I have been working on building my own world, likely for 5e. I started working on the physical world and have been doing little snipets of land that I can later resize, and move around the final map until I am happy with it. I thought I could upload my own maps into inkarnate but I see no such option.
Are there any map editors that will let me do this? Even if it is just as a background bit that I can trace over. I have been using old topography maps of the area around my hometown and other places I have lived and am really liking the land masses I have and would rather not have to try and recreate them.
I am using a Mac, so I would prefer web based since most things do not get a mac release.
If you don’t mind killing flies with a sledgehammer (massive overkill), you can search for lots of tutorials for using QGIS to create fantasy maps. This is a free, open-source mapping package that is capable of just about any style or mapping need imaginable. You can totally go down a rabbit hole and have databases linked to your map with loot tables, back stories, etc…
It looks like wonderdraft has that functionality. Tutorial.
Its a one time purchase as well.
It is windows and Linux only, I am on a Mac. I have been browsing their discord messages got a week or so and it appears buying a pc is the most common solution to getting it to run on Mac.
That’s a shame, their main webpage says it runs on macos.
When I look at requirements it only shows windows and Linux. But I do now see that it says macOS under the map header above the YouTube video. I will ask the discord again.
I’ve been using Campaign Cartographer 3+ for a few years now. It does support image backgrounds (and depending on your image it might even trace it for you)… … but I should say that it does have a somewhat steep learning curve. It’s more a CAD tool than a drawing tool.
You will most likely need to read the tutorials and maybe watch a few videos to be comfortable with it. Luckily, there’s lots of videos and a forum with tons of friendly people.
It’s not cheap but it just so happens that there’s a Humble Bundle ongoing for the next 5 days:
https://www.humblebundle.com/software/maps-extravaganza-revisited-software
You’d have to go for the highest tier to get the base program.
CC3+ runs on any modern PC with Microsoft Windows 10, 8 (and 8.1), Windows 7, Vista, XP or 2000.
That rules out that one.
Mac? Linux?
It runs decently under wine on Linux, but I’ve heard Mac users struggle.
But yeah, I get it.
Mac, yes. Looking for something web based if not a Mac package.
It lets you import base maps and create stylized overlays, with artifacts like terrain symbols, map legends, and icon sets (extra cost for some of those). You can even draw line routes on top.
The import process is a bit wonky. Not sure you can bring in multiple backgrounds, copy/paste is a bit random, and it’s a bit fiddly about file formats. It also sometimes would crash so important to save often, but the output is really nice. Also has a Mac version.
You can do that in inkarnate but only with the subscription. Uploading as a stamp would probably be the best way because then you could move and size like you want, plus you could tweak the opacity to trace over it more easily.
Thanks. That is good to know. I wish it had a purchase option instead of a subscription as I have no idea when I will get to work on this again.
