I've noticed that quite a few people have mentioned on here the use of maps when GM'ing a game.

The mission that is in the book (and I think the ones in the GM kit) come with maps made up, but I'm looking to start my missions with the free ones that are available from this website.

So, I was wondering if anyone had either come up with maps for these missions which I could use, or knew of any free software I could use to create maps myself?

There was a thread before the sub forums were added where people were creating campaign maps for Final Sanction. Some one had even used satellite photos to really bring it to life. I apologise in advance to the artist as I don’t remember his forum name, but I did bookmark his album where he had these maps saved which does have his real name (or that’s what I assumed it was anyway) so credit where credit is due. And hopefully he won’t mind me sharing it in this thread.
http://s337.photobucket.com/albums/n400/Dave_Robotham/LORDSHOLM/

Hopefully that will be of some help to the original poster.
I do have a few questions of my own regarding maps though. I flicked through a few threads here a while ago searching for people who like to use a grid system for their battles. There are a few threads where people talk abut good places to buy maps and a blog where people have used a battle mat, but I was wondering if anyone had designed any maps in particular for the Final Sanction campaign that I might be able to look at and wondered what kinds of scales people use.

Any help would be much appreciated!

I personally bought the two posters from Forgeworld that have artwork on one side and detailed siege maps on the other, from the SIege of Vraks. Oreat material, y'know, A0 sized maps of hive cities and the surrounding land. They might come in handy some day. ^^

I've drawn up a few maps for the Extraction mission (the one in the rule book). Please note though that I've changed the scale of the map a bit.

On the overwiew map , one square is 50x50 meters, while on the detail map of the Guard Bunker , one square is 5x5 meters. I'm currently working on maps of all the places of interest in the mission, and a revised description of the area too (I felt that there were many places in which the described location and the map image differed).

Lochtain said:

This is so awesome work.

I used it lately with my gaming group. Thanks a lot and please keep up the good work!

Besides, how did you do that?

Best regards,

TechVoid.

It's really easy actially.

You just draw your image on a sheet of paper (I use one that's squared), and then import it into your computer (I don't own a scanner so I use my camera).

Then I chuck it in Photoshop or something like it, I use Gimp, 'cos it's free, and fiddle around with it a little. I change the colours around a bit to get the green tint, and add lots of clutter using brushes (the one I used for most of it is called Galaxy).

I basically just mess around with it untill I'm happy.

The Data-slate border was downloaded form Darkreign.

Oh, the maps of the Gaunt's Ghosts books are pretty awesome as well... I'll have to see if I can get those scanned...

I've actually made my own. Their primary use is for online rp via OpenRPG.

img832.imageshack.us/img832/9435/transmissionsite.jpg

img829.imageshack.us/img829/6924/thefirestormofpurificat.jpg

The poster a few posts above me mentioned Gimp . I highly recommend Gimp for anyone who wants to create their own maps without paying for a fancy program. It is free and has almost if not all of the features of Photoshop. I have used it in the past for my PbP D&D and MURPG games and it worked great.

Lochtain said:

Where!?

Are there additional templates? Like the scroll-like paper used for DH handouts or the postmark of the inquisition?

Cheers,

TechVoid.

nkdotzip said:

Could you explain the process you use for these? Where are you getting the templates/shapes/textures?

TechVoid said:

I just searched for Dataslate handouts on their page I think. It should be there somewhere.

I'm not sure about other kinds of document backgrounds, but look around. They should be easy enough to make otherwise if you have some Gimp/Photoshop skills using stock photos from DeviantART.com.

Found it in the Handouts section.

darkreign40k.com/drjoomla/index.php/component/docman/doc_download/64-dataslate

Alex

I have put together my own vision of Lordsholm that anyone can use - you can find it here javascript:void(0);/*1289911654380*/ I haven't put up the last map with all the labels visible as we're still working through the encounter.

Caal said:

Awesome!

One map that I would really like a hand in finding or if someone could give me ideas of one to use would be an interior of Thunders Word i have just started GMing a game and would like a mission to take place on board Thunders Word. The Idea being Xenos compromised TW whilst the kill team were on the surface of a planet The mission is to retake thunders word but i have no idea of its crew size number of decks what interior features it should have in it etc as I am a newbie to warhammer 40k. Any ideas?

Insidious said:

You should check out Rogue Trader for infos on ships if you got the acces to the book. If you dont i can tell you that Imperial warp going vessels are MASSIVE! A frigate Class ( one of the "smaller" Classes) got a crew on about 20-30.000 members, is between 1.5 - 2 Km long and ca. 0.4 across!!

RT is a great resource for ships, again, if you can get your hands on a book (these main books are pretty pricey). RT does a nice job of letting you build your ship, and has rules for your warp drive, your weapon systems, etc.

Thunder's Word is a Gladius Class frigate, which is essentially the same as a Sword Class Frigate. You can get details on what those are for free on the lexicanum: http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Gladius_Frigate . The ships are typically crewed by chapter serfs and servitors, a skeleton crew really, and very few marines will be on board (not more than a handful of squads)

According to RT, Sword Class fiigates are approximately 1.6km long, .3 km across, 6 megatonnes (or 6.6million tons), 26,000 crewmembers. So give or take for TW.

For something to measure it against, a US Navy Nimitz class aircraft carrier is advertised at 333m (or .3km) long, 77m wide on the flight deck (or .08km), has a crew of 3,200 and an airwing of 2,500.

Now, onto your map question, I've not see, nor heard, of maps made for any ship really, only parts of ships (and I've looked, I wanted them for a boarding action adventure I ran- I can't find ship maps for anything really). What I did instead, given the size of these monsters, was to map out generally speaking where things were given the ship's profile (shield generators here, bridge decks here, crew quarters here). Then I went and just made up detailed maps of the specific sub-rooms I wanted action to take place in. When the PCs were moving from place to place, I just had to wing it for descriptions (remembering it IS 40k, where everything is bigger than it needs to be, and more intricately carved).

Sorry to be of so little help.

kenshin138 said:

I got some of the textures from garys mod, and the others, like the Chimera, I pulled out of a file for v-40k (A way to play tabletop 40k over the internet.)