Forgotten Realms Map - Huh?

[Ninja-to]

I made a similar post on the wizards boards, but thought I'd probably get a better answer here.

Where the hell are the locations marked for nearly 60% of the FR Campaign guide?? I mean seriously, page 126-127 is a pure example of how lazy the designers seem to be. 9 locations are named and written out in the description, and ONE is actually written on to the map. This is rampant throughout the whole damn book. It's really frustrating. As a DM this is a major inconvenience as I've now got to remember exactly where everything I said it was, still is. Are we expected to just 'guess' everything and start writing on the map ourselves? Wtf is going on here?

Forgive me for ranting if I've overlooked something really obvious. But if I haven't... for god's sake someone make up a decent map...!

 

[mach1.9pants]

yeah there is no trick it is the worst and most buggy RPG map EVAR!!11!!

Total rubbish 'cos I normally love maps.

 

[Ninja-to]

Ugh that's insane. Seriously what were they thinking? It would have taken very little in terms of production costs to have some dude type some locations in. Wow.

 

[Anthraxus]

I was actually looking at the FRCS last night in prep for a game- noticed the same thing. I thought maybe it was so you could put the locations where you wanted/needed them for YOUR game, but maybe they just got lazy, who knows.

 

[Obryn]

Sigh. Yep, it's a bad map. Blotchy, ugly, and incomplete. I don't care for it much at all.

-O

 

[Nebulous]

I just can't understand how they screwed that map up, with the vast utilities available to them and a proven track record of making ace maps.

 

[ki11erDM]

Really? You don’t want the option to say… put a town or site a ½ inch to the left?

Now, I don’t like the look of the map… there are tons of great cartographers out there and I personally don’t think they picked a good one. And it could use more location detailing but I don’t want to know where every single little thing is… I want to option to put it where I want. If you leave it vague you leave it open to the DM, which is a good thing, to an extent.

 

[Ninja-to]

Really? You don’t want the option to say… put a town or site a ½ inch to the left?

Now, I don’t like the look of the map… there are tons of great cartographers out there and I personally don’t think they picked a good one. And it could use more location detailing but I don’t want to know where every single little thing is… I want to option to put it where I want. If you leave it vague you leave it open to the DM, which is a good thing, to an extent.

I think it would have been very clever of them to have had the large, fold out printed map with all the 'secret' locations missing, and only in the campaign guide itself have the smaller version of the maps with the 'secret' locations marked. That way, you could have your big map up on the wall for the players to see, and you could giggle to yourself with your actual book that has the demon gate location marked off under the town they're about to stay in.

But alas...

 

[Nytmare]

Thank god, I thought it was just me not being able to find things between the book and the map. Glad I have someone else to blame.

 

[Chocolate Thief]

I think they plan to fill out the big map over time and are giving tasters or teasers in the guide. For example Dragon 365 details and fully maps out Cormyr.
Backdrop: Cormyr I agree it is very frustrating and it leaves me wondering if 4E regional guides will become available.