Cloth Maps

[Crothian]

I printed cloth maps for my Carrion Crown campaign. The process was relatively simple.

I took a white sheet and cut out 8x11 size sections.

I then ironed these cloth sections on freezer paper and cut the freezer paper to 8.5x11. These feed perfectly into my Dell Laser printer.

I the printed out the maps and gave to the players at the start of the campaign.

It absolutely ruled and the players loved them. If you would like more info let me know.

Some pictures of that would be nice to see.

 

[BriarMonkey]

Freezer Paper?

Is that anything like wax paper? And if so, how'd the wax not melt in the printer?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

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[gamerprinter]

I printed cloth maps for my Carrion Crown campaign. The process was relatively simple.

I took a white sheet and cut out 8x11 size sections.

I then ironed these cloth sections on freezer paper and cut the freezer paper to 8.5x11. These feed perfectly into my Dell Laser printer.

I the printed out the maps and gave to the players at the start of the campaign.

It absolutely ruled and the players loved them. If you would like more info let me know.

Some pictures of that would be nice to see.

Freezer Paper?

Is that anything like wax paper? And if so, how'd the wax not melt in the printer?

Although not the cheapest way to do it - heat transfer is the closest way to make this work. Heat transfer paper is around a $1 a sheet, can be bought in small amounts like 25 sheets and run through either a laser printer or an inkjet printer. Although you can transfer it to cloth yourself with an iron, it works better with a T-shirt press. You can even get 11 x 17 heat transfer paper, if you have access to an 11 x 17 color printer this will work too.

I didn't suggest it, because to me a map for games is larger than 11 x 17, and heat transfer gets really expensive when working at larger sizes. Its also impractical to try to create heat transfer prints in multiple pieces. It's difficult to line up perfectly.

 

[DnD_Dad]

I like drawing maps in paper grocery bags and spilling a little coffee on them. Then I roll it up in a ball, open it up and do it over until it is soft.

 

[Wik]

God, I loved that Dark Sun map. It was one of the reasons I fell in love with the setting at first, I think. I wish I still had it - I keep my eyes open, but havent' seen one in years, and don't expect I ever will.

The problem with it, unfortunately, is that it was to perfect scale and had the locations of "hidden" sites, like the outposts of many merchant houses and the gold mines. Not to mention the city by the silt sea, Celik, Yaramuke, and the fact that the Ringing Mountains block the entrance into a jungle (supposedly a campaign secret).

In other words, you couldn't reasonably give such an awesome prop to the PCs. Which sucked.

I have made my own PC-friendly maps with tea bags and the like, and it's a lot of fun. Maps as props are probably one of the most useful things you could give to the players.

While I agree that they are probably super expensive to print and release to the public as part of your product, I wish we'd see more of them, as opposed to some of the gimmicky items we see in boxed sets - custom dice, cardboard terrain, metal doo-dads, or stickers (blech). About the only gimmick I've seen in an RPG that I've really liked were those dragonmark house removable stickers that came in a DRAGON magazine... I put one on my guitar.

 

[VheeShane]

Speaking as someone who has made cloth maps, I have done them both on bed sheets and canvas. The ones I did do (one for my campaign decade ago) and 30 x 40 of the LOTR map, EXTREMELY time consuming, and god forbid you make a mistake. You can get depth and details with airbrush and acrylic for large scale maps.

I think the suggestion of a heat transfer is a good idea, but I think the scale ability is limited for wall map.

 

[gamerprinter]

On the other hand I can inkjet print to canvas, though I only have 24" wide canvas media in stock - I can get larger. I don't normally get much call for that kind of printing, which is far more expensive. I'd charge something like $8 a square foot, when I normally charge $2.99 a square foot for full color inkjet printing to photo grade stock up to 35.5" wide.

Can I do it? Sure. Is it cost effective? I'm not so sure.

 

[JonArkanix]

If you don't mind the materials used, you could try printing your maps at Artscow on pillow cases, towels, blankets, etc. They even offer printing on shower curtains.

The pillow cases are 30"x20" (standard bed pillow size) and the price is $12/one sided or $18/two sided.