To be honest I mainly draw them on graph paper or graphed poster board. Though I am doing a series of maps with photoshop right now (definitely not free software).
But without advanced software I (personally) would stick to hand drawn maps (I like the feel and look) and photocopies if need be.
I usually use maps that are published in the various D&D books I own... But for maps that I make myself, I usually draw them on good old graph paper, since I'm not that good with using drawing software.
That said, it would be very neat to have an easy to use D&D map-maker for outdoors/dungeons creation. I'd be the first in line to buy one... But it would have to be VERY user-friendly.
Ultradan
There are about eight out there, but they're all either:
Difficult to figure out (Campaign Cartographer)
Expensive (IIRC Dundjinni (sp.))
Very limited (AutoRealms - though it is free)
Difficult to scale (can't recall the one but there was one that basically did only 10' squares and nothing else).
That's the problem... All we would need (and would be quite marvelous) would be the choice of a hex, square, or other types of grid, then the ability to fill each hex (or square) with a clickable icon (like a hill, a mountain, a city, etc) then format each hex (add color, put the content in bold, etc...), and finally add text boxes to put names and legends.
Is that too much to ask?
Ultradan
Free = You usually get what you pay for. I used to use a tile-based dungeon mapper, but sadly the name of it escapes me (I'll check when I get back home).
If you're willing to drop some money on a mapping program, you could do a heckuva lot worse than Dundjinni. RPG Map Share has a metric buttload of material you can use (personal use only), and there is a lot of community support on the Dundjinni forums.
For my FR STAP that I'm running, I've used Photoshop (and weeks of labor) to update Maztica and Zakhara to the style of map used in the FRCS. It looks great, but it's a little too labor intensive to use as "mapping software."
It's cool though, that you can make your canvas any size you like. At 200" x 200" I've managed to include most of Anchorome and the Hordelands; all of Maztica, Lopango, Katashaka, the island continent east of Katashaka, the island continent southeast of that, Zakhara; parts of Kara-Tur; and of course all of Faerun from the big map in the FRCS.
It's not finished yet, but it's a fun on-going project.
Creative Director
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For maps for my adventures (either for my home campaign or for turnovers to cartographers... I often have to redraw maps authors send in with adventures, alas), I either hand-draw them on graph paper or use Campaign Cartographer. I prefer to hand-draw the dungeon maps and use Campaign Cartographer for the city maps. Overland maps I can go either way.
For a hand-drawn map, I prefer to work on a 11x17 sheet of graph paper with 4 squares to the inch. I'll draw out the map first in pencil, then ink it, using a thin pen for map features and a thicker pen for walls. I then scan the map and touch it up in Adobe Photoshop; filling in areas of solid rock with gray, water with blue, whatever. Finally, I drop in the location tags using Photoshop as well, using a nice bright red and easy to read Font.
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Thanks for the ideas, guys. I wish I was able to buy a map making program, but my parents are very stingy when it comes of D&D(which, sadly, is forcing me to pick between classic monsters revisited the gazzetteer(I think I am picking the gazetteer)). I really need some good maps, and there is no way in the nine hells I am going to invest in D&D Insider for a toolkit.
I printed a bunch of the tiles from Dunjinni and use my battlemat. I also got some of those mappacks from Gamemastery and a set from WotC. Good maps help the illusion.
I just started drawing Turtleback Ferry with Photoshop. Man that's hard to do. I respect cartographers in Pathfinder and Dungeon even more now... I learned that I should really do a sketch on paper first. =)
I'm a big fan of MapTool (Linky). I usually use a scanned or PDF-sourced version of the map, and just use MapTool for running the game, but there are some folks using it who can make great maps from scratch with it.
I set out the basic idea first, then use graph paper to count off the squares on my battlemat, then pound as much in there as I can. I also have a collection of maps of mystery that I use as often as I can.
How do you guys make your maps? Do you steal them from pre-published adventures, draw them, or use a map software? If you use software, do you know any good free ones? Thanks
Maybe you'll find something interesting here
I draw or redraw everything into 3D perspective versions of the actual map with GIMP. Its free and powerful but, since its pretty much just photoshop, its not really user friendly. I'm not really much of an artist myself (yay for the 'draw straight line' tool!). I learned how to do perspective mapping from the 1st Edition Dungineers Survival Guide. There was an appendix in the back that showed one varous forms of unique mapping techniques but the one I am most comfortable with is 45 degree perspective because, once you get used to it, its really not much different then drawing Birds Eye view.