Share your DM drawing tools, etc.

[howandwhy99]

So I am looking to expand my repertoire.

Currently I use a 3'x4' battlemat (hex & grid flippable), dry erase markers, ruler, compass with marker, measuring tape / string with 1" marks, index cards, mechanical pencils, erasers, graph paper. But I want to expand. Here are some things I'm looking at:

Connectable battle boards & wet erase markers (for quick tiny encounters)

This is the serious one. I really do need good drawing templates. Any experiences are appreciated. (below is an architectural furniture sample and a basic template design)

French curves for my more "gygaxian" halls and rooms

Your standard protractor, but I'm iffy on the needs of this one. What I really do need is a means to draw all those pentagrams and hexagrams and whatnot. If this could help, please let me know. (grids don't do 5-sided stars well, I've found)

battle box grids for spell effects are an unlikely choice for me as I have rules for partial grid effects like cone spells, etc.

Most of the above is session play, but any suggestion for designing the referee's map is appreciated too. Currently I use colored pencils, eraser, and compass on graph or art paper. (I use a hex transparency overlay by map scale for wilderness movement during game, so no hex paper for me).

Something that would be nice is a large template of legend icons or keys, especially for outdoor maps, castles, towns, dungeons, and anything medieval related. I see maps like the ones in Upper Works and think "I can do that", but they have to be in pencil for my game. Professional maps are beautiful, but they're at best somewhat erroneous handouts for me.

Nothing permanent please! If I can't erase it, my players will go out of their way to alter it.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Actually, permanent marking tools used on thicker transparencies can be useful. Draw some scale-sized doors (regular or secret), stairs (spiral or straight), fountain basins, columns, rocks and trees- anything you'd use a lot of- and then cut them out. When needed, you just lay them in place.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

Pencil
Paper
Gridded map
Washable marker
Hand

 

[Dannager]

Not a huge deal, but I went out and bought the smallest of these suckers I could find, emptied and washed it out, and filled it with tap water. Makes wiping down battle mats a breeze.

 

[Filcher]

Can anyone recommend a good 2d architectural drawing program? I don't need 3d (too much work) ... just something simple to illustrate floor plans.

 

[Aeolius]

duplicate post...

 

[Aeolius]

Poser (or the free Daz Studio ) and Bryce get me pretty far, coupled with one's raster and vector drawing apps of choice.

 

[grodog]

Here's my thoughts on map-making tools of the trade:

Here are the various tools that I use when drawing my dungeon levels:

• nice wooden clipboard with sheets of scrap paper (we re-use the blank backs of stuff that gets printed and isn't needed anymore): I usually draw with a few sheets of the scrap paper behind my graph paper sheet
• graph paper (4 spi, 5 spi, 6 spi, 8 spi, 10 spi; all but the 10 spi paper are standard-sized, but the 10 spi is 11"x17"; most of them are blue gridded, but some of the 4 spi paper is green gridded)
• mechanical pencils (.5 fine lead)
• Pentel Elite Erase (~1/4" around white eraser) and Sanford Tuff Stuff Eraser Stick (~1/8" around white eraser---this one I usually slice off the tip so that I have a sharper and more-refined edge for more-controlled, more-subtle erasing)
• Parker rollerball pen (.5 fine blue ink)
• Stabilo art markers (sensor .3 fine and point 88 .4 fine and sensor .7 medium thicknesses); the Stablio markers have pretty much fully replaced my Berol Prismacolor colored pencils, although for maps that I draw in pencil, I'm still more likely to draw features in colored pencils on them vs. markers, I suppose
• Sharpie and Bic black permanent markers (fine point, for filling in the between-stuff fill
• mapping stencils: Template Designs General Purpose TD 422 (this is the one I use the most, for drawing doors [when I don't freehand them], using the 6" ruler, and drawing hexes, arcs, and small equilateral triangles), Triangles and Diamonds R51, Squares R30, Ellipse Masters R77 and R78 (I probably really didn't need both, but the ellipses span diffferent sizes on each template; R78 is the same as R77 but includes ellipses that are 20, 30, 40, and 50 degrees), Combo Circle Master TD104 (used a lot, both to draw cirlces, and to draw arcs on rooms using part of a circle)
• 6" and 12" ruler or other trustworthy straight edge (the stencils do fine most of the time)
• compass (I don't use this much, since the circles template meets my needs most of the time)
• flexible curve (I rarely use this, too)
• 3 ring binder (whatever's fitting the maps, but I do prefer ones with at least 1 if not 2 pockets)
• sheet protectors (I use heavier archival ones, as much because they're thick and provide better protection as for preservation)

I haven't found a good hex stencil yet (although the Sketch Master template has a few more hexes than are already on my General Purpose template), so I'm still looking for one of those.

What other tools do you guys use in your mapping?

You can read the rest of the thread @ KNIGHTS & KNAVES ALEHOUSE • View topic - map-making tools of the trade

 

[Thunderfoot]

One thing I use is newsprint paper. Go to any newspaper and you will see them pitching out the scrap part of the rolls. They can't be recycled and they can't use the scraps. Sometimes as much as 20' of 24' wide newsprint paper is available (I've gotten more but that is unusual).

Using a brown marker over light pencil marks and some lemon juice or light tea after a THOROUGH drying (usually in a low temperature oven or under a heat lamp) creates great sepia-toned maps. I'm not a great cartographer (that statement is probably up for understatement of the year) but the effect is good enough that players can suspend disbelief long enough to accept them as handouts, scrolls and even playable maps without grinding the game to a halt for "point and stare" time.

I know this isn't exactly what you were going for, but it's another aspect to map making, so I thought I'd post it.

BTW - it's also a great way to get packing material for moving. - I currently have four rolls sitting in my den from when we moved two years ago.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Just want to point people over to the Cartographers' Guild - The Front Page

Also you may want to check out: http://sketchup.google.com/