Dudes,

Okay so i know there are about a dozen ways to give maps to players but i'd love some help. In instances where the PCs are searching a dungeon or cavern where you as a GM do not want to reveal the entire map to them at once (or perhaps the map has GM traps and treasure on it) how do you reveal the map to the PCs?

I have heard of people drawing it out on a board or paper as the PCs explore, or having a map with undiscovered sections covered by post-it notes.

How od you guys handle this? I have yet to find a way that works well.

Though i love using computers and screens, my gaming group does not make use of them so i'd like to avoid projection screens, laptops, MapTools (which is very cool by the way) and the like.

Thanks in advance!

Game on!

-Gitzman

I scan in the map and use the living room's HDTV.

I apply a mask to the scanned map in Photoshop, that will make the majority of the map appear as if covered with Fog of war. Then I either slowly reveal the bits of the map as they navigate through it or move the mask around to show them different parts. I keep the uncovered version of the image on my laptop's screen.

I'm old school. I like to hand them physical hand outs. The outsider made a nice map making tutorial.

Ya i love the photoshop idea but like i said im not going to be using a computer/tv and am looking more for a way to reveal drawn/handout maps.

What is the Outsider you refered to?

-Gitzman

Gitzman said:

I assume he means this:

Here's your answer:

MAPTOOL (it's freeware)..I've used it for YEARS for my games..plus if you feel like it, do it internationally

www.rptools.net/index.php

HERE'S MY WFRP GALLERY:

gallery.rptools.net/v/contrib/emirikol7/

Emirikol: What the... is that for a tool. It looks great. Freeware. I will try it. next session. Maybe I try it even erlier on next Monday our Dark Heresy Session.

Thanks for the Link!

That looks nice Emirikol, but can it make outdoors maps as well.

/+1 for Maptool

You could make a location card for each room, and then just flip over the next card as they progress through doors. It's not as detailed as a traditional map, but it would allow for seemless integration to the standard encounter rules should a fight break out.

Yes i'm a big fan of MapTools. I used it heavily in 2nd edition and managed to script out almost the whole ruleset. I even made a database of all the creatures in the bestiary (and a few more custom ones from scenario books).

I have not however made anything in it for use with 3rd edition. Though i'd guess that a lot of the graphics, tile sets and other content i've created can be used in 3rd edition as well.

If you guys like, i can post that content for download, let me know.

-Gitzman

You hand them a pad of graph paper and you describe what they see. It is up to them to map it if they wish. If there are errors, well, then the players didn't map it so well.

Ah, the old days of 1st edition D&D....

If you want a "reveal as you go" type of paper/cardboard map that you can lay out on the table, you can also consider taking a printed or hand-drawn map and then cut it up into sections (a good rule of thumb is to make each room a separate "piece". I would clearly number each of these sections and have a conveniently-sized copy of the entire map for the GM to reference so that he knows where to place "Room 2" and "Room 3", etc, etc. As the PCs move from section to section, reveal the next piece. It's kinda like creating custom map-tiles. Hopefully that makes sense.

Gallows said:

In maptool, you just scan/create a map and upload it..so YES..it could be a map of Leonard Nimoy's skin for all it matters. Then you open it and set up your vision blocking layers...then your reveal whatever you want. I did up an island for my conan game and revealed bits to the players as we went along. It worked out cool.

Better yet, GITZMAN ran several of us through KARAK AZGAL and we got our asses handed to us by some Skaven (but they don't exist..so I'm not sure what it really was in the dark).

Acutally i just started uploading all my MapTools content and WFRP2 & 3 content to my website so i can host it for others to download.

I'll try to have it all ready by the end of the weekend.

The Karak Azghal adventure Emerikol mentioned will be there with all the MapTools content needed to run it. There will be loads of other stuff to.

Stay tuned...

-Gitzman

P.S. That was good times E