Homemade maps


Gamer Life General Discussion


I've recently started making maps myself using programs like Dundjinni and photoshop. Now, I started thinking... I can't be only one doing that. I've seen couple persons sharing their maps on forums but nothing major. So i decided to make a thread where GMs could share maps they have made with other GMs. Single thread for all you GMs to look for maps if you need them.

Let me start by sharing a city map I made last week. (24x30 square grid)
http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag99/Ironlemons/city_zpsf17c7714.jpg

I'll be posting more when i make more. Also critique to improve my work is welcome ^^


Nice, how printable is it? Very colorful looks expensive... how do dungeons and wilderness map look?


Looks pretty indeed.

One question (out of curiosity more than a critique): Do all buildings need to be lined-up so perfectly (because of Dundjinni perhaps)? Any old towns I've been into have anything but straight roads, and town squares that are anything but square.


I've used well over a dozen different graphic programs to draw RPG gaming maps, including (off the top of my head) Dundjinni, Photoshop, Gimp, Maptools, MacPaint, MacDraw, MS Visio, Corel Draw, and three graphics programs I wrote myself for the Macintosh back in my programming days.

I also have done hundreds (maybe thousands?) of hand-drawn maps from tiny napkin diagrams to maps which span multiple poster sized sheets.

In general I like the hand drawn maps best. But they can be brutal to create. Copy/paste, clone and duplicate are your mapmaking friends...

I tend to try not to have my maps end up with nicely aligned buildings, I strive for an organic looking result for towns and cities. Whenever I do have alignment it is primarily in drawing castles, keeps or small walled cities.

An example of a small portion of my oldest hand-drawn map is visible as the banner of my gaming blog.

I have not published my maps online. Maybe I should start doing so.


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While I general prefer to use Xara Photo & Graphic Designer for all my home game and professional freelance commission maps, I've used many programs including Dundjini, Campaign Cartographer, Photoshop, GIMP and many others as well. Xara is a vector drawing application, but imports and uses photo-image fills allowing you to create very artsy maps that look like it was created in Photoshop, but done completely in a vector app.

Incidentally, I have a thread in the Gamer Talk forum as well, regarding my current Kickstarter I'm running to fund a series of Map Tutorials Guides for gamers using Photoshop, GIMP, Inkscape, Illustrator or Xara Photo & Graphic Designer. I'm trying to fund 5 different books. The first two focus on creating photo-realistic maps, while the third focuses on hand-drawn maps, the fourth on using 3D elements in maps - the last book is by a friend using mostly Photoshop. The first 2 books are already funded, we are trying to fund the third right now as a second stretch goal. Link to my Kickstarter.

Incidentally, I created the original hand-drawn map of the city of Kasai for the Jade Regent AP for Paizo. Although it was finished by Paizo's inhouse cartographer, the final map didn't add nor take away anything I included in the original hand-drawing.

Visit my G+ community to find many samples of my maps and rough draft tutorials: 25 Quick & Dirty Map Tutorials G+


Mr.Fishy wrote:

Nice, how printable is it? Very colorful looks expensive... how do dungeons and wilderness map look?

It is quite printable, i printed mine and squares were bit larger than ones in flip-mats made by paizo.

Laurefindel wrote:

Looks pretty indeed.

One question (out of curiosity more than a critique): Do all buildings need to be lined-up so perfectly (because of Dundjinni perhaps)? Any old towns I've been into have anything but straight roads, and town squares that are anything but square.

I actually made it like that, i could have used much more randomness when placing buildings, etc, but i think while it would make map more "pretty" it also would make it more complicated. And in my case i like to keep my battle maps simple to avoid unnecessary time waste during gaming sessions.


Here is second battle map I recently made. This one also features city.

http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag99/Ironlemons/city2_zpsf09180ee.jpg


Map 1 linkified
Map 2 linkified


GentleGiant wrote:

Map 1 linkified

Map 2 linkified

Thanks mate, should have probably done that myself ^^


Ironlemon wrote:
GentleGiant wrote:

Map 1 linkified

Map 2 linkified
Thanks mate, should have probably done that myself ^^

No worries, 10 seconds of typing isn't a problem. :-)

One point of critique, though. I don't know if there's a way to incorporate the grid even more. It looks very... added on and sort of ruins it a little bit for me. Great maps otherwise, just a tiny nitpick. :-)


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GentleGiant wrote:
I don't know if there's a way to incorporate the grid even more. It looks very... added on and sort of ruins it a little bit for me.

Ironlemon: If you want, I have a tutorial and template available specifically for adding and modifying grids in Photoshop. It might be interesting to compare/contrast the same map with a few different grid styles to see what looks best.

As for some maps of my own, here is a upscale urban villa being leased by one of the PCs with a simple MapTool grid:
[ Entry floor | Upper Floor | In Game ]

A map I created of Windward Isle (Skull & Shackles) using the aforementioned grid technique:
[ Grid | No Grid ]

The Swollen Sprite, a scow used to transport rice in shallow coastal waters:
[ No Grid | In Game ]

Maps for where my Serpent's Skull/Kingmaker/Homebrew mashup is taking place:
[ Heightmap of the Campaign World (WIP) | Country Map | Capital City | Provincial Capital (WIP) ]

I'd post a few more maps using older techniques, but sadly MapTool will no longer open those campaign files. Probably just as well...


Good stuff guys.

I still make my maps by hand, and with paint. A player uses their tablet (it is pretty fun for them mapping that way).


Here are 2 new maps... well basically they are one and the same with small difference
campsite day:
http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag99/Ironlemons/campsiteday_zpsa8b33ead .jpg

campsite night:
http://i1300.photobucket.com/albums/ag99/Ironlemons/campsitenight_zps295a0f 77.jpg


Ironlemon: I love your use of shade. I would love it more if you made overlays for each building so when the enter it, you could just slap it down on top and they would have the innards of the building. Second floor you say? Hogwash- I have it right here...coming off some cleverly placed stars behind the cupboard.

I have always had a thing for building up AND out. I love the excitement a player gets when he see a map like yours and can't wait to visit or ransack each one from the inside.

Just my opinion though.

Great good so far.


Wow, these are awesome!

Liberty's Edge

Shame this Thread died. I recently started playing again and started doing Maps with Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer 3 and Dungeon Designer 3. Sadly Dundjinni is Dead...Even Forums are dying there. And even Sadder Dundjinni does not work on Windows 8.

I save Maps (at 50 pixles per 5ft)
I recreate Maps as Closely as possible to the Originals.

The Exchange

Ironlemon wrote:
GentleGiant wrote:

Map 1 linkified

Map 2 linkified
Thanks mate, should have probably done that myself ^^

Nice art style...

I use 40' hex scale or 400' hex scale depending on what is on it.

Drawn on Microsoft Word.

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