading GIMP on my computer, and my system identified it as malwear. Is there a problem with GIMP? Is there a particular sight I should load it from?
http://www.gimp.org/
The gimp page says that there are some sites that you should not go to and they recommend their own download site
I have run gimp on both windows and several mac OS. Right now I am using it on my Yosemite mac. Hope that helps
I've been using the Inkarnate map maker beta. I'm a total philistine when it comes to anything related to graphic design, so it's been a life saver. It's essentially a map maker with training wheels. I recommend trying it out if you can get into the beta. An example of a map I made in less than fiteen minutes with it:
Edit: The map maker currently supports a regional map like above as well as a "dungeon" encounter type of map making.
I will have to keep an eye on Inkarnate.
Redbrand Hideout from Lost Mine of Phandelver.
Yes, this InKarnate thing looks interesting... hope it can live up to what the previews indicate of it.
PSusac wrote:
iserith wrote:
Awsome Paulstrait, thanks!