There is movement, and then there is movement. This is but a ripple. The here and now cares little if it was from great things long past or small things recent.

You are now here.

Site best viewed by anything but Internet Explorer

This bit is really only here to balance out the page visually. I imagine I'll put one of those automatically rotating quotes thingers here eventually if I can't find better use of the space. It'll be totally cool, like you know;

Through war we are strengthened. War brings glory, honor, and singular purpose to a nation like none other. The merciless extermination of those incapable of defending themselves then is not an obscenity, but a moral imperative.

Introduction:

OpenRPG is a sort of chat program with added functionality designed for Pen and Paper roleplayers in mind. It's filled with features I consider superflous, but what it does do magnificantly is allow you to toss up an image and slap a grid on it to simulate a map, and players can upload images to use as a miniature representing their characters. It's certainly helpful for combat heavy systems such as D&D where relative character positioning is central to combat, but I find that maps are useful first and foremost as a tool for immersion.

I've been asked a few times how I make the maps I do, and for the most part the only thing that occurs to me to say is "uhh... in photoshop!". Unfortunatly I've noticed that this answer tends to discourage people who have little or no experience in either photoshop or photo editing programs in general, which is a shame because what I do is easy enough for most if shown how. There's certainly a lot of programs out there that automate map creation, whether for a dungeon or a geographical map, but for the most part I've found them lacking and constricting, my imagination always demanding more than the program could accomodate. It was only when I stopped trying to find a program to make maps for me and went the entirely manual route with photosop that I was able to create a map that I considered adequate.

This section is a documentation of my photoshop techniques to create maps for those who have little or no experience with photo editing themselves. I'm certainly no expert myself; the highest praise I've ever gotten out of someone who does this stuff professionally was (literally)"ehh, not bad." What I do create, however, is passable, and allows me the flexibility most programs don't provide.

Section Contents: