I’ve been using Roll20 for years - not necessarily well and I’m seriously considering ditching my subscription and just using Maptools for my games - I’m mainly running Call of Cthulhu at the moment so don’t need all the bells an whistles…

@Dak I completely understand that! For the Elric of Melnibone (MRQII/Legend) game I ran, I made a character generation macro that calculated characteristics, derived attributes and rolled on origin and background tables; basically all the player had to do was equip their character, give them a name, personality and allocate skill points.

@taustinoc I'm not unfamiliar with Maptools, having used it in past. For Cthulhu, which is what I primarily run, I think it will be just fine and there's no need for fancy macros either - just basic die rolls, Cthulhu is such a straightforward game system you don't really need much. I have, however added made a macro roll whch rolls D100 and then 2 separate D10*10 rolls for the bonus/penalty die.

@Monsen that set up sounds brilliant! I'll have to try.

@JimP Yes, some of the paid VTTs can get expensive, which is why I'm looking at reverting back to Maptools as @Monsen points out, its very versatile...For home use you don't even need an internet connection.

I wrote an adventure, more of a scenario seed really with an encounter map and some bad guys, awhile back that was for Mongoose's, Elric of Melnibone RQII. It was originally pitched to go in their Signs & Portents magazine but unfortunately the magazine got canned before I received a reply. I ended up self-publishing it, changing the names of things to avoid any legal issues with IP infringement. Anyhow, there is a fan site, Strombringer.com, where I may be able to publish the adventure as originally written.

I've re-drawn the commissioned encounter map but I want to draw the city, Dhakos, Capital of Jharkor and I'm after ideas on how to do what's in the title. A description of the city buldings says they're square or rectangular with central gardens, have low square towers in each corner and a spire connected to each tower overlooking the garden.

The tower isn't a problem - I just add another sheet above the Buildings sheet and apply an approriate wall shadow effect but how to do the spires?

I have a confession to make, I cheated. I tried to use the Count function but couldn’t get it to work, so then I went to the Symbol Manager and scaled the skull symbol so I could see them! Even though I knew one was on a turret, I still couldn’t find it.

Interesting life my friend. I swear my life has been the epitome of boredom in comparison to some.

Checked out your hiking page; that primitive site with the trees down looks a lot better than some I've camped at...at least it looks as though it had a decent covering of grass.

Thanks @Loopysue!

Trying to work out how to create jade marble floors, various coloured sands etc has been interesting. I'm using the colorize effect, I have a feeling the RGB matrix would probably work better and retain more of the textures (stone and sand) - but my brain refuses to comprehend that tool! To me it's a bit like non-Euclidean geometry...

For a first map this is great.

Regarding your questions re scale; as mentioned always use real world dimensions for your maps, this is one of the things that confuses people coming from other graphics programs (me included when I first started), all the tools, symbols etc will behave properly and you will have a much easier time of it.

When you export your map, you can set the resolution and output size.

That is the video, and yes, as far as I know, it's only interactive (which is what I meant) in CC3+. @Monsen @Ralf do you guys know if it's possible to export the hyperlinks from the index so they work outside of CC3+ or can it only be done manually in something like Adobe or a DTP program?

As Sue says, it looks really good.

Re your earlier comment about the mountains; have you tried softening the edges a bit by playing around with the effects, particularly the outer glows? Alternatively, you could reduce it to 2 layers, 1 for the base mountains with a bevel effect and another for the snow topped peaks.

What you see is what you get, Jim.

I've got to make a few other things; pillars, some different shaped rooms or room parts and so on. I've copied most of the symbols from the style to my Maptools resource folder so I can add the traps and what not in as neccessary and make sure they're hidden.

I'm leaning towards the thicker version myself but then the floor makes it look a little bit busy, I could use a transperency effect on the floor so it's not as "in your face" I s'pose...