Pathfinder Chronicles: Rise of the Runelords Map Folio (based on
21
reviews)
Paizo Publishing, LLC
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$14.99
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By popular demand! Campaign in style with this handsome collection of maps designed for use with the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path. Two huge poster maps detail Varisia, the home nation of the first Pathfinder campaign, and Sandpoint, the player characters' new home. Fifteen additional single-page full-color maps cover key encounter locations or wilderness areas from the campaign, adding visual flair for players and making the Game Master's life a lot easier.
Pros:
* The print quality is excellent.
* Having maps on loose leaf sheets is very handy.
Cons:
* Each map should be on its own sheet.
* Having player friendly maps would be nice.
* The folder should be a little larger than the map pages. My maps slightly stick out causing the edges to get frayed.
* Larger maps that take up a whole page would be nice.
* Making the maps available as image downloads would be awesome.
* Slightly thicker paper would be nice as well.
My quick review:
This is a good product, but not an essential one. The two 4-page fold-out poster maps of Varisia and Sandpoint are great, and will certainly see use in my campaign.
The other maps are all on single sheets, and are reprinted at the same size as they were in the original Pathfinder volumes. Now, it is nice to have these maps separate from the issues of Pathfinder. However, I would've liked this product better if: 1) they were bound as a 32 page, stapled volume, and 2) if the maps were printed at a larger scale than in Pathfinder. Paizo has the best cartography in the business, and it is a shame to see their creations printed on a half- or quarter-page. Each major location deserved a full sheet.
The printing is high quality, and although the paper is thin, it works for this product.
I put my (non-poster) maps in an inexpensive presentation book with plastic sleeves, and it's perfect for having the maps available without having to flip back and forth through Pathfinder. While I could have printed my own copies from the (free) PDFs of Pathfinder that I get for being a Pathfinder subscriber, this is simply easier and cooler. (And, of course, I now have a PDF of this item from being a Pathfinder Chronicles subscriber, so I can print extra copies anytime I need!)
An ideal table-side aid for running RotRL. The Map Folio means that I won't have to keep flipping back and forth in the book! Since the maps are on separate sheets of paper, they're also easier to photocopy for player handouts without bending the spine of my nice Pathfinders.
The Poster maps are also great to have.
The only thing I would change is the addition of pockets to the inside of the folio cover, so that it is easier to keep the maps organized and in the folio.
Product contains what is in the description. I have come to expect much more from Paizo, so if I had gotten this product from another game company I would have given it 5 stars because nothing is wrong with it. That said I had expected the maps from the Pathfinder to have been reprinted larger for ease of use; not poster size but note book size, approximatly, for each different map. That would have increased the page count to 21(?) depending how some of the maps were formatted. Making it a great value, which I expect from Paizo.
This product will come in very handy for me as I run my ROTR campaign(s). It is the product that many on the discussion boards requested, as well as 2 very useful poster maps.
I agree that I would like to see larger maps in future products of this type (probably not possible until the 3rd AP). Perhaps the original maps could be commisioned in a larger pdf, and then shrunk to fit for the magazines. Similarly, the originals could be layered, to allow removal of key numbers and other secret info for the map folios.
I will buy other items like this for future AP's that I purchase.
The only two maps that will ever see use in my game are the poster maps the others are just reprints from the adventures in the exact same size and format, if they where bigger and maybe two versions of the map one with the numbers and one without them so I can show them to my players Ill use the other maps too but rigth now they are useless to my game.
The maps in this folio are basically identical to the maps that you get with the adventure itself. The first exceptions are the two 'poster' maps, which are four times larger than the two identical maps on the inside of the Player's Guide. The map of Magnimar is also the map from the blog, not the map from the AP itself. The paper, glossy, is a bit thinner than I would like but that's a minor complaint. My only other complaint is that I like bigger poster maps. Other than that, the map quality is better than I can print myself with my ink-jet.
If you want to save ink and like not having to flip back and forth in your module between the maps and the room descriptors than this might be worth the money for you. I cannot imagine why anyone would want the PDF of this product if they already have the AP itself. Overall, I am pleased with my purchase, but I would be reluctant to pay much more for it.
I've been a huge fan of all of Paizo's Pathfinder/GameMastery releases so far (a subscriber to all of them) but I was really disappointed with this. Having the .pdf files or the printed mods themselves really makes most of these maps not useful. I'm never going to hand these out to players as they have DM info on them, and I really don't need to refer to them (unless you didn't have the .pdfs). The poster maps are good, but I would rather have them as a separate product. Being a subscriber to all these products means that I'm putting faith that everything Paizo sends to me will be useful, but this one really didn't fit the bill.