Personally, I’ve got middling power, and I’ve been able to create 36″ x 48″ maps at 300 pixels per inch as long as I don’t mind closing everything else and waiting a bit for some of the steps to finish processing.įor this example, I’ll be making a 36″ x 48″ map of…something. I also like pixabay for public domain photos.ĭepending on how large a map you need, you might get by on an older computer or you might need some pretty serious processing power. You’ll also want a source of public domain photos or photos licensed under Creative Commons. It’s a raster graphics application rather like Photoshop or Paintshop Pro. And since the steps are fairly basic, with a little practice you’ll become adept at a task like this in very little time.įor that matter, if you survive this post to the end,įirst, you’ll need GIMP (or better, but GIMP is free). I believe that if you have a good sense of the general steps involved, the rest will become clear with a little practice.
There are plenty of tutorials out there for the software of your choice if you need assistance with using the specific tools that I mention along the way. To be fair, what follows is more conceptual than step by step.
But if you’re looking for a visual aid on your own screen or for a game table with built in TV, maybe this is simple enough to get you up and running pretty quickly. Well, this might not help with that if you need a physical map, because things still take some time to ship. DM Mapwiz! Halp! We have a game next week, our DM has the Mongolian BBQ revenge, and we’re counting on a one-shot in a particular setting. But you, even you, might get that 3 AM phone call. If you’re a wiz at some of the major map creating software out there, such as Inkarnate, Campaign Cartographer, or Worldographer, you may have zero need for this. Frosthollow Reach Even a mapmaking wizard needs something quick now and again