I want to DM (But I need some help)

[Timothy]

A new question:

What is the best way to draw a map? (creamsteak?) I do not have many drawing programs on my computer and caanot handle them very good.

 

[Timothy]

By maps I mean two things:

Sketches done to show the battle situations and greater scale dungeons/forests/cities and the like.

 

[EvilMountainDew]

Could you tell me the starting gold?

 

[Creamsteak]

A new question:

What is the best way to draw a map? (creamsteak?) I do not have many drawing programs on my computer and caanot handle them very good.

Wow! What luck I drop by just "scanning" and find this. Do you have a spreadsheet program like excel? Do you have a paint program (preferably other than paintshop, but even paintshop works)?

Resize the cells in excel to a more square-like shape, go to format: color-fill on each section of map, and color it in right. Then highlight the whole thing and go to format-border-inside/outside and bang! Grid with color. Then highlight the whole part, open paitshop or whatever you have and press control-v. Perfect grid, in bmp form. Then, post it to the board as an attachment.

 

[Creamsteak]

By maps I mean two things:

Sketches done to show the battle situations and greater scale dungeons/forests/cities and the like.

Now this is slightly tougher. Battles are easy to do in excel, and quick, but to do maps of general regions, I recommend a fractal map generator... and some old higher-end editing software. I recieved a copy of this ancient MGI photosuit program from my uncle, and it works good for editing fractals. Just generate random fractals till you get a good one (let's say you need a coast, set the thing to 15% water and generate till you get the shape you want, it's a boring but ultimately rewarding process). Then, change the color scheme if necessary (like adding greenery to replace the brown sections, or finding that "perfect" shade of red for Mars). Once you have the ground layout, the rest is squares and circles, maybe a line or two for walls... and your done.

Now national boundries are more difficult... you need a certain weird cropping tool I have... otherwise your borders don't look "natural" enough... and in those cases it's just better to make big text to represent a nation.

If you need more exact advice... I might be able to help.

 

[Timothy]

Could you tell me the starting gold?

it's 49K. Further questions can be asked in the [GG] A game of gods thread.

 

[Timothy]

Wow! What luck I drop by just "scanning" and find this. Do you have a spreadsheet program like excel? Do you have a paint program (preferably other than paintshop, but even paintshop works)?

Resize the cells in excel to a more square-like shape, go to format: color-fill on each section of map, and color it in right. Then highlight the whole thing and go to format-border-inside/outside and bang! Grid with color. Then highlight the whole part, open paitshop or whatever you have and press control-v. Perfect grid, in bmp form. Then, post it to the board as an attachment.

Hmm, sounds easy, although I have to figure it out a bit, thx for your help, is it okay if I mail you about more map related questions?

 

[Timothy]

Simple question:

How to handle cohorts?

 

[Creamsteak]

Hmm, sounds easy, although I have to figure it out a bit, thx for your help, is it okay if I mail you about more map related questions?

Yeah, sure. I welcome emails...

How to handle cohorts?

Some DMs allow a second player to play the Cohort. I'm against this, as it adds more players to the mix, which can be tough on the DM. Just like you would in an RL game, let the player micro-manage his cohort.

 

[Timothy]

I don't have any questions right now, but I'm sur they spring up as soon as I need to make maps.