Free Maps from Alea Publishing Group!

[Jraynack]

Come over to Alea Publishing Group and check out the free maps that are available for download in our Free Stuff section if you haven't already.


We also have further maps in our free product A Question of Honor: A Game Enhancement.

We also have a mini poster of our Hill Lands region featured in A Question of Honor: A Guidebook to Knights at our online store. It also features the city map of Argos and two keeps.

We are constantly working on maps for our free downloads section and exclusive maps featured in our products. We want your opinion and influence for we want to be your game company.

Also, do you want to submit a map to place in our free download section?
We are looking to flesh out our Hill Lands region featured in A Question of Honor: A Guidebook to Knights for our fans and we want the players and GMs involved in creating a world they want to explore.

This means you!

The only stipilations are that it has to either depict an area in the Hill Lands or small enough (not a major city) that can be inserted into the Hill Lands or in our cities (such as city sections). You must be the sole owner of the map (The one who created it). Also, we are looking for maps that are outside the box so put those map programs aside and be creative!

The creators of the maps we select will recieve a complimentary product of their choice (APG Knight Guidebook Package excluded)

So contact me with those maps or ideas of things you want to see and enjoy the free maps.

Joshua Raynack
Game Designer/Art Director
Alea Publishing Group

 

[Eridanis]

Sounds great! I'll slide this over the publisher forum (the usual home for press-release type stuff). Thanks!

 

[Axegrrl]

error messages....

I tried to submit a ratings and got the eror "You can't access this file directly...". Also, the "home page" links return the error "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded." And I noticed that two of the jpegs are in zip files, even though putting them in zip files does not change the file size.

The maps of the city and keep are missing scale bars. One can sort of guess at the scale, but I'd really prefer to know how big stuff is.

You might also make the maps available at two different resolutions: one for on-screen previewing, similar in size to what you've got now, and one that's significantly larger for printing or for zooming in to see the details.

Another possibility: include maps that have some buildings labeled. This could be a real boon for some GMs, while other GMs would rather decide which building is what for themselves. For the latter group, unlabeled versions should be available. I'd use Photoshop to create something like that; all the labels can be on a separate layer to make producing the different variants easily.

Specific comments on the Medieval Church map:
- Only one door?
- No place for the clerics/priests to don their vestments? Usually, there's a small room behind the altar (the vestibule) where the priests would don their robes of office before a service. The vestibule often had its own door.

An excellent reference/resource for medieval floor plans is Heck's Pictorial Archive of Art and Architecture, published by Dover, ISBN 0-486-28254-6. The price on my copy is $11.95.

You mentioned you'd like any submitted maps to fit into the Hill Lands -- is there a base map of the Hill Lands somewhere on your web site, so that prospective cartographers can find out what kind of terrain and vegetation are present in the area?

 

[Jraynack]

I tried to submit a ratings and got the eror "You can't access this file directly...". Also, the "home page" links return the error "The URL is not valid and cannot be loaded." And I noticed that two of the jpegs are in zip files, even though putting them in zip files does not change the file size.

I checked out the links and everything seemed fine to me, however I will talk to Ryan, our webmaster and have him investigate those bugs.

Thanks for the suggestions and future maps will reflect your input. The maps are vague regarding information, however we felt at the time that a GM can input the info that he wishes rather than predetermined by us. However, I can see having two version of a map (one with info and one without).

As for a vestibule, great attention to detail. I envisioned this church, a step up from the basic medieval church, where the rector or parish priest had an adjacent home and worked the fields himself (occasionally they had mistresses). Items in such a case (special incense, candles, etc.) were kept within the altar, behind a painted screen, or in an area partioned off by heavy cloth.

You mentioned you'd like any submitted maps to fit into the Hill Lands -- is there a base map of the Hill Lands somewhere on your web site, so that prospective cartographers can find out what kind of terrain and vegetation are present in the area?

There is not a large and detailed Hill Lands map on our website at this time. It is located in our Guidebooks, however we are planning to release it in a large size with an upcoming free product. A smaller version is located in our free product A Question of Honor: A Game Enhancement.

However, we are really flexible with those that do not have our products when wanting to submit a map. We designed the Hill Lands as a sparse (hilly)region ready for small towns, castle, tombs, and the lot to be inserted anywhere.

Thanks again for the criticism for it makes our products better and that is the ultimate goal. Also, I be on the look out for that book (Dover books are great, aren't they).

Josh Raynack
Alea Publishing Group

 

[Axegrrl]

I did look at the map in the web enhancement, and sadly, the text on the map was unreadable.

System setup, for your webmaster's info: Windows XP Home (and I keep my XP patches up-to-date), Netscape 7.x.

 

[Vascant]

Also on your website, got an error claiming it could not send a message when using the "Contact us" and at first glance, could not find any email address for you.

 

[Jraynack]

Hey Vascant,

Thanks for pointing out that small bug, I will have our moderater check into it, however be rest assured that it does work. You can also contact me at jraynack@aleapublishing.com.

Please, let us know if there is any thing else,

Josh Raynack