When we started working on the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path and Wes drew up his incredibly detailed map of the Shackles, we knew we’d have to fill out this huge region if we wanted to do it any justice. Thanks to Mike Shel and all the excellent work he did on Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Isles of the Shackles, we had a cornucopia of locations and adventure sites to put on the map. Factor in all the cool islands and seaside towns visited throughout the Skull & Shackles AP, and what we ended up with is a lot of locations throughout the Shackles.
Like, a lot of locations.
Each volume in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path pinpoints the important islands visited in that adventure, and Isles of the Shackles maps out the big islands detailed in that book and their major cities, but beyond that, readers have yet to receive an exhaustive map that features all of the heretofore mentioned locations in the Shackles. This blog post remedies that.
The downloadable web supplement is a huge PDF map of the Shackles featuring tags for all of the locations heretofore mentioned in Pathfinder products. The map is highly spoiler-intensive since it gives the precise location for over 150 islands, towns, and sites of interest throughout the Shackles. Thus, it should go without saying that this map is meant only for those who aren’t players in a Skull & Shackles campaign or a campaign set in the Shackles. Otherwise, this map will prove an indisputable boon for GMs and readers interested in the Shackles who have no qualms with discovering each and every location in the region in excruciating detail. You can find more information on all of these exotic and often treacherous sites in Isles of the Shackles and throughout the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path.
I'm liking how the profusion of little islands makes it a very treacherous place for non-native sailors to navigate around. Helps to explain why no big navy sails into the place and wipes out the local pirates.
Really great map. Will be a great accompaniment to Skull and Shackles.
Incredibly minor thing, but while searching for those promised spoilers I found a couple of tiny errors: Skinny Whale Bay is called Skinny Whale Isle on the map, and Haekin's Rebuke is called Haekin's Redoubt. Really small, but felt like it should be pointed out.
Cool map. I really wish you guys would have whole number mile scales on your maps though; this one is 6.25 miles per section. Why not just make the scale 40 miles instead of 50 for a simple 5 miles per section? This kind of thing happens a lot on the Golarian maps.
Golarian is really becoming a very populated place. With each new AP and/or world supplement dozens of new settlements are introduced from villages all the way up to major cities. Is there an upper limit to the world’s population in mind or will it expand infinitely?
Cool map. I really wish you guys would have whole number mile scales on your maps though; this one is 6.25 miles per section. Why not just make the scale 40 miles instead of 50 for a simple 5 miles per section? This kind of thing happens a lot on the Golarian maps.
Golarian is really becoming a very populated place. With each new AP and/or world supplement dozens of new settlements are introduced from villages all the way up to major cities. Is there an upper limit to the world’s population in mind or will it expand infinitely?
There's an upper limit.
In theory, once we've super-detailed a region, as has happened now for Varisia and Ustalav and the Shackles and a few other places, we'll stop adding new towns and the like and start requiring future designers and authors to NOT make up new stuff, but to use established names of locations.
Imagine the Shackles Map taking up your whole wall in you house. I bet there are better ways to do it, but one way I can think of is Rasterbator: http://arje.net/rasterbator
Paizo's commitment to good gaming will never cease to amaze me. This is *exactly* what a GM needs to truly delve into Skull & Shackles. I used it in tonight's game and it was perfect. THANK YOU!
Does anyone feel that showing the PCs this map would spoil anything for them? I'm thinking that without Isles of the Shackles or the AP books this would just come across as a collection of names.
I'd considered trying to figure out how to blow up one of the maps of the Shackles and toss on a hex grid to keep track of the players' ship. Need to decide what I should use as the base map.
This is fantastic -- very helpful -- and it shows another reason why Paizo is awesome. The players asked for a more detailed map of the Shackles, and here it is! Much thanks!
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TheCSpider wrote:
Does anyone feel that showing the PCs this map would spoil anything for them? I'm thinking that without Isles of the Shackles or the AP books this would just come across as a collection of names.
I'd considered trying to figure out how to blow up one of the maps of the Shackles and toss on a hex grid to keep track of the players' ship. Need to decide what I should use as the base map.
If there's a location that's supposed to be secret & the players are supposed to spend a while searching for it, it'd be a bit disappointing if when the GM first mentions this mysterious place the players go 'oh that, that's 30 miles west of here...
If there's a location that's supposed to be secret & the players are supposed to spend a while searching for it, it'd be a bit disappointing if when the GM first mentions this mysterious place the players go 'oh that, that's 30 miles west of here...
That was pretty much my concern. I'll likely end up using one of the emptier maps.
Really great map. Will be a great accompaniment to Skull and Shackles.
Incredibly minor thing, but while searching for those promised spoilers I found a couple of tiny errors: Skinny Whale Bay is called Skinny Whale Isle on the map, and Haekin's Rebuke is called Haekin's Redoubt. Really small, but felt like it should be pointed out.
Now I am wondering which names are correct, or whether or not they are just alternate names...
Really great map. Will be a great accompaniment to Skull and Shackles.
Incredibly minor thing, but while searching for those promised spoilers I found a couple of tiny errors: Skinny Whale Bay is called Skinny Whale Isle on the map, and Haekin's Rebuke is called Haekin's Redoubt. Really small, but felt like it should be pointed out.
Now I am wondering which names are correct, or whether or not they are just alternate names...
The names in the book are the correct names. The two contradictory tags on the map accidentally slipped through the editing passes.
Great map! I will definitely get a lot of use out of it! For me this map just just about doubled the value of the Isles of the Shackles CS, as I now know where all these locations are. :)
This map is awesome! Is there any possibility of getting a version without the text layer? As it stands it's a great GM reference, but if we had just the landforms (or maybe just the island names & Port Peril) it would be a fantastic thing to hand the players and say "Here you go. Annotate away!" I find that if the players have a high-quality-but-mostly-blank map then there's a great deal of enjoyment in exploring and putting their own labels in as they find things.
This map is awesome! Is there any possibility of getting a version without the text layer? As it stands it's a great GM reference, but if we had just the landforms (or maybe just the island names & Port Peril) it would be a fantastic thing to hand the players and say "Here you go. Annotate away!" I find that if the players have a high-quality-but-mostly-blank map then there's a great deal of enjoyment in exploring and putting their own labels in as they find things.
You'll want to check out the Skull & Shackles Map Folio—both the physical and PDF versions will have untagged maps. :) (And I see that by your subscription tags, you have the Campaign Setting subscription line, so you'll get the PDF for free in your downloads.)
You'll want to check out the Skull & Shackles Map Folio—both the physical and PDF versions will have untagged maps. :) (And I see that by your subscription tags, you have the Campaign Setting subscription line, so you'll get the PDF for free in your downloads.)
Oh yeah, I forgot that was coming down the pike and that it had a player map. OK, cool. Thanks for the reminder!
Really great map. Will be a great accompaniment to Skull and Shackles.
Incredibly minor thing, but while searching for those promised spoilers I found a couple of tiny errors: Skinny Whale Bay is called Skinny Whale Isle on the map, and Haekin's Rebuke is called Haekin's Redoubt. Really small, but felt like it should be pointed out.
Now I am wondering which names are correct, or whether or not they are just alternate names...
The names in the book are the correct names. The two contradictory tags on the map accidentally slipped through the editing passes.
Thank you. :) I suppose they can also be used as mistranslations by that Mwangi pirate in Port Peril. lol
Paizo Charter Superscriber, Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber, Pathfinder Comics Deluxe Subscriber
Liz Courts wrote:
HiddenJester wrote:
This map is awesome! Is there any possibility of getting a version without the text layer? As it stands it's a great GM reference, but if we had just the landforms (or maybe just the island names & Port Peril) it would be a fantastic thing to hand the players and say "Here you go. Annotate away!" I find that if the players have a high-quality-but-mostly-blank map then there's a great deal of enjoyment in exploring and putting their own labels in as they find things.
You'll want to check out the Skull & Shackles Map Folio—both the physical and PDF versions will have untagged maps. :) (And I see that by your subscription tags, you have the Campaign Setting subscription line, so you'll get the PDF for free in your downloads.)
Blast.
So I'm not confused, and the three maps in the S&S map folio consist of one of Port Peril, plus two unlabeled pretty much the same maps of the Shackles.
I was hoping I was doing something wrong, but the only way to get the above, far more useful map as a hardcopy is to, for example, pay Staples to do it?
Set
Patrick Renie
Developer
Thomas LeBlanc
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
Lord Gadigan
DM Jeff
