D&D 5E Mike Schley's huge Faerun map updated and on Sale!

[discosoc]

I released the map I created for the SCAG back when the book was originally published. This version updates my original work to show all the new sites and info that was added in SKT. Because they are official D&D maps, I'm limited in what I can offer. Hopefully we will see the rest of Faerûn mapped out soon.

My criticism is not directed at you. I don't particularly like your art style, to be fair, but that's not at all what it was about. I just think WotC's decision to go cheap and not include possibly the single most important visual component of a setting is a really bad one. It's like they really don't like cartography.

 

[flametitan]

Nice. I got a digital copy of the previous version; it looks like I'll have to get this new version to go with it.

 

[Corpsetaker]

For me Mike's maps are a double edged sword. I find them great just to look at but not good when it comes to being practical and useful. The "swirl" design I see in a lot of the maps just don't do it for practical purposes. I want good and useful maps that I can actually use in the game.

 

[machineelf]

I wish you had updated it, so to speak, right from the start. I bought the map, brought it to the local print shop, printed out a large version and had it laminated. The whole process cost me about $50. But I was excited to have this beautiful map of the Sword Coast to use in my games. Since then I have become much more familiar with Faerun and the Sword Coast, and only later did I discover a ton of locations were not included on the original map. So now I feel like I spent a lot of money on a project that was not quite finished.

Mike, I love your work and you are an amazing artist. I am just slightly upset after I compared the map I printed and laminated at a big cost to myself to the map in the Giants adventure path. I imagine you were merely working with the info you were given by WOTC, but it doesn't change the fact of my conundrum.

However, to those who have not yet bought this map, now is the time to do it since it has been updated with all the locations. (I don't want to be too mean to Mike and his work. It is a pretty thing to look at. I would proudly put it on my gaming room wall.)

 

[weldon]

Has anyone been successful in stitching together the high-res tiled PDFs into a single file to submit to a printer to make a poster-sized map? I can easily submit the 1/2 res file, but was hoping to build something with the higher res version.

Somewhat related: is there an easy way to remove the tile numbers from the top right corner?

 

[Valdier]

Has anyone been successful in stitching together the high-res tiled PDFs into a single file to submit to a printer to make a poster-sized map? I can easily submit the 1/2 res file, but was hoping to build something with the higher res version.

Somewhat related: is there an easy way to remove the tile numbers from the top right corner?

I didn't stitch them together but I did have it printed as a drafting print on a plotter (staples I think). It looks great and was quite cheap.

 

[weldon]

I didn't stitch them together but I did have it printed as a drafting print on a plotter (staples I think). It looks great and was quite cheap.

I did the same with the previous version. I printed it out as a 36x48 color engineering print at Staples for like $12. I was hoping to stitch together the files this time to do something even nicer.

Honestly, the engineering print was nice enough and quite usable at the table. The stock is heavy enough to hold up over time as well. But again, I was trying to look into what it would take to get the very best quality possible.

 

[weldon]

Just reporting back that Photoshop turned out to be the right tool for "placing" all the images into a single file. I had assumed that all the tiles were the same size, but they actually vary just slightly. I made the canvas 8x the width and 4x the height of the first tile which ended being slightly too big (which I suppose is better than being slightly too small). At some point I'll go back and figure out the exact dimensions (but it's not exactly 20424 x 13200 points, just slightly smaller).

The native scale of the high-res tiles is 72dpi.

I'm not thrilled about having the tile numbers in little red circles at the top right corner of each tile, nor having copyright notices on most tiles that will appear in the middle of the map, but I understand why it was done. I would probably recommend to print the single image files at 24x36 or smaller to get the cleanest copy (instead of stitching the large tiles together).

 

[Prakriti]

I wish you had updated it, so to speak, right from the start. I bought the map, brought it to the local print shop, printed out a large version and had it laminated. The whole process cost me about $50. But I was excited to have this beautiful map of the Sword Coast to use in my games. Since then I have become much more familiar with Faerun and the Sword Coast, and only later did I discover a ton of locations were not included on the original map. So now I feel like I spent a lot of money on a project that was not quite finished.

Mike has nothing to do with the roads and locations on the map, as far as I know. All that is decided by WotC. I'm not even sure Mike is the one who puts them on the map. It might be the Wizards graphics team who labels all the towns, rivers, mountains, rivers, cities, etc.

 

[dropbear8mybaby]

Noooooooo!

I just got a version printed out on A0 size tyvek for $40!

Oh well, it still looks amazing and I love it.

https://i.imgur.com/hUIfFRQ.jpg