Olivier Rayé-Lalonde RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 |
Hi!
I was glad to receive an email announcing that I was one of the top 32 candidates. Considering I am not a native English speaker, this is good news!
I have a few questions for round two:
1) Must the map be of an "over world area" or can I make a battlemap or encounter map? For instance, a landscape with a scale based on miles versus a castle, a city building or an abandoned ruin with 5 foot squares.
2) If my illustration software lets me choose file dimension in inches and has pixels per inches, does a 8,5 x 11 inch template with 150 pixels per inch achieve the requirement of being at (or near) 150 DPI? If not, could someone point me to the right settings please!
Cheers and thanks,
-Olivier
Garrett Guillotte Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You may want to hold out for an official answer, but I believe
1) I believe either of your suggestions is allowed by the rules ("You may create a map for a city, wilderness, dungeon, or any other fantasy Golarion location appropriate for a full-page map", "Your map must have a compass rose indicating north and a scale (such as "one square = 5 feet")")
2) As long as the image you submit is a 1275 pixel by 1650 pixel JPG and the DPI or PPI is set to 150, it's the right size. If you're not sure, it looks like you've already noticed ways to confirm or set the image size that I posted in the guildhall thread.
Jason Keeley RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 |
I feel like a dope for asking this:
Does a "previously unmapped region of Golarion" mean that we need to find a place that has already been named (say, in the Inner Sea World Guide), or can we create a place out of whole cloth that could conceivably exist in Golarion?
I spent last night sketching up some ideas of my own and now I fear that time was wasted...
Thanks!
Azouth Champion Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
I feel like a dope for asking this:
Does a "previously unmapped region of Golarion" mean that we need to find a place that has already been named (say, in the Inner Sea World Guide), or can we create a place out of whole cloth that could conceivably exist in Golarion?
I spent last night sketching up some ideas of my own and now I fear that time was wasted...
Thanks!
I would think either of those would be ok.
Jacob W. Michaels RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka motteditor |
Owen K. C. Stephens Modules Overlord |
2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Especially since we've never done a round just exactly like this, I was expecting some questions, and wanted to get answers out quickly.
We're not requiring any specific scope for the map. Within the rules handed out, encounters, cities, regions, ships, rivers, dungeons, valleys, and even entire continents could qualify. I'm not recommending any of those over others, but they could all count.
You don't have to pick a location on Golarion we have already named, but it does have to be something the judges and voters believe would reasonable be found in Golarion.
Olivier Rayé-Lalonde RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 |
I agree with Azouth. I think I'd actually lean more toward creating your own place, but being sure it fits in with Golarion canon (and in fact using it to show you know your Golarion canon).
Does that mean I can create a battlemap location that exists in a "Guide to ..." to show that I can make a map that relates to said place in Golarion?
Olivier Rayé-Lalonde RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 |
We're not requiring any specific scope for the map. Within the rules handed out, encounters, cities, regions, ships, rivers, dungeons, valleys, and even entire continents could qualify. I'm not recommending any of those over others, but they could all count.You don't have to pick a location on Golarion we have already named, but it does have to be something the judges and voters believe would reasonable be found in Golarion.
Thank you for your clarification Owen!
Ben Parkin RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Rethgaal |
Wren Brown RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Rusty Ironpants |
Owen K. C. Stephens wrote:Thank you for your clarification Owen!
You don't have to pick a location on Golarion we have already named, but it does have to be something the judges and voters believe would reasonable be found in Golarion.
Yes, thanks for answering Owen, I had the same question!
Jacob Kellogg RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka Jiggy |
Jason Keeley RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 |
Owen K. C. Stephens Modules Overlord |
Chris Shaeffer RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Hodge Podge |
Scott LaBarge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
Azouth Champion Voter Season 7, Champion Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 |
Scott LaBarge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
Adam Daigle Developer , Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 |
Since I'm not a judge for this round, I cede any official rulings to Owen (Edit: And of course Crystal and Rob who are true professionals and at least one of which has had to work with MY map turnovers), but I do advise looking at any of our products that we have published. To translate dimensions to flipping through a book, 8.5" x 11" is a full page. We typically only print full-page maps, or half-page maps in our books. Full-page maps are typically vertical in shape and have north being the top of the map. There are exceptions to this, but as a practice we try not to deviate from that as often as possible. (For example, we've presented a couple of regions or countries as horizontal, full page maps—such as Numeria or the Worldwound, because of their shape.)
Scott LaBarge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
Jeff Heikkinen RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 aka jeffh |
I have the same question. I'm planning something that really would work a lot better in landscape, though I could do it in portrait if I had to. The issue isn't where north goes, in fact I was planning on determining that randomly anyway.
It didn't even occur to me that the order might be significant, but it's obvious now that someone's mentioned it that in a PF module landscape would be sideways. How big a problem is that?
Scott LaBarge RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 |
Taylor Hubler RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka CalebTGordan |
Dana Huber RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 8, Dedicated Voter Season 9 aka dien |
Jacob Kellogg RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka Jiggy |
The offical Round 2 rules say you're allowed a map key, just as long as everything is (1) contained within the 8.5x11 area, and (2) is directly relevant to the map. They give examples that you could label the districts of a city map, but couldn't talk about its politics or alignment; you could mark where a monster is standing, but couldn't describe its tactics or motivations.
Read and re-read and re-re-read the rules. Read them until you dream about them.
Olivier Rayé-Lalonde RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 |
If we number the areas on the map are we allowed to present a list of names for those areas on the map? Like "1) Dwarven currency exchange, 2) Dwarven treasury, 3) Shrine of a forgotten god." All on an area on the map, like a corner?
The offical Round 2 rules say you're allowed a map key, just as long as everything is (1) contained within the 8.5x11 area, and (2) is directly relevant to the map. They give examples that you could label the districts of a city map, but couldn't talk about its politics or alignment; you could mark where a monster is standing, but couldn't describe its tactics or motivations.
So I take it that Taylor's example is correct?
Jacob Kellogg RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka Jiggy |
John Laffan RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Mozenrath6 |
Charlie Brooks RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6 |
Jacob Kellogg RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka Jiggy |
For the name of the place, can it include descriptions? (Kind of like The Inner Sea World Guide) For example can I call it Kent, Ice Fortress in the Crown of the world, or Bree, Cheese store with hidden slave market?
Thanks so much!
Note that the rules say the title is capped at 8 words (which eliminates your first example).
And in my personal, totally-not-official opinion, explaining that your cheese store also sells people is flirting with the irrelevant-information DQ line. Maybe over the line, maybe not, but I know I sure wouldn't want to get that close.
My advice is this: if your map doesn't NEED that piece of info in order to be awesome, then leave it out instead of taking unnecessary risks. If it DOES need that piece of info in order to work, then find a way for the map to make it clear (like including a back room with a desk, secret door, and 5x5 cages or whatever). If you need the information to make it work but the map can't convey it, then you're designing the wrong thing and need to step back and re-focus on what this round is really about.
In my opinion. ;)
Jacob Kellogg RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka Jiggy |
Kind of an off-the-wall question, but I noticed I'm using a lot of reds and greens in my mapping. Should I change these in order to accommodate anybody who might be red-green colorblind?
The rules say it's okay to be full-color, and also that you should be making something that could be handed to a professional cartographer. With all due respect to those with vision difficulties, I can't imagine there's a lot of overlap between "people who are colorblind" and "professional cartographers who would prepare a map for a Pathfinder product".
Owen K. C. Stephens Modules Overlord |
For the name of the place, can it include descriptions? (Kind of like The Inner Sea World Guide) For example can I call it Kent, Ice Fortress in the Crown of the world, or Bree, Cheese store with hidden slave market?
Thanks so much!
For the title of your map, you get eight words. So if you want to map out "Kent, Ice Fortress in the Crown of the world" you need to find a way to say that in 8 words rather than 9. "Bree, Cheese store with hidden slave market" is fine, since it's 7.
Owen K. C. Stephens Modules Overlord |
Kind of an off-the-wall question, but I noticed I'm using a lot of reds and greens in my mapping. Should I change these in order to accommodate anybody who might be red-green colorblind?
The contest rules do not have an opinion on this question, so it's up to you to decide if you think enough voters are going to have an issue to affect your chances.
Jeff Heikkinen RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 aka jeffh |
Owen K. C. Stephens Modules Overlord |
What about the question on landscape maps (as in horizontally oriented ones, not as in maps of landscapes)? Are they okay, discouraged, or just out of the question?
The rules do not speak to the question of orientation. I recommend you look at our products (and keep in mind we print maps in physical books) when deciding your orientation, and any other issue we didn't address.
John Laffan RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka Mozenrath6 |
John Laffan wrote:For the name of the place, can it include descriptions? (Kind of like The Inner Sea World Guide) For example can I call it Kent, Ice Fortress in the Crown of the world, or Bree, Cheese store with hidden slave market?
Thanks so much!
For the title of your map, you get eight words. So if you want to map out "Kent, Ice Fortress in the Crown of the world" you need to find a way to say that in 8 words rather than 9. "Bree, Cheese store with hidden slave market" is fine, since it's 7.
Thank you! Yeah the first is a bad example, I was trying to be too clever....I'll move the Fortress of Solitude to the shorter named nation of Galt!
Best,
John
Taylor Hubler RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka CalebTGordan |
Jeff Heikkinen RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 aka jeffh |
Jeff Heikkinen wrote:What about the question on landscape maps (as in horizontally oriented ones, not as in maps of landscapes)? Are they okay, discouraged, or just out of the question?The rules do not speak to the question of orientation. I recommend you look at our products (and keep in mind we print maps in physical books) when deciding your orientation, and any other issue we didn't address.
Thanks!
Owen K. C. Stephens Modules Overlord |
Taylor Hubler RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka CalebTGordan |
Jacob Kellogg RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Dedicated Voter Season 8 aka Jiggy |
Taylor Hubler RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka CalebTGordan |
Actually I don't see the exact answer. The rules say we can label the areas of the map on the map itself but the FAQ says such information could be a cause for DQ. This seems conflicting to me.
If I number my rooms in a dungeon and then on the side of the map have names for rooms of the dungeon, would that DQ me? Does it depend on what type of names they are?
Would either "100 foot shaft" or "Pit of the creeping Doom" be too much for the map?
Taylor Hubler RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Star Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka CalebTGordan |
Jensen Toperzer Star Voter Season 8 aka TealDeer |
Chris Lambertz Paizo Glitterati Robot |
Just popping in with a quick note that a few submissions have been received. Please note that the office is a pretty crazy place and I will try to get to replying to emails as soon as possible (I believe we included a note about confirmations on the rules page too). If you've submitted, take a deep breath, you've already managed a pretty big feat getting to the Top 32 and submitting your entry on time! You got this! :)
Jensen Toperzer Star Voter Season 8 aka TealDeer |
1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Actually I don't see the exact answer. The rules say we can label the areas of the map on the map itself but the FAQ says such information could be a cause for DQ. This seems conflicting to me.
If I number my rooms in a dungeon and then on the side of the map have names for rooms of the dungeon, would that DQ me? Does it depend on what type of names they are?
Would either "100 foot shaft" or "Pit of the creeping Doom" be too much for the map?
I am also wondering about this. Say, on a dungeon map, having numbered rooms and being like
1. Kitchen
2. Goblin bathroom
3. Much cleaner Hobgoblin bathroom
4. Cage for T H E O W L B E A R
5. Banana storage
Be OK?
*edit* Also, tips on indicating elevation would be good...
David H RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Dedicated Voter Season 6, Star Voter Season 7, Star Voter Season 8 aka Black Powder Chocobo |
Jensen Toperzer Star Voter Season 8 aka TealDeer |
Curaigh Star Voter Season 6, Dedicated Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Marathon Voter Season 9 |
Actually I don't see the exact answer. The rules say we can label the areas of the map on the map itself but the FAQ says such information could be a cause for DQ. This seems conflicting to me.
If I number my rooms in a dungeon and then on the side of the map have names for rooms of the dungeon, would that DQ me? Does it depend on what type of names they are?
Would either "100 foot shaft" or "Pit of the creeping Doom" be too much for the map?
Monica Marlowe RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32 , Marathon Voter Season 6, Marathon Voter Season 7, Marathon Voter Season 8, Star Voter Season 9 aka mamaursula |
John Laffan wrote:For the name of the place, can it include descriptions? (Kind of like The Inner Sea World Guide) For example can I call it Kent, Ice Fortress in the Crown of the world, or Bree, Cheese store with hidden slave market?
Thanks so much!
For the title of your map, you get eight words. So if you want to map out "Kent, Ice Fortress in the Crown of the world" you need to find a way to say that in 8 words rather than 9. "Bree, Cheese store with hidden slave market" is fine, since it's 7.
Great, now I have to rethink this whole cheese market thing.