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Thread: Looking for Battlemap making tips

  1. #1
    Guild Apprentice
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    Jul 2007
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    Help Looking for Battlemap making tips

    Greetings everyone from the CBG. I recently moved away from my gaming group, so I've been using Roll20 to play with my friends. As I'm the DM, it's fallen on my shoulders to create my game. This means I've been searching high and low for maps to use as battlemaps.

    I've been able to find a lot for my current campaign, but I'm getting a little ambitious for my next game. My next game is going to take place entirely in the Nine Hells, with the characters descending ever lower as they progress on their quest for vengeance. Surprisingly, googling "battlemap" and "Hell" isn't really giving me much in the way of useful hits.

    But I'm willing to learn. My first thought is to just do some simple line art maps in GIMP, but I already know they're going to look ugly. Really ugly. I came here hoping to find some tutorials, but my poor Google-fu skills have shown themselves again. I was considering plunking down some money for dunjini, but it looks like there isn't a Linux version and that's all I have to operate with right now.

    Anyone have any recommendations on how to get started? I was playing with http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/ briefly, but it doesn't seem to have the textures I'm going to need. I'd love some tips on doing simple line maps (like the kinds I'd just draw out on a battlemap in person) and tips on working my way up to full fledged artistic battlemaps.

    Thanks all!

  2. #2
    Guild Member Facebook Connected Romeinoneday's Avatar
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    It's still a bit like Pyromancers, but sometimes I use http://www.stonesword.com/dungeonmaker.php to make battle mats or just workshop an idea. It's much smaller but I kind of like the tiles.

  3. #3
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    Interesting, thanks. It's got some nice looking tiles, but they don't tile as well. No grass? I suppose there won't be much grass in hell.

  4. #4
    Guild Artisan madcowchef's Avatar
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    I did a tutorial here that is one place to start, but might be beyond your needs. I have some free hellscapes you could fit together into a more sizable map here.

  5. #5
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    madcowchef, that's basically exactly what I've been looking for; the tutorial that is.

    Your hell tiles are great. With a basic brown one (no lava river), I could probably throw together some basic things if I find creating my own to be too much of a hastle.

    I'll play around with your tutorial some this week. For now, I took a stab myself. It's pretty flat atm, maybe people have suggestions to doll it up? The blackish-green section down at the bottom is supposed to be The River Styx, and the red is a stream of blood, one of many that dot cross the landscape, flowing into the river. The landscape is supposed to be rubble strewn, so I tried out a mosaic that got me a decent looking effect; it would probably be very good for making a parched river or lake bed.

    How can I doll this up? How can I make the stream look like blood and the river look like brackish water?

    I may ultimately go for just black and white line drawings, but if I can manage color I'd love to do it. I just have to keep reminding myself that no one achieves right away.

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