New to Map Making, please help

This might seem like a stupid question, but how do I know how big to make map? Like what size are some of the regular maps like from Curse of Strahd or Horde of the Dragon Queen? I do know that the pictures has to be 71 DPI or something. Sorry I'm really lost here. lol

It really depends on your game mechanics and play style.  If you're playing something like The Dresden Files, which uses "zones"  for range calculations and such, you don't really need too large of a map.  If you're playing DnD in a very tactical way, you can probably get away with something that's 50x50 units (250' by 250') most of the time.  My DM defaults to 100x100 units, but routinely scales up to 200x200 units (which is that largely has to do with my perchance for playing Warlocks with an Eldritch Blast range of 600'... =D ). If you're worried about performance, it's mainly the complexity of a map that leads to issues, not the physical size.

So I'm doing a D&D styled West Marches campaign, and we'd like to start producing our own maps. I was trying to find the size for maps we've played on in the modules like Curse of Strahd, Horde of the Dragon Queen, Lost Mines. But I can't find info on them. Now 100x100 units is what like 2000 x 2000 pixels?

A unit is 70 pixels.  But most map makers make their units 140 pixels.  That way the map still looks good when zoomed in to 200%.

it helps if you have access to a graphical resizing program, and yes, many map makers use a map that is 140 pixels per square.  I use zoom a lot, so I use relatively huge maps.  Figure the average character can move 30 feet per turn, dash up to 60 feet in total.  If your map is going to be 5 feet per square, you need an average distance of 6 to 12 spaces (if they are running in a straight line or fleeing or chasing.  So if you are running an open field chase scenario, mapped at 5 feet per square, and you want to use a tactical map, in detail, like with a drawn or purchased tileset, you need something like 50 X 50 Squares Scale (125' X 125') , for 4 turns of the fight. 30' - 60' feet per turn, maybe 4 turns or straight line dash.  Something smaller, you need smaller. If you are going old school with a hand-drawn map of a town, you can get away with lines and arrows, to show where PCs are, as long as you keep your relative distances clearly marked. If you are just going for flavor, whatever you have that players can see clearly, that is the key then, go for clean labels on buildings, etc.  Cover and concealment, elevations, potential barriers to movement or height changes, etc...  relatively obvious.

Three of Swords said: A unit is 70 pixels.  But most map makers make their units 140 pixels.  That way the map still looks good when zoomed in to 200%. So I'm pretty and not smart. When creating the image document where do I put these values? And how big to I make the overall canvass to work from? Like Height by Width

What software are you using to make your base map? Go to your server page [Launch Game] button on the left. After it loads, on the upper right of the main image window to the left of the chat.... Blue Background, White document icon. Mouseover shows "Page Toolbar" Clicking that drops down the Maps pages toolbar.    On the map page toolbar at the top, there is a settings  gear icon on the upper left of each map. Click that. You will get a page settings popup which shows page size, etc. FOR THAT SPECIFIC MAP and PAGE ONLY. Width by height, fog of war controls, etc. There is no standard, since the map can be zoomed dynamically.  it is a dance between clarity of view and overview scope of view. When I play my One Ring game, I have a huge map that I can zoom in to see individual roads through Mirkwood.  That map is used to track party progress.   I also have a battlemat with ranges. Close medium and long. I scaled it so that a character portrait fits into a square on a line for each range. Thus I can clearly see who is engaged at what range. Playing D&D 5e, I have maps scaled large and small.  It depends on how you want it to look, what you are doing with it. If you are a sketch artist, and doing a portrait, how big do you want it to be?  Some artists work on a single sheet of paper. Others use the wall of a building. It is that kind of situation.

Wiki. <a href="https://wiki.roll20.net/Building_a_dungeon" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.roll20.net/Building_a_dungeon</a> Map making Video. Lots of videos on Youtube. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RDZOY1H_us" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RDZOY1H_us</a>

The Aaron said: It really depends on your game mechanics and play style.&nbsp; If you're playing something like The Dresden Files, which uses "zones"&nbsp; for range calculations and such, you don't really need too large of a map.&nbsp; If you're playing DnD in a very tactical way, you can probably get away with something that's 50x50 units (250' by 250') most of the time.&nbsp; My DM defaults to 100x100 units, but routinely scales up to 200x200 units (which is that largely has to do with my perchance for playing Warlocks with an Eldritch Blast range of 600'... =D ). If you're worried about performance, it's mainly the complexity of a map that leads to issues, not the physical size. Mmmmm... and here I am wanting to put those bad boys on the back of nice fast mounts... nothing like a Warlock with a 600ft range and a movement speed of 50ft

BlazetheRoach said: Three of Swords said: A unit is 70 pixels.&nbsp; But most map makers make their units 140 pixels.&nbsp; That way the map still looks good when zoomed in to 200%. So I'm pretty and not smart. When creating the image document where do I put these values? And how big to I make the overall canvass to work from? Like Height by Width As someone who sells stuff on the Marketplace... I have stuck in my head that for Roll20, I make a map that is 5600px wide by 4200px tall. That will get you the equivalent of a 40" by 30" map. If you want to work in 'table inches', then just figure out the size in 'table inches' and multiply that by 140. 200ft by 200ft area? 40" by 40" which is 5600 by 5600px. 400ft by 300ft area? 80" by 60" which is 11200 by 8400px BUT... files can get big fast so you probably want to cut those big images into smaller ones before you save them. I find a JPG at about 70% quality compression for a 40" by 30" will come in at about 5Mb but rarely more than 10Mb which is the upload limits.

Andrew C said: Mmmmm... and here I am wanting to put those bad boys on the back of nice fast mounts... nothing like a Warlock with a 600ft range and a movement speed of 50ft That particular Warlock was carried around by a Shield Guardian for a long time... 60ft (w/dash) movement was great, not to mention that Dimension Door spell stored in it for quick escapes... =D Andrew C said: at about 5Mb but rarely more than 10Mb which is the upload limits. Just a reminder, 5Mmb is the limit for image size upload on free accounts.&nbsp; Plus and Pro subscribers get a bump to 10Mb.