Printing Maps as Battlemaps

[Blakey]

Hey gang,

This is my situation: Usually my group play face to face at my house. I'm lucky enough to have afforded to use a laptop and projector, wall mounted, so that I can project JPG battlemaps straight down onto the table top. This is how we game and its awesome.

However in May we're off for a long weekend of D&D away from wives and girlfriends in a rented cottage (yay!). Clearly though this means we can't use our usual method of projecting maps onto the table top.

To that end I'm going to have to come up with a new method of showing the maps to the players. One option is to return back to old fashioned drawing on a whiteboard on the table top using OHP pens - it works but is a massive step back from the quality of maps we're used to these days.

So, given the excellent quality of players maps I have in JPG format, what is the best way to get these printed and usable as full on battle maps?

Issues I see are:

1. Material. What should I print on to? Paper is all very well but I'm guessing it will get ruined quickly - then again I won't need most maps for more than one battle so that should be okay. Anyone have any ideas for other sensible options?
2. Scale. This is a big one! How do you guarantee that a printed map will be scaled so that one square is 1"????

I'm sure these are issues loads of you out there have come across in the past, so if you have some good answers, please let me know!!

Cheers for the help
Blakey

[Andrew Bay]

I'm not much for helping with the printing option, but if your projector doesn't double as a TV when not gaming, you could take it and project against the wall. You won't get to use your minis, but that hasn't been a problem with my games run that way. You might need to bring a white board, a large sheet of paper, or a projector screen in the event the location does not have any good white walls.

IMarv

[smell of orange blossoms in the]

ooooooh!

A good day for us means black, blue, AND red markers.

Could you give me some pointers on what you are doing with the projector, jpegs and all?

As far as printing off good maps - do you know any GIS people? Someone with access to a plotter?

[Andrew Bay]

You can download some of the PNGs from the thread about RPGenius Asleep thread ( http://www.imarvintpa.com/Campaign/Shackled/IMarvJzadirune.png ).

You put those in a Virtual Table Top program such as MapTool. ( http://rptools.net/ )

You get your garden variety digital projector ( http://www.projectorcentral.com/ ) and hook it up to a computer. I shine mine on the wall since the projector is also used as a 100" TV. But many use mirrors or projectors that support vertical mounting to send the picture onto a table top.

Then have fun!

I personally use two computers, one hooked up to the projector and another for the GM's management.

IMarv

[smell of orange blossoms in the]

Thanks Andrew,

Our game has been computer free. This should make change easier.

[JonathanRoberts]

Hey Blakey - sounds like a fun trip.

What you need to do is the following:
1. open the maps in a photo-editor like Gimp.
2. Measure the scale of 1 grid size - as you use maptool I guess you know what size your grid is already.
3. Make sure the resolution is correct. So if it's a 1 grid=50px map, make sure the resolution is 50dpi. In Gimp this is under Image->Scale Image.
4. Download poasterazor.
5. In posterazor find your rescaled jpg and import it.
6. Check that the dpi is correct (it should be).
7. Fiddle with the settings to make sure it splits up the map nicely (this can work really nicely on some maps so that you can lay down sheets as the players explore).
8. Save out a pdf map booklet.
9. Print! Printing onto photopaper is good and helps the maps survive the inevitable battering. I guess the closs means that you might get away with whiteboard markers too, but I certainly haven't tried that so don't take my word for it...

Hope that's not too late to be useful.

Jon (torstan from the other forums).