[Award Winner ] Creating an old-school map in Gimp.

[torstan]

Ah, that's a great find! I'd never have gone looking for it there. Thanks for posting the solution.

[Goblin Witchlord]

Thanks so much for creating this! It is enormously helpful to those of us who are very new with these editors to create something simple and cool. Altho I wish I had seen claud9999's comment at the end before I had started.

Until I get more experience at this, I'm going to have to go through this step by step a few times. I put together a mini-checklist from the original tutorial to make sure I don't forget anything as I work on new maps.

I use GameMastery flip-mats for my RPGs, which are 24 squares wide and 30 squares high, which explains some of the dimensions.

[Goblin Witchlord]

1. Create a canvas using "File > New". Assuming you use 50px squares, a 1000x1000-pixel image will create a 20x20 square grid. A 1200x1500-pixel image will create a 24x30 (flip-mat-size) grid. Setting the image to 160dpi should enable an output PDF of the (flip-mat) map to have a half-inch margin.

2. "View > Show Grid". This displays the default grid.

3. "Image > Configure Grid". Set the grid spacing to 50 pixels.

4. In the Layers Palette, choose "Patterns > Grid 50x50 blue". On your canvas, go to "Select > All" and then "Edit > Fill with Pattern". (Or "Filters > Render > Pattern > Grid" with Width 1, Spacing 50, Offset 0).

5. "Edit > Preferences". Go to "Tool Options" and raise the "Snap distance"; 25 will make the brush always snap to an intersection.

6. "View > Snap to Grid" should be checked.

7. In the Layers Palette, hit the "New Layer" button. Give the layer a name (such as Walls), and select Transparency as the Layer Fill Type. Make sure the new layer is selected.

8. Double-click the foreground color in the Toolbox Palette. Enter "18769d" in the "HTML notation" field.

9. In the Layers Palette, click on "Brushes" and select the "Circle (01) (3 x 3)" brush. A 9px brush creates a more visible internal wall.

Drawing and Coloring Walls

10. Draw some walls.

11. In the Toolbox Palette, choose the Fuzzy Select Tool, and make sure that "Sample merged" is off. On the canvas, click the area to be colored as impassable. Go to "Select > Grow..." and grow the selection by 2 pixels.

12. "Edit > Fill with FG Color". Repeat 11 and 12 to color in all the walls.

Placing Doors and Other Elements

13. "File > Open" and choose "door.png". "Select > All". "Edit > Copy". Close "door.png" without saving.

14. On the canvas, choose "Edit > Paste". In the Toolbox Palette, click the Rectangle Select Tool. Move the door and anchor it.

[brianjpoole]

Thank you for this most awesome tutorial. A nice intro into GIMP as well. Now off to DL tiles.

[torstan]

Glad it was useful.

Thanks a lot GW for those checks and clarifications.

[claud9999]

Might want to update the original post so newbies won't have to read through the entire thread.

Also, note that the snap measurement is based on screen pixels, not image pixels, so if you're zoomed in (or out) from 100% the behavior gets a little more funky.

I figured out on my own how to generate textured versions, namely use the magic wand or select by color, expand the selection to completely cover the walls, then fill with the texture. Simple.

Lastly, I ran "Cuboi's House of Slime" this weekend at Conquest SF (great con!). In fact, I ran it twice, once for 2 hrs, once for ~5hrs. Both sessions went well. Attached is a variant of the original map that gives more space (and makes the gelatinous cube reasonable.) If folks are interested in a more complete campaign file, I'm happy to send it on. I am thinking of running a sequel adventure next year. Thanks again, Torstan, for such great graphics. We use them regularly in our Maptool-heavy campaign (our DM's moved to the mid-west and all our players are in California.)

[BlueDay]

Thanks so much! I used this on my first map and it helped so much!

[Zeupater]

Looks like a great method for making D&D-style maps, but unfortunately I can't seem to get GIMP to be installed correctly on my computer. It's having trouble with .FCW

[torstan]

.fcw? Is that a file format?

[Steel General]

.fcw? Is that a file format?

Yes it is for CC2 (not sure about 3)