Draw Great Maps With Wonderdraft

Patreon: https://patreon.com/user?u=53475063 I begin my series on the Wonderdraft mapping software program. I like Wonderdraft because it's a one time purchase of thirty dollars, the company updates it fairly often, there are lots of third party assets available for minimum cost and it has enough features to create some great fantasy maps for your homebrewed world. In this video I concentrate on thinking about the scale of your world map. I often go wild creating elaborate continents when using computer software, drawing whatever comes to mind before realizing that the scale of my map isn't conducive to charting players across my world. Even if you're running the players in a "theater of the mind" setting where they don't need a map, as a GM you like to know how far they've moved each day. Hence I put a hex grid on my maps to chart this movement, but when the scale is too large these hexes can be unworkable. But if you enlarge a map either the pixel size can become a burden or you only have a small part of your world. I begin by showing some basics on setting up a 1920 x 1280 pixel map, then demonstrate how to create land masses quickly and with realistic detail. After quickly creating a series of land masses and islands, I note that nothing about this map tells us whether it's on a scale of England or the whole of Europe. I then use the trace feature in Wonderdraft to demonstrate how you can take a land mass you know, in this case the British Isles, to get a sense of scale for your own world. After recreating this map from an existing png file I scaled to 1920 x 1080, I show how the hex map is too large for effective movement/time tracking. So I use the "Create Detail Map" feature in Wonderdraft to create a large scale version of the map that has five mile hexes that are conducive to game play. And a shout out to viewer Dave Biswas for pointing out that Great Britain includes Wales! Check out my podcast with Daniel Norton of @BanditsKeep. We talk about D&D and being a GM and a whole lot more. Monsters and Treasure Podcast Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/monsters-and-treasure/id1659703332 Anchor: https://anchor.fm/monsters-and-treasure Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5ATvkJKJVWgvlqQ1ZKbrd7 Here are some of the products you can use to start playing D&D and create your own homebrewed campaign. Player's Handbook 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link: https://amzn.to/43xZaiU Monster Manual 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link: https://amzn.to/3zTjr55 Dungeon Master's Guide 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link: https://amzn.to/3o9OOpn Tasha's Cauldron of Everything https://amzn.to/3zX5i6Y Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse 5e https://amzn.to/3zTjWft Fizban's Treasury of Dragons 5e https://amzn.to/3Uxfaxu Xanathar's Guide To Everything 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link: https://amzn.to/3KrKJEs Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link: https://amzn.to/3mtGsZf Volo's Guide To Monsters 5e, Amazon Affiliate Website Link: https://amzn.to/3MBpNgZ Dungeons and Dragons 5e Core Rulebooks Gift Set, Amazon Affiliate Website Link: https://amzn.to/3oeOu8Y Sword Coast Adventuring Guide, Amazon Affiliate Website Link: https://amzn.to/4085L0K