Rodrigo Istalindir
Explorer
If you had a snowy set, I'd snatch one up!
An urban set would be cool, too.
An urban set would be cool, too.
Endless Terrain Battlemaps - new product
- Thread starter gamerprinter
- Start date
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
re: if you had a snowy set...
Currently my planned themes for Endless Terrains are:
Heavy Woodland, Heavy Woodland 2, Light Woodland, Swamp, Heavy Woods - Endless Path, Maybe a mix Endless Path with all four above terrains. I'm looking at Endless Road...,
Arctic/Alpine, Jungle/Rain Forest, Desert, Island - features lots of shoreline, Ocean Floor, Wasteland - no vegetation, just mud, muck, pools of filthy water, for cataclysmic enviro's,
Caverns, Caverns - Big Chambers, Endless Dungeon, Lunar Surface, Martian Surface - use actual photos from the Mars lander...
Village - this one would feature dirt streets, paths and locations where structures would go, no actual structures on the map though. Probably include some kind of Map Tile for individual structures - could be sold as a 2 item set (battlemaps and tiles)
I don't want to force a different historical architecture onto your campaign world.
Grassland/Prairie/Savannah has me stumped though - just a bunch of grass, how do you make 8 map sides of just grass and each still look unique...?!
My goals are to make these versatile and more generic - rather than campaign specific. So anyone playing any Genre of RPGs could use them.
I will probably make available - 2 inch hex grid as well as standard 1 inch square grid options.
If this answers your question...
Currently my planned themes for Endless Terrains are:
Heavy Woodland, Heavy Woodland 2, Light Woodland, Swamp, Heavy Woods - Endless Path, Maybe a mix Endless Path with all four above terrains. I'm looking at Endless Road...,
Arctic/Alpine, Jungle/Rain Forest, Desert, Island - features lots of shoreline, Ocean Floor, Wasteland - no vegetation, just mud, muck, pools of filthy water, for cataclysmic enviro's,
Caverns, Caverns - Big Chambers, Endless Dungeon, Lunar Surface, Martian Surface - use actual photos from the Mars lander...
Village - this one would feature dirt streets, paths and locations where structures would go, no actual structures on the map though. Probably include some kind of Map Tile for individual structures - could be sold as a 2 item set (battlemaps and tiles)
I don't want to force a different historical architecture onto your campaign world.
Grassland/Prairie/Savannah has me stumped though - just a bunch of grass, how do you make 8 map sides of just grass and each still look unique...?!
My goals are to make these versatile and more generic - rather than campaign specific. So anyone playing any Genre of RPGs could use them.
I will probably make available - 2 inch hex grid as well as standard 1 inch square grid options.
If this answers your question...
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
re: If you had a snowy set...
Oh yeah, although I'm looking a urban terrains - got a slight problem here. I could create modern urban maps, futuristic urban maps, and midievil urban maps - but then we're getting genre specific. What if you want 1950's Americn urban, or a turn of the century Cthullu city street enviroment... or Roman... or ancient Chinese.
When you go urban, its difficult to stay generic, you almost have to stick to a common genre for it to work. That's the only thing.
I was thinking of rubblefield / ruins, which could effectively hide the architecture/history.
Also on the Map Tiles idea - how about a 2 sided map tile for objects for a tavern for example. One side of the tile shows a table with some tankards of ale, the opposite side shows the same table following a "bar brawl" a destroyed, broken table... just an idea...
Or how about a 5 x 8 structural floor plan tile on one side and an outdoor view roof plan. That way all the structures you are using in a given environment are viewable as outdoor views unless players decide to enter a given building, then you flip it over to reveal the interior floor plan.
Oh yeah, although I'm looking a urban terrains - got a slight problem here. I could create modern urban maps, futuristic urban maps, and midievil urban maps - but then we're getting genre specific. What if you want 1950's Americn urban, or a turn of the century Cthullu city street enviroment... or Roman... or ancient Chinese.
When you go urban, its difficult to stay generic, you almost have to stick to a common genre for it to work. That's the only thing.
I was thinking of rubblefield / ruins, which could effectively hide the architecture/history.
Also on the Map Tiles idea - how about a 2 sided map tile for objects for a tavern for example. One side of the tile shows a table with some tankards of ale, the opposite side shows the same table following a "bar brawl" a destroyed, broken table... just an idea...
Or how about a 5 x 8 structural floor plan tile on one side and an outdoor view roof plan. That way all the structures you are using in a given environment are viewable as outdoor views unless players decide to enter a given building, then you flip it over to reveal the interior floor plan.
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Rodrigo Istalindir
Explorer
I'd think, so far as urban is concerned, if you hit a pseudo-medieval, modern, and post-apoc, you'd cover 90% of what people wanted.
With the foresty-type stuff, it's relatively easy to scribble some trees and such on a battlemat. Obviously your stuff would look much better, but for quick and dirty almost anything would suffice. Urban, though, is a *lot* harder to do quickly, and for the kind of tactical stuff that takes place there, the more explicit the better for cover, etc.
With the foresty-type stuff, it's relatively easy to scribble some trees and such on a battlemat. Obviously your stuff would look much better, but for quick and dirty almost anything would suffice. Urban, though, is a *lot* harder to do quickly, and for the kind of tactical stuff that takes place there, the more explicit the better for cover, etc.
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
Urban is alittle harder to create
Not that I'm complaining, but an urban "Endless Terrain" is alittle more difficult to achieve, since buildings have to "seam together" at map edges to achieve the effect - but not impossible.
My advantage is that I'm really more of a "Print on Demand" kind of shop, than a commercial printer. I don't have to create minimums of 5000 of each map. I can create one. My design time is lost on a one only map sale, but its no real financial loss. I can create quickly, so having a long list of proposed battlemap sets - isn't wishful thinking. I could do this over a month or two at most. (Given I still have a busy schedule, besides)
Although I don't want a "stock" of designs that nobody wants, I could "pack them away" into an archive file on my site and if buyers are looking, I can print, laminate and ship away, even this only means I sell it only a dozen times of a year. Its still a returning investment!
I'll definitely spend some time developing those three urban genres and see how it plays out.
Thanks for the tips!
Rodrigo Istalindir said:
Not that I'm complaining, but an urban "Endless Terrain" is alittle more difficult to achieve, since buildings have to "seam together" at map edges to achieve the effect - but not impossible.
My advantage is that I'm really more of a "Print on Demand" kind of shop, than a commercial printer. I don't have to create minimums of 5000 of each map. I can create one. My design time is lost on a one only map sale, but its no real financial loss. I can create quickly, so having a long list of proposed battlemap sets - isn't wishful thinking. I could do this over a month or two at most. (Given I still have a busy schedule, besides)
Although I don't want a "stock" of designs that nobody wants, I could "pack them away" into an archive file on my site and if buyers are looking, I can print, laminate and ship away, even this only means I sell it only a dozen times of a year. Its still a returning investment!
I'll definitely spend some time developing those three urban genres and see how it plays out.
Thanks for the tips!
Rodrigo Istalindir
Explorer
Oh, no doubt urban is a *lot* harder -- that's why I want someone else to do it 
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
more thoughts on urban...
OK, I think creating a Midieval urban endless terrain would be pretty easy, since many old cities of Europe have very narrow, twisting streets following old landmarks sometimes not there anymore. Lots of paths, etc.
Post-Apoc - would be relatively easy, not as easy as midieval, but roads tend to be buried or just pieces of asphalt, rather than true to scale roads. Busy, and tedious - but sort of easy.
Modern Urban, is tough only because I'm primarily working with 11 x 17 as map size. Full size urban streets especially multilane boulevards take up lots of grid space and really cramps buildings - its hard to get both on an 11 x 17. Consider that a standard Building Tile is 5 x 8, that's a bit shy of 1/4 the entire sheet - and that's a small building in modern urban terms!
Small Town Modern, would be only slightly easier due to smaller structures are more common.
Just thoughts... :\
OK, I think creating a Midieval urban endless terrain would be pretty easy, since many old cities of Europe have very narrow, twisting streets following old landmarks sometimes not there anymore. Lots of paths, etc.
Post-Apoc - would be relatively easy, not as easy as midieval, but roads tend to be buried or just pieces of asphalt, rather than true to scale roads. Busy, and tedious - but sort of easy.
Modern Urban, is tough only because I'm primarily working with 11 x 17 as map size. Full size urban streets especially multilane boulevards take up lots of grid space and really cramps buildings - its hard to get both on an 11 x 17. Consider that a standard Building Tile is 5 x 8, that's a bit shy of 1/4 the entire sheet - and that's a small building in modern urban terms!
Small Town Modern, would be only slightly easier due to smaller structures are more common.
Just thoughts... :\
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
Final thoughts on Urban Modern...
OK, I gave this "lots" of thought.
The problem with Modern Urban terrains is this - let's say we pick the back streets area of an urban center, someplace away from 4 lane boulevards, and block hogging skyscrapers.
Let's limit streets to two lanes, a single parking lane, and sidewalks on either side. If I cheat on scale alittle - this is 7 inches across or 35 feet! On an 11 x 17 sheet, 7 inches eats too much map space, leaving very little room for buildings and encounter areas not on the street itself. I can't accomplish the "endless terrain effect" with this limited space without looking cheap and overly redundant on map graphics.
I definitely plan to create a modern urban map, but to do that, 18 x 24 or 24 x 36 would be the way to go. So it doesn't niche well with the Endless Terrain concept at this time.
When I create a large format Endless Terrain product, this will be the first one!
No definite plans, but this might be a few months down the road. :\
OK, I gave this "lots" of thought.
The problem with Modern Urban terrains is this - let's say we pick the back streets area of an urban center, someplace away from 4 lane boulevards, and block hogging skyscrapers.
Let's limit streets to two lanes, a single parking lane, and sidewalks on either side. If I cheat on scale alittle - this is 7 inches across or 35 feet! On an 11 x 17 sheet, 7 inches eats too much map space, leaving very little room for buildings and encounter areas not on the street itself. I can't accomplish the "endless terrain effect" with this limited space without looking cheap and overly redundant on map graphics.
I definitely plan to create a modern urban map, but to do that, 18 x 24 or 24 x 36 would be the way to go. So it doesn't niche well with the Endless Terrain concept at this time.
When I create a large format Endless Terrain product, this will be the first one!
No definite plans, but this might be a few months down the road. :\
gamerprinter
Mapper/Publisher
Evaluating a new idea...
Someone from Kenzerco.com forums asked if I could create - objects that could be placed on a laminated map surface that would stick there, but easily come off.
My solution was printing images, symbols, numbers on "static cling" film. This is non-adhesive, yet, if you place onto a laminated surface and flatten the air bubbles out - it sticks to the surface. You could even dunk the map into a bucket of water and the static cling would not come off. You need to lift the edge of the decal with your fingernail or a playing card - then pull the "cling" off, stick on a sheet of transparency and put away at the end of gaming.
I question posted was regarding "elevation markers" to be placed on highland terrain to denote height above ground level.
However, the more I think about it, the "cling" solution works for many GM accessories:
1. Map Tiles / Dungeon Tiles - map objects, structures, treasure, monsters, etc.
2. Markers - elevation, encounter areas, campsites, etc.
In fact, I'd think pairing up a set of Battlemaps and set of "cling" map objects would work well together.
Just thoughts
Someone from Kenzerco.com forums asked if I could create - objects that could be placed on a laminated map surface that would stick there, but easily come off.
My solution was printing images, symbols, numbers on "static cling" film. This is non-adhesive, yet, if you place onto a laminated surface and flatten the air bubbles out - it sticks to the surface. You could even dunk the map into a bucket of water and the static cling would not come off. You need to lift the edge of the decal with your fingernail or a playing card - then pull the "cling" off, stick on a sheet of transparency and put away at the end of gaming.
I question posted was regarding "elevation markers" to be placed on highland terrain to denote height above ground level.
However, the more I think about it, the "cling" solution works for many GM accessories:
1. Map Tiles / Dungeon Tiles - map objects, structures, treasure, monsters, etc.
2. Markers - elevation, encounter areas, campsites, etc.
In fact, I'd think pairing up a set of Battlemaps and set of "cling" map objects would work well together.
Just thoughts
