Explore the glorious lands of Taldor, the First Empire, in the War for the Crown Poster Map Folio. Pore over masterful cartography and plan exciting adventures with these three massive poster maps designed for use with the War for the Crown Adventure Path!
These huge, lavishly illustrated poster maps depict major locations found in the War for the Crown Adventure Path. The first stunning map details the capital city of Oppara, where the adventure begins and ends. The second map provides an overland look at Taldor's County of Meratt, and the third is a beautifully illustrated map of the nation of Taldor as a whole.
Whether you're looking for a walled city, a stretch of forest and plains, or an entire nation, these beautiful maps are the perfect resource for the War for the Crown Adventure Path or any fantasy campaign.
Don't know the art term for it but the first map is more painting than map, with a beautiful idealized illustration of Meratt surrounded by various other artistic depictions, definitely something you would see hanging up in a Taldor frame.
The second map is all map, a a basic outline of Oppara and its districts, which are labeled, with no flourishes.
Back to illustrations for the third we have the entire country of Taldor (and the isle of Kortos and Absalom, so bonus) lovingly painted.
If the first and last had a few more labels this would have been 5 stars, or if the Oppara map had been made like the other two. If the other two had been made like the Oppara one I'd be disinclined to buy the Folio, maps like that don't interest me that much.
These are not maps. They are art poster folios. They are eye candy that utterly useless for gaming with. I would have to memorize all of Taldor to make them useful. My players ask me the names of places all the time. I feel like an idiot because I do not know and I don't have time to memorize them and so I point at the map and say, hey, here be monsters but I have no idea what else is here.
I suggest that you make actual maps and sell them as separate from this pack if you need to.
I am saddened and disappointed. The art quality is great but the lack of place names is utterly frustrating. It is almost like you think they are too precious to put names on. Just have someone do it with calligraphy. It would have been nice to have a real map of Taldor too. I just do not know why you do this. I used to look forward to getting maps of the areas of your world. Not anymore. In fact, real maps are one of the greatest features of game worlds. The place names inspire mystery and lead to stories.
I will never buy these things again and I own every single adventure path. PLease sell actual maps.
For an explanation of how I use the five star review method, see my entry on So What's the Riddle Like Anyway?HERE.
Here we have another Map Folio for Campaign use, this time for the War for the Crown AP. I judge these Map Folios on their looks and usefulness as game aids, with their ability to enhance a campaign being the most important criteria. I understand why they are in the Campaign Setting subscription: They generally have maps that further detail regions of Golarion and thus have some use outside of the campaign they are designed for. They are usually made up of three maps, one of which is a colourful representation of the region in which the campaign is set. This folio is no exception to that rule.
The first map in the folio is a stunningly illustrated map of the county of Meratt, where the second part of the campaign takes place. It is an amazing medieval style map with side portraits and everything…and it is totally unlabelled. Seriously, this is just ridiculous. No cartographer would release a map with only the name of the county it is depicting and nothing else. No one would believe this handout looks like a map they might purchase in game without it being written on by the GM. And if the GM isn’t a calligrapher, it’s going to mar an otherwise beautiful map. What a waste.
The second is a standard gaming map of Oppara, one of the biggest and most important cities in the Inner Sea region of Golarion. It has labels of the various districts, but no specifics. Compare this to the map of Magnimar from the Shattered Star Map Folio and there is no contest. The detail and usefulness of that map far outstrips this rather lacklustre presentation of Oppara.
The third and final map of the folio completes the failure. Once more a beautiful painted map of Taldor with no labels beyond saying that it is Taldor. What is the point? How can this be used for any other setting when Taldor is written right on the map? And if the intent is to not let it be used in other settings, why not mark the various places on the map? I saw improvements with the Ironfang Invasion Map Folio and hoped the trend would continue. It was not to be. If perhaps I could know the reasoning behind the lack of labelling? That might help.
Final Thoughts: The title of this review is a play on words. These maps are very pretty and as game aids all but useless. I would actually give this folio one star if not for the absolute magnificent job the cartographer/artists did on the graphic visuals of these maps. With a little work, these can be used as game aids. But the point of buying something like this is to reduce the amount of work as a GM, not add to it. I am very disappointed. I really wanted a lovely map of Taldor to add to my collection of maps of Golarion and once again have been handed wall art. Two out of Five stars.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber
Now that we don't get as many products as before for subscribing for the Campaign Setting line, I was hoping that the team would entirely focus an setting books, not on map folios. Getting a map folio in August probably means that we'll have to wait from late June until late October to get a new setting book. I wish there was a subscription solely for setting books, excluding map folios. Don't get me wrong - map folios are okay (although the Azlant one was underwhelming in my opinion), but I'd much rather read more about Golarion and it's different regions and people. There's so much more to explore!
At the moment, i have zero exitement for the map folios.
There are very few ones where all three maps are usable and it seems it has been years since the last good one.
Either there are not enough things labeled or too many (campaign spoilers).
Please label every point of interest on the maps, everything but spoilers.
And also include measurements and a compass rose.
It really isn't that hard.
It is if you’re trying to decide between making the map artistic or like an overland battle map. I prefer when they go artistic (Shattered Star and Wrath of the Righteous have been my favourites). Also labeling everything would probably cover up a good portion of the map.
Now that we don't get as many products as before for subscribing for the Campaign Setting line, I was hoping that the team would entirely focus an setting books, not on map folios. Getting a map folio in August probably means that we'll have to wait from late June until late October to get a new setting book. I wish there was a subscription solely for setting books, excluding map folios. Don't get me wrong - map folios are okay (although the Azlant one was underwhelming in my opinion), but I'd much rather read more about Golarion and it's different regions and people. There's so much more to explore!
Yeah honestly would prefer more setting books than map folios at this point (Especially since Being an Ap subscriber I already get interactive maps with the Ap PDF'S)
I love the map folios (I always get two of each and often three). I really hope they require a separate set of skills/resources to the campaign setting sourcebooks (so it’s not a matter of either/or).
I have a strong preference for in-world, ink-and-parchment style Maps. I’d be very happy if they were the only kind of map included (I don’t find poster maps useful with DM information on them - they’re too unwieldy). Are any of these three going to be in that style?
Is there a chance of getting VTT sized JPGs in addition to the PDFs? Some of the grids aren't proper squares in the Map Folios, and I constantly have to stretch and warp the grids to make them perfect 70x70 tiles.
It's nice that Roll20 now has ways for me to directly purchase the APs, but I constantly and working way too hard to implement previous maps.
Sadly i absolutely agree with everything in your review.
I have now officially given up on Paizos Pathfinder map folios and won't buy another one until they actually make them again like the Shattered Star one.
I really don't get how the person responsible for this product line isn't able to get this right.
It also helps that i really don't like the maps in "Return of the Runelords" book one.
I have now officially given up on Paizos Pathfinder map folios and won't buy another one until they actually make them again like the Shattered Star one.
Agreed. The art for the County of Meratt in particular is beautiful, but as a game aid, this product is truly dreadful. It boggles my mind that Paizo could approve the release of not one, but two totally unlabelled maps in this folio.
I'll be pausing my Campaign Setting subscription for the next poster map folio at least.
I don’t share the negative views expressed above, I really like this set.
The only improvement I’d like to see is labelling the settlements. (In my perfect world, Oppara would be in the same style as the other two, but that’s a minor thing. At least I got two in-world maps).
I can’t leave a review, but I’d give it four stars if I could.
I really don't get how the person responsible for this product line isn't able to get this right.
And what would "right" be?
I'm in agreement with Steve, I don't care for the Oppara one but I adore the Meratt and Taldor ones, they'd be 5 instead of 4 stars if they'd had some areas labeled.
I can’t leave a review, but I’d give it four stars if I could.
If it's due to the site layout you can go to the url up top and remove the #[post number] and go there, it should show the different sections for the product and let you click on Reviews.
