If you create your own maps digitally, what do you use as map-making software?
Personally, I am fond of Inkscape, as it gives me maximum flexibility and the vector-based approach is great for scaling and rotating things.
Honorable mention for small village photos and maps: Tiny Glade.
Pencil and paper.
Inkscape enjoyer here. The vector based tech makes it not that limited to my skill at drawing but rather how I can manipulate the vectors and points. Make things thinner or wider, change a curvature etc. And nothing is set in stone. I’m using it for everything. World maps, region maps, settlements, dungeons. You name it. For dungeons (and inside locations) I gathered all my most used assets to save time.
Yeah, it has something of a learning curve, but it is flexible in a way that few other tools can match.
I use inkscape for overland maps. I use Watabou Medieval City generator for city maps. I use Dungeon Alchemist for dungeon/indoor battlemaps.
Tiled. You can even cut up (in Gimp) a bunch of other maps and create your own tilesets. So now I have a bunch of them, one with most often used rooms, one with basic walls, one with security measures etc
I’ve been using Wonderdraft. It’s resource heavy for my little laptop, but it’s easy to use.
Inkarnate works great and has a lot of usable styles and assets.
Wonderdraft
I use Gimp and just hand-draw everything. I’ve learned that players don’t really care too much about maps, so going above and beyond with high quality, ultra detailed stuff is wasted effort unless you derive joy from the creation process.
I settled on Campaign Cartographer 3+.
It has a steep learning curve, but seems to be the most powerful tool by far.
The Photoshop of map makers; Amazing if you know how to use it, but absolutely useless if you don’t.
