Here's That Hi-Res Sword Coast Map

WotC hit their $100K Extra Life charity funding goal, and have released the high resolution labeled map of the northwest portion of Faerün, from Amn to Icewind Dale, and the Moonshae Isles to the Dalelands. It's pretty enormous - 10,200 by 6,600 pixels! That's 141 x 91 inches. There's a smaller version of it below, but hit the image to jump to the full size giant version. The map was created by Mike Schley.

Click on this for the enormous hi-res version​

 

[Charles Rampant]

Included in the PDF is a nice big copy that doesn't have all the labels. This has allowed me to make a "Player Friendly" version of the map of Cormyr and the Stonelands and then create a DM copy of the map. Here's a copy of my current WIP.

Though this thread is a bit of a pit, I just wanted to pop in and comment on this. I love your use of the map pdf, and it embarrasses me that I never thought of it myself! It shows just how high definition the map is, and it must also be nice to have a local and regional map in completely perfect scale. I wonder, would you be able to quickly outline how you did the text labels? The white outlining really makes the labels easy to read.

 

[JohnLynch]

To be honest, I'm not really expecting anything in particular.... and I'm not really fussed either way.

It's great that you don't care if you get a map or not, because it means your satisfied with what you got. However I imagine those who have voiced disappointment certainly have a higher level of investment of "meh." Telling people "it's only a players guide, you have no right to feel disappointed" doesn't actually go very far unless you can follow it up with "But you'll surely get one at some point" because the people who are disappointed at the lack of a map, probably want one. And there is no indication that we'll ever get a poster map for the Forgotten Realms ever again. Of all the products we know WotC is planning on releasing, this is the only one that was somewhat suitable. We have no indication WotC will produce a FRCG with a poster map in it.

Though this thread is a bit of a pit, I just wanted to pop in and comment on this. I love your use of the map pdf, and it embarrasses me that I never thought of it myself! It shows just how high definition the map is, and it must also be nice to have a local and regional map in completely perfect scale. I wonder, would you be able to quickly outline how you did the text labels? The white outlining really makes the labels easy to read.

I've been looking for a map that has this resolution for a couple of years now. This is the first time I found one that was also blank!

as for the writing, This is in gimp:
1) Write the text on the map
2) Right click on the layers and create a layer directly below the text layer.
3) Highlight the text layer with the text editor icon
4) Right click on the highlighted text and select Path to Text
5) Click on "Edit" from the menu and Select Path
6) Click on "Edit" from the menu and Select Grow and enter 2 pixels
7) On the layer below the text lever fill in the selected area with white
8) Merge the text layer with the layer below it.


This is from memory. Step 5 and 6 may be slightly wrong in terms of which menu item to highlight.

 

[Charles Rampant]

I've been looking for a map that has this resolution for a couple of years now. This is the first time I found one that was also blank!

as for the writing, This is in gimp:
1) Write the text on the map
2) Right click on the layers and create a layer directly below the text layer.
3) Highlight the text layer with the text editor icon
4) Right click on the highlighted text and select Path to Text
5) Click on "Edit" from the menu and Select Path
6) Click on "Edit" from the menu and Select Grow and enter 2 pixels
7) On the layer below the text lever fill in the selected area with white
8) Merge the text layer with the layer below it.


This is from memory. Step 5 and 6 may be slightly wrong in terms of which menu item to highlight.

Genius, thanks. I'm currently running PotA (so my map needs are covered) and a homebrew world, but I'll have to save this somewhere and use it for whenever I get to make use of this map.

 

[Prism]

To those saying this is a player's guide and so therefore doesn't need a map. Do you expect a campaign guide to be released for 5th edition, do you expect more regional guides that cover the different areas of the Forgotten Realms or do you expect both? If you expect an FRCG for 5th edition, what will this book actually have that isn't covered by the regional guide(s)?

I don't think we will and in general I'm pretty happy about that. Whereas a players guide tends to enhance creativity because everything is written as a point of view of a narrator and can be used or ignored as needed, campaign guides tend to be a bit heavy handed and tell you how things actually are, who rules, who has secrets (and what they are). I'd rather have more space to work creating my own adventures and there are plenty of ideas in the players guide to work with

 

[Hussar]

It's great that you don't care if you get a map or not, because it means your satisfied with what you got. However I imagine those who have voiced disappointment certainly have a higher level of investment of "meh." Telling people "it's only a players guide, you have no right to feel disappointed" doesn't actually go very far unless you can follow it up with "But you'll surely get one at some point" because the people who are disappointed at the lack of a map, probably want one. And there is no indication that we'll ever get a poster map for the Forgotten Realms ever again. Of all the products we know WotC is planning on releasing, this is the only one that was somewhat suitable. We have no indication WotC will produce a FRCG with a poster map in it.

/snip

But, again, there IS A MAP in the SCAG. It's not a pull out or poster map, but, there is a map there. AND, there is a massive, high resolution map FOR FREE available to everyone.

So, in what way didn't people get a poster map?

 

[DEFCON 1]

It's great that you don't care if you get a map or not, because it means your satisfied with what you got. However I imagine those who have voiced disappointment certainly have a higher level of investment of "meh." Telling people "it's only a players guide, you have no right to feel disappointed" doesn't actually go very far unless you can follow it up with "But you'll surely get one at some point" because the people who are disappointed at the lack of a map, probably want one. And there is no indication that we'll ever get a poster map for the Forgotten Realms ever again. Of all the products we know WotC is planning on releasing, this is the only one that was somewhat suitable. We have no indication WotC will produce a FRCG with a poster map in it..

The issue is not that people are merely disappointed that there was no fold-out map... it's that some people keep saying they deserve to have a fold-out poster map because of the money they were charged for the book, and because books in the past had them. And thus WotC is a horrible company with a bunch of horrible people in it.

When the fact of the matter is... none of us DESERVE ANYTHING.

WotC made a product. They told us what was in it. They didn't advertise one thing and then give us something else... they gave us exactly what they said they did. If that wasn't good enough for some people, then they should have made their choice not to buy it. No one forced them to. Some folks in this thread have chosen not to, which is well within their right and the proper response if they felt the price was not worth what they were getting. But WotC isn't a bunch of asswipes because the product they chose to make for us today isn't the same as ones they made 15 freaking years ago. They are under no obligation to produce anything today like what they produced then... regardless of how much a person might want it.

Just because you want something doesn't mean you get to have it. And while you are more than allowed to complain about that all you want...it also means the rest of us are allowed to tell you right back to get over it.

 

[mikeschley]

Just to be clear, is this the same resolution that paying $10 to Mike on his website nets you?

I realise it's nice to buy it as a physical map as well, and through Mike's website, you can get this in pdf form which is easier to print for do-it-yourselves-types.

But if this is the same benefit as buying the digital version… wow! I guess I'm glad I hadn't decided yet if I wanted to buy it or not! Good just Extra Life charity team!!!

Just a heads up. The tiled PDF version of the map that's on my site for $10 is twice the size of this one so don't fret if you bought it from me.

P.S. The children's charity that this is a stretch goal for is wonderful and I'm super pleased to be a part of the fundraising campaign.

 

[pukunui]

It's great that you don't care if you get a map or not, because it means your satisfied with what you got. However I imagine those who have voiced disappointment certainly have a higher level of investment of "meh." Telling people "it's only a players guide, you have no right to feel disappointed" doesn't actually go very far unless you can follow it up with "But you'll surely get one at some point" because the people who are disappointed at the lack of a map, probably want one. And there is no indication that we'll ever get a poster map for the Forgotten Realms ever again. Of all the products we know WotC is planning on releasing, this is the only one that was somewhat suitable. We have no indication WotC will produce a FRCG with a poster map in it.

This:

The issue is not that people are merely disappointed that there was no fold-out map... it's that some people keep saying they deserve to have a fold-out poster map because of the money they were charged for the book, and because books in the past had them. And thus WotC is a horrible company with a bunch of horrible people in it.

When the fact of the matter is... none of us DESERVE ANYTHING.

WotC made a product. They told us what was in it. They didn't advertise one thing and then give us something else... they gave us exactly what they said they did. If that wasn't good enough for some people, then they should have made their choice not to buy it. No one forced them to. Some folks in this thread have chosen not to, which is well within their right and the proper response if they felt the price was not worth what they were getting. But WotC isn't a bunch of asswipes because the product they chose to make for us today isn't the same as ones they made 15 freaking years ago. They are under no obligation to produce anything today like what they produced then... regardless of how much a person might want it.

Just because you want something doesn't mean you get to have it. And while you are more than allowed to complain about that all you want...it also means the rest of us are allowed to tell you right back to get over it.

[MENTION=6749563]JohnLynch[/MENTION]: People were trying to use precedent ("They always used to give us a pull-out map, so we should've gotten one this time too!") to justify their feelings of entitlement. I was trying to show them that precedent bites both ways: That is, that the precedent here is that FR player guides don't come with pull-out maps, so why would anyone expect this one to be any different?

 

[JohnLynch]

In 4th ed every supported campaign setting got a poster map. It appears this will not be true for 5th edition (as we have no indication WotC will produce them). Being upset about that seems perfectly reasonable to me.

NOTE: I actually don't care about the lack of poster map, although I was momentarily surprised.

 

[pukunui]

I wasn't surprised by the lack of a poster map at all. For one thing, I think WotC would've let us know ahead of time. For another, as I've said, player's guides don't generally come with pull-out maps, so I wasn't expecting the SCAG to have one. That being said, even if the SCAG *was* a bona fide campaign setting book, I'm still not sure I would've expected - let alone felt entitled to - a pull-out map on account of the fact that WotC has said all along that they are not doing 5e like they did 3e or 4e. They are experimenting with different delivery methods - such as releasing some content for free or allowing the cartographers to sell their maps at such high resolutions that you can get print copies of a much bigger size than a mere pull-out poster - and we can't expect things to be like they were before.