Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 funkylordwedge Aug 09, 2011 11:54:22	I've done some scrounging / lurking among the forums and can't seemingly find a solid answer on what someone suggests for this, so, I figured I'd plunder answers for a question that many of you may find very dumb. Looking through the DnDI magazines I've found a few maps that I thoroughly enjoy (even though I may not necessarily appreciate the set ups or encounters as they have them.)   What do you suggest / what is the easiest way of obtaining these maps for at home play? I'm keen on any response from "ur dum" to "use tiles" to "draw it yourself."  I'm mostly curious as how others obtain / download / print / use these maps in game play.   Thanks!
#2 eseibert Aug 09, 2011 12:02:41	I have a fairly large battlemat that I draw on as the players explore an area.  I can usually fit several encounrters on the mat before I have to erase. For fancy maps, I usually draw it out in Autocad and plot it on a large piece of paper, then color it myself with watercolor pencils.  It takes longer, but it makes a great end product.  It's possible to plot out a large, colored map, but the cost in ink/toner really adds up.
#3 qalin Aug 09, 2011 12:03:09	I had a fairly good experience printing them to full size paper, trimming the edges and taping them together.  It was a bit time consuming, but the resulting maps were worth it.
#4 RedSiegfried Aug 10, 2011 2:00:49	Excel is good for "tiling" maps on standard sized paper, then you just have to manually size them up and trim and tape them together.  There's also a program called PosteRazor which is free and is a little easier to use than Excel which will do the same thing.  Essentially you insert your image, tell it what size you want it to be and it will print it out for you on whatever size of paper you want and you just have to trim and assemble if needed. Older maps will have lots of spoilers on them like monster and trap locations, so you may have to manually edit those, but it can be done with any graphics program, even MS Paint.  Just takes a little time.  I hear tell the newest maps are pdfs with layers on them and you can remove the spoilers, but I haven't tried that yet for myself. I use tiles, dry/wet erase battle mats, dry/wet erase custom location maps from Paizo and even rotatable cards with different locations that can be assembled in different combinations.  However, I'm discovering that if I really want one of WoTC's maps, the Excel or PosteRazor methods work best with just a little work.
#5 Kalex_the_Omen Aug 10, 2011 5:52:41	I hear tell the newest maps are pdfs with layers on them and you can remove the spoilers, but I haven't tried that yet for myself. Actually that is incorrect unless something changed very recently (as in the last week).  The maps are still jpegs, but the ones they are putting in the map gallery downloads have no DM information. To answer the OP, I use a Chessex Megamat, or Mondomat to draw encounters with wet erase markers.  If I want to make an encounter really "pop" I will draw it up in Dundjinni and print it out to scale.  For a time we tried using Dwarven Forge terrain, but after spending a lot of money found that it was more trouble than it was worth. Hope this helps.