Maps, Mapping, and Map Management

[TormentedDave]

Hey everybody. Got a guestion for you all. I am looking some soft of mapping software (not to create). I like the way D20 pro allows you to move your maps around quickly, zoom in/out fog of war, etc. What I am looking for though is something I can have multiple layers of a map on.

For example, I play a lot of Cyberpunk/Interface Zero. So I want a map that would say start out as a map of the USA, then you zoom in on California, zoom again on San Fransico, zoom again on a city block. Which would have a top down view of a building that you could open and show the first floor, click on the stairs/elevator and it takes you to the 2nd floor, etc.

Any ideas on a some software that would allow me to do that?

Thanks,

Dave

 

[pming]

Hiya.

Well, any "paint program" that has Layers (Photoshop, ArtRage Studio, Painter, Paint.NET, etc.). If you want some extra oomph for RPG'ness, you could look into Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer. The learning curve is a bit steep with that one, but it allows "linking" between maps and pretty much any file on your computer. In other words, you could have a map of the USA and divide it up into States. Click on a state and it opens a map of that state. Click on a city and it opens a map of that city. Click on a building and it opens a map of that building. Additionally, you could have other "hotlinks" (as they are called) that open other things; so if you are on a map of a building, you could have "Details" written in a corner...clicking on it opens a PDF, Text file, or OpenOffice document that has the details of that building. You can link to pretty much anything...sound files, video files, web-pages, etc. There is a "map viewer" program your players can download for free. This will let them view the maps as you do (and yes, if they have the 'other' files...sounds, video, texts, etc...those work too).

But, as I said, Campaign Cartographer has a pretty big learning curve and it *will* take you time to get used to it and how it works. Once you do, however, it's pretty damn awesome!...as long as you have the time and desire to really use it's power. If you don't have the time to really invest in such a tool, stick with something more simple like one of the graphics packages...you don't get all the cool stuff, but if you want to just show pics/maps on an overhead projector, for example, it'll do just fine.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[Nytmare]

I haven't really seen anything that robust. Depending on how many maps you were planning on doing, I'd probably just set it up as a series of web pages and do it all in html or flash.