Mapping concepts

[Cecil]

I'm not sure whether this belongs in the cartography forum or here--finally, I figured it belonged here--how do I incorporate maps to support a plot more effectively?

I've been trying to incorporate maps as a more critcal part of my campaign. This experiment worked out rather well:

http://www.ankaredale.com/campaign/Cartographer/Vordel/dragonbone.HTM

(please ignore some of the rest of the site--I'm not really ready for a lot of visitors) What I'm after is some other great ideas on what to do with maps. I'd like to prepare a series of web pages demonstrating the usefulness of maps in a campaign--how to make them more than pretty game aids / handouts--how to make them actually PART of the adventure.

 

[Hand of Evil]

High-lights or tourist attactions. You just place places the players should have heard about or know on the map and leave everything else fuzzy.

This works well with cities too.

 

[Shadow64]

Cool idea with the vellum sheet. What brand/type of paper was it? This is just to cool of an idea not to use.

Also - did you have any problem with the ink bleeding to much (i've printed on vellum before and the kind that was used bled very badly), not drying (another problem i had with a different kind of vellum), etc.?

 

[Cecil]

I ordered the paper from PaperDirect (it was bl#&$ expensive!) but it's designed to be used in inkjet and laser printers. So, no problems with the ink running--it worked well and is actually fairly durable.

 

[Shadow64]

thanks. i will have to check it out.