# Photos of your favorite poster maps / battle maps?



## buddhafrog (Nov 24, 2010)

What are your favorite poster/battle maps?  Share them here with links to photos if possible.  

Linking to photos of Dwarven Forge will not get you arrested by the town guard, but I'm more interested in poster maps that come with modules, map packs, etc.

I'll start with a three of my favorites sets:

*Fantastic Locations: City of Peril*
This can be bought for pretty cheap and has really useful maps market and inn poster - 1) a decent city market which can also be used for a sort of town square. 2) another Inn, yes, but my favorite inn with two stories.  town and sewer posters - 3) a decent sewer map which is a little meh for me.  4) the best is a collection of buildings with "thief-walkways" connecting them.  I've used this one in every game.  Creating dungeons with tiles works well but cities are sometimes difficult which makes this set most useful.

*Starship Troopers Floorplans*:
If I had only one map set, it might be this very underrated set: Starship Troopers Floorplans - three double-sided poster maps of six different environmental locations: forest, beach, fields, marsh, rocks, tunnels, snow.  I bought this set for about $6, and for the price, can't be beat.  It's a great set to add a base environment to most locations.

*Seekers of the Ashen Crown poster map*:
great market scene - best market scene IMO, and potential to run various types of fun encounters here.
1/2 poster road - not too special, but a solid map.  I'm tired of using Kings Road and back of the paizo flip-mat: Keep. 
1/2 poster evil temple/throne room - I love this room and have used it in all my games for various purposes.

I didn't list any Gamemastery Flip-Mats although those are my favorite brand.  Their quality is great and some of the maps are beautiful, but these sets above come with more than one image and thus are my favorites.


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## T-Bone (Dec 2, 2010)

Thanks for the heads up on the Starship Troopers Floorplans.  Paizo has them for $5, and I got 2 sets on Black Friday/Weekend special for $1.99 each.

Hopefully they have a 1" grid. I couldnt really see for sure, but the cover art looked like the do.


Note also that several of the WOTC maps you posted are available from Gale Force 9 in a rolled vinyl format. I have all 6 of the GF9 maps. The only one I was a little disappointed in was the Caves of Chaos map which looked bleached out/too light. Don't know what happened there, still usable though.

I recently saw the maps that come with the D&D Essentials DM Kit. There is a VERY nice Castle/Keep. And a VERY nice Farm.

The two latest D&D 4E modules, and the Vor Rukoth setting book all have great poster maps as well. Amazon prices make these worth picking up for the maps alone. I haven't read much of the word content yet though.


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## Matrix Sorcica (Dec 2, 2010)

buddhafrog, how are you able to link to the WotC poster maps? Aren't they behind the pay wall, and if not, could you tell how you found them and if there are others? Thanks.


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## buddhafrog (Dec 2, 2010)

T-Bone said:


> Thanks for the heads up on the Starship Troopers Floorplans.  Paizo has them for $5, and I got 2 sets on Black Friday/Weekend special for $1.99 each.
> 
> Hopefully they have a 1" grid. I couldnt really see for sure, but the cover art looked like the do.




Great deal!  1" maps, yep.  This map pack is the best deal that basically no one seems to know about.  I love them and use them all the time.  The swamp, beach, and forest map are particularly useful.


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## buddhafrog (Dec 2, 2010)

Matrix Sorcica said:


> buddhafrog, how are you able to link to the WotC poster maps? Aren't they behind the pay wall, and if not, could you tell how you found them and if there are others? Thanks.




I'm a level 23 thief.  I have my ways.  

Additionally, I don't think they're behind the pay wall - I'm not a subscriber.  I just did *a lot* of searches and found the links.

I DM a 1/2 dozen games a week in Korea and really need more materials/modules/maps.  This Christmas I'm buying up loads of items.  Part of the determining factor on what module I would buy was the map that came with it.  On Amazon many of these newer modules/maps go for about $10 - good deal.  Unfortunately it was hard to find pictures of most of these maps.  I did tons of searches and found these links.  This is what led me to start this overwhelmingly popular thread.

I just got my DM Kit and Monster Vault and was able to see the enclosed maps in person.  Monster Vault was pretty lousy only b/c is a map I already have - the snow village map (which is a great map btw - but I don't need two).  The DM Kit map is just fantastic with a farm, small buildings, and awesome castle wall.  Very reusable.  That probably is one of my top three map sets actually.


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## T-Bone (Dec 3, 2010)

I found pictures of the maps from vor Rukoth  and the other two recent WOTC D&D modules (whos titles I can't seem to remember) on the website for pasadena meetup. They had laid out the maps and posted pics of them. Made me immediately buy the modules.

As a D&D battlemap collector, I got most of the Paizo "map packs" and glued them down to foamcore boards. If you dont have the "map packs", you should definitely look into them.


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## buddhafrog (Dec 3, 2010)

I have a couple of the map packs (GameMastery Map Pack: Lairs is excellent), but I take my maps with me when I DM so gluing them to foamcore doesn't work well for me. In general I've avoided most of these Map Packs b/c they are real tough to keep together in-play.


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## Random Axe (Dec 3, 2010)

T-Bone said:


> Thanks for the heads up on the Starship Troopers Floorplans.  Paizo has them for $5, and I got 2 sets on Black Friday/Weekend special for $1.99 each.




Holy Score, Batman.

I assume when I go to Paizo.com to buy this set, it arrives as a PDF download?  I want to jump on this ASAP.


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## buddhafrog (Dec 3, 2010)

Random Axe said:


> Holy Score, Batman.
> 
> I assume when I go to Paizo.com to buy this set, it arrives as a PDF download?  I want to jump on this ASAP.




Don't know and I wonder if that sale would still be happening.  But I bought this actual map box set for $6, which is almost free - and it comes with three thicker than standard double-sided maps.


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## T-Bone (Dec 3, 2010)

Random Axe said:


> Holy Score, Batman.
> 
> I assume when I go to Paizo.com to buy this set, it arrives as a PDF download?  I want to jump on this ASAP.




It was not for the PDF. it is the physical, printed product.  The sale is over, but you can still get it for $5.00, which is a bargain. I was about to buy a used one on amazon for $9.00 plus shipping before I noticed it on paizo.com


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## CarlZog (Dec 4, 2010)

buddhafrog said:


> I DM a 1/2 dozen games a week....




Wait, what?!


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## buddhafrog (Dec 4, 2010)

CarlZog said:


> Wait, what?!




Yep.   I'm a professional DM.  HA!  I love saying that.  

While I'm a professional DM, this doesn't mean I'm a great DM as I'm still learning a lot and have only been doing it for a year.  

Ah, well, I like to say I'm a professional DM, but it might be more accurate to describe me as an ESL teacher living in Korea.  I teach late elementary through HS students, 2~4 students each class, 2 or 3 one-hour classes per week.  For six of these classs, we play D&D one class per week.  For one class (which my son joins), we play twice a week.  

Damn, that's 8 DM sessions every week.  They are shorter - 1 hour usually with a few multi-hour games mixed in - but it is still a lot to keep track of.  Especially, it's difficult to remain creative and energetic.  But after a year of doing this, it is still _loads _of fun.  

About 1/2 of my teaching hours have now become D&D.  20+ students over seven classes.  They absolutely love this completely new type of game.  I live in the world's capital of online gaming where there is no hint of RPG's, yet 80% of the kids say D&D is their favorite game and it's what they look forward to all week.  It's awesome and I feel fortunate.

P.S. which is why I need lots of maps!


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## weem (Dec 5, 2010)

buddhafrog said:


> ...I DM a 1/2 dozen games a week in Korea and really need more materials/modules/maps...




This is essentially a plug, but I think you might really dig it. Myself and a friend/co-worker have been building a tool that allows you to make battlemaps online for *free* that can be printed (click the green BattleMAP'R button in my sig).

You can export your map as a PDF for printing, or as a JPG so you can import it into another program or post it on a site, etc. We've been allowing access to it since first building it a few weeks ago. It's in Alpha but you can make maps right now (though there's not a ton of tiles yet). We've just added "accounts" to the system and in the near future you will be able to submit your own tiles and share them, or keep them private for your own use. You will be able to do the same with maps - and both can be (if made public) rated, etc.

Anyway, check it out if you get a chance to see where we are heading. It's a very quick way to make a map from any computer and get it immediately in a format you need, all for free


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## Frost (Dec 6, 2010)

buddhafrog said:


> Great deal!  1" maps, yep.  This map pack is the best deal that basically no one seems to know about.  I love them and use them all the time.  The swamp, beach, and forest map are particularly useful.




You can see a good preview at RPGNow: link

I'm tempted myself.


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## Hussar (Dec 7, 2010)

If you're looking for fantastic maps, cartographersguild.org is a great resource.


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## gamerprinter (Dec 7, 2010)

Hussar said:


> If you're looking for fantastic maps, cartographersguild.org is a great resource.




He means cartographersguild.com not '.org'

In keeping with that, except for maps that will be included in publications that I work on, I can't really post photos of the maps I use, as its a much easier thing just to look at the maps I create, as I am a large format digital printer, and I print out all my maps for game use. So looking at the maps in my Gamerprinter's Map Emporeum thread in the Art Forum on this board will suffice in showing you what maps I use (and create for myself, or for other publishers...)

My largest map for my own game use measured 42" x 96" at 1" = 5' scale for a castle map I used several years ago - don't have it anymore, but I could always print it again.

GP


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## Hussar (Dec 7, 2010)

Sorry about that Gamerprinter.  My bad.  I LOVE your stuff btw.  You do good work.


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## Jools (Dec 16, 2010)

Thanks for the post buddhafrog. You mention you can get them real cheap - I'd love to know where! I've had a good search to no avail. I've found some from private sellers on Amazon US but charging extortionate P&P unfortunately.


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## Ydars (Dec 16, 2010)

Here is a link to an album of my best loved battlemaps

http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/2845582/1/Battlemaps?h=24c9f4

Most are by the excellent Cisticola (a renowed map maker) except the road map (I forget where this came from). Note that I am posting these versions because I added the grid to them. I also made audience chamber, Leydon Hillfort, Fernbrook caverns and the Horned Hold, myself.

If you are interested in seeing more of Cisticola's fantastic work see here

Zitting Cisticola - Home

regards

Ydars


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## buddhafrog (Dec 16, 2010)

Jools said:


> Thanks for the post buddhafrog. You mention you can get them real cheap - I'd love to know where! I've had a good search to no avail. I've found some from private sellers on Amazon US but charging extortionate P&P unfortunately.




Sorry my Japanese-based compatriot.  I actually got them shipped to the states and had a friend bundle a lot of stuff together for me ($179 shipping for tons of stuff).  I've now found bookdepository.com  which will ship for FREE - I just got Castle Ravenloft, that huge f'n box, for $59!  I know you can find it cheaper online, but the shipping for something that big to this part of the world is crazy-expensive.  Unfortunately, bookdepository.com doesn't have the Floorplans.  They do link to this page that has international shipping if you want to check it out - seems like about $20, not too cheap.



Ydars said:


> Here is a link to an album of my best loved battlemaps
> 
> http://www.dropbox.com/gallery/2845582/1/Battlemaps?h=24c9f4
> 
> ...




Some of these are awesome.  I love the alley1 and the river/building view with the burned building.  I quickly checked the other link as well.  How do you get these large enough to print them with quality?  You just tape them together?  What program do you use to put the 1 inch squares?  I think I'd like to use some of these - some are fantastic.


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## Ydars (Dec 17, 2010)

Hi Buddhafrog,

The really nice street maps are Cisiticola's and they are damn good.

I used Photoshop to put the grids on; I just make a new layer to duplicate the whole map, put a white grid in between the two map layer duplicates and delete the top map layer carefully so that the grid shows through only where I want it to. It is really easy and you can do the same in the free map program GIMP (see GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program). If you have any trouble, drop me a line and I will do it for you.

For printing these maps, I open them in photoshop (you could again use GIMP, which is free) and use the poster printing function to print out the map as 9 x A4 sheets. I then taped mine together and used  a huge sheet of sticky cellophane, like the stuff you use to cover text-books, to add a nice transparent, waterproof layer over the front of the map. 

I have recently made about 30-40 battlemaps this way, including tons of Cisiticola's and it is great!

Hope this helps.


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## Ydars (Dec 17, 2010)

I forgot to include a plug for my favourite battlemap of all time; truly a work of genius. It is on RPGmapshare, so you have to register to download it, but you can find it here.

Ephiarran Highlands | RPGMapShare.com


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