D&D 5E Mapping Software Input [What's in your wallet?]

[Sword of Spirit]

Try http://www.hexographer.com/ (for overland maps) and http://www.dungeonographer.com/ (for buildings and cities). They're free, and you can get a feel for what the program is all about in half an hour.

They might not be anything like what you are looking for, but I figure it's a way easier place to start than the serious map-making tools that have been talked about so far.

 

[ExploderWizard]

I still hand draw maps because I find it fun. In late summer when all the big box stores have their back to school sales I pick up bunches of colored marker sets really cheap. Office supply stores have large pads of 1"x 1" graph paper. With pencils, straight edges, sharpies, and colored markers I can create a whole bunch of nice maps super cheap.

For custom maps that you want to re-use over and over, you can cheaply kind of laminate them using clear shelf paper. Then you can draw on your map with wet erase marker and wipe it clean with a damp towel. I protected some hex maps that I got with GURPS like that back in 1991 and they are still in good condition.

 

[Patrick McGill]

I really like inkarnate maps, and I was beta testing a hex map program made by Fantastic Maps on twitter and I really loved it.

 

[SkidAce]

Campaign Cartographer 3

 

[Draegn]

I use Chief Architect. You can get a free trial.

http://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/trial.html

 

[SkidAce]

Same program, different style...

 

[SkidAce]

I experimented with sketchup to build a model of the keep the players own.

 

[innerdude]

I'll share a couple of things I've done. Both of these were done with Serif DrawPlus + Photoshop.

 

[BoldItalic]

Another tack might be to google up pictures of castles, choose one you like, and show the picture to the player saying "This is what your castle looks like". Then let him make his own map of the room layout. He might enjoy that.

 

[MostlyDm]

The rabbit hole of mapping programs can consume a lot of time and money if you aren't careful. Very satisfying when you pull it off, but... Yeah. Intimidating.

I do a lot of pencil drawn simple maps just for basic info.

Most recent few maps I've made for a current campaign I actually did freehand in crayon, no take-backsies. That was a lot of fun!