Making realistic-looking maps

Cafe Society
1

For my next role playing scenario, I need to produce a map over a fictional part of London’s East End. I could just pop it out on pencil and paper, but I would like to enhance realism by making it look like a city map that could conceivably have been drawn in 1887, the time period of the scenario. I am about as great an artist as a cluster of colourblind hedgehogs in a bag, so anything that requires any actual, you know, talent on my part is right out.

Is there some kind of software that can help me accomplish this? Any other methods?

2

Try this.

Maybe you could try going to the main branch of your local library or university and asking about historical references?

Also, you should see if you can find Chaosium’s Cthulhu By Gaslight (assuming that isn’t what you’re already using).

Stranger

3

Those look very much like what I hope to achieve (especially this one), but they don’t help me make ones of my own.

4

I’m a cartographer, though I’ve never done maps like that. You could find some sort of CAD program, which is what the Government uses, find something that you like and do a trace of it. Something like the one you linked to, minus the stuff on the sides, could be done in a couple of hours, maybe less. I know there are map programs for role playing games, but I’ve never used any, and the ones I have seen don’t look much like the one you want. Doing something like that by hand, while that’s what they did, wouldn’t be much fun, and the coloring would be a pain.

I’d say find a free or cheap CAD program, find some sort of map of the London area you want and trace it. I wish I had the stuff we use at work at home and I could probably crank one out for you no problem. But I’m sure you could figure one out pretty quick.

5

Thanks, I’ll look for a CAD program. Would it be difficult for a nonartist to create a map over a fictional city area with such a program, ie with no “original” to trace?

6

I’ve been using AutoRealm lately; it’s a free, open-source mapping program designed specifically for gamers. It is bit quirky here and there though.

I’ve heard that Campaign Cartographer is another good program, but it’s a commercial product and the cost of it and it’s add-on packs is a bit more than I wanted to spend.

7

I hate you. I have to go to bed, and you give me this wonderful toy.

8

I would say probably as it would be hard for me to make something from nothing. I would, if you go this route, take a jpeg and trace parts of it, then change it to how you want. This way it will look a lot more relalistic.

I haven’t looked at the program listed above, but I will and see what I think.

9

Mark another vote for Autorealm. Campaign Cartographer is pretty good too, but just as quirky and way more expensive. I haven’t played with the add-ons, but City Designer looks like it might fit the bill.

The thing is, the type of map you want to make is almost easier to do with pencil than with CAD. The problem is with keeping the width of the streets more or less constant, like in 18th century London.

You may not want constant-width streets anyway. Most pre-industrial cities had no real standard, just “make it wide enough for traffic”, which could be a single wagon or a flood of people. If this is the case, then you could do very well with CAD. Start out by drawing simple construction lines for the streets first, then drawing rough poly-lines for the blocks. Don’t get too fussy about the boundries, these are just areas representing groups of buildings. On top of the poly-lines, start drawing rotated rectangles for buildings, keeping a side of the rectangle lined up with an edge of the poly-line. Don’t worry about getting it accurate, just eyeball it and call it good.

The really nice thing about CAD is that you can always go back and make changes without upsetting the whole map. Another great feature to learn early is the concept of layers - I’d make the street sketch lines in one layer, then the poly-lines in another, the buildings in another, the city walls in another, etc. Then you can hide the layers with construction lines, which really cleans up the map’s appearance.

Lastly, consider the final application. An RPG game doesn’t need a really great map, it just needs a really good description with a passable map. Spend more time on the area’s backstory and names and NPCs and so on, and put as little energy as possible into the map itself. People have been making do with simple sketches of maps for a long time, because it’s the telling of the story and the interaction of the players that really counts. (IMHO)

p.s. - while it doesn’t help you in this specific situation, here’s a couple of fantasy map URLs I really like:

Fantasy Mapmaking 101

The Fictional Road Maps of Adrian Leskiw

10

:smack:

19th century London had some standards about their streets.

Anyway, most of the rest of what I said should hold water. :slight_smile:

11

Campaign Cartographer is a great mapping program. I have been using it since it originally came out, when it was basically a CAD program with a few things disabled and added symbols. They have recently released CC3, which has a much more user friendly interface and many more capabilities. City Designer has not yet been upgraded to work with CC3 :frowning: but they are working on it.

The current version, that works with CC2Pro, is very useful for creating cities and city sections. I am far from an expert with it, but it is still possible to get very nicely done maps. The CC2Pro edition of CC is much easier to use than version 1, but not as easy as CC3.

A very good program, with excellent support. I have found it worth the price, despite the fact I have cut back on role-playing in recent years.