The Unseen Servant forums

Does anyone use a mapping utility that can export so it can be linked here?

Funny enough, when I use to play on RPoL I used EXCEL. I forget how, but I know there's a grid format, and using that and "lock to grid" was helpful for mapping.
Now I draw it and just post the pictures or scans.

I'm sure someone will come in with a more hi-tech version. But this is how the low-tech social worker from Jersey does it!

I just discovered a site that lets you work out the map on their web page, then save it to your machine as a jpg, png, or pdf. So far I like it quite a bit.
http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/

There was another very simple one that I liked a lot, but have lost the link. Alethan may remember it, as he was using it for a while in the Greyhawk pbp I run.

Yep.

http://www.dungeonographer.com/

It's designed to be used by people to CREATE dungeons easily. I "reverse engineered" it (ummm... OK, I just bought a license) and tried using it to map our way.

It is a little clunky for on-the-fly mapping (like a party mapper might be) and you have to pay for a license to get most of the features. There were definitely some good aspects to it, but it also had some drawbacks. The learning curve is easy for the basic tools, but a bit steeper when it comes to the more complex things. I guess that's probably normal.

Generating the maps was a bit of a hassle, but the quality was good.

Unfortunately, I had the license on my PC at work. And I got a new PC a few months ago and hadn't done much mapping in a while so I totally forgot to pull the license info from the old PC... I'm not sure if I still have the license information or not. I might not.

I'm probably going to check out the link Migellito just provided and see if that could be useful, instead.

migellito wrote:I just discovered a site that lets you work out the map on their web page, then save it to your machine as a jpg, png, or pdf. So far I like it quite a bit.
http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/

I looked at this a little bit on my lunch break. I'm definitely going to give it a whirl some evening this week and see if it might work well for mapping...

Alethan wrote:

migellito wrote:I just discovered a site that lets you work out the map on their web page, then save it to your machine as a jpg, png, or pdf. So far I like it quite a bit.
http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/

I looked at this a little bit on my lunch break. I'm definitely going to give it a whirl some evening this week and see if it might work well for mapping...

Let us know what you think after you give it a test drive, Al.


I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to put my artwork & hand-drawn maps up when I get my PbP launched later this month. I am admittedly somewhat a "caveman" when it comes to being uber-proficient with computers, although I am a quick study and getting much better than I used to be!

Honestly, I've never used any of the online sites for posting photos/maps/anything, so I will probably be looking to get some help & advice from you fellas when it comes time to officially gain a proficiency slot in this stuff!

Argennian wrote:

Alethan wrote:

migellito wrote:I just discovered a site that lets you work out the map on their web page, then save it to your machine as a jpg, png, or pdf. So far I like it quite a bit.
http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/

I looked at this a little bit on my lunch break. I'm definitely going to give it a whirl some evening this week and see if it might work well for mapping...

Let us know what you think after you give it a test drive, Al.


I'm already trying to figure out how I'm going to put my artwork & hand-drawn maps up when I get my PbP launched later this month. I am admittedly somewhat a "caveman" when it comes to being uber-proficient with computers, although I am a quick study and getting much better than I used to be!

Honestly, I've never used any of the online sites for posting photos/maps/anything, so I will probably be looking to get some help & advice from you fellas when it comes time to officially gain a proficiency slot in this stuff!

Happy to do so, sir.

I use rptools' MapTool. It's a free app we use for our Fri night Skype game. I just draw the map and move tokens and take a screen shot. It's the fastest way I've found to create maps.

I've wanted to use maptool, but end up getting frustrated with it. Bhart, would you mind writing up a quick tutorial on how to manage simple maps, move tokens and export the result? I realize this might be asking a lot, so no worries if you don't have time... even a link to another tutorial?

Thanks in advance!

ToniXX wrote:I've wanted to use maptool, but end up getting frustrated with it. Bhart, would you mind writing up a quick tutorial on how to manage simple maps, move tokens and export the result? I realize this might be asking a lot, so no worries if you don't have time... even a link to another tutorial?

Thanks in advance!

I understand, it is not the easiest app to get started with. I dont have a lot of time but I'll see what I can do!

EDIT: ToniXX, where would I post something like that? Is here in this thread ok?

Stuart "OSRIC" Marshall (aka PapersAndPaychecks) used twiddla but I believe they just pasted an image of the map on the whiteboard there and then drew on it. When they were done, they'd take a PrintScreen snapshot of where they all were to use again next time.

Lately I've been using the image editing function in PowerPoint (always my go to) to post my maps.

Bhart wrote: EDIT: ToniXX, where would I post something like that? Is here in this thread ok?

Thanks, Bhart. You could start a new thread in the Tips for the DM section.

Until I have time to finish the primer on how I use MapTool for PBP games, here is a link that might help...
http://www.rptools.net/index.php?page=tutorials

Alethan wrote:Yep.

http://www.dungeonographer.com/

It's designed to be used by people to CREATE dungeons easily. I "reverse engineered" it (ummm... OK, I just bought a license) and tried using it to map our way.

It is a little clunky for on-the-fly mapping (like a party mapper might be) and you have to pay for a license to get most of the features. There were definitely some good aspects to it, but it also had some drawbacks. The learning curve is easy for the basic tools, but a bit steeper when it comes to the more complex things. I guess that's probably normal.

Generating the maps was a bit of a hassle, but the quality was good.

Unfortunately, I had the license on my PC at work. And I got a new PC a few months ago and hadn't done much mapping in a while so I totally forgot to pull the license info from the old PC... I'm not sure if I still have the license information or not. I might not.

I'm probably going to check out the link Migellito just provided and see if that could be useful, instead.

So I played around with this a bit (free version) and enjoyed it though a few things

1. Is it easy to make non-straight passageways & tunnels? I tested it out on the second level of the Moathouse from ToEE.

2. Printing seems odd. Doesn't print 100% how I want it to but I would have to "redraw" from what I have to place it better. Is there a way to just print a section out that mapped or the whole thing?

Anyway, I hope to play with it some more and see what I can do.