Hi mapmakers!

[Akarius]

Hi everyone,

I've been playing rpg (mostly d&d) since I'm 12 and I've created my own world since then. The world have evolved a lot but the original maps I drew are quite basic, quite good but not enough for me so I want to refresh/improve them a bit...or a lot, depending on the time I'll have to do it and the learning curve of the method I'll use.

I saw a lot of maps lately, a lot of awesome maps, made with different softwares or by hand and I wonder which way I need or want to go. That's why I'm here.

I'm 41 now, DM in a long going campaign of my own game system derived from pathfinder.
I'm a scientific programmer (python and .NET mainly) so I know a lot about computer...but not about photoshop or graphic editing software. I made few hex maps with hexGimp, edit some of my hand draw maps with either Gimp or Paint.Net but nothing else.

I alse watched some tutorials on youtube and other places and I know there're a lot of them here. I hope to find the time to read tuts here and also, and mainly, the time to practice my skill. One day perhaps, I'll be confident enough about my skill to contribute maps and advices.

Oh, I'm french canadian so if I make mistakes or typos, please be indulgent!

Thanks!

[arsheesh]

Welcome to the Guild Akarius! Well there is quite a bit you can do with GIMP alone (though having a vector program such as Inkscape is also really useful). Several members, including myself, work primarily with this software. There are also quite a few tutorials here written for GIMP (just check the tutorials section, and also checkout the "Tutorials in PDF format" sticky in that forum). So that's one hurdle down. Once you've explored some tutorials and are ready to begin, post up a WIP map page and ask for feedback. That way you can pick up new tips and tricks and make course adjustments to your map early on. Look forward to seeing you around.

Cheers,
-Arsheesh