Mapping/encounter tools for play-by-post gaming?

[Thordain]

I'm going to start DMing a 4e game on ENworld. Last time I did this (In 03), I had to use excel to create a grid, and photoshop to add my pc layers on top of it. It was a time consuming process.

I was wondering if anyone could recommend tools for play-by-post gaming that help with mapping and display of encounters. Basically I want something where I can create a grid, and put icons in those grids. Something especially made for d&d 4e would be perfect.

I've searched on Enword and on other sites, but I haven't really found anything. Can anyone offer any recommendations?

 

[Revinor]

Well, Maptool is done for online gaming but you can make a screenshots out of it. It supports quite a lot of things you may need - area templates, variable size tokens, light effects etc.

 

[MarauderX]

First I'd switch over to Myth-Weavers.com to run the game. Much smoother for everything, and you can put things on there to run your game from anywhere without needing to upload from your hard drive. Also the dice rolling is great too, as it lets you know when the rolls have been fooled with or not.

For mapping I use AutoCAD, but if you don't have the access to it, you can use Google's Sketch-up, or Adobe to goof around with simple grids & overlay icons on different layers.

 

[Thordain]

Thanks for both responses! I like maptool, looks perfect.

I'll look at myth-weavers too