Updated Review: Cartograph Mapping Software from Digital Alchemy
Update: This is version 2.0 of my “Cartograph Mapping Software” review. The version I originally reviewed was an older demo that lacked documentation. “Digital Alchemy” kindly provided a full version, free of charge, for this review.
Full Disclosure: The software was provided free of charge for this review. I do not receive any benefit from any clicks or sales resulting from this review.
I have the artistic skill of an arthritic monkey. I cannot draw, sketch or otherwise create anything other than a stick figure. I have often sought a method to create better maps, both for my published materials and for home games. There are plenty of options out there, notably Dundjinni, but I have not been willing to put out the money. While checking out rpgnow.com, I came up on a cheaper mapping package called “Cartograph” by Digital Alchemy. Priced at a reasonable $19.95, I thought I would check it out.
The Upfront Review:
Powerful and simple to use, this reasonably priced software is a good choice for your mapping applications.
The software comes in a Windows version only. As a Mac user, I used a “Windows XP” partition to run the software. It was very zippy and did not lag, even when dealing with a large map.
I unzipped the install package and ran the installation. Here is the initial screen.
There is a brief, but informative “help” file that defines each of the icons usage. I read through it and got started.
The icons along the left-side ( there are far more than are visible, they scroll off the page) represent a single “square” of image. So, if you grab a horizontal stone wall image, you can “build” a wall by filling in a row of squares. There are a variety of these for different walls, buildings and environmental features. It is dead easy to create walls, rivers of lava or water and cliffs, among other things. There are also some specialized icons for trapdoors and rooms.
The ability to add text to the map would be a nice feature, but it apparently cannot perform this function. I hope they consider it for a future version.
The top row of icons, excluding the cut/paste/zoom/erase/print and other common editing icons are for “filling in” terrain rapidly. Cartograph calls these “smart tools.” Selecting the “water” smart tool icon and then clicking on the map fills a roughly circular area of seven squares. You can repeat this process to rapidly fill in large areas of water. Other options include lava, forest and cliffs.
Another feature available is “layering.” This allowed me to drop some foliage over my walls, without deleting the underlying graphic. It was a nice feature and quite easy to use. Photoshop/GIMP experts will scoff at the ability to only use two layers, but I found it just fine for dungeon mapping applications.
There is also a “hide” feature that allows you to place tiles and then make them disappear off of the map with a single-click. This way, you can print out a map for the players and still have the trap-laden version for your secret files.
Finally, I checked out the File/Edit/Options/Help menus at the top. “Edit” had the usual cut/paste options. “Options” had the “show hidden” option . One nice feature is the “Insert Random Maplet.” The maplets are little maps that are prebuilt in the system. Each one is a 12×12 structure. You can create your own and the software will use them when you insert a random maplet. Cartograph also uses them to generate full-sized, random maps.
Here is an example of the “Random Map” feature.
Of everything I saw in this program, this is by far my favorite. I generated a reasonable dungeon with a single click. Throw in a few monsters and your are off!
I whipped this map up in about 5 minutes by hand. While not publication ready, it is certainly useable for a home game. I threw in a lava pit, a couple of traps and an undeground village near some ancient fountains.
The package came with a sample map, so I thought you might like to see what a better effort looks like.
Overall, I am very pleased with this reasonably priced package. It performs as advertised and creates legible maps. My only warning is that this is “computer aided design” software, so there is a learning curve. If you put the time in to learn it, you will be happy with the results.
Trask, The Last Tyromancer
About the Author: Trask is a long-time gamer, world traveler and history buff. He hopes that his scribblings will both inform and advance gaming as a hobby.