[Information] Bhelogan's Map Tutorial

[Bhelogan]

This thread is to talk about methods of making maps and share ideas. If you are looking to have a specific map created, Digorig takes requests for those. If you have a request on how to do something, or would have any recomendations, feel free to comment!

My Workspace and Tools I use a couple of tools. The base program I use in paint.net, which is free. I put the grid on its own layer and give each token its own lair. Its uses it's own file format to save all of that data, but I save just a .jpg file to upload to the forums to show. Just to link a few resources I use: Paint.net you can get here: (also, go to their forums to get lots of useful plugins for effects) http://www.getpaint.net/index.html There are a lot of good background tiles and stuff for free here: http://dungeonchannel.com/maps/ Donjon is a great resource for making random maps. The example below was created there, then I just use sections of it for the smaller battles: http://donjon.bin.sh/d20/dungeon/ And, I DM on Roll20 as well, so I often use their image search engine to find things like tokens or map components A few screenshots of my setup: Some DMs like to upload their map to RPTools or Roll20, then use them for token management. This makes some things easier, like moving individual tokens around, and both programs will rasterize the map to whatever size you zoom in on it. Doing everything in Paint.net locks me in somewhat to whatever resolution I have for the static images, however, I really like the flexibility it gives me to do things like draw in spell effects, mark where AOE spells are hitting, and that kind of thing. For my world maps, I finally ended up just breaking down and buying a license for Campaign Cartographer 3 https://secure.profantasy.com/products/cc3.asp Just to keep things looking uniform, after months of making overland maps manually.

YouTube Videos Collection of How To videos, showing my method for doing things. Will be adding more over time. Creating a Template Battlegrid Making a map with some tunnels Adding Players and Monsters to your map

Freebees Grid from YouTube Tutorial     Ba'Bork's Arena (paint.net project file)