Maps From Adventures

[Richards]

As an FYI, there are both presentation pads and desk blotters with squaregrids, in 1", 1/2", and 1/4", commonly available.

alternate terms for presentation pads: chart pads, easel pads, flip chart paper

Those are viable alternatives to those willing to pay those prices...I tend to scale a bit closer to the "cheapskate" end of the spectrum. Desk calendars had the advantage of being free (I used to gather up everyone's sheets in my office at the end of the month, back when we all used desk calendars).

Johnathan

 

[el-remmen]

while not exactly “cheapskate,” in terms of value that 200 ft roll of one inch gridded paper cannot be beat. It should literally last you at least a decade. One of these days when I am bored I will lay out all the sections of it I have cut and used so far and measure.

I acquired this (from Amazon) after I realized that getting similar flip charts was too expensive and i frequently needed a length greater than the height of the pad.

 

[Piperken]

Thank you all for the tips and tricks! I have the Chessex battlemap and will be using that one moving forward.

The one thing I'm bummed about is how pretty some of the maps in the book look and my drawings of outlines are going to be subpar. But as someone said earlier, that is where the words come in

You may know, but an eraser does remove dry erase marker from your map, in case that happens!

(I use a combination of Chessex and small dry erase boards. I ended up labeling the container I put dry erase markers in as a check to avoid that.)

 

[Jd Smith1]

Back in the F2F days, I cut & pasted into jpgs, and used MapTool on a LAN.

 

[Scott Christian]

When running from a published adventure, I almost always redo the map in Inkarnate. It is an incredible map tool. Then I send them off to some printing company and they arrive next week. I generally print about 12-18 3-4 months. Many don't get used, but that is ok. I also combine this with the pre-printed maps I have from WotC (4e era), Paizo battle maps, and Paizo flip maps. The flip mats are easy to just sprinkle terrain pieces on. When an area is really important, I will use Dwarven Forge if it matches the setting.

PS - Overall, I find that groups have a tendency to fight in a relatively small area (18x24 or 24x30), and this is especially true in terrain like canyons, mountainsides, singular caves, and dungeon rooms.

PPS - The reason I recreate them in Inkarnate is because I am resizing them to print them. Digitally, I find crafting the entire dungeon, moving all the characters, creating the walls and dynamic lighting, to be a boon and bane as a player or a DM. The grand scope is really cool, but as players move through the dungeon, it gets exhausting moving each person.