Single maps or Tile Sets?

All you DMs and creators out there, I'm curious.  Do you prefer to use single maps or map tile sets for your adventures?  Why or why not?

I'd much prefer to find a large map that is close and then tweak it with Photoshop than build from scratch out of little pieces. But I thinks that's entirely a personal preference, due to my level of comfort with graphic editing, and general laziness.

I tend to like pre-constructed, furnished, ready-to-play maps. Not going to say "Single Maps" quite, per se, because I do like to use & abuse "Single Maps" treating them like tiles (putting 2, 4, 6, 8, or maximum 12, different maps all onto 1 Page and connect them with lines/teleports/roads or adjacency.  I don't want to construct 1 room or 1 level out of tiles, myself, very often, but I will make a 3-level dungeon out of 3 single-maps put together.

I use a mix.  I actually prefer things that are (at least to a certain extent) "build your own", because they are more reusable within a certain game.  One of my games is closing in on 2.5 years, and there is only so much you can do with flipping a map vertically or horizontally to keep it from being easily recognized.  I generally download everything and throw the parts together in GIMP to give me variations.  Or sometimes to build a digital version of a map I created on graph paper years ago...  Having a few pre-built maps along with the assets to assemble my own (or alter the pre-built) is what I tend to purchase.

I use a mix of ready maps and tilesets. Depending on available time and my mood i just drop in a complete map, compose it with tiles in Roll20 (for which i wrote an autosizer script solution <a href="https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/9707488/" rel="nofollow">https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/9707488/</a>) . compose downloaded tilesets in Inkscape; and - if needed - create custom tiles in GIMP. For example Gabriel Pickard has set with maps (city block), large tiles (rooms) and small fiddly assets (a skeleton); so i like to make a mix and match. adapt or create a larger map in GIMP use multiple external programs&nbsp; (FlowScape, WildShape, Illwinter Floorplan generator) to create either full maps or tiles. Most maps have been designed with estatics or genericity in mind and not environmental hazards for a specific encounters. Next to that, sometime i have a vision and an inspirational map... but that &lt;grmbl&gt; warehouse is too small...

I prefer maps that are pre-constructed, but if they have some features (like maybe a cave entrance, or a small ruin circle) I really like it when there is a png included that hides that feature (or adds the feature).&nbsp; This allows more versatility out of the same map because sometimes I don't want a ruin in the forest, but sometimes I do.&nbsp; I think in one of Gabriel Pickard's maps he has a map that you can add or remove a bridge over a river.&nbsp;

I use multiple full sized maps in one mega map format to represent larger regions. This way I don't have to jump the players from map to map as often and it creates a feeling of continuity when traversing from map to map... This is a bit intensive on people with low end PC but seems to work fine for my players. GM Kizz~

95% of the time i'll be using map tile sets to create my own maps, I can never find ones that just what I am looking for among the ready made options.&nbsp; Very occasionally I will use a ready made map that came with one of my tile packs particularly if for some reason I'm late preping a game, or just feeling lazy.&nbsp; I'm not good enough with art packages to adapt things in one of those but I can put tiles together on a Roll20 blank map.&nbsp; My only wish was that when people did walls and flooring on one set of tiles they would do a tile of just blank flooring so you could make a large room that matched the corridors.

Oenanthe said: 95% of the time i'll be using map tile sets to create my own maps, I can never find ones that just what I am looking for among the ready made options.&nbsp; Very occasionally I will use a ready made map that came with one of my tile packs particularly if for some reason I'm late preping a game, or just feeling lazy.&nbsp; I'm not good enough with art packages to adapt things in one of those but I can put tiles together on a Roll20 blank map.&nbsp; My only wish was that when people did walls and flooring on one set of tiles they would do a tile of just blank flooring so you could make a large room that matched the corridors. Heh. I tried to increase options to make bigger rooms on my first set by adding blank flooring and some tiles with only one or two walls so you can make bigger rooms. Figured versatility was probably the major selling point for most tile sets. I'm finding it interesting that more people prefer the completely premade maps, though.&nbsp; I think it might start doing more hybridized maps sets, with bigger tiles that can be used as maps in themselves, or that can be seamlessly joined together with other maps in the set.&nbsp; I tend to like versatility, but it can be a bit time consuming to build the map out of a bunch of little parts, especially since Roll20 hasn't yet created a way to auto-size the parts.

I personally prefer tiles sets, so I can make maps as close as possible to how I want them. However, that approach is more time-intensive and so I will use a pre-made map if I can find one that suits my purpose. But that's not often the case.

You should do what you most enjoy making and not what you think will sell most. There are people in the market for full maps, tile sets, and completely modular pieces.

Tiffany M. said: You should do what you most enjoy making and not what you think will sell most. There are people in the market for full maps, tile sets, and completely modular pieces. Well, I asked more for the fact that I've been going around in circles on my next set because I started it modular but didn't like how it was going, restarted it as a full map, didn't like it too much either, and restarted it again modular, didn't like that, and am finally likely to go with my current larger map because it's looking better.&nbsp; Now I've got a layout I like, I'll probably go through just as many iterations on the decor before I'm done.