Question! Average cost of a map?
I've been thinking about outsourcing some of my map work for my campaigns for the sake of saving time, but I'm unsure what the average price people general charge for paid work. The general guidelines I'm wondering for are a world map, professional(ish?) quality, personal use in a private game with modify rights to add landmarks. I'm also wondering for a basic qaulity dungeon map without any objects. Just various rooms, passageways, doors(hidden doors labeled differently) on a grid. Maybe a very basic background to give the impression of the type of environment. Probably a dumb question, but most of the posts I've checked don't list a price so I can't get a real, at least semi-accurate average.
Prices vary according to a lot of factors. A better way to find this out would be to post your actual requirements in the Mapmaking Requests thread, including your sketch map and your email. Then the people who might be interested can send you samples, price offers, and ideas. Posting there does not commit you to purchasing a map, but the "How to request..." does have a good list of what someone would need to know in order to give you a quote.
I appreciate the input, but if I were looking for work, I'd be a bit disappointed if someone was only pricing in an area for commissioning. Just feels... Rude I guess? I'm not actually looking to commission at the moment, just considering for future work. I have a habit of running multiple weekly campaigns plus the occasional one shots, so it adds up to a lot of work. I'm only running one at the moment though, so I'm not interested in getting help quite yet.Originally Posted by chick
What Cornelia said. As a basic guideline, these may be some factors that play into the price of a map and are important for a cartographer to know: black & white or colored, desired size and resolution, preferred style (nice if you could link to some/an example(s)), wether you want custom symbols for the map (for locations etc.)...I doubt you'll get people to post openly in a thread "I charge X for Y", as the effort involved in every map project is different; the time cartographers have at their hands is different; the skills are different. That's why there's no real "average cost".
Last edited by Wired; 04-15-2015 at 07:32 AM.
Short of posting a thread over in Map Requests, why not give further details here? Include a couple of style examples for the general quality and detail level you're hoping for, or would settle for, and just ask interested parties to contact you with estimates. We'll know that you aren't looking to commission anything right now, or maybe ever, but if you do find an artist or two you'd like to work with down the road then it's not completely without incentive.
Plus, for those just starting down the path of freelance mapping, the act of putting together an estimate for a project they're interested in can be useful experience. ...And, not that you need to but, if you're uncomfortable asking people to spend time to send you estimates for nothing, you could offer some small amount of feedback as to how you received their estimate, exchanging info for info.
I appreciate everyone's posts and responses to my topic here. It shows what a great community this is, but this suggestion is absolutely brilliant. I'm definitely gonna set something like this up in the near future and thank you so much for the idea. <3
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