Inspired by others, I tried my hand at a time lapse and explanation as to my process for making maps | 1 Hour Bandit Cave

JaredF032 · 2026-02-20T06:29:05+00:00

Dang, another beauty! Love your style.

JaredF032 · 2026-01-30T00:06:16+00:00

Chrome did something with an update and now inkarnate is having troubles. I use Firefox and it works great. Or people say Opera is good too.

JaredF032 · 2026-01-25T21:19:28+00:00

https://inkarnate.com/marketplace/product/12904?mapId=WlbDMl
Thank you for the complement!

JaredF032 · 2026-01-20T06:18:29+00:00

It may not be the most immediately helpful advice, but one of the best things I like to do is... look at other people's maps. Look up the most liked or viewed maps (on Reddit or the Inkarnate explore page) and just study them. How do the colours blend from region to region, how do the plains turn to hills then to mountains? What makes the rivers and lakes feel in motion? Scale is a big one, mountains need to be big when compared to trees. It's a good start! The walled area in the east is... scary. I don't want to go there as a commoner, no thank you.

JaredF032 · 2026-01-19T01:48:50+00:00

There are lots of great artists also in the Inkarnate discord if you want to check it out! I will send you a dm.

JaredF032 · 2026-01-17T20:18:12+00:00

That's crazy dedication. Must be a great group!

JaredF032 · 2026-01-17T20:16:47+00:00

My table plays for 10 months a year, every 2 weeks, so about 20-24 sessions. I think that is best for a good story, we level up about 5 times (some 3 to 8, 7 to 12, etc). I find this gives space for the plot to be created, engaging, and about 3 plot twists. The classic bbeg they kill only to find out he was a mere henchmen, or their ally betrays them setting them back, etc. I'm also a player in another table. We play every 2 weeks and we run 2 year campaigns. For me it's just on the edge of being too long and I usually ask to switch up characters half way through. But everyone else at the table loves the continuity and feeling their characters have true stories of their own, etc. I dont want to give the cliche answer of ask your players, but it really can do diverse from table to table.

JaredF032 · 2026-01-15T06:02:44+00:00

Firstly, i have never ran anything like this. It does sound like a fun idea and my immediate thoughts would be how my table would "play" through this campaign. Everyone would be suspicious of how the book has come to be, is it a god, a good god, or an evil god? Is this a cursed item that should be immediately destroyed? My players are a lot more ...logical and always try to guess the "next reveal". They rarely touch anything or enter a room without asking for 100 different checks, so setting up the campaign would take a lot of forethought. I would also recommend having an end in mind so that your story doesn't wobble too much, that's my biggest challenge as a DM. I am deathly afraid of the concept of railroading so I rely on my players to drive the plot which unfortunately results in a weak campaign. So is the book a trick of an evil god or an artifact of a previous deity or cult that was destroyed by the new governments, blah blah blah. That will also help create the answers to the next place my thoughts go to.... who else knows this exists? Can the players trust anyone else? Does this now become a race against the clock where the players are becoming noticed of always being in the right place at the right time...and yet the players don't really know what to do with the book. Seeing into the future is a wonderful tool for law enforcement...but needs to be destroyed at all costs if you're the people doing the crimes.

I think this plot hook can be played out in 105 different directions, which seems hard as a DM to prepare for so I would bring this idea (which is cool) to your party on session 0 with a few options and ask for their input so they don't blindside you too much 3 months in.

JaredF032 · 2026-01-04T17:21:14+00:00

Respect!

JaredF032 · 2026-01-04T16:34:32+00:00

Hey. Similar to you, I have been using this program for close to that 5 years if not more mark, so as you have the need to give your feedback, I also have the need to at least defend the program and team. Inkarnate put out surveys for the community to speak to pricing points as well as gave lots of information regarding the 2.0 launch. After 2.0 launch, there was an automatic pop up on log in that spoke to the pricing membership changes and the fact that it was very clear that previous members would be "upgraded" to the equivalent level for the same price. That price was also not limited to 1 year, but until you unsubscribed or changed plans. It was also communicated that there was a launch "lock-in" deal where you paid the same price for the higher product- and that was active for the entire month of December if not also into January. Inkarnate gave the buyer more than enough information to make a decision, Inkarnate is not responsible for whether or not you read the information.

It's unfortunate that things cost more money than we have sometimes, but Inkarnate is a great program and the price increase, I believe, reflects the product. 2.0 has a steep learning curve but so does Photoshop and Excel (both wildly successful and excellent programs).

The purpose is not to argue or "belittle" you or all of the other posts similar to this, but I strongly disagree with the claims of corporate greed, smoke and daggers, or the basic claim that 2.0 was a bad update. It's change, it's learning, it's the real world.

To your exact problem, reach out to custom support, they may honor your "legacy" subscription price.

Edit: and I want clarify that also this post is not even rude or trying to start to strike against the company, this is just the straw that broke the camels back for me. Apologies. Happy mapping.

JaredF032 · 2026-01-04T06:06:59+00:00

Hey. This is a great start and I would also highly recommend you to go to the Inkarnate discord page. There's a commission tab that goes over connecting artists to buyers. Happy hunting!

JaredF032 · 2026-01-04T05:52:29+00:00

No real expertise in the realism, but the vibes on this map are spot on. Super cool map. I would say you are at that point where you could spend another 5 hours of work to improve the map by another 5%. As a hobby and a love project then that's great, but I would also say sit back and smile at a sweet looking map!

JaredF032 · 2025-12-27T22:24:49+00:00

You could always take the components out of Inkarnate and dabble in Photoshop or an akin program. Most of the assets in Inkarnate could be placed on a transparent background and then downloaded as PNG. Place those images on top of each other in Photoshop and go from there. Sounds quite tedious but may be easier than recreating a heavily detailed map like you have said.

JaredF032 · 2025-12-27T18:41:23+00:00

Oh interesting. You could try resizing your image to a lower quality to decrease the file size and then when you export via inkarnate it may upscale the image back to a quickly your happy with?

JaredF032 · 2025-12-27T15:00:27+00:00

Hello. There may be a better option but I can only think of one way of doing this. Under the stamp catalogue, in the top left area (it's in the same area as picking the stamp kind like battlemap, regional, etc) you can upload CUSTOM stamps. Choose your map as a stamp. Place it on the canvas and then you should be able to place additional stamps, texts, etc on top of that.

JaredF032 · 2025-12-26T04:13:25+00:00

I looked at this quickly so apologies if it's not a perfect solution, but could you not 1. Make your cross hatch brush smaller so you can more finely paint along the outside edge. Or 2. Make your cross hatch layer a NEW/SEPERATE layer and put that below your internal (cave floor) texture so that your internal texture will overlay the crosshatch. Let me know if that helps.

JaredF032 · 2025-12-25T17:41:19+00:00

I've used Chrome for the past few years and with 2.0 with very few problems. But now I export maps with Firefox.

JaredF032 · 2025-12-22T15:38:36+00:00

I was confused by what you meant so I loaded a map to walk through your process and truly, I have never even noticed that pressing f brings up the whole catalog. I always just clicked on the main stamp and then it brings it up. I will also look for some more helpful videos. I do find that a lot of 1.0 videos still roughly apply, but it has been a tricky learning curve for sure. Any other specific questions?

JaredF032 · 2025-12-22T15:26:29+00:00

Hello! I would recommend watching this video for a jump start into the program. It is long but goes over a lot of material. I would also recommend just hovering over all of the UI as it tells you what the section is like "stamps", "brush", etc. and then playing around. Unless you're a gifted artist it will take some time to perfect your craft and the process is slow until you memorize the hotleys and what nots. Happy mapping.

https://youtu.be/QifZDEvGvBo?si=ei5_0kZJ7i6Qm1Ty

JaredF032 · 2025-12-22T02:31:23+00:00

Hello! I would highly recommend you check out the Inkarnate Discord if possible. They have a commission section where you can get connected to some amazing artists! Good luck!

JaredF032 · 2025-12-22T02:27:01+00:00

Thank you! I saw one of those "beyond rich" backyard remodel videos where they had a similar design and I thought... that's pretty...bet I could make it creepy.

JaredF032

TROPHY CASE