Map making: what do you use?
What do you use to make your maps? I run a d&d session with some friends and would like something that makes my maps look great. Do you use computer programs or draw by hand. If you draw tell me any secret techniques and if you use programs tell me what they are. Thanks.
Comments
The truth, though, is that apart from the odd map here and there where I have used GIMP to make a background for a CC3 map, I use all those other pieces of software almost exclusively to make symbols and fill,s which I then import to be used in CC3
Thank you
The majority of my Guild friends are PS mappers, and some of them do work that just blows your mind away - but that didn't stop them wanting to be friends with little old Mouse, and I'm talking about back in the days before I became a multi-media mapper - when I was still a 100% pure CC3 mapper
And if you do come across that kind of thing, its usually someone who forgot to grow some manners or mature in any way. The only one I ever had attack me on one of my threads turned out to be a guy who tried CC3 but totally failed to get a grasp of it. He had a reputation personally as being a bit of a CC3phobe. Never had any trouble with anyone else at all.
If you look at some of the simple maps done with tools like Inkarnate or the basic CC3+ templates, the ones that get the best reception at CG tend to be those where the person has obviously put in effort beyond making the most basic map possible. This effort usually manifests as some sort of storytelling, either visually on the map itself or in some accompanying piece that describes the map. It also tends to manifest in some desire for feedback about how to improve the map.
Now that I've wandered far afield from the topic, I'll take a bit of a break.
But to come back HarryKanes initial question: When we play we often come to unexpected situations which makes it necessary to get a battle map immediately, so pen and paper is the common drawing solution. In my group I am the only one who uses CC and I am not the DM, so everything I do is to map the regional map of our campaign after we have played, I just update the new places. We are pretty much old school.
Besides that I make regional maps from other part of the world we play, following the decriptions of source books. Just because I have fun doing it.
For instance, if I'm using print-and-play gaming tiles to construct an RPG setting for a specific scenario, the PDF files for those will often allow the extraction of the tile images, which can be used to construct a mini, annotated, version of the complete layout as a map for the GM in another program. In such a case, I generally use MS Publisher or a similar DTP system, mainly because I've been using those for decades, so I know I can add text and labels quickly, along with any minor amendments to the layout.
Campaign Cartographer's a far more powerful pure-mapping system though, where you need to construct any other type of gaming map from scratch, or from a hand-drawn original. This is because, with a little experience, it'll help you prepare a good-looking map that can have various options stored in just the one file. So you might want a GM's map with lots of detail about features such as secret chambers, hidden entrances and traps, while the playing party might have discovered a partial map of the same place without those on. From your one CC3+ base map showing everything, providing you've constructed it carefully, you can easily turn off the sheets containing information you don't want the players to see, and print off, or save for on-screen use, that version for them, while still retaining the full map for the GM, for example.
CC3+ is also helpful when creating construction maps for the GM for use with 3D cast terrain pieces - such as the Dwarven Forge cave or dungeon sets. You do need to make a set of basic drawings for the different floor, etc., pieces first, but that's not hard to do (unless you insist on making photo-quality drawings of them, which my "artistic skills" would never allow!), but once that's done, you can either set them up in a special symbols file in CC, or just use copy & paste on each piece's drawing, and then build your setting template, saving that so you know how you'll need to lay out the pieces for the game.
Fortunately the only opinion I care about is the players in my campaign, and as long as they can read the map I'm good.
The trick is to have very low standards while you are learning and not give a damn what other people think. :)