# Mapmaking Discussion & Philosophy (WIP/Critique) > Virtual Tabletop/Battlemap Mapping >  A Collection of Swamp Maps for my D&D adventure

## Hussar

Well, I've finally started to create maps, so I figured I'd share my first attempts.  These maps were built with MapX and Gimp, using Istarlom's tutorial Found here.  I varied things up a bit, obviously, since these are overland maps, but, the basics work surprisingly similar.  

Note, these are fairly complicated maps, many of which have four or five different terrain types.  I'll post a key in a second.

Also note, these are all meant to be used in Maptools, so, I've kept them all at around 250 k.  I find that anything bigger than that tends to be laggy.

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## tilt

congrats on your first maps ... they do make me ponder though - why the square terrains? for a more natural look you should go with free flowing form but this might fit your campaign in which case go with the non-flow  :Wink: 
The borders to the water are very dominating - I'd tone those way down.   :Smile:

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## simpfan1

I like the tiled look
but I agree with tilt, the borders are a bit much

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## Hussar

Thanks for the input.

Yeah, I can see where the borders are too dominating.  Maybe cutting them in half would make them look better, or perhaps blurring the edges.  Was using a tutorial that was for creating walls in a dungeon to make the water borders, so, that's why they're so thick.

I do actually like the tiled look.  This is meant as a combat map, so function is my first priority.  That means that each tile should be a fairly complete square to avoid the half and half issue for terrain effects.  More "board gamey" look, but, for what it's worth, more precise and easier to use.

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## tilt

I agree with "the ease of use" when you use tiles to describe terrain. Another option could be to use a mark in the corner of the tiles - D&D use a small triangle to denote "difficult terrain", then its easy for players to see where to go (or not go) when they move  :Smile:

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## Hussar

Yeah, tried a couple of new ones.  Lost my original tiles when my computer went kerblooie this week.  Teach me to not back stuff up.   :Smile: 

Anway, left off the shadow around the shorelines.  Still futzing about with what texture to use for shorelines, but, I like the results of these two better:

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## tilt

much better.. perhaps you should go back to a brownish shoreline though - or make the water greener...   :Smile:

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## rdanhenry

Actually, I liked the original bold borders on the water better than I like the combination of textures and tiles. It looks like linoleum. Basically, the textures say "photorealistic map" while the tiling says "abstract map". If the textures were replaced with something more abstract, I think it would look better. Tiles of plain color, with perhaps a simple symbol, would fit the grid-of-tiles approach better IMO.

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## Hussar

On the plus side, Kobold Quarterly has This thread on terrain for 4e that is going to fit in with this perfectly.

Tilt - yeah, totally agree.  The light border just washes out.  Making the border darker is the next attempt I think.  

rdanhenry - heh.  I can see the linoleum.  Not sure if I want to go abstract though.  I like the photo realistic.  The tiles are there because these are combat maps.  It makes life so much easier when the tiles are easily visible.

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