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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Steel_Wind" data-source="post: 5086509" data-attributes="member: 20741">This was discussed long ago on a thread I started here on ENWorld that made the front page of Slashdot <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/122099-coolest-gaming-set-up-evar-8.html" target="_blank">back in 2005</a>.My preference for creating maps depends upon the type of map and nature of the setting.If it's a pregenerated map, I scan that from a print product or use a Player's version of the map without labels, preferably. Paizo tends to post those online in the past (for  Dungeon mag), They have variants of those in the electronic copy of the Pathfinder books, too.I use a freeware software tool called Tabletop Mapper that will reveal room on that map selectively as the doors are opened. You can get the same effect using Photoshop and suing an erasable mask layer, if you like. You can also get this effect from using something like Fantasy Grounds I or II. But Tabletop Mapper does this for you for free, without and muckety muck -- and, did I mention it's free? It does take about 3-5 minutes to mask and detail the mask later in Tabletop mapper. (It's *stupid* easy to use though. If you can play Tetris, you can use Tabletop Mapper)But that's for displaying interior maps that are pre-generated. For general purpose use, I prefer to use the original NeverwinterNights 1 to create my maps.  I will use hakpaks with that game software, especially those that have buildings created for placement on the map as placeables (as opposed to putting them down as "tiles"). To be clear - you are creating and displaying the map for display on your tabletop from the NWN 1 toolset window, not for display in the NWN1 game client.  This allows you to zoom out and arbitrarily move around your map on the tabletop - something you could not do in the game client.The reason for preferring NWN1 to create my maps is: 1) it's cheap2) it's extremely fast to use with very low system requirements3) it looks pretty damn good when viewed directly overhead (or 5 degrees off vertical)In NWN1, when I want to avoid a "grid" feel to the map, I place my buildings down as "placeables" and not as tile features. In NWN1, making maps like this could create all manner of walkmesh issues which made the module very buggy to play as a computer game. But we don't make a module in the toolset that has to work as a computer game. We are just making a level map for display in the NWN editor in order to be projected onto the tabletop. It only has to look good. It doesn't have to "work" as a bug free computerized playable module. For our purposes (because we do not have to use the map as a game - just as a map) it's perfect. A placeable may be put anywhere and rotated in any arbitrary direction. This means that you are not tied to the grid system that NWN 1 forced upon map creators. You put down your stuff arbitrarily anywhere you like. Bing-bam-boom. You are done.There is simply a VAST amount of community material for NWN1. Staggering in size, really.  The selection and customizability puts something like Dundjinni to shame.  Plus, where Dundjinni takes hours to create a map - I can do it in minutes.I can, in all seriousness, put together a random outdoor map or interior map for that matter, from a blank screen to a fully detailed map with river, forests, trees, campfire and tents, horse lines, rocks, battlefield, graveyard, Walls, ruins, Castle walls, etc... in about TWO MINUTES Flat. Four minutes if I'm taking a LONG time to do it.That is not an exaggeration. Two minutes. And it's a better battlemap-in-use than anything published in any print product available for purchase just about anywhere.The cost of NWN1 now is woefully small. You can probably find NWN Platinum for $10 or less. You may well already have it sitting on your shelf. ("Free" is the best cost there is).NWN2 will work as well for these purpose - but it takes longer to work with it and it has higher system requirements which not every laptop may be able to deal with. The NWN2 maps look better from various angles and if lighting were n issue, the lighting engine in NWN2 is better, sure. But the maps, for tabletop RPG purposes, are not significantly improved when viewed directly overhead or 5 degrees off overhead (I like to use a wee bit of perspective). You cna do some really cool things with NWN1 and a projector. I can add animated fire to my map. I can literally put down walls of flame and have a lava field that gurgles and spits lava. It's...well....it totally rocks.Because of the extra time it takes to create a map in NWN2 over NWN1, I prefer NWN1 to use to create my maps, generally speaking.The art selection for a SciFi or modern setting game when using NWN1 is not as good as it is for a high fantasy RPG setting of course, but there are some SF and D20 Modern hakpaks and tilesets that work reasonably well for our purposes.</blockquote>

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