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Old 09-27-2017, 12:43 PM   #3
Anaraxes
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Default Re: Request for map help

Most RPG setting maps I see are simply images. They're made with the image editing program of your choice. Some people use Photoshop or GIMP (as the free, open-source alternative to Photoshop). There is also software written just for the purpose, like Campaign Cartographer and others.

You might put those images into some other format, like PDF, especially if you're adding text as with a description of the setting, history, etc. That would call for a word processing program like MS Word, OpenOffice Writer, etc.

You might use a "structured" or "object-oriented" drawing program like Visio, CorelDraw, Inkscape, etc. These would be a little more appropriate for highly regular, man-made structures like buildings or dungeons where you want a particular floor map to scale.

The web has a number of useful sites showing some tricks and techniques for creating artistic maps using such tools. Painting blobs in flat colors is easy enough, but when you want to start adding textures for trees or shading terrain highlighting, some tutorial examples could come in handy if you're not already a master of such software.

Some games have specific map formats that people sometimes use, like the Traveller world map blank that's a unrolled and flattened icosahedron. But mainly I just see freeform images, rather than ones made to fit a pre-printed grid.
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