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 Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 10:50 pm
how do you make them? is it an exercise in paint or photoshop, or is there some program any of you use that gives you the grid and lets you put in terrain elements and whatnot? if you do just use a basic drawing tool, do you know of any easy to use mapping program?
i swear there was a thread about this a while ago, but i couldn't find it.
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:06 pm
You know... I think there was too..
I make mine using Photoshop. I have a file saved (aptly called 26x26.psd) which has a premade grid setup for me. I just open that up, save as a new document (so I don't overwrite my grid) and just draw on it from there. Sometimes I can't think of how to draw things, so I look for inspiration elsewhere but otherwise its' a combination of photoshop filters/brushes.
I'm not sure what to recommend though... The best (free) solution I can think of is to either use GIMP entirely (I could probably send my premade grids, I think GIMP can open them) but that's not really a 'simple' solution, just the one I think would be the best. xD
Another thing you could do is create your map in MapTools (or some similar program - I think these are pretty easy to use), then just screenshot it (PrintScreen), paste it into mspaint and save as a .png. These programs have a good deal of functionality, so you should be able to make pretty nice-looking maps with relatively little trouble.
Actually, I could give you .jpg versions of my grids if you just want to have something preset you can draw on in MSPAINT or something. O.o The map doesn't really need to be pretty, it just needs to be understandable.
:: EDIT ::
Actually, I just remembered. here is a list of various mapping programs. Failing my suggestions, maybe you can find one that you like?
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Reevinja Mk II Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 11:13 pm
Maptools is free if you want mapping software. it's also able to host online games. wink
rptools.net
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 1:21 am
I used Maptool, but it fatal error'd on me. I took a grid I got there and use OpenCanvas to draw on it and below it. I underlayer the floor color, block out the walls, and then tool in room-dressing and characters.
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Posted: Tue Jun 09, 2009 7:19 pm
maptools seems a bit fickle, but just what i was looking for. i probably could've tried doing something in GIMP, but i was hoping for a pre-existing grid to snap to.
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:03 am
Maptools is more stable now than when I first starting using and I've used it to game on so I know the in's and out's of it. So it doesn't seem all that fickle to me.
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Posted: Wed Jun 10, 2009 11:34 am
I would probably use Gimp.
I know it's got a feature where you can just tell it to auto-draw a grid, and then you can draw your background at one layer, and all your moving bits as other individual layers so you can move them around.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 10:26 pm
Honestly, I just use paint, with a token creator and a combat grid, I label the grid with numbers and letters, Numbers across the top columns, and letters across the side rows.
I then just use the tokens that I create to represent players and characters, (Token = Picture of said play in a circle or square boarder)
I label buildings and terrain and such on the grid with either tokens, or just different colour grid blocks.
It makes combat easy and efficient, not to mention so very easy to run and update.
Plus I run my campaigns on msn and such too
If you don't want to download and install any programs, or have your computer bothering with running such programs, just get a simple combat grid like I have, hell, if you want, I'll give you mine. Then just use paint and a token creator, it's fast, simple, easy, and works perfectly.
PM me if you want it.
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Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2009 11:15 pm
I use the mapmaker from the game Civilization for world maps. Paint for normal maps
and then a dry-erase board for the campaign itself - so I only need to print out one copy of the master plan and don't need to make edits for the players
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Posted: Sun Jun 14, 2009 1:34 pm
I use Photoshop. If I'm not distracted, I can get a rough map out within 5 minutes. There's a Grid overlay setting that helps you count squares. I do the walls in thicker lines (usually 2 or 3 pixels) in black, then a seperate layer initiatially for the square lines (1 pixel wide, a medium gray color usually). Once I have the outer walls set up, I use the Fill tool to do the floors, then merge the squares layer down and remove the Grid overlay.
Some features I'll make my own sprites for, and save them as separate files so I don't have to recreate them multiple times.
The beautiful thing about photoshop is, I save each map as a photoshop file, merge everything down then save it as a jpg version for Imageshack. Every time there's a change, I load up the photoshop version, move whichever layers around (each icon gets its own layer), and resave it as a new filename (in case I have to go back) and a new merged jpg one as well. Badda bing, badda boom. :3
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