HELP - I love beautifully crafted maps but...

[dungeon blaster]

Nah. I'd go with Digital Map Projection as well. There's really no comparison...well there is...but everything else is a poor substitute for a DLP hanging from your ceiling. And just think about how fun it will be when those 3D printers become available to the general public...need a miniature? Print one out! (only I don't use mini's or mats but I'm sure someone would like it)

 

[Hand of Evil]

Great idea! Consider it stolen!

Dark color poster board works well, you don't want to make them too long, just long enough to lay on top of each other, play around with them for best results, oh, a little tape loop on one side will hold them in place. You can also use this same idea for common items, bridges, boats and such.

Also, sticks and stones make for great trees and boudlers.

 

[Brottor Dankil]

I've heard mention of these Tact-Tiles.

Could I get more info on them, your opinions and how you actually make use of them during a game?

You can pre-draw most of an encounter ahead of time and reveal it one tile at a time. Then when the party reaches the edge of the playing surface, you just pick up the tiles that are no longer in play, erase, and put them back down where the party is going. Really speeds up game play. Go to www.bc-products.net.

Although I do like the projector idea. Just more money than I want to spend.

 

[IronWolf]

Trying to get the battle mat map exact can take some time. Not being the most artistically inclined (as my group will attest to) so I tend to try to get the basic idea of the map. The big things I do try to pay attention to is the width of halls (i.e. if they are supposed to be narrow, make sure they are narrow and vice versa) and any other features in the room that may influence the encounter slated for that room (cover, etc.)

We use Tact-Tiles but I rarely (as in not yet) pre-draw the rooms ahead of time.

 

[A'koss]

Oh, if I could only afford the projector...

However, if you have a scanner, photoshop (or equivalent), a printer and a little retouching savvy you can do what I've done for a few modules...

1. Scan in/create the map - color, b&w or 1 bit, depending on how much you're willing to spend on printing it, so that it is to battlemap size (5' = 1").

2. Open it up in Photoshop and retouch out all the room numbers, secret doors, etc. Easiest to do in 1 bit.

3. Print the dungeon out on your inkjet or laser printer and cut it up into individual rooms, hallways, etc. Some of the larger rooms you may need to tape together. Heavier paper works best, but cheap'll do the job too.

4. Mark on the back which pieces go with which.

5. In play, just lay down the hallway, room, etc. as you need to. Post-it tape works nice to keep the pieces together and it's reusable.

It's great in play - fast and, of course, dead accurate. The prep time can be a bit much for the uninitiated but once you've made it, you have it forever. You can also make a bunch of "standard sized" hallways and rooms which you can re-use for the huge dungeons where you don't want to go through a ream of paper for...

Cheers!

 

[TheAuldGrump]

You might also find these to be useful.

The Auld Grump, they rate high in niftyness factor at least.

 

[arscott]

I'm working on some maps for a d20 past adventure I'm planning on running. Here's what I've done so far:

The swamp was pretty simple. It's a map from WarCraft III that I opened up in World editor, switched the camera veiw to straight down, took a screenshot, and slapped a grid on it in MS paint.

The museum took a bit more time, and I still have to add in some more exhibits, but It's still not that hard. I got the textures I wanted, resized and distorted them with paint and changed their color with MS Picture It (came free with a scanner or digital camera, IIRC). Then I drew out an outline in Paint, filled in parts of the it with the background color, and pasted it on top of the textures.

For the office complex, I'm going to try to find a blueprint and cover that with a grid. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about the final battle, though. It's outdoors, and the visibility's good enough that I won't get away with an eight by eight grid.

 

[Brottor Dankil]

Trying to get the battle mat map exact can take some time. Not being the most artistically inclined (as my group will attest to) so I tend to try to get the basic idea of the map. The big things I do try to pay attention to is the width of halls (i.e. if they are supposed to be narrow, make sure they are narrow and vice versa) and any other features in the room that may influence the encounter slated for that room (cover, etc.)

We use Tact-Tiles but I rarely (as in not yet) pre-draw the rooms ahead of time.

A couple of predrawing tips: 1) Let the ink dry overnight if possible before packing up the tiles. The ink sticks better to the surface. 2) Use the foam pads. They "grip" the tiles and help prevent the sliding motion that will erase the ink. 3) Put a small letter or number on each tile. Then write down the tile location plan, either on one of the tiles or on a scrap piece of paper. This helps especially when you reveal one tile at a time.

 

[Steel_Wind]

One further note on map drawing and printing:

The HP LaserJet 2550L Colour Laser Printer was on sale last week at Future Shop in Canada for $379 CDN. The sale was an instant rebate - not a mail in one - I presume this preceded either an increase in inventory of HP or a move to a new model in this line.

The laser printer's cartidges normally support 4000 pages per load out; on the ones that come with the printer initially, the page limit is 2000 or so. A refilled toner cartridge, for all 4, is about $200 CDN.

The consumable cost on color laser is still substantial - but with toner refilling you can get the price down to FIVE (.05) cents a page.

If these sales are on in Canada - I imagine they are on in the USA as well. The 2550L creates brilliantly clear output in color and in black at 600dpi. The sale price moved the printer below the cost of HP's basic black home office laser printer.

In the next few years, we can expect to see the cost of color laser printers continue to decrease and become far more practical for home use. $1 buck a page at Kinkos is not very nice - but a nickel a page at home? That's affordable to a lot of ENWorlders.