Are maps becoming less useful?

[Krieg]

Thanks Brian, perhaps it is time I finally took a look at them...

 

[Brian K. Moseley]

Thanks Brian, perhaps it is time I finally took a look at them...

You're very welcome. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to email me. Enjoy the rest of the weekend! I'm off to catch up on a few pages of forum threads and get ready for gaming tomorrow

All the best,

 

[Psimancer]

Wow... I thought I was the only one that felt this way...

 

[JediSoth]

I like those Masterwork Maps books. I always thumb through them during my browsing visits to my FLGS. One day, when I have some extra cash and it's my turn to DM again, I'm going to pick up a couple of them.

I don't mind pretty maps, as long as they're functional. Some of them look like they've been created just to show off the software the company purchased though. Especially those 3/4 isometric maps. I can't stand those. They look nice, and 3D is cool, but I don't like walls on maps obscuring floor details.

JediSoth

 

[Buttercup]

Hello,

Please forgive the shameless plug, but you might be interested in the Masterwork Maps series. You can check out previews of every Darkfuries product at http://www.darkfuries.com/download.shtml.

All the best,

I own all of the Dark Furies maps in their electronic versions, and the first book as well. Good heavens but they're useful!

Because I write my game notes in Word, I can easily place images within the document wherever I please. Also, on several occasions I've taken one of Brians maps to Kinko's on disk and had it printed out on giant paper to use as a battlemat.

 

[seankreynolds]

Phineas, your maps take me back to the old days. Very nice! Have you done any maps for publishers (I mean to include in a product, not the free stuff you're doing for Silverthorne)? What software do you use to make your maps?

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

I completely agree

Pretty and non-functional maps are my biggest 3E peeve. Far more often than not, the maps disappoint. I don't understand why there were so many great maps in the 70s/80s (Harn, Judge's Guild, etc) but there are so few now!

-Ken

 

[Phineas Crow]

Phineas, your maps take me back to the old days. Very nice! Have you done any maps for publishers (I mean to include in a product, not the free stuff you're doing for Silverthorne)? What software do you use to make your maps?

Thanks for the compliment, glad you like them.

So far Silverthorne Games is the only publisher I've made maps for.

I use Campaign Cartographer 2 and finish it off with a paint program. For instance, in the map I've attached all the coloring was done outside of CC2.

 

[Sinjucala]

Most maps in products eem to lend towards the "good-looking" but useless type. An appaling trend, I have to agree. Phineas, what kind of maps do you favor?

 

[Numion]

I like the clearer old-skool style maps. Actually I found the Dundjinni banner ad (with those maps in 1981, 1999, 2004) funny because I'd choose the 1981 version any day

Dungeon maps have been mostly good, I've got nothing against graphics per se. Just make the damn corridors aligned with the grid if the corridors are 10 ft wide with 90 angle turns anyway! Dungeon is good in this regard, but WotC modules aren't. They're something like pseudo-gridded - with an off-aligned grid.