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Thanks for the mention, Thally.

I use Macromedia Flash 5, which isn't a mapping program at all. It publishes web-ready art that is vector based so it loads very quickly (faster than a jpeg). You can animate parts of the map (I do so for flame, spell effects, and some other stuff). You can also make it so that mouse-over tags pop up (or a whole picture changes) when a player puts his pointer over something.

Players can zoom in and out, scroll around to different parts of the map, and even manipulate parts of it (like moving their miniatures around, toggling beween the floor of a room and the rafters, turning a move grid on and off, etc.

The best part is that the map is saved, on your computer, in a pre-published format that can be easily maipulated. So you take some time to create the map (mine take 2-3 hours) but you can edit it (move or add miniatures, add notes, reveal new sections) in five minutes. Then just click publish and upload. It's very fast and convenient.

The program is as easy to use as any painting utility and it comes with great tutorials. I got some tips from an experienced user but most of what I learned was from the tutorials. They had me creating quality maps within two weeks.

OK, so this sounds like a sales pitch but I'm serious, the program rocks. We're not in combat right now, but here's our map page. I post it because the current map will appear here eventually. The video that you see in place of a map was also made using Flash 5 (with imported photos, of course). Also, here is a utility I made (with Flash) for keeping track of the PC's stronghold.

Right click anywhere to zoom in. Click and drag to scroll when zoomed. Notice the sound bites from the D&D movie? Notice that you get access to keys by clicking on the buildings of a particular color? IMO, the tactical maps are even cooler.

Very cool character icons, Chibbs. I might attempt something similar for WftS. They definately look a lot better than my circles with initials in them.

Would you still consider making character icons for AJS? DW uses the same mapping techniques that I do. If you were to send me a jpeg containing all the characters' faces, I could import them to F5, break them apart, and make DW some miniatures. I might be able to draw them myself but you are a much better artist than I.

That is an excellent idea, Chibbs. I've considered writing a "how to use Flash for mapping" article for the 3eBB but the packaged icons would be very cool resources for those who were interested. Heck, we could scan in the maps from official modules (with permission of course) and pacakage them with the proper icons for the bad guys.

Not to mention packaging our own pre-fab PBP encounters. I don't know if there's any money in it, of course, but it would be fun.