I don't have Photoshop which has been recommended to me by a friend who runs PbP often.

For those of you who make maps for general purposes/combat encounters, what do you use? Are there any good programs built specifically for this or am I going to have to bite the bullet and get Photoshop?

You can use Paint which comes with mose Windows OS PC's without having to drop the bones on Photoshop. The basic tools are there. If needs be, you can even resort to taking a local city map and photocopying (or scanning) it as many times as you like, hand drawing whatever you wish to depict, taking a crappy cel phone pic of it and posting/emailing it to the players. Seriously, there are many ways around this problem without having to spend money on expensive software.

And you can always try to use free software like a GIMP. Once I found a map creation plug- in for GIMP... u nfortunately , I forgot where.

PbP systems are notoriously map-unfriendly, which is why the games I've played in have kept it abstract without an actual map.

I have to disagree. The vast majority of my experience has been PbP and in every one of the games I have played, the GMs have done a wonderful job posting sometimes very detailed, and sometimes very simple maps for all of the players - taking time to update them every round. I feel that it really gives us a much better logistical and strategic view of the battlefield, and that is essential in such a combat heavy enviornment. And, while I consider myself a pretty good story teller, visual elements help enrich the experience, even if they are only colored dots on a grid.

So, I will definitely be putting up maps for my players. I just wanted to know if there were easy alternatives online. Map generators and such. If push comes to shove, I will use paint - but I don`t really want to. I am a bit ashamed to say that I have not touched MS Paint since high school and really dont want to learn it haha.

And I am not above what Korvis said - getting some grid paper, sketching out a map and then posting pictures of it or scanning it. But, an online program would be convenient as hell.

Jargal, what is GIMP? Is it relatively easy to use?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP

Migrating from Photoshop is tricky, but if you have no experience with bitmap editors , no matter where to start .

Why not just use Roll20.net and upload a suitable map and utilize the sites tools to augment, reveal and hide whatever you want when you want. Players can log in an post their actions and everything gets archives in the "chat" so others can go back and review whenever they want to get back up to speed.

Because until this moment, I have never knew Roll20.net existed.

I play with a tight group on www.dndarchive.com but we are slowly poaching more players over there. Can I use Roll20 to ceate the map and then save it to my computer and post it on my forum at a later time?

It's a free account to set up and there is a demo video showing a brief overview of the GM tools available. I have only been a player and not a GM, but the things that appear to be available can be vast depending on the GM's creativity and (eventual) expertise. Watch the video and decide for yourself......works best in Chrome and buggy at best in IE, just sayin....