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I’ve never been a fan of the map packs. I’ve generally found them hard to use and easy to damage. The move to plastic coating helped a great deal with the latter, which prompted me to try a maps subscription -- but in the end I just found that, while I love flip-mats, the map packs still weren’t practical, and were going to collect dust. So I canceled my sub.
However, lately I catch myself thinking of ways the product line could be adjusted slightly that would get me to re-subscribe. Since I get the impression that others may share my feeling of “not quite right” with regard to the map packs, I thought I’d share my thoughts here.
1. Map packs are the least successful when they try to be flip mats. That is, when they can only be laid out in specific configurations to create a larger area. You already have a product that does this well. The tiles are slower, move around during use, and generally offer no advantages when used in this way. There are, however, things the map packs would be perfect for:
• Dungeons – Tiles are great for dungeons, because they allow the GM to lay out sections as they are explored. Every dungeon flip map should be a map pack instead.
• Geomorphs – Related to specific dungeon layouts, except these tiles are intended to be mixed-and-matched, meaning the entries and exits on the tiles line up. You could include different versions of the same tiles -- ones with a trap sprung, or a walkway collapsed. You could easily do a year’s worth of geomorphs based on dungeon style/locale alone.
2. Synergy with the flip mats is good – keep it up – but it should be expanded:
• I would love a map pack that included forest features (trees, ponds, fallen logs, a river, a rocky outcropping, and cave entry, etc.) that were intended to be applied in whatever pattern the GM needs at the moment. Paired with a flip-mat that had one blank side with the identical texture (grass or whatever), these would be an amazingly flexible combination. I imagine getting the color to match exactly would be a challenge, but if you could do it I would happily buy at least half a dozen of these combos for various terrain types.
Yes? No? Maybe?
Does everyone else think the map packs are great as they are?
I like them as they are, by and large. In my perfect world they'd be twice as big, since they're a little too small for my tastes.
I agree they're well suited to dungeons rather than wilderness areas.
That the map packs lend themselves better to things that can be put together in multiple configurations, and flip-mats don't, strikes me as obvious. Take that line of thinking to its logical endpoint, you get geomorphs. It's actually kind of surprising that Paizo hasn't done something fitting that description already.
I don't agree with the poster immediately above me that they aren't suited to wilderness areas. Small chunks of forest or swamp that can be recombined in almost any configuration are at least as easy for me to picture as small chunks of dungeon that can be recombined, and just as useful in anything but a megadungeon campaign (and even some of them).
My experience has been almost exactly like Bugleyman's. I want to like the map packs, but there are just too many I dislike for me to keep a subscription. Now I buy the occasional map pack (vehicles was exactly what I like to see) and all of the flip maps. I would happily subscribe again if there was a purely flip map subscription, especially monthly, or if more of the map packs fall into the multiconfiguration style.
I largely agree with Bugleyman. Although I am okay with SOME of the cards fitting together. I like some of the houses or bits of terrain that might be a couple cards long. However, some of them do feel too limiting; for example I think the Mansion pack where you get basically 3-4 immutable floors of one building was annoying (even if you get 4 floors instead of the 2 you'd get on a mat); I'd rather each card have been a room that I could fit together with other rooms in different configurations (using a blank flipmat underneath for the hallways).
(As an aside: I tape together the grouped cards with clear packing tape, leaving room to fold them up. I can then still store them with the other cards in a compact way, but never have to worry about trying to figure out how to assemble them in the "right" way in the middle of a session.)
I definitely prefer each card to be something that either stands alone or can fit with other cards in different ways, not just be "the one right configuration." I have LOVED the idea that some have shared of printing some prop packs, on translucent material, so you could lay them down on a flip mat and not have the terrain clash. The recent vehicles pack would have been much more awesome if they had been done like that for example.
I also used to be a subscriber; my beef in part was at the time there were no pdfs, and in part was that for every mat or pack that I thought was awesome, I'd then get saddled with something I'd never use, or failed to be as useful as it needed to be, like Swallowed Whole. I do think a separate mat and pack sub would be useful (and someone who wants both can subscribe to both). I really wish they would avoid the random experimental stuff and stick to things that will largely, truly be useful for everyone, in my personal opinion (also, Rooftops? Really?). That said, I think the quality of their maps and packs have improved overall and what largely keeps me from resubscribing at this point are simply my own personal finances and inadequate storage space.
I tape together the grouped cards with clear packing tape, leaving room to fold them up. I can then still store them with the other cards in a compact way, but never have to worry about trying to figure out how to assemble them in the "right" way in the middle of a session.
I think I'm going to have to try that.