I've been playing around with some ways to make a nice, high-quality map for a home-brewed setting. But I haven't found any digital solutions that end up half as good as breaking out some colored pencils. Anyone else have a system of fantasy cartography?
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Microsoft Word. I do the various map types as I need them.
If you are looking to do a campaign map...I use the Old 8-mile hex D&D symbols and simply draw the Hexagon shape and fill with a picture of the appropriate Terrain symbol (scanned off the old map key). Almost as good as the real thing. I try and duplicate as close as possible to the original old style maps.
The old Dungeon maps from the inside of module covers were a powder blue grid, powder blue rock strata, and powder blue Symbols...so it has a certain style I have loved.
Dungeon Magazine had this awesome Black and White cartography.
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Do you mean world maps or dungeon/encounter maps?
Inked Adventures Basic pack is CHEAP - even the freebie preview pack is good, as for large rooms I googled 1 inch graph paper - i found one site that provided a 1 inch cross shape. So yes you do have to draw them yourself
http://incompetech.com/graphpaper/square.html
Depending on your style, and IF you're willing to put up with a learning curve, there is a free, downloadable, Photoshop-esque program called GIMP.
If you're not familiar with Photoshop or similar programs (like I was), it can be confusing and arcane. However, the Cartographer's Guild website has many very useful tutorials that have helped me learn how to make some really fabulous maps.
It's certainly a long term investment into your skills and requires patience, practice and persistence. None of it is simple, straightforward, "I scribble some things on paper and I have a map"...but it pays off with some beautiful maps in the end.
This feels somewhat like a pointless post, but I wanted to make sure that it's here for future reference. I exclusively use a program called Dtiles from a small company named Undermountain Games. Problem is the company website is under construction, and the last place I bought the actual software, RPGNow.com, no longer appears to have the software available. At the time I purchased it, it was something like $5.95, and it is a pretty easy to use mapping program, also very customizable, you can import art and add it to the library with a few simple clicks. I know this doesn't help now, but maybe keep an eye on undermountaingames.com and see if they come back with a new improved version.
For what it's worth, I use Campaign Cartographer (CC3 for short). It is a CAD-based piece of software designed particularly for fantasy mappers. The default piece of software is geared toward overland mapping, although you can do any kind of mapping you like with it if you are comfortable with the tools. The series of software also comes with various add-ons--Dunegeon Designer, City Designer, and Cosmographer--for specialized design tools for dungeons, cities, and space maps, respectively.
Pros:
- it is an extremely exhaustive tool--you can do just about anything with it once you learn how to use it.
- It comes with a good set of artwork to use (artwork is vector based so can be good in any size map) and you can make and import your own symbols. They have everything from simple B&W symbols to detailed colored artwork.
- The way sheets and layering works means you can really adjust how the map works in a very detailed level--and make multiple versions of the same map in the same file. For example, you could create a dungeon map with all the secret doors and encounter markers and print it out for your notes, then simply hide your "GM only sheet" and maybe the gridlines and print out another version that serves as a player handout.
- In addition to drawing maps, you can link maps together and add GM notes to digitally track a campaign. For example, you could create a link on your overland map to your capital city, allowing you to click from the overland map to the detailed map of the city, and from the city to the map of a clicked-on inn, etc.
- Extremely responsive staff and good customer service
- Supportive community and tons of tutorials available
Cons:
- It is a complex tool with a high learning curve--again, it's based on AutoCAD which is an engineering tool IIRC. If you are only familiar with raster-based drawing programs (e.g., Photoshop) it is very easy to open it up and not understand what the hell it is you are looking at. Very easy to get button shock and there are features a casual user may never even understand what they are, let alone use (myself included). The tutorials help dramatically with this, but it's still a lot to learn and you have to be patient with it and take it one step at a time.
- Some of the "smart" aspects of the software aren't so smart. For example, you can set an object to flip itself around to align with the map grid properly or with other objects--a great idea in theory, but half the time it seems like for me the objects flip themselves around the wrong way and I have to shut the feature off and do it manually.
- While it has relatively low system requirements, it can be a resource hog and definitely works better on higher end machines, especially if you're using some of the program's more advanced features (sheet effects) or working in a really huge map.
I believe CC3 has a free demo. The full core piece of software is I think $50, which is a good price considering the powerful software engine and art resources. Buying the addons can increase the cost notably, but are not necessary (I found them worth the money personally, however, and I tend to not spend huge amounts of money on game accessories... except maps ^^;;). The site and its forum has very good samples of the kind of maps that can be created with the software. Some do look a bit hokey, tbh, but others look absolutely gorgeous.
I realize not everyone is going to want to spend $40-50 on mapping software. Some folks can get excellent results just drawing maps in Photoshop or the GIMP (which I have also done, but since I have CC3, much prefer to use that--and then export to GIMP if I need to make simple adjustments that are easier in a raster program afterward). But since digital mapping tools were asked for, this is definitely one that's out there.
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I have not found a solution beyond GIMP/Panit.net/Paint Shop Pro/Photoshop for campaign maps of the quality I like, but for all 'battlemaps' and other maps for miniatures use, I prefer dundjinni hands down.
http://www.dunjinni.com
The forums used to be a great resource of ideas but over the last few years degenerated into a group of 8-12 "Master (ie ego-bots) Mappers" taking over the forums and charging for what used to be a sharing community. Occasionally there are still nice tidbits to add and use.
Do you mean world maps or dungeon/encounter maps?
I was definitely thinking about an overworld map and eventually some city maps. Thinking about geography always helps me plan out societies and history.
I have also tried Campaign Cartographer and it is pretty intensely complex, also paint, but that just doesn't look right. I'll probably hand-draw a map then as a learn more about the program I'll make another digital one.
The best program I've found is Fractal Mapper.
You can find it here at NBOS.COM.
They have some other really neat tools (I love their astrographer app, great for sci-fi games). What I really like is they are inexpensive, and the application can use just about any graphics you can find, and there's a huge amount available if you look around.
If you know kindof what you want it to look like, you can check out Hexographer. I found it from another post on the forums here, and although I haven't needed it yet, it looks really useful. I don't know if it'll generate a random continent if you need something on that scale, but for smaller areas (on the general scale of the Kingmaker maps, for instance), it should be useful.
I used something to generate a whole world map for a campaign I ran a few years ago, but I don't remember what it was. I can try and track it down, though.
I've used lots of tools for creating maps for my games. I generally use different tools depending on what sort of map I'm drawing. The tools I use most frequently are:
Gimp
Inkscape
Maptools
I also do a lot of pencil, pen and paper work. My current campaign map is a pen and paper drawing that I scanned into Inkscape and then created vector images of the scanned picture. I did this because I wanted different layers and the ability to scale on the fly for showing the party the maps. Different layers allow you to have hidden items on the same map as the map you show the party.