Tutorial: Make your own RPG maps in Photoshop fast!

If you’re like me, you’re usually prepping your RPG stuff the night before, and a detailed map is the last thing you have time for. Sure, you could make a sketch on a piece of paper, but that’s so… 90s. With just half an hour and some Photoshop software, you can create a really nice map that’ll help your characters get into a critical scene.

If you do it right, you can even place your characters on a map and move them around. Miniatures — who needs ‘em!

I’ll walk you through the basics, and give you some nice finishing touches that’ll give your map a pro-grade look, even if you’re in a hurry.

Some pre-notes: This assumes you know a teeny-tiny bit about Photoshop. If you don’t, no worries — give it a shot, and drop me a note if you need help.

1. Get yourself some great base materials.

You could make them on your own, but why bother? RPGMapshare.com has an unbelievable community and is a resource for time- and cash-strapped GMs like me. Building yourself a good library of these fantastic images will really be a boon in your mapbuilding, and the high standards and transparent nature of the images will do right by you.

2. Start a new file, and set some parameters.

I like to build my maps bigger than I need them, just because it’s fun to zoom in and see some nice detail, should your players need it. If you’re going for a screen presentation, 2000 pixels wide should do you. For print, you’ll want to at least double that. So, APPLE N and let’s begin!

3. Set a tile pattern for your backplane.

Whether it’s grass, rocks or steel, you’ll need a good base tile. To save yourself the hassle of a lot of copying and pasting, we’re going to define a pattern. To do that, select the area you want to define with the Marquee tool. Then, go to EDIT … DEFINE PATTERN and hit OK (give it a name if you like).

4. Fill with your background pattern

Create a new layer. (Create a new layer for basically everything you do; we’ll consolidate later.) Then go to EDIT … FILL. Then click on the CUSTOM PATTERN option, and you should see your pattern listed. Click OK, and you’re in business.

5. Build some walls.

Time to put up some superstructure. First, create a new layer.

Now draw out your walls in any way you choose. You can do that using the marquee tool and fill command (CMD + DELETE). When you’re through, give them a little of depth by using the LAYER … LAYER EFFECTS … DROP SHADOW command. Don’t worry about creating openings for doors — just fill in everything, and we’ll carve those out later.

Note: As you’re building your map, make sure that things are a) logical and b) fun. Don’t make a map that doesn’t make any sense. If you’ve got an outpost, people should have a place to eat. What’s the purpose for the outpost? If it’s a recon station, make sure there’s a technical room somewhere. Also, make sure your map is fun. I always like to put a few extra gameplay possibilities in for varied players (a clever back door, a good way to sneak through something, a guard station to bribe somebody at, etc.).

6. Lay down some floor.

Find a good floor tile, define it as a pattern (repeating Step 3 above). Then create a new layer, and fill the whole layer with your pattern, just like Step 4.

Now, your document should have three layers. The ground/backplane, the walls, and the floor. We need to make sure they’re in the right order: The backplane in back, the floor in the middle, and the walls on top. Use your layer palette to drag them around until they’re in that order.

7. Trim the floor to be within the walls.

Now hack away at the extra floor using the MARQUEE TOOL and DELETE key; if you’re doing things right, the ground should be showing through.

8. Don’t forget the doors.

…you’d be surprised how many people do. To create doors, I usually go and marquee a bunch of sections of wall and hit CMD SHIFT J to break them onto their own layer. Once there, I make sure that transparency is checked in the layer options, and then I fill them with a separate color.

OK. That’s going to wrap up Part I. You should have a basic, functional, if really dull, map. In Part II, we’re going to juice it up with furniture and a little lighting. We’ll probably also retcon some interesting things in there, just because everyone else does these days.