When I started playing TFT back in the 1970s, battle mats were as abstracted as a simple hex grid. The wet-erase mats that soon followed were a huge step in the right direction, and I didn’t try to improve on them until the Great COVID Madness forced my groups onto virtual tabletops (VTTs). My first maps made for Roll20, the VTT I use, were bad. Really bad. The one below used colors to denote levels of terrain from low (white) to high (rose), but made no attempt to depict the scene in anything approaching a naturalistic way.
Going Hand-made Old-School
It’s a good thing my game groups were also new to VTTs, and had pretty low expectations! Even so, it didn’t take me long to realize that this was unacceptable and embarrassing. With only a modicum of effort, a simple drawing could create a greater sense of immersion in The Fantasy Trip and GURPS games we were playing. Initially, my approach was steeped in old-school wargame and RPG approaches to depicting terrain. I could scan these drawings, add some color and shading in Photoshop, and upload to Roll20.
Working With Watercolors
Wanting a more varied palette, I dusted off my watercolor supplies to create some earth-toned images that could be used as the foundation upon which to build grassland maps.
By importing assets like tree and shrub counters (as seen above), and even combining elements from one watercolor with another (as as done for this next one of a river with a stone bridge) one background can yield multiple maps.
Pen and ink and watercolor offer superb graphic potential, but sometimes it is just easiest to realize something approximating one’s vision for a scene by cracking out the colored pencils, as was the case in this map featuring monumental heads carved out of granite cliffs. I would have liked more expressive graphic punch offered by deeper, inkier darks, but, if my player’s comments are accurate, the drawing definitely worked as an aid to inspirational immersion into the scene.
Speeding Thing Up
Drawing takes time, though, so I quicky hit upon another method. I created a Photoshop texture that applied the basketweave pattern I used in some of my pen drawings. This I can use as an entire fill layer and then erase areas to create labyrinths or caves. The easiest way to make regularly shaped rooms is to use the Draw Shape tool with the fill and border set to a bright color to indicate the footprint of whatever space you want to remove from the background, making all the shapes in a separate layer. Then, use the Magic Wand tool to select that color, change layers to the basketweave fill layer and hit Delete. Hide the layer with the colored shapes, and you should see their exact silhouettes deleted from the background layer. Irregular spaces can be made by simply using the Eraser tool set to an appropriate size and removing the basketweave texture. You can see these both regular and irregular areas removed from the texture layer in the sewer image below.
by erasing portions of the basketweave texture fill layer
shows the hand-drawn basketweave texture.
The map below also was made with this technique. I added a rough stone texture overlaid with some images of oriental carpets to imply stone floors with designs. The Drop Shadow effect adds a bit of three-dimensionality.
The next map also used the subtractive method of deleting rectilinear shape of the room from a basketweave texture layer. The floor tile design was made in photoshop from an image of a quilt, and the tapestries are simply png files made from images of oriental carpets distorted with the Perspective Warp in Photoshop.
The subtractive technique works well for underground spaces, but a different approach is needed for typical buildings. Thankfully, Photoshop offers an easy one. I just use the Line tool, setting the fill and border to the old-school basketweave texture, and with the line width set to an appropriate size. Lines can be moved and rotated in Photoshop with ease. Curvilinear walls can be made using the Elipse option of the Draw Shape tool. And, of course, less regular lines could also be drawn freehand using the Brush tool.
More Shortcuts with Found Resources
To make the house in the below pictures, I first opened my basketweave and grassy textures as fill layers in Photoshop. Next, I took an image of a blueprint found online and opened it as a new layer. Then, I used the Magic Wand tool to select the color of the walls in the blueprint, changed layers to the basketweave layer and hit Copy, which copied the basketweave texture into the selected shape of the blueprint walls. Next, I hid both the fill and blueprint layers and pasted the walls from my clipboard into a new layer. Then, I added the wood and stone floors from textures which I had previously imported as brush/layer textures. I used the Dodge tool to create the footpath worn around the building and exported the whole file as a jpeg. I finished off the map with tree png files I created from scans of my trusty old GURPS Battlegrounds counters.
Just as freely available architecture blueprints provide an excellent way to shave time from building maps, so do found photographs. The map below is one I created for a particular challenge for my players, and it is the only one I’ve ever made of vertical terrain. I needed something quickly and didn’t have time to draw anything, so I used Photoshop to elongate a found photo of a cliff bisected by a waterfall and to remove the blue sky.
What have I learned?
One: Drawing is the best way to develop ideas. Sketching lets the imagination run wild.
Two: Drawings and watercolors made by hand can be scanned and turned into digital assets that save time.
Three: Getting familiar with Photoshop’s capabilities unleashes creative potential. Learn to use layers, textures, effects tools, and filters to make the most of modest materials. Be prepared to watch tutorial videos.
Four: Although I never mentioned this above, but don’t worry about a square or hex grid when making map images. Instead, let the VTT add those. That way, the same map can be used for hex-based games like TFT or square-based ones like D&D.
Five: Build your own assets for Photoshop. Make your own textures of stone, water, grass, wood, stony soil, etc. Counters (sometimes called tokens) added in your VTT can quickly make one map serve admirably for radically different tactical backgrounds.
Six: Save your PSD files so that you can pick up where you left off to create new background images.
Parting Thoughts
Perhaps, over time, I’ll develop an actual style developed by the needs of the game and the potentials of VTTs and Photoshop, and which manifests a more mature aesthetic than do these experiments. But I’m not going to let worrying about that interfere with having fun, or delivering reasonably exciting maps for my players’ fun.
Let me know what you think of the maps I shared and feel free to pop me a picture of one of your own. And, if I’ve left out any details you’d find helpful, do be sure to tell me!
Some of the art here is copyrighted by Steve Jackson Games. All rights are reserved by SJ Games. This material is used here in accordance with the SJ Games online policy.
Musings from Myriangia 