Hi!
(The names of somethings are Homebrew)
I'm running a campaign that takes place on a city ship. The ship is owned by The Federation, but funded by The Sunflare Corporation. It was supposed to colonize a new planet but those plans we're scraped so now the ship is it's own place out in space.
Anyway it was invaded by space pirate and yadaa yadaa.
My main problem is that I want to map it out but I'm not really good at that kind of stuff...
I know want I want the basics to look like but corridors and rooms I'm having a problem with.
The ship has five decks, A-E, a part on the bottom called the Handle and a part on back called the Fin. The bridge is on deck B, and there are three city sections stretching from deck E to deck C. Most of the survivers are on deck D in some maintenance tunnels and one of the city sections (the one of the left side of the ship) has been completely destroyed.
If anyone knows some good programs, a map I could use or any advice I would very much appreciate it! Thanks!
It's a city ship, so for the city areas draw the total area, make some main roads/paths in a grid. Fill in everything else kind of at random.
I think google has a free CAD style program that may or may not be helpful. Especially if you're making handouts of 'you are here' maps.
Leave large areas marked 'retail' or 'residential' or 'engineering' etc. and make a small sub-map when the players start something in those areas, rather than trying to detail everything. You might have one sub-maps already made for each area (e.g. a grid of corridors thru apartments, shops surrounding a small park, some maintenance tunnels thru machinery that's too dense to enter).
Yeah, city ships should be huge. I feel like five decks aren't enough.
But otherwise I suggest the same as other.
I would really only detail out areas as you intend to have the players do things specifically in those areas.
To start with I would probably come up with the overall ship design and layout. You're looking at spaceships like the SDF-1 from Macross or the Sidonia from Knights of Sidonia. Heck, even the Deathstar. You need something that supports a population of thousands (at least) to qualify as a "city ship".
Beyond that, as players need to interact with an area you can come up with more specific details, but probably only need "maps" when it's time for combat. Otherwise general maps for the overall layout probably suffice.
As for what you can look for, trying googling space ship deckplans and you can find a lot of examples.