The best mapping software for my wierd priorities?

[RobA]

I'd give dungeonforge a try http://www.dungeonmapping.com/df/public_html/

You have to register on the forums to download, but it is free. Get Dungeonforge, not MapX.

It is a grid based tilemapper. You can also find a whole set of oldschool icons for drag and drop building.

It is also designed for printing.

-Rob A>

[Sigurd]

Personally my advice is away from the very simple.

Try The Gimp if you have a keen interest to get a project done. Your current project will give you drive to learn the program and the next time you need a graphic you likely will have better skills to make one. Yes it may be more than you need right now but it represents growth for the future.

One simple distinction you should consider is Raster or Vector drawing.

Raster drawing ie Photoshop, Gimp, etc is very free form and colourful. Its arguably easier to paint coloured pixels onto a screen with a raster program - most DMs will find it ideal.
Its drawbacks mostly come from the jagged edges your image might have if you zoom too far or rotate it.

Corel Draw, Inkscape, and Illustrator use Vector drawing. This sort of emphasizes pattern over colour and splash. Your lines are recorded as formulae in the image. This has the advantage that if you rescale or rotate the image the formula is revisited and clean smooth line is recreated to suite whatever change you've done.
The drawback of vector drawing IMHO is that the precise lines have to be a little better planned than raster images.

It sounds like either approach will get you where you want to go. I really suggest that you look at your old school maps as a first step on a slow journey. You might as well get a few miles down a productive path rather than learn a dead end simple simple program that fits only your immediate needs.


Sigurd

Just my .02

[The Cartographist]

Torstan - I'd be interested in a short guideline for old school mapping. Don't know if you're going to do it, but you have my vote.

[RobA]

I'd give dungeonforge a try http://www.dungeonmapping.com/df/public_html/

You have to register on the forums to download, but it is free. Get Dungeonforge, not MapX.

It is a grid based tilemapper. You can also find a whole set of oldschool icons for drag and drop building.

It is also designed for printing.

-Rob A>

Just wanted to follow up with an example. Here is a dungeonforge map made using the "Classic TSR tile and object set" available in the download section:



-Rob A>

[torstan]

I'll see what I can put together.

[töff]

As mentioned on somebody's awesome redo of the Palace Of The Silver Princess maps, the old-school D&D style lacks door-opening-direction info. Amend it!

Another thing that bothers the holy-be outta me is the 10' grid. Now, there's nothing wrong with a scale system per se, but it seems to me that the 10' grid encourages dungeon designers to make 10' wide hallways, or even 30' wide hallways ... and we get these humongous 330'x590' rooms that are just absurd. Come on! You guys ever visit any medieval buildings? We got Brits in this forum come on, speak up: the doors are like 2' wide, the halls 3' wide. The hallway in my modern (i.e., not medieval) house is not 10' wide. My bedrooms are somewhere around 120'sq, which would be a little over one square on the grid. OK, I live in a small house, but I hope you get my point. Let's see some hallways that take HALF a square on that classic TSR 10' grid! Let's really think about scale, please! Don't let that darn default cyan grid overpower your common sense.

[torstan]

Okay, I've started a tute on this over here:

http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=2461

I will be using a 5' grid as I am well aware that medieval buildings were pretty titchy . I know that Gimp isn't the best tool for this job - probably illustrator or inkscape is the best weapon - but I prefer Gimp so that's what I'm writing the tute for. If someone else wants to do it for one of the other ones, please be my guest!

[RobA]

Come on! You guys ever visit any medieval buildings? We got Brits in this forum come on, speak up: the doors are like 2' wide, the halls 3' wide.

That recalls this discussion on using a 1-meter grid... (reposted in case you missed the first time.)

-Rob A>

[töff]

I will be using a 5' grid ...
discussion on using a 1-meter grid...

The thing is, TSR very well established the classic style as 10' squares. If you change the size of your grid, you need a really clear conspicuous scale on every map, because all the potbellied forty-something 1st-ed vets (like me) will assume 10' otherwise.

There's nothing wrong with a 10' grid. It's just when people don't think about the sizes of their designs that you run into absurdities.

[töff]

Apologies to the mapper in question, as I know he was not really designing a dungeon, but ...

Here's a perfect example of how following that durn grid can seduce and corrupt one's mind.