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    Canonfire :: View topic - Mapping & Game Tools 101
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    Mapping & Game Tools 101
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    CF Admin

    Joined: Oct 14, 2003
    Posts: 586
    From: Rel Astra

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    Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:28 am  
    Mapping & Game Tools 101

    Ok, let's teach eachother some tricks!

    I have a little trick I use to map dungeons and buildings...

    Lemme start off by saying, I'm horrible at hand drawing anything and what I'm about to go over is a method to increase the quality of a map you'd normally just draw on graph paper. However, for establishments or dungeons that have a more permanent place in your campaign, this is deffinately the way to go.


    1. I scoured the internet for some graph paper in pdf form (was really easy to find).

    2. In adobe (the free viewer) there is a "Snapshot" feature as indicated by the camera icon on the top toolbar. You can use this to select any area of any given page to copy to your clipboard. So, I copied the graphpaper and pasted it into MS Paint... and just like that, I now have a .jpg of graph paper.

    3. Once you have that established, never alter the base file so you can re-use your digital graph paper over and over.

    4. Now, I open up the graphpaper in MS Photodraw (you can use just about any progam that allows you to draw lines, even MS Paint) and draw lines and other shapes that represent tables, beds, bars, doors, etc etc... Also, you can add in arrows and text!

    5. Whip you up a nice map and you're good to go.

    Once I get home perhaps I'll post an image of a map I've done as an example. I usually add a nice header text of the name of the building or dungeon I've mapped as well as an image to add flavor. For instance, last night I mapped R13 of the Free city of Greyhawk which is the Silver Garter and I added an image of a brothel worker on a bed.
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    Last edited by abysslin on Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:57 am; edited 1 time in total
    CF Admin

    Joined: Oct 14, 2003
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    From: Rel Astra

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    Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:56 am  

    I've also done the above to make a base board for naval combat.

    I found a .jpg of water texture and pasted it into MS Word. Then I resized it to maximum page size. I then pasted a hex grid (using a pdf off .750 verticle hex paper made into a jpeg by using the method in the above post) and in the image toolbar there is a "choose transparent color" button, which can use to make the white part of the hexpaper 100% transparent allowing the water texture to show through.

    I made and printed out 6 sheets and cut around the edges of the hexes and taped them together. Just make sure you align the verticle hexes together properly! (Rather than setting a hex set verticle against one set horizontal.)

    You can also use this method with a grass texture and cut out odd types of shapes to place over your water board to represent islands and such to better enhance the strategy behind your naval combats.

    Then I made some little ship thingies...

    I took a jpg of a ship (a galleon in this case) and used the flip feature of my MS Photodraw program to flip the image.

    Now, what you'll want to do is this...

    Open MS word and insert the flipped image, butted right up to the top of the non-flipped image (this is so you will end up with a 2 sided piece with both sides having the front facing the same direction!) Then you'll want to use MS Word shapes to place a square around the 2 images that leaves a decent length from the top and bottom of the respective images to the outsides of the top and bottom of the square, but leave no room on the left and right sides. (Note: I was able to get a pretty decent amount of these on 1 page)

    Print and cut out along the edges of the square you inserted. Then fold it in half where the 2 ship images meet eachother so that the 2 ends touch eachother. Then you fold where the boat image meets the square blank spot out at a 90 degree angle (out) on both sides. When you're done, you should end up with an upside down 'T' shape. I then taped the bottom together and BAM! I had ships for my little water textured hex war-board.

    If I could draw, I would upload a file with these ships, (I'm sure it is hard to understand what i'm talking about without seeing it) but as it stands I am using images that don't belong to me for my personal made home gaming stuff...
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    CF Admin

    Joined: Oct 14, 2003
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    From: Rel Astra

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    Thu Dec 09, 2004 7:04 am  

    This is an example of what I came up with using the 1st set of instructions. I'm unhappy with the lay-out and am going to end up redoing the Pit, but I just wanted to get something up here showing what you can throw together in a matter of 5 minutes...

    The Pit

    I linked it rather than displaying the image directly, as it is somewhat large and expands the forum width, which I do not like.
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    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Jul 13, 2002
    Posts: 1077
    From: Orlane, Gran March

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    Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:22 am  
    Naval Combat

    For those interested there are some freeware ship templates at Mongoose for both human and goblin ships, they should work well with Abyss' system.

    http://www.mongoosepublishing.com/home/detail.php?qsID=345&qsSeries=14
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Aug 02, 2004
    Posts: 36
    From: New Orleans, LA

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    Thu Dec 09, 2004 3:14 pm  

    I like the Pit. A Sports Bar. Wow. Happy

    I find it easy to do Player handout maps on standard graph paper, then go to Kinkos and have them scan it into a PDF. All of the little blue lines disappear, making for PC uncertainty about scale and accuracy.
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