Adding a Grid

In a previous post I showed some links for maps of Paris. Once you have your city map, one thing I strongly recommend for the GM is to create a grid for your map. A grid, like those you see in Ordinance Survey maps and maps like that makes it much easier to reference and find locations on your map. I created one for Paris using the Plan de Merian 1615. This one was done via brute force. I don’t especially recommend that method, but it has the virtue of being something that doesn’t require any special software.

I took the map into MS Word and then added the grid around the edges and the lines as objects. One of these days I will get around to creating a more elegant version using Layers in Gimp or Photoshop. Once I do I’ll post it. (But don’t hold your breath because it won’t be soon.) This is my Paris Grid Map. In my GM notes I denote the location in brackets like this [C6] or [D3-D4]. This map is useful if you want to follow later posts that refer to locations.