I just wanted to share this awesome website I just found with you guys. I mean, map outlines, background parchment image and using map stamps (like these or these) in GIMP isn't that hard to do, and won't take that much longer than fighting with the limitations of some special purpose program, most likely written by some RPG enthusiast in their spare time.So, this isn't a new topic. Sites like Cartographers Guild are always willing to help people starting out with this. It might really be best to approach this from another point of view and learn the minimum required to produce the maps you want with a regular old program. Where in the end you have to resort to Photoshop anyway to get the missing details in… The field seems littered with abandonware and half-finished projects. Sure, for every map style you might only need a certain subset of functions, but selling a program that only supports one specific style wouldn't be worth it - if it's worth it at all. And other map software is mostly on the extremely simple end, like hex maps. That's why Campaign Cartographer is basically a reskinned CAD package with some default templates and stamps. But at a certain point there's not much difference between a map making program and a vector and/or image manipulation program, i.e. Quick hexes or fractals are easy enough to make and the later often not more than an exercise in automatic image generation (like these awesome maps). I'm just going to straight out tell you that there's no such thing, nor is it likely that there ever will be something like this. Call it the MS Paint of fantasy mapping if you must (but not actual MS Paint ).
I am not looking for anything complex (or CAD/CAM programs *shudder*). Striving for a simple monochrom-y ink-on-parchment look here cf Tolkien's Midgard maps. Not interested in the look of D&D maps (neither primitive nostalgia nor newer color-shocked). No floor plans, no hex grids, no battlemats. The maps I'm looking to create is a valley here or a kingdom there. The important bit is that I do have certain standards - there must be a minimum variety of iconography (for drawing mountain ranges, marshland, etc), a way to use a background texture (not necessarily yellowish and stained with age but some greyish thing to break sterility and monotony), use your own fonts, that sort of thing. Very slightly punky is acceptable, but nothing modern or comic booky.
What would be your pick for accessible software for whipping up some decent fantasy maps? A mountain range there, a few villages here and there, a river or three, maybe a cemetary or cave, you get it. I googled a bit, but most recommendations are from 2015 all the way back to 2008, so.
0 kommentar(er)
