Gaming Boards and suggestions

[Narfellus]

I've been using battleboards for years and have gradually upped the complexity and size. I recently began editing photographs in photoshop and layering them with one inch grids. So i have ice caverns and plant forests and such, looks pretty good. Anyway, Dragon magazine sometimes releases pull out maps that are high quality and very useful. Is there a way to get these from a central source without buying the magazine? (i don't like or subscribe to Dragon anymore).
Secondly, i've found that realistic floor plans really really set the mood for a game, but i want to branch out from fantasy. Fantasy is probably the easiest to find with inns and caves and castles and such, but what about Star Wars or Cthulhu? Where does one get starports and cantinas, haunted mansions and alien tunnels? I've thought about making them myself, but it would take quite a while, and tax my knowledge of photoshop and illustrator. RPGshop carries SOME items, but there are no examples or demos and so i don't know the quality. Any suggestions, fellow gamers, to help me scare the hell out of my players? (my fav personal battlemap so far is an 8x10 grid mapped on wet human intestines for an Underdark adventure-yech)

 

[MarauderX]

Sounds like you are doing well with photoshop so far. I would keep going with it, if you have the time, and soon you will be adding the touch-ups and other little things that make the maps that much better. With a little practice you speed will increase, and you can make your own library and post it for us all to stea-...um, privateer.

I don't know of any sites out there where you can grab particular maps per se, but I bet there are a few out there.

In the meantime, here is a good place to start collecting:
http://infinitefish.com/

Have fun with it, and feel free to post up some of your home-made maps on ENWorld in the download section.

 

[Narfellus]

battlegrids

Hey Marauder, good idea, i'll post some of the artwork in the downloads section. The jpg's range from 2-5 MB, so they'll take a while to download via modem. Now, i didn't exactly ask permission to use these pictures in the first place. I scanned the net rigoursly for hours looking for art that was not only appropriate but also the correct resolution, and then turned them into a D&D game aid. Each picture is high quality with little to no pixelization. What i've been doing is printing them at work on photo paper or uploading them to walmart.com and have them shipped to me. I'll keep looking around for horror and science fiction stuff.