Who's using maps in your game?

[reapersaurus]

I haven't gotten a chance to scour all the games being played and was wondering if you guys could let me know:

Could you describe if and how maps are being used in your IC games?

Do you find that you don't need them for combat?

For myself, I think that maps during combat are an integral part of the IC experience. Since you don't have a table to play around, you are more than ever reliant on the visual map to help your combat decisions.

If you aren't using combat in your IC games, please disregard.

 

[dpdx]

FWIW

I play in three games. In those IC games, we either haven't had a combat yet, or we haven't had a combat that was so intricate it needed a map, or we've used a map, but the players didn't really mark their actions on it, so the PC's ended up taking a little unnecessary damage from non-optimal routes, AoOs that shouldn't have been, etc.

I'd say use one if the combat has more than one opponent, or has a layout any funkier than a hallway. Then insist that the players mark their actions on the map (center area for AE spells, movements, etc.).

 

[Victim]

I know that GrutheWander's If thoughts could kill and Banewarrens games have been using maps for combat and areas in which combat might occur.

The maps are on 5 ft scale for tactical use.

 

[Creamsteak]

Well, as Reaper knows, I do use a lot of maps. I like maps, and although I'm not incredibly skilled, I'm relatively good at least at making things interpretable.

I also do maps of general locations and such so that the game is as easy to understand as possible.

Here is my thread of major maps

And if you examine the actual game, that's where all the 5 ft by 5 ft battle-mat grids are displayed. I didn't have much reason to put those in the setting thread, so I simply didn't.

 

[Jarval]

So far, I've not used any maps for combat in my game, but I'm thinking that it might be a good idea after the last battle. Never mind the players, I started to get confused...

Any advice on what are good programs to use to generate maps, and/or helpful hints on producing good results?

 

[dpdx]

For tactical maps, I've found that using a grid with the UBB code attribute does wonders. When I played on Wizards PbP board, each space was a five foot square, and gridlines were around the outside.

 

[Creamsteak]

So far, I've not used any maps for combat in my game, but I'm thinking that it might be a good idea after the last battle. Never mind the players, I started to get confused...

Any advice on what are good programs to use to generate maps, and/or helpful hints on producing good results?

If you have paint and excel, I can tell you an easy way to get maps set up. More complicated methods work fine, but this is the most simple.

Open paint, and excel. Reshape the data boxes in excel into something more square like, and use the color-fill toolbar to shade everything needed. Then use letters for symbols you need to make.

Then highlight the entire map, press control-c, click into paint, and press control-v. Paint will ask you if you want to reshape, say yes. Now you have a bmp version of your map. If you own programs for making gif or jpg files, you can use those instead.

Really easy. Also, I think any spreadsheet program can be used in place of excel, and I'm pretty sure everyone has some kind of spreadsheet program with their computers.

 

[Krizzel]

For making any kind of graphics in general, including maps, Paint Shop Pro is very nice (assuming you want to spend some money). It's comparable to Photoshop, except that it's available for $100 or less compared to Photoshop's several hundreds. I believe there's also a trial version of PSP - check download.com or something similar. The manufacturer is Jasc.

 

[Zhure]

http://www.irony.com/webtools.html

Then I use C&P. The magical map encounter editor should look familiar to you :-D. And it can be saved as text and mailed.

Greg

 

[Zhure]

For making any kind of graphics in general, including maps, Paint Shop Pro is very nice (assuming you want to spend some money). It's comparable to Photoshop, except that it's available for $100 or less compared to Photoshop's several hundreds. I believe there's also a trial version of PSP - check download.com or something similar. The manufacturer is Jasc.

jasc.com, iirc