Hello everyone! I am new to the forum.
I am a former DM (D&D 3e, played for 10+ years), and now a professional cartographer and illustrator. Of course I make maps for RPGs :)
I have a questions for you fellow DMs:
What is it that you are mostly looking for in maps that you buy/download/find on the internet?
What are your must-haves? And your deal-breakers?
It could be anything from the map itself (readability, visual appeal, size, ...) to the file type and other technical aspects, or anything else that comes to your mind.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Readability, utility at table, printability (eg Dyson Logos' maps are great), lots of info on the map itself, and art appeal.

Keep in mind that with the widespread use of Virtual Tabletop there is a need for a digital version of the map that can be used as a battlemap or backdrop without any key numbering. Even if you don't produce a print battlemap.

And if you have to split your map across more than one printed page for god sakes include a generous overlap as a portion of the map will be lost in the fold of the book.

Finally look at the map for Tegel Manor by Judges Guild for a good example of how a map can reinforce the text of an adventure. The Tegel maps has notes and one line description that work hand and hand with the text.

I tend not to use maps made by others for my RPG campaigns, because I like to make my own and I don't want any players to be able to see "the real world" by finding the map on the Internet. Even for a modern or space campaign (which I rarely run), I feel like it detracts from the experience of it being a world in the game universe if it's actually taking the map from something else.

I do love maps, though, and browse the Internet looking at them because they can be inspiring and get my interest/enthusiasm up, and they're just enjoyable to see.

If I were going to use such a map, I could see using it in one of two main ways.

1. If I'm going to use it as the actual geography in play, I want to be able to clearly see the terrain everywhere, so I can track the positions and movements of PCs and other things. Roads of different quality, settlements of different types, forts & places of interest, rivers, bridges, fords, mountains, woods, hills, deserts, jungles, swamps, etc.

2. If I'm going to show the map to players, I actually don't want that to be more accurate or detailed than a map the players would have would be (!).

Oh, and what I actually want is a nice set of hex terrain art for use in a computer game project.

Venerable EN World post on dungeon layouts: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?168563-Dungeon-layout-map-flow-and-old-school-game-design

Art appeal is important. I can sketch out a map that's just lines and boxed on my own.

I'm currently fancying isometric dungeons when designing stuff for Starfinder.



I wanted my maps to be a bit like Metroid Prime.



And lastly, for overworld maps, I really like a more abstracted approach.



The map from White Plume Mountain has always stuck with me as evocative of a world full of adventure.

Oh, a GM and player version of the map, usually for dungeons or adventure sites. Sometimes I chuck the map at the players and just ask them which room they head towards.

It would be great to know how long ut takes to get some place.  If the roads and rivers were marked, 1 day by horse, 1 week by river stopping at night, impenetrable woods 50 miles as the crow flies but you'll never make it through with out a guide or dc 25 land nav to get through and move at 1 quater speed.  

Trade routes.  Named traders who travel the routes.  Populations, defenses, number of chacterters with levels, encounter tables.  

I want the adventure on the map.  Thats how I organise my thoughts, thats how I prep my adventures, thats what I want.  And I want it both specific enough that I can usr it and easily modifiable so the stuff that doesn't work for me I can swap out with mybown stuff.  

Easy.

Edit:

And multiple versions, and a set of maps at different scales, and inaccuracies, and here be dragons.

Q: What do DMs want from their maps?

A: Clarity and a useful  scale, mainly.  I've seen lots of maps where they tried to differentiate types of terrain with colors or symbols that looked too similar,  or where I couldn't tell if a line was a road, a river, or a border, and other issues of that nature. Also, a lot of mapmakers want to show me how cool their world is so they give me a continent when all I need is a county, and the scale is such that it shows Important City here and Middling Village 100 miles away with a lake and a forest in between but nothing of any use to me. It's like a map of California showing L.A. and San Diego and a hundred miles of nothing betwixt.

I want usability and inspiration. Most maps bore me.

Personally, I prefer Abstract to Realistic, but I have no idea what sells best today.

I did love the L5R 1e map of Rokugan in the back because of the key.

Quote from: onez;998406Hello everyone! I am new to the forum.
I am a former DM (D&D 3e, played for 10+ years), and now a professional cartographer and illustrator. Of course I make maps for RPGs
I have a questions for you fellow DMs:
What is it that you are mostly looking for in maps that you buy/download/find on the internet?
What are your must-haves? And your deal-breakers?
It could be anything from the map itself (readability, visual appeal, size, ...) to the file type and other technical aspects, or anything else that comes to your mind.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Welcome to theRPGsite!

Key shit on maps to save me lookup time! Keep doing that! With sidebars and legends and shit with even more stuff I don't have to look up!

Remember, people buy pre-made imagination stuff so they don't have to do more work than necessary. 'Cuz we're lazy shitbag adults with annoying responsibilities in the real world. Pity us. Turning extra pages makes us tired.

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

I think maps need to be more than simply functional, though that is an important role.  Maps are props, often center-pieces of a game, that should inspire tone and mood.   It's not too hard to make an "accurate" or "useful" map of an imaginary space, it's trickier to the convey the qualities of that space.

When I get maps from Pinterest, I look for unlabelled ones that I can adapt to the needs of the scenario.

If I paid money for maps, I'd generally want layered PSDs (I use GIMP but I'd understand you using the more popular format) so I can move furniture around, change the labels, etc.

Hexes. GMs want hexes on their  maps.

Quote from: RPGPundit;999973Hexes. GMs want hexes on their  maps.

Eh, I'm okay with no hexes, I can just use a transparent hex overlay.