Hi everyone!

[KillerK]

Greetings from the northern Rockies!

Basically, I've been DM'ing D&D games for a loooong time and have always enjoyed trying to make maps, whether of a dungeon or of a continent. (I find dungeon/castle floor plans to be the hardest and country maps the easiest, with above-ground natural-setting battle maps somewhere inbetween.) Since I'm poor I've only been using free things for the maps, from good old Paint (very hand for quick battle maps that don't require a lot of detail) to pyromancers.com for more detailed battle maps and inkarnate mapmaker for the latest country/continent maps. (I LOVE inkarnate and will be very sad when the day comes that I'll have to pay for it.)

My problem comes when trying to map cities/towns or built/manufactured dungeons/buildings. The latter mostly because I'm not an architect or an interior designer and the former because I don't have the time to painstakingly draw all the little buildings and roads in Paint and haven't yet found a free software that can help with that (that won't just completely randomize the city). I've seen a random city generator of which I can control a few measures but not exact placement of things.

Any ideas or suggestions for good programs or techniques for better RPG mapping are greatly appreciated!

[Chick]

Hello KillerK, Welcome to the Guild!

To get you started, there is a great tutorial in the sticky section of Tutorials, called
Quickstart Guide to Fantasy Mapping: http://www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.php?t=4276
that includes a lot of information about different software packages.

From what you have described, I'd suggest GIMP: https://www.gimp.org/downloads/
It's a poor man's version of photoshop (free) and has a lot of the capabilities you will need.

I'll look forward to seeing your first map posted here