Hook Mountain Massacre Printable Battlemaps (WIP)

[bwatford]

Started Mapping the Pathfinder Rise of the Runelords Hook Mountain Massacre Module.

I have started with The Graul Homestead.

The ground floor is complete and listed below.

Feedback is welcome.

GRAUL HOMESTEAD - GROUND FLOOR

Preview
Graul Homestead Ground Floor .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemap
Graul Homestead Ground Floor PDF 16 Pages

I will post more as I finish them.

[Nathan Nasif]

Well done! Looks amazing. What program are you using?

[bwatford]

Dundjinni

[bwatford]

Here is the Upper Floor and Basement

GRAUL HOMESTEAD - UPPER FLOOR AND BASEMENT

Preview of Upper Floor
Graul Homestead Upper Floor .JPG Preview

Preview of Basement
Graul Homestead Basement .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Graul Homestead Upper Floor and Basement PDF 8 Pages

[bwatford]

Here is the Barn and Cornfield.

GRAUL HOMESTEAD - BARN AND CORNFIELD

Preview of Barn and Cornfield
Graul Homestead Barn and Cornfield .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Graul Homestead Barn and Cornfield PDF 9 Pages

[bwatford]

FORT RANNICK - FIRST FLOOR

Preview of Fort Rannick - First Floor
Fort Rannick - First Floor .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Fort Rannick - First Floor PDF 11 Pages

[bwatford]

FORT RANNICK - SECOND FLOOR

Preview of Fort Rannick - Second Floor
Fort Rannick - Second Floor .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Fort Rannick - Second Floor PDF 10 Pages

[bwatford]

Reworked the cavern map from the original content to give the shocker lizard colony more space and to let the PC's have more to explore.

FORT RANNICK - BELOW

Preview of Fort Rannick - Below
Fort Rannick - Below .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Fort Rannick - Below PDF 10 Pages

[Dryder]

bwatford, thank you so much for sharing these maps! They look great and will make Hook Mountain a so much better experience for my players! THX!

[bwatford]

You are very welcome Dryder. I will be working on the Skull Crossing section over the next few days. Will post them as they are completed.

[Callum]

These really are great, bwatford! I don't suppose you've made similar maps for the earlier parts of the Adventure Path?

[Geralt_Bialy_Wilk]

Those are great. Party I'm DMing now is still in Magnimar, but I'll definately use those maps when the time comes :)

I'm going to print them on normal paper, stick to another sheet of paper with double sided tape and cut it out, each room on it's own. I tend to make that kind of "puzzles" myself (started out with thistletop) and put new rooms on the table as party discovers them.

[Dryder]

bwatford, I have one question about Dundjinni.
Why is it, that I so often see Dundjinni maps on the internet which miss a grid. Is it, because the maker thinks they look better without?

I found a great, great map for Shattered Star #1, but again without grid, mich makes them almost useless.

[Tinalles]

Many maps made with Dundjinni (and similar programs) are made for use with virtual table top tools. Under those circumstances, it is assumed that the grid will be supplied by the VTT, allowing the grid to be shown or hidden as the players desire. That's probably why.

For example, here's a Map of Sevenarches Plaza I made in Photoshop for a homebrew game. A square is 50x50 pixels. I fed that info to MapTool when I set it up, and voila, grid.

If you just want to add a grid to an existing map, it's pretty easy to do. Here's how (assuming you're on Windows -- if not, you'll have to work out some other method).

1) Download Paint.net (kind of an annoying download page, click the download link under "Get it now" at top right, then click the big white "Download Now" button with the disk icon on it). This is a general graphics editor. It's free of charge, and open source.

2) Install Paint.net (straightforward, run the installer and keep clicking Next).

3) Download the Grid Maker plugin for Paint.net. The linked page has complete installation instructions (basically just dump the DLL in Paint.net's "effects" folder).

4) Open the map you want to add a grid to in Paint.net. You may want to work on a second copy of the file so that you'll have the original if you mess up somehow.

5) Click Effects -> Render -> Grid/Checkerboard Maker. The color of the grid will correspond to the foreground color currently selected in Paint.net.

6) Check the "Foreground only" option near the bottom to make it just add lines, not fill in the squares.

7) Set the size of the horizontal and vertical grid step to the correct scale. Commonly this is 50, 100, 150, or 200 pixels per square. If you don't know the exact size, just experiment a bit till it looks right to you.

8) Click OK to finalize the grid.

9) Save the file.

That will get you a basic grid. There are more advanced variants, of course -- I often render two grids, each on a separate layer above the main map. The top is black. Underneath that is a white grid, offest a couple of pixels so that it isn't hidden underneath the black grid. Then I merge those two layers into one, and change its opacity to about 40% so that the lines don't totally overwhelm the map itself. Here's my Sevenarches Plaza map with grid so you can see what this looks like.

A downside of adding a grid to a finished map is that it doesn't always make sense to overlay the grid on top of everything. The grid is supposed to be at "ground level". It doesn't make visual sense to have it on top of trees or buildings. In a map produced for print, this would have been done during production, the grid sandwiched in at the appropriate level. But if you need to do it after the fact, you can render the grid on a layer above the map and just erase the lines that don't make sense. It's a bit tedious and fiddly, but not hard. Here's a copy of my Sevenarches Plaza with grid lines going "under" houses and trees and such.

Printing it gets a little more complex, but you can either hand the file to somebody at a print shop, or you can use Posterazor to slice it into chunks suitable for printing on a standard home printer one page at a time.

[bwatford]

Dundjinni supports using a grid or hexes or you can use dots in the center of each square or cross hairs at the corners. It is up to the creator to use them or not. A lot of times I will leave the grid off and draw the grid manually where I want it. I try to use floor tiles that make there own grid for big areas.

Again its just preference of the map creator and not any limitations of the program.

The Skull Crossing Dam map I am finishing up now and will post it later today. And sorry Collum I haven't done maps for earlier RoTRL AP.

[bwatford]

This begins the forthcoming maps for Skull's Crossing.

SKULL'S CROSSING - SKULL'S WATCH

Preview of Skull's Crossing - Skull's Watch
Skull's Crossing - Skull's Watch .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Skull's Crossing - Skull's Watch PDF 10 Pages

[bwatford]

@Geralt_Bialy_Wilk

I have tried various ways of using the maps. sometimes I will just print them out and lay each sheet down as needed. Other times I assemble the entire thing. Lay it out and cover it with construction paper and remove the construction paper where the PC's can see.

For best results I suggest printing on Everyday Photo Paper - it's cheap like 100 sheets for $10. Set your inkjet printer to print on Matte Photo Paper and away you go.

I find that printing on plain paper with an inkjet tends to be way to dark. If I do print on plain paper I print using the color laser as not to soak ink through the paper.

Plus printing on the heavier paper and taping the entire thing together lets me role it up and place it in a tube for storage and re-usability. When you unroll just put a paperweight on each corner. Using pewter dragon paperweights adds a nice touch to the session.

[Geralt_Bialy_Wilk]

@bwatford

Thanks for your reply :)

I don't own any printer right now, so I'm going to print those out in some copy shop or such. I'm going to let them use plain copy paper, but with laser printer, so it should be alright I suppouse. Hiding it under construction paper sound fine, but I should prepare that before the session, and I don't want do to that. First of all, I've got a large player group, while most of them are new not only to PF, but to whole RPG thing. Combining those two and I've got pretty crazy and unpredictable bunch, and sometimes they chew through the scenario as planned, but sometimes they tend to take their time doing random stuff (which is great, and they have tons of fun with it ^^). That makes me impossible to plan the whole session - I tend to have all things from AP prepared in advance, and some random bits of stuff (locations, npc, whole side quests) that I can just put when it seems right.

Bottomline - I never know what I will or won't use on the session until I actually use it.

If I print it on copy paper and cut it out, I can store it something around A4 format. That kind of "location puzzles" worked for me quite well :)

[Exarx]

Is it possible to get this maps as high resolution jpg:s? Im keen on using them as VTT-maps. It would indeed be great!

Cheers

[bwatford]

I can export them for use with VT as high resolution images. It takes a little time but will get them posted later today.

[Exarx]

That sounds great Bwatford! Great maps!

Cheers

[bwatford]

I am exporting them as 200dpi .PNG images. These images will serve two purposes.

First - If someone wants to take the file to a print shop or kinkos they can be printed out on a large format printer and will print to scale at 1" per 5 foot for use with miniatures. That way you get one map without having to put the pdf together however this option can get expensive.

Second - If you want to use them for VT you can scale them down depending on the VT you are using. Most virtual tabletop programs tend to use maps at 50 or 100 pixels per grid square. Battlegrounds works best with maps that are 122 pixels per grid square (this ensures no pixelation even at full zoom). The images I will be uploading is at 200 pixels per grid so they will scale down to whatever you will need, just use a graphics program to re-size the images. I don't suggest using .JPG as they will loose a lot of clarity.

It is taking about a half hour to render each map at this resolution and each image will be about 80 - 90 MB however again, they can be scaled down in a graphics program. I just wanted to make sure the images were suitable for both printing on large format printers and for VT so the user can pick the quality that they want to compress them too.

I will be glad to answer any questions that you may have.

GRAUL HOMESTEAD - GROUND FLOOR - HIGH RESOLUTION .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT

DOWNLOAD - 82 MB

GRAUL HOMESTEAD - UPPER FLOOR AND BASEMENT - HIGH RESOLUTION .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT

DOWNLOAD - 32.6 MB

GRAUL HOMESTEAD - BARN AND CORNFIELD - HIGH RESOLUTION .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT

DOWNLOAD - 47.5 MB

FORT RANNICK - FIRST FLOOR - HIGH RESOLUTION .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT

DOWNLOAD - 45.7 MB

[bwatford]

FORT RANNICK - SECOND FLOOR - HIGH RESOLUTION .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT

DOWNLOAD - 52.6 MB

FORT RANNICK - BELOW - HIGH RESOLUTION .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT

DOWNLOAD - 24.8 MB

SKULL'S CROSSING - SKULL'S WATCH - HIGH RESOLUTION .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT

DOWNLOAD - 43.6 MB

[bwatford]

Continuing the mapping...

SKULL'S CROSSING - GRAZUUL'S DOMAIN

Preview of Skull's Crossing - Grazuul's Domain
Skull's Crossing - Grazuul's Domain .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Skull's Crossing - Grazuul's Domain PDF 10 Pages

High Resolution .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT
Skull's Crossing - Grazuul's Domain PNG 24.7 MB

[bwatford]

SKULL'S CROSSING - WESTERN CAVES

Preview of Skull's Crossing - Western Caves
Skull's Crossing - Western Caves .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Skull's Crossing - Western Caves PDF 12 Pages

High Resolution .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT
Skull's Crossing - Western Caves PNG 52.7 MB

[Exarx]

You are indeed the King bwatford! :)

What map did you use for Black Magga encounter? You just made one on the fly or?

Cheers

[bwatford]

Because of the changing terrain and the flood. I plan on just drawing that encounter on a roll out battlemat for that encounter.

I was going to kinda play it as a couple rounds at the church then have Black Magga move to another building. Let the PC's give chase, a couple more rounds and then to another.

Actually going to spread the encounter over a wide area so just drawing up the battlemat on the fly will be best for our group.

I want to make the PC's feel that they are really outmatched against the creature and really are driving it rather than really beating it.

[bwatford]

HOOK MOUNTAIN CLANHOLD - PART 1 OF 2

Preview of Hook Mountain Clanhold - Part 1 of 2
Hook Mountain Clanhold - Part 1 of 2 .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Hook Mountain Clanhold - Part 1 of 2 PDF 16 Pages

High Resolution .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT
Hook Mountain Clanhold - Part 1 of 2 PNG 82.8 MB

Part 2 will be released in a few days.

[bwatford]

HOOK MOUNTAIN CLANHOLD - PART 2 OF 2

Preview of Hook Mountain Clanhold - Part 2 of 2
Hook Mountain Clanhold - Part 2 of 2 .JPG Preview

Printable PDF Battlemaps
Hook Mountain Clanhold - Part 2 of 2 PDF 16 Pages

High Resolution .PNG
Designed for wide format printers and VT
Hook Mountain Clanhold - Part 2 of 2 PNG 63.6 MB

This concludes all the battlemaps for The Hook Mountain Massacre and ends the (WIP) (Work In Progress) I will be posting these later today into one thread.

[bwatford]

I have consolidated all the maps into a single post and thread.

You can find the complete list here:

http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2pjic?Hook-Mountain-Massacre-PrintableVT-Battle maps