Friday, January 23, 2009

Hex Maps

I seem to recall coming across a really simple-to-use -- and free -- program that used tiles to create a wilderness hex map. I can't find it any longer and would dearly love to do so, because I may have need of it for this weekend's session of the Dwimmermount campaign.

Anyone have any idea what I might have found all those months ago?

23 comments:

  1. Would it be Hexmapper?
    http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/Hexmapper_Haven/

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  2. That might be it, but it's hard to tell without downloading the program beforehand.

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  3. James, I've been lurking around your blog for about a month now (coinciding with a return to old-school D&D after a 20-year absence) and hope I can return a favor for all your dead-on writing. I found something like what you are talking about here when working on my own campaign:
    http://www.rpgmanager.net/

    The tiles remind me aesthetically of the Mystara maps of long ago.

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  4. There's also one called "Wilderness Mapper" that's free and about 10 years old, but it gets the job done. I've been playing with it off and on for the last couple of weeks.

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  5. Hello!!
    Maybe, but just maybe, you are referring to this one:

    http://www.mentalwasteland.net/HexMapper/

    PS: you have a wonderful blog, compliments!!

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  6. If you can't get until the Yahoo! group, I could probably upload the file for you.

    http://www.pandius.com/knwnwrld.html#maps

    I'm 99.9% sure Thorfinn's maps were created using it.

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  7. On the OD&D Trid site there are quite a few tools including links to HexMapper and additional HexMapper Hexes to really beef up your maps.

    http://www.tridrpg.org/admin/dmtools.php

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  8. Just for clarification, the HexMapper program on the Yahoo! group is the Arr-Kelaan one. But their site is down.

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  9. http://www.rpgmanager.net/

    Nifty! Thanks.

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  10. There's also one called "Wilderness Mapper"

    That's rather nice too.

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  11. http://www.mentalwasteland.net/HexMapper/

    Never saw that one before, but thanks for pointing it out.

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  12. If you can't get until the Yahoo! group, I could probably upload the file for you.

    This looks like the one I was after. A pity the website is down.

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  13. The Arr-Kelaan Hexmapper can be found here:

    http://www.geocities.com/danjnm_2000/AKS_HMAP.ZIP

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  14. Wow, that (AKS HexMapper) is the shiznat. Finding the perfect elegant tool for the job is always a real joy/relief.

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  15. The old AKS Hexmapper link is dead, but if you join the Yahoo! group, you can get the program. It's a closed group to avoid spambots but I joined and was let in very quickly.

    This Grognardia 'blog is great, by the way!

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  16. This site has some additional hexes for AKS HexMapper: http://www.tridrpg.org/admin/dmtools.php

    Thanks to Robert Saint John for finding it. My previous search for this was fruitless.

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  17. http://www.geocities.com/danjnm_2000/AKS_HMAP.ZIP

    I can't get it to run for me. I'm wondering if it's too old to work with Vista.

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  18. I think you need the VB 6 runtime libraries to run Hexmapper.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290887

    http://web.archive.org/web/20071009160437rn_2/home.paonline.com/zaikoski/ak/TOOLS.HTM

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  19. I still can't get the darned thing to work for me, even after I downloaded the runtime library. My computer skills are poor.

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  20. Just a stab in the dark, but Vista is weird about letting applications run unless they are installed and/or being run by the user as Administrator. Unfortunately, it may be something that needs to be fixed within the executable of the application itself. I'm still running XP Pro, so I don't know for sure. Perhaps someone else knows how you can run an old VB-based application with Admin permissions in Vista? Is there a simple "right click, Run as administrator" solution?

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  21. If anybody here is a member of that Yahoo group, I applied about a week ago and haven't received a reply yet. Could you maybe prod the admin there, so I can get in? Much obliged.

    Thx,
    Baron Greystone

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  22. Hey James! Clark from Necromancer Games here. We have some hex pages on our Judges Guild page that are like the old guild style overland hexes.

    Here is our Judges Guild downloads page: http://www.necromancergames.com/judgesguild/downloads.html

    And here is the specific overland hex pdf: http://www.necromancergames.com/judgesguild/pdf/campaignhexes.pdf

    Clark

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  23. What about Hexographer?
    http://www.hexographer.com/

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