If you're like me, not being very artistic when it comes to drawing maps by hand for your campaign world, then Campaign Cartographer 2 -aka CC2- is the program you need.
Created by ProFantasy, CC2 allows you to map out your world, make regional maps from the world map and do basic cities and dungeons. Keep in mind, however, that CC2 is not a paint program, but based on a CAD program. This gives it a rather steep learning curve and you do get frustrated when you first start using it. I know I did and still do at times, even though I've been using it for 3 years now.
CC2 comes with a variety of templates to make your maps on, along with wonderful symbols for the terrain; such as mountains, trees, hills and other natural features. You can also create your own symbols and symbol catalogs that are just for your world.
The best feature of this program, is the ability to insert a bitmap of a map that you might have drawn by hand and scanned. It's much easier tracing the hand-drawn map then trying to redraw it freehand with a mouse.
The templates for CC2 uses layers, which you can hide and freeze when working on a map. This comes in handy when working on a large map and you want to cut down on the redraw time. It's also good when you make a mistake and need to erase something you just did. By freezing the other layers, the work already completed won't be affected.
You would think CC2 couldn't get any better, but it does! The CC2-l List at yahoo groups has the best support around. Any question you have concerning the program or doing something with the program are answered here, often by the creators of the program!
There is a slight downside to CC2, however and that's the price. But once you really start using the program, it is worth it.
Go to forum!
(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)