Before we had our table, I used vinyl mats. I found that given the fluid nature of D&D material, reuseable and/or dynamic props were paramount.
Simply put, the chessex four foot vinyl grid maps were my mainstay for years. They provided the easiest method of drawing maps on the fly, saving terrain (rolling it up and putting it away) and were cheap so I could afford a few of them. I have scads of tiles and would blend between tiles and mat for organic vs not. Eg: caves vs castles.
I still use tiles in concert with my other props. Tiles provide a great range of texture. Being cardboard though, they don't do well in the sand or water.
Heck, I just lay a whiteboard on the table. Cuts out the mess and that hassle of printing. All I have to worry about is scaling, but even that's pretty easy since the board I use has a 1' grid. I think the only problem with using a whiteboard is having enough space on that table for dice rolls, but I've been doing it for 5+ years and never heard a complaint from the party so I guess all is well.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"When I finally find a pen I have nothing to say..." ~Some graffiti I found once.
In the past, we used a "battle board" - a large 22"x36" aluminum board with a fine 1" grid on it - meant to be a dry erase note board, it was available cheaply at Costco, and worked beautifully for years...then we graduated to a 40" flatscreen flat on the table with digital maps...a definite step up but a lot more $$.
To all with an interest, I am working on the first video on the "how to create FRPG maps using PhotoShop" topic. The process is taking a little while, as I'm previously unfamiliar with presenting and recording such a thing, but I'm plugging along and will let everyone know when it's up.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PBP "Beregost Blues" - Dungeon Master of Gnome Slaying +5
To all with an interest, I am working on the first video on the "how to create FRPG maps using PhotoShop" topic. The process is taking a little while, as I'm previously unfamiliar with presenting and recording such a thing, but I'm plugging along and will let everyone know when it's up.
I'm looking forward to this. I appreciate the effort. I've been struggling with art as a whole. It's a tough thing to try to learn and like all skills takes practice and a few hints and guide can go along way.
Cheers,
JT
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
JT "You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I have a different program but the effort for people to make and share tutorials is always a great thing. I have drawing program that thankfully accepts a lot of different clipart and what not into it so if I get art pieces from somewhere else in a pack or whatever I can use them in my program. Sometimes it is way easier to find furniture pieces, crates, barrels, whatever that look cool from some other source and plop them in and have fun working everything into something that appears seamless enough. Of course, not everyone is an artist and it sure takes time and effort to do any art or craft. It can be fun though if you have the time for it along with the game session prep you have to do in the first place. =) I'm hoping the campaign manager helps save organizing time for encounters so there can be more time for game layout coolness.
And at some point I might get off my butt and make my game digital because my primary friends are all over the place and roll20 and discord is how we manage to have some atrociously fun adventures together. My lazy excuse is that we are testing a friend's homebrew right now.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
I use Dungeon Painter Studio and print to two sheets of tabloid paper. I place that under a clear vinyl mat when we play and use dry-erase markers to track progress.
I found some poster board that had 1" squares that was used for a town the party revisted. I have 24x36 grid paper that i use to make the more complex maps (dungeon, temple whatever) and then a chessex mat for random encounters
Personally, I like the cheap-as-free GIMP. With these brushes and this hex grid script, I can make decent looking hex maps for sandbox style games. For combat maps though I prefer a Chessex Reversible Battlemat for wet erase markers.
To all with an interest, I am working on the first video on the "how to create FRPG maps using PhotoShop" topic. The process is taking a little while, as I'm previously unfamiliar with presenting and recording such a thing, but I'm plugging along and will let everyone know when it's up.
What I do is print of a bunch of graph paper with inch sized squares and tape them together and draw on them. Dungeon tiles also work, you can get them on amazon. What's good about them is that they can be used for all sorts of adventures.
If you're a poor (art) student like me, then I suggest you use whatever you've got at home. In my case I had a bunch of cardboard in A4 format in hand. So I taped together a bunch and eye-measured the grids (as I don't even own a ruler - photo of my masterpiece), and then I sketch out the map I'm about to use with a pencil and whenever I need a new map I erase that and draw a new one. D&D stuff is expensive and is not as easy to come by here in Sweden, and ordering online is mostly out of the question.
If you're not poor like me, then the aforementioned sites and links are all great!
In my absence of time to work on this project (partly due to my company eliminating my division and my need to find work), I did want to provide an already-existing guide for creating maps in PhotoShop:
I actually have a map of the overall area around a city where the campaign is primarily staying around for a bit done on paper with colored pencils and a black pen, then scanned into the computer. I added names of places in a cool font in an old art program I have and added a nice compass icon. Wa la, roll20 usable map that gets the point across and doesn't look all that bad. But yeah you need patience to draw little boxes for houses with a pen while gabbing with family or watching TV. I saw want a drawing tablet in my future life somewhere. LOL!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
I just use a load 1 inch graph paper and go to town on it drawing what I want. Though I have had to start tapping multiple sheets together to have enough for bigger mats. If anyone knows somewhere in the UK which sells big rolls of 1 inch graph paper please hit me up haha. It would save me some effort the smaller sheets together haha. I find it handy having drawn out maps. As I can reuse them later on. I used to use remade ones but they never fit what I wanted. But drawing them is also fun. Though I never use colour as I suck drawing with colour for some reason.
I'm using some thick Vinyl with the gaming paper taped to the underside, I have a yard to work with and I draw on the Vinyl with regular dry erase markers, its' been working pretty well I need to let one sit for a day or two and see how that works out.
I have the same problem you have HarleyDFXDWG. I tried using many tools to draw battle maps and world maps but none were satisfactory. That's why I'm currently developing Hextml. Since I couldn't find something that was convenient for me I made one ^^ It has submaps, notes for every hex, custom tiles, you can change the shape of the tile to use squares if you want and of course download the map as an image.
It's still in development so it might not be very stable but I put a lot of work into it. I hope it can help you. Tell me if you have any problems or remarks, I'll be very glad to hear from you (or anyone).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Yes, same! I'd be interested in perhaps links of your favourite brush resources etc too if you don't mind?
Before we had our table, I used vinyl mats. I found that given the fluid nature of D&D material, reuseable and/or dynamic props were paramount.
Simply put, the chessex four foot vinyl grid maps were my mainstay for years. They provided the easiest method of drawing maps on the fly, saving terrain (rolling it up and putting it away) and were cheap so I could afford a few of them. I have scads of tiles and would blend between tiles and mat for organic vs not. Eg: caves vs castles.
I still use tiles in concert with my other props. Tiles provide a great range of texture. Being cardboard though, they don't do well in the sand or water.
The DMGE
Heck, I just lay a whiteboard on the table. Cuts out the mess and that hassle of printing. All I have to worry about is scaling, but even that's pretty easy since the board I use has a 1' grid. I think the only problem with using a whiteboard is having enough space on that table for dice rolls, but I've been doing it for 5+ years and never heard a complaint from the party so I guess all is well.
"When I finally find a pen I have nothing to say..." ~Some graffiti I found once.
In the past, we used a "battle board" - a large 22"x36" aluminum board with a fine 1" grid on it - meant to be a dry erase note board, it was available cheaply at Costco, and worked beautifully for years...then we graduated to a 40" flatscreen flat on the table with digital maps...a definite step up but a lot more $$.
D&D addict since 1982...
To all with an interest, I am working on the first video on the "how to create FRPG maps using PhotoShop" topic. The process is taking a little while, as I'm previously unfamiliar with presenting and recording such a thing, but I'm plugging along and will let everyone know when it's up.
JT " You will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view."
I have a different program but the effort for people to make and share tutorials is always a great thing. I have drawing program that thankfully accepts a lot of different clipart and what not into it so if I get art pieces from somewhere else in a pack or whatever I can use them in my program. Sometimes it is way easier to find furniture pieces, crates, barrels, whatever that look cool from some other source and plop them in and have fun working everything into something that appears seamless enough. Of course, not everyone is an artist and it sure takes time and effort to do any art or craft. It can be fun though if you have the time for it along with the game session prep you have to do in the first place. =) I'm hoping the campaign manager helps save organizing time for encounters so there can be more time for game layout coolness.
And at some point I might get off my butt and make my game digital because my primary friends are all over the place and roll20 and discord is how we manage to have some atrociously fun adventures together. My lazy excuse is that we are testing a friend's homebrew right now.
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain
PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
I use Dungeon Painter Studio and print to two sheets of tabloid paper. I place that under a clear vinyl mat when we play and use dry-erase markers to track progress.
I found some poster board that had 1" squares that was used for a town the party revisted. I have 24x36 grid paper that i use to make the more complex maps (dungeon, temple whatever) and then a chessex mat for random encounters
Personally, I like the cheap-as-free GIMP. With these brushes and this hex grid script, I can make decent looking hex maps for sandbox style games. For combat maps though I prefer a Chessex Reversible Battlemat for wet erase markers.
What I do is print of a bunch of graph paper with inch sized squares and tape them together and draw on them. Dungeon tiles also work, you can get them on amazon. What's good about them is that they can be used for all sorts of adventures.
Hope this helps.
If you're a poor (art) student like me, then I suggest you use whatever you've got at home. In my case I had a bunch of cardboard in A4 format in hand. So I taped together a bunch and eye-measured the grids (as I don't even own a ruler - photo of my masterpiece), and then I sketch out the map I'm about to use with a pencil and whenever I need a new map I erase that and draw a new one. D&D stuff is expensive and is not as easy to come by here in Sweden, and ordering online is mostly out of the question.
If you're not poor like me, then the aforementioned sites and links are all great!
In my absence of time to work on this project (partly due to my company eliminating my division and my need to find work), I did want to provide an already-existing guide for creating maps in PhotoShop:
Geek and Sundry: Making Your Own Maps
I actually have a map of the overall area around a city where the campaign is primarily staying around for a bit done on paper with colored pencils and a black pen, then scanned into the computer. I added names of places in a cool font in an old art program I have and added a nice compass icon. Wa la, roll20 usable map that gets the point across and doesn't look all that bad. But yeah you need patience to draw little boxes for houses with a pen while gabbing with family or watching TV. I saw want a drawing tablet in my future life somewhere. LOL!
PbP - Beregost Blues - Portia Starflower, Half Elf, Cleric, Life Domain
PbP - Tome of Annhilation - Vistani Mocanu, Human, Bard
For a long time I just used a Chesex grid map. Lot of great memories with it.
Now a days I do all 3D terrain that I build myself, though I recently bought an MDF dungeon I plan to paint up.
I make most of my stuff out of foamboard, insulation foam, sand and pine bark nuggets as well as flicking of course.
I just use a load 1 inch graph paper and go to town on it drawing what I want. Though I have had to start tapping multiple sheets together to have enough for bigger mats. If anyone knows somewhere in the UK which sells big rolls of 1 inch graph paper please hit me up haha. It would save me some effort the smaller sheets together haha. I find it handy having drawn out maps. As I can reuse them later on. I used to use remade ones but they never fit what I wanted. But drawing them is also fun. Though I never use colour as I suck drawing with colour for some reason.
"Toss a coin to your [Insert class here]"
I'm using some thick Vinyl with the gaming paper taped to the underside, I have a yard to work with and I draw on the Vinyl with regular dry erase markers, its' been working pretty well I need to let one sit for a day or two and see how that works out.
I have the same problem you have HarleyDFXDWG. I tried using many tools to draw battle maps and world maps but none were satisfactory. That's why I'm currently developing Hextml. Since I couldn't find something that was convenient for me I made one ^^ It has submaps, notes for every hex, custom tiles, you can change the shape of the tile to use squares if you want and of course download the map as an image.
It's still in development so it might not be very stable but I put a lot of work into it. I hope it can help you. Tell me if you have any problems or remarks, I'll be very glad to hear from you (or anyone).