Mapping Software

[TheAntiSummit]

I will soon be running a city campaign set in a very large city. I was planning on hand drawing the maps and scanning them into my computer to send to players (the game will be played across the web), but that has become impossible given the size of the city and the number of maps needed to cover all the different sections as well as my artisitc skill, or complete lack thereof. So I am looking for mapping software, preferably free or with a trial period that i can use to do this. I am not concerned with mapping things on a global level or mapping specific buildings, just the city in varying degrees of detail. If anyone can direct me towards something like this, I would really apreciate it.

 

[rpgHQ]

http://autorealm.sourceforge.net for a free one

CC2 with the CityDesigner add-on is what i use. http://www.profantasy.com
but it will cost you.

Not sure of the autorealm features but CC2 with CityDesigner lets you make blocks of buildings, random buildings, has a lot of different building symbol sets. you can build your streets and have them as zig-zaging crooked as oyu want and oyu can build rows of random buildings which the program will make sure 'snaps' onto the streets. Plus theres tons of individual symbols if your wanting to place specific looking buildings in certain places on the map. You can export to png,jpg,bmp or your players can get the free veiwer and oyu can just send them the cc2 files. If you have a pdf print driver the cc2 files comeout very nice without any of the pixelation you get from exporting to image formats.

 

[Mark]

http://www.nbos.com

Download trial version. Take her for a spin. You'll love it and then you'll see how inexpensive and powerful the actual program is...

 

[D+1]

I use CC2 and most of its add-ons as well but unless you plan to invest both time and money it may not be what you want right off the bat. It produces fabulous maps, but it takes some time and effort with the program to learn it. Depending on what you want to accomplish with your mapping you can do a lot once you've learned just the basics of CC2.

Given that you're concentrating only on a city map, not world maps maybe what you ought to try is to download the free CC2 viewer and then go to the profantasy site and go through the downloads to find a map of a city you really like rather than reinventing the wheel by creating your own. There's more available at individual sites online. I've downloaded a few that I've never had any real intention of using simply because of their large, complex and impressive composition.

Using the CC2 viewer you can zoom in or out as far as you need and print. Ditto for finding maps of individual buildings, overland maps of entire campaign worlds, castles, towers, dungeons, etc. Later, if you want to make changes to the map file rather than the hardcopy you can buy CC2 and learn it without having the insane pressure of "I MUST make a fantastic map of a major city as my first project while I actually learn to use the software in the first place."

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Some free programs not yet mentioned - www.Dungeoncrafter.com and MapX (or Izandwo) http://www.realmcreator.com/

I use Izandwo for cities and towns, and Dungeoncrafter for interiors and villages.

The Auld Grump

 

[Kershek]

You can also check out GridSmith for tile laying: http://www.gridsmith.com/

 

[Dinkeldog]

Moved to the nifty "Software, Computers and D&D Utilities" forum.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I will soon be running a city campaign set in a very large city. I was planning on hand drawing the maps and scanning them into my computer to send to players (the game will be played across the web), but that has become impossible given the size of the city and the number of maps needed to cover all the different sections as well as my artisitc skill, or complete lack thereof. So I am looking for mapping software, preferably free or with a trial period that i can use to do this. I am not concerned with mapping things on a global level or mapping specific buildings, just the city in varying degrees of detail. If anyone can direct me towards something like this, I would really apreciate it.

You MAY want to be thinking about placing your maps to the web and just linking to them.