Best Map Making Tool Specific for Towns and Cities?

[Mytherus]

Hi DMs . I'll preface this that I do own and use Campaign Cartographer already (CC3+) and I am finally comfortable with the tool for my overland map making needs to the point I don't think I'll switch for using it for overland maps.

I'm not as happy with CC3 for making city or town maps though, and I know its probably my lack of skill and/or patience with the tool mostly, but I also just simply don't like how they look.

With that -- I'm trying to find the best tool for (artistically challenged DMs) to make at least decent looking TOWN and CITY maps. I've stumbled upon inkarnate and saw samples of other people's work and those maps would be adequate for my needs. However Inkarnate is a funny beast....the site is literally just "hey this is what you can do with this. Here's our plans" that's it. There's no support forum , no user manual type deal, no instructions. So I'm very let's say "cautiously skeptical" of that tool.

Then there's wonder draft which looks very nice.....for overland maps. There's nothing even mentioned (even in their YouTube promo) of doing anything for city or town maps.

Finally yes there's some random map generators on the 'net that make at least neat looking city or town maps. My two main problems are 1) They look like blueprints which I guess is great in a pinch but I want my player maps to have some visual flare to them (and full color), not to mention its weird to have a beautiful full color highly detailed overland map then the player moves into a town and you show them a blueprint style map with a blue hue or pastel colors. 2) they are random. There's not nearly enough customization options available.

So that's my latest thing trying to make decent looking custom city or town maps that at the same time I don't need to invest 30 hours of training to overcome a steep learning curve to do so. I just wish some of these devs of overland map makers would also consider we need easy to use tools for the towns and cities (and yeah dungeons too!).

[seycyrus]

Hi DMs . I'll preface this that I do own and use Campaign Cartographer already (CC3+) and I am finally comfortable with the tool for my overland map making needs to the point I don't think I'll switch for using it for overland maps.

I'm not as happy with CC3 for making city or town maps though, ...

Do you have City Designer 3+ ?

There is a lot of activity over at Profantasy in the way of city making, with lots of different looks.

[Targas]

There are some Annuals from ProFantasy with predefined tools for mapmaking, like e.g. this:
https://www.profantasy.com/annual/2007/february07.html
It depends on the style you are searching for. Black & White, Battlemap like, Rooftop view w/o interior, abstract rectangle types, etc.
Which kind of city map you are searching for? Something like this?
https://watabou.itch.io/medieval-fantasy-city-generator

[Bidmaron]

I don't believe anything else is in the same league as CD3+, but last time I looked they still hadn't resurrected the random city generation feature they had with CD3 (before the plus). That was awesome. You could enter a couple of parameters, and it would generate an entire street of city at a time. But even doing it manually is far better than anything else I have encountered.

[Targas]

I don't believe anything else is in the same league as CD3+, but last time I looked they still hadn't resurrected the random city generation feature they had with CD3 (before the plus). That was awesome. You could enter a couple of parameters, and it would generate an entire street of city at a time. But even doing it manually is far better than anything else I have encountered.
You mean that one?
https://www.profantasy.com/annual/2017/june17.html
Works with CC3+ to my knowledge.

[Bidmaron]

Yes, that one. Guess it has been a while....

[LordEntrails]

My understanding is that all the annuals and add-ons now work with 3+. I think the last one was the WWII maps.

So Mytherus, I think you are seeing a consensus here, the City Designer add-on for CC3+ is the best for what you want to do Especially since you already know how to use CC3+, it's worth it to buy and learn CD3

[GavinRuneblade]

I've tried quite a few different programs over the years and City Designer is the best short of being an artist yourself and using Gimp/Photoshop. My #2 program, because it is so much easier to use even if the results aren't as pretty is Cityographer (https://cityographer.com/).

But again, that one is easy, not pretty. The automated city feature is extremely useful though. And it populates every building with NPCs. But unless you step in and tweak them everything looks too spread out and too geometric.