Hi everyone! I'm a returning DM for 5e after about a year and a half haitus about to run 'The Mines of Phandelver' for a group of people who had minimal experience with D&D. My question is so: how do you, physically reproduce the maps contained in the Starter set?
I've mainly got by with crude drawings on multiple pages of A4 mathematical grid paper (the grid tends to help with calculating exact measurement with ft) duct taped together to create something that roughly resembles the full coloured and designed product in the starter edition. It worked for the very first group I played it with, albeit with many questions with 'what's that supposed to be' and the measurements of a lot of the area's being wonky.
it should also be noted that my artistic ability is lacking very much so, so any guidence for people who've played 'Mines and know of a good way to reproduce the maps to a standard which feels closer to the original campaign would be warmly welcomed!
I'm running Mines right now. Haven't DM'd in ages, but we just finished the Tiamat campaign before this. We've got 5 players. Most of the players only had experience with the last campaign and one is brand new.
For the map, I do a quick and dirty freehand on a roll out map with dry erase. I don't worry too much about accuracy with what's in the book. I have a lot Dungeon Tiles that I've rarely used, so for the upcoming Manor encounter, I'm gonna set up the rooms in individual, numbered bags so I can plop them down quickly without having to draw every thing.
I'm a mechanical engineer, so I have access to a wide format (36" wide) roll plotter. So I generally find an official map or create one and plot it out to a 1"=5ft scale that works for the player minis.
A local copy shop would be able to do something similar for you.
Do you know how much (roughly) the cost of reproducing those kind of maps with full color? I have honestly considered it, but for different Campaigns since I wonder if putting the effort into a starter campaign was worth it, but first impressions do matter for players. It's one of those things that I can say have distinct benefits playing an campaign on a online service, with the ease of importing high quailty maps.
I do a combination of maps on large(18x24) grid paper for my more detalied maps, a battle mat for quick encounters or events, and dungeon painter studio when I want to get real fancy. I get those ones printed up by my girlfriend at the print shop she works at so I get a discount on things so I really can't speak to costs on them but places online like vista print are pretty cheap but you may lose quality on them.
This is my suggestion for the modules with GOOD maps, don't print out the maps yourself. Go down to FedEx or VistaPrint and pay for a color print of the map you want. Get a good picture frame that you can use for your printing and put the map in it. You can use black velvet as a drape and expand it out, or use black cardboard cut outs to hide sections of the map.
For the CRAP maps, use a battle grid like Chesex Battlemat (34 1/2" X 48") will fit nicely in the frame or Battle Grid Game Mat (34 1/2 " X 48") is good as well. And you can put those grids in your frame as well.
An example of a good looking map is Lost Mines of Phandelver, excellent really good art, WoTC really took their pride in it. And then you got Dungeon of the Mad Mage which looks like it came from 1974 and was generated on an IBM Greenscreen dot matrix printer - ie Not Worth Printing Out.
Make sure the frame you buy you can erase it and not mark it up. Or just use the battlemaps and ignore printing it out. Some of the modules are good quality and are worth printing. I said F'it and went with Collabrewate and I have them building a TV I sent them into a wooden frame with tempered glass and that is what I'm going to use for my group. Of course I'm going to have to have a lot of maps premade and available to use and I'll still have my Battle Grid available for random encounters.
Our DM has a TV and literally puts the maps full screen, set it flat on the table and we go.
When I DM'd I did a lot of crafting or printed tiles. I amassed a number of PDFs of a variety of maps and just assembled layouts very similar to what the book calls for.
I am not running anything right now but I am building modular lego dungeon tiles.
The easiest way is getting a flip mat or some kind of battle mat that you can use with dry erase markers. If you are not comfortable drawing on the fly. You can find the maps for the LMOP online. Office Depot or Kinkos can print posters. You just need to talk to them about the print area so you can set the size of the map correctly to print. If money is an issue you can do black and white to get them printed.
about to run 'The Mines of Phandelver' for a group of people who had minimal experience with D&D. My question is so: how do you, physically reproduce the maps contained in the Starter set?
I printed most of them out (to scale, on multiple sheets of paper, then taped them together). I believe I found player versions of LMoP maps in Dragon+ (Mike Schley has them too).
I've since discovered poster-sized maps (using vistaprint.com). Costs more, but was worth it for my Tomb of Annihilation campaigns.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi everyone! I'm a returning DM for 5e after about a year and a half haitus about to run 'The Mines of Phandelver' for a group of people who had minimal experience with D&D. My question is so: how do you, physically reproduce the maps contained in the Starter set?
I've mainly got by with crude drawings on multiple pages of A4 mathematical grid paper (the grid tends to help with calculating exact measurement with ft) duct taped together to create something that roughly resembles the full coloured and designed product in the starter edition. It worked for the very first group I played it with, albeit with many questions with 'what's that supposed to be' and the measurements of a lot of the area's being wonky.
it should also be noted that my artistic ability is lacking very much so, so any guidence for people who've played 'Mines and know of a good way to reproduce the maps to a standard which feels closer to the original campaign would be warmly welcomed!
I'm running Mines right now. Haven't DM'd in ages, but we just finished the Tiamat campaign before this. We've got 5 players. Most of the players only had experience with the last campaign and one is brand new.
For the map, I do a quick and dirty freehand on a roll out map with dry erase. I don't worry too much about accuracy with what's in the book. I have a lot Dungeon Tiles that I've rarely used, so for the upcoming Manor encounter, I'm gonna set up the rooms in individual, numbered bags so I can plop them down quickly without having to draw every thing.
I'm a mechanical engineer, so I have access to a wide format (36" wide) roll plotter. So I generally find an official map or create one and plot it out to a 1"=5ft scale that works for the player minis.
A local copy shop would be able to do something similar for you.
Do you know how much (roughly) the cost of reproducing those kind of maps with full color? I have honestly considered it, but for different Campaigns since I wonder if putting the effort into a starter campaign was worth it, but first impressions do matter for players. It's one of those things that I can say have distinct benefits playing an campaign on a online service, with the ease of importing high quailty maps.
I do a combination of maps on large(18x24) grid paper for my more detalied maps, a battle mat for quick encounters or events, and dungeon painter studio when I want to get real fancy. I get those ones printed up by my girlfriend at the print shop she works at so I get a discount on things so I really can't speak to costs on them but places online like vista print are pretty cheap but you may lose quality on them.
Well, honestly just use battlemat like this: https://www.amazon.com/Paizo-Inc-PZOSQW30024-Pathfinder-Flip-Mat/dp/1601255381
This is my suggestion for the modules with GOOD maps, don't print out the maps yourself. Go down to FedEx or VistaPrint and pay for a color print of the map you want. Get a good picture frame that you can use for your printing and put the map in it. You can use black velvet as a drape and expand it out, or use black cardboard cut outs to hide sections of the map.
For the CRAP maps, use a battle grid like Chesex Battlemat (34 1/2" X 48") will fit nicely in the frame or Battle Grid Game Mat (34 1/2 " X 48") is good as well. And you can put those grids in your frame as well.
An example of a good looking map is Lost Mines of Phandelver, excellent really good art, WoTC really took their pride in it. And then you got Dungeon of the Mad Mage which looks like it came from 1974 and was generated on an IBM Greenscreen dot matrix printer - ie Not Worth Printing Out.
Make sure the frame you buy you can erase it and not mark it up. Or just use the battlemaps and ignore printing it out. Some of the modules are good quality and are worth printing. I said F'it and went with Collabrewate and I have them building a TV I sent them into a wooden frame with tempered glass and that is what I'm going to use for my group. Of course I'm going to have to have a lot of maps premade and available to use and I'll still have my Battle Grid available for random encounters.
Our DM has a TV and literally puts the maps full screen, set it flat on the table and we go.
When I DM'd I did a lot of crafting or printed tiles. I amassed a number of PDFs of a variety of maps and just assembled layouts very similar to what the book calls for.
I am not running anything right now but I am building modular lego dungeon tiles.
The easiest way is getting a flip mat or some kind of battle mat that you can use with dry erase markers. If you are not comfortable drawing on the fly. You can find the maps for the LMOP online. Office Depot or Kinkos can print posters. You just need to talk to them about the print area so you can set the size of the map correctly to print. If money is an issue you can do black and white to get them printed.
I printed most of them out (to scale, on multiple sheets of paper, then taped them together). I believe I found player versions of LMoP maps in Dragon+ (Mike Schley has them too).
I've since discovered poster-sized maps (using vistaprint.com). Costs more, but was worth it for my Tomb of Annihilation campaigns.