Quote from: Jeffrey StraszheimI think Campaign Cartographer gives, hands down, the best results.  However, it is takes a fair bit of effort to get good at it.  Once you get good at it, though, there is not much you cannot do to edit and manipulate the image you've made.

Here is the map I'm working on now:

http://straszheim.50megs.com/world.PNG.

I'd say it is about 30% complete and has taken about 4 hours so far.  The most difficult step will be coming up with cool names for things.

Jeff so stole that from an old Iron Crown product. You can even see the lines where he scanned it!

-Marco (Startin' rumors!)

Profantasy has a monthly subscription service where you learn how to do various type of maps. Jeff's map looks to be created using the first issue.

You can get more information here.

http://sub.profantasy.com/2007/index.html

and look at various maps styles they released here

http://sub.profantasy.com/2007/gallery.html

Quote from: MarcoJeff so stole that from an old Iron Crown product. You can even see the lines where he scanned it!

Actually, I swiped it from some unpublished Jags book that I found when I hacked ur FTP server.

Quote from: Jeffrey StraszheimActually, I swiped it from some unpublished Jags book that I found when I hacked ur FTP server.

I thought I recognized that! JAGS Fantasy Heartbreaker!!

-clash

Quote from: flyingmiceI thought I recognized that! JAGS Fantasy Heartbreaker!!

I thought Jags was a Gurps heartbreaker

Gentlemen ... gentlemen ... there's no need to argue: Clearly it's both!

-Marco

I agree completely with regards to AUTOREALM.  Not too hard to get the hang of and the GUI is decent.  But more importantly, you can create great maps and it's free.  I've found that it helps to clean my maps up a bit in Photoshop, but I do 95% of the work in AUTOREALM and it's great as a stand-alone.

Quote from: RPGPundit;135159What do people here think of Campaign Cartographer? I know its not free, but it is one of the only map softwares I'd ever heard of by name before this thread, so I thought I'd ask.

RPGPundit

I've been using Campaign Cartographer for years. I love it. I found it easier to get into and understand than Photoshop, but possibly because I dig maps so much. Well worth the money for me.

As an added bonus, they have a mailing list that has shite-loads of community support and unbelievably amazing map makers.

If I ever need inspiration of what can be done, all I ever need to do is look at some of these: http://www.darkleagues.com/fantasymapping/antique-style.htm and http://www.jhendor.de/images/maps/germany_topo.jpg

Does anyone know any software (Again, like pundit and the joker I like things cheap!) that would be good for SF graphics? Planets, solar systems, hexmapped terrain, high tech artifacts, etc?

paint.net available free of course, at paint.net

Includes many features similar to Photoshop.

Allow me to shill, but I think it is directly on-topic:

For hexmaps (planet terrain or starmaps) Hexographer is a good option I hope.  (For starmaps look for the "Cosmic" tab which contains those iconse.)

For mapping out a spacecraft or starbase or some futuristic building I hope Dungeonographer will meet your needs once I add some SF graphics. (Right now there are only a couple, although I've got several more (overhead view of a computer, futuristic table and chairs, etc.) ready for the next release in a couple of weeks.  Still you can play with it now to see if all you need are some additional graphics. (And if so, let me know what you need graphics for. I am interested in hearing what people think will be commonly needed.)

Both tools have very feature-full free versions.  Links in my sig.

If you're a bit of an artist or want to take some time to learn a true general graphics tool, I'd recommend GIMP over anything else that is free.

I have a different approach...

I run a game of Civ3, type in the cheat that reveals the world map, then save it as an image.

From there, I open in Paint, and add cities/towers/ruins where I want them.

I don't use a hex map, but I'm pretty sure somewhere out there, there's got to be a skin you can drop on top of the drawing, if you need a hex map.

Quote from: Novastar;405069I have a different approach...

I run a game of Civ3, type in the cheat that reveals the world map, then save it as an image.

From there, I open in Paint, and add cities/towers/ruins where I want them.

I don't use a hex map, but I'm pretty sure somewhere out there, there's got to be a skin you can drop on top of the drawing, if you need a hex map.

That's clever! Even better if you're using a graphics program that has layers. I second GameDaddy's recommendation on Paint.Net - it doesn't have the total array of features that a suite like PhotoShop has, but the learning curve isn't at all steep, and the features it has includes the ones I think are most useful for gaming/mapping. For overland maps, especially, it's handy to have the grid on one layer, borders on another, cities on another, dungeons on another, encounter zones, etc. So you can have all that stuff in one file, and save images of whichever elements on the map you want to give to players. It's also good to be able to trace outlines and such if you want to use a "satellite photo" looking map but have a toggle-able "line art" version stuck on top.

Quote from: SowelBlack;405037Allow me to shill, but I think it is directly on-topic:

For hexmaps (planet terrain or starmaps) Hexographer is a good option I hope.  (For starmaps look for the "Cosmic" tab which contains those iconse.)

For mapping out a spacecraft or starbase or some futuristic building I hope Dungeonographer will meet your needs once I add some SF graphics. (Right now there are only a couple, although I've got several more (overhead view of a computer, futuristic table and chairs, etc.) ready for the next release in a couple of weeks.  Still you can play with it now to see if all you need are some additional graphics. (And if so, let me know what you need graphics for. I am interested in hearing what people think will be commonly needed.)

Both tools have very feature-full free versions.  Links in my sig.

If you're a bit of an artist or want to take some time to learn a true general graphics tool, I'd recommend GIMP over anything else that is free.

Can't speak for el pundito, but I have absolutely no problem with people linking to producst or even "shilling" them here as long as:

A. the product is game related in a notable way.
B. the shill is not done excessively or in an irritating fashion.

A regular tagfline is not irritating, a big flashing one with graphics might be.

Quote from: Cylonophile;405174Can't speak for el pundito, but I have absolutely no problem with people linking to producst or even "shilling" them here as long as:

A. the product is game related in a notable way.
B. the shill is not done excessively or in an irritating fashion.

A regular tagfline is not irritating, a big flashing one with graphics might be.

I figure/hope that if someone is asking about RPG map software it is fair for me to mention Hexographer/Dungeonographer as appropriate.  Just as someone who is a fan of either product might mention it or someone who loves Dungeoncrafter might mention that and list a couple of the cool things about it.  But I wouldn't want to post about it every other day unless someone followed up with specific questions about it.  Even yesterday there was one other related thread, but I felt once was enough.

However, it wouldn't be fair to start a new topic (other than on the Adverts forum) mentioning it or asking a question that is guaranteed to bring it up.

I hope that's in line with where you guys are coming from.