Expensive. There's a guy that did this for the first 2 books of Mummy's Mask, but he hasn't done the third yet. It is time consuming, I expect (hence, expensive).
EDIT: I would buy them, probably, but the audience is limited to GMs running APs, so they already know the upper limit of how big the market is.
They've said in the past that it's not economically viable. The expense is not printing the maps, but getting art done at a scale that could be printed that large. Especially when you consider many (most?) maps do not fit the regular Flip Mat scale.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
There's a guy that did this for the first 2 books of Mummy's Mask, but he hasn't done the third yet.There is? Who did that?! Is there a link?
The artist (Billy Watford) said somewhere that he will be working on Shifting Sands when his group gets closer to it.
The maps are beautiful, better than the artwork that comes with the AP itself, IMO. Not that the AP artwork is bad, it's just that the increase in size allows a lot more detail than can be put into the AP PDFs. He really does some neat stuff with Dundjinni.
He also has some for Reign of Winter and at least one module, that I've seen.
Chief Technical Officer
|
They've said in the past that it's not economically viable. The expense is not printing the maps, but getting art done at a scale that could be printed that large. Especially when you consider many (most?) maps do not fit the regular Flip Mat scale.
See this post for some specifics.
For which AP, JPSTOD?
Ooh, very nice! I'm starting Shifting Sands in a few weeks! Granted, I don't do a VTT, but that doesn't mean I can't figure it out... I hope. :)
I have 3 megamats, however, and I enjoy drawing maps out as well, particularly now that I'm getting into the castles in Giantslayer.
FWIW, I've been to your Deviantart collection and I like them. I wish I could find the time to do the same (well, that and the talent)!
|
I don't use a VTT program to display the Maps either...
I display on Laptop or 55" TV Screen or with a Projector :) using Windows Picture Viewer. Since we are all getting "older" makes seeing Maps so much easier to see.
I love drawing out Maps also but Time is an Issue once in awhile when it comes to Game prep. We even use the Newest Play toy "Terra Tiles". We have the Misty Moorlands and the Coastal and Rivers sets.
Honestly It does not take that long to make a Map. Especially if I am recreating an Existing Map. I spend less than a hour making a map. All the credit go to the Graphic Artists at Profantasy and the Dundjinni forums making the great artwork for the sets. All the credit goes to the Great Cartographers Paizo utilize in the original Products.
I would prefer to use Dundjinni instead of Campaign Cartographer 3 because it has better Abilities. But I was forced to upgrade computer systems and Lost the use of Dundjinni :(
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
They've said in the past that it's not economically viable. The expense is not printing the maps, but getting art done at a scale that could be printed that large. Especially when you consider many (most?) maps do not fit the regular Flip Mat scale.
The maps don't need to be done at 28mm scale. I've extracted maps from existing Paizo PDFs, composed them in Scribus and printed maps on a Staples engineering printer with one inch squares with no problem. Sure the lines were a bit fuzzy but the maps were perfectly usable.
Unfortunately Paizo has decided to lock away access for image extraction so I can't do this any more.
|
For the older PDFs I can usually select the maps in the pdf, paste them into MS Paint, save it as a jpg, and then upload into Roll20 as a map for my group. No higher Resolution needed.
Unfortunately it seems Paizo has made this harder to do in some of their more recent PDFs and I can no longer copy the map alone. Now I just take a screenshot of the map I need and crop out the rest of the PDF page in MS Paint and then use that.
Honestly the resolution they're at is already fairly decent.
If they could convince artists to make maps in SVGs then scaling wouldn't be an issue. PDFs are just about the worst format for VTT, anything else like a PNG or JPG would be better.
|
|
I am sure it is about coming to terms on "fee" or an agreement with Original Artist to be able to have someone else to produce the Scaled Battle Maps.
I am sure that they could sell enough Map packs on each set to more than make up any Cartographer cost..
My Map original map sets sale for $5 each and include a grid and no grid version...Not big sellers I agree but then again I am competing against Free Nonspecific settings and not "Offical" Paizo product lines locations.
Map Packs and Interactive map sets should be an Indicator of how well they would sell...
I believe the real truth is they are just not interested in selling them. Now if WOTC starts offering them or 3rd Party Companies start selling them as a standard product line then they will look seriously about offering them all the time.
|
Chief Technical Officer
|
I am sure it is about coming to terms on "fee" or an agreement with Original Artist to be able to have someone else to produce the Scaled Battle Maps.
I am sure that they could sell enough Map packs on each set to more than make up any Cartographer cost..
My Map original map sets sale for $5 each and include a grid and no grid version...Not big sellers I agree but then again I am competing against Free Nonspecific settings and not "Offical" Paizo product lines locations.
Map Packs and Interactive map sets should be an Indicator of how well they would sell...
I believe the real truth is they are just not interested in selling them. Now if WOTC starts offering them or 3rd Party Companies start selling them as a standard product line then they will look seriously about offering them all the time.
Did you read this?
Unfortunately Paizo has decided to lock away access for image extraction so I can't do this any more.That's not us—your software may have changed. Try a different application.
No, I can verify that Adobe Reader X happily lets me select and copy maps from, say, Pathfinder 13 and doesn't from Ire of the Storm. I have them both open at the same time on the same machine now. Something has changed about the way you're putting the PDFs together, Vic.
It's making me reconsider my modules subscription, as the PDF is less valuable for VTT play.
I was able to select and copy maps from Ire of the Storm with Reader DC. Thanks for pointing me that way, Vic. My laptop hadn't bugged me to upgrade yet.
Unfortunately Paizo has decided to lock away access for image extraction so I can't do this any more.That's not us—your software may have changed. Try a different application.No, I can verify that Adobe Reader X happily lets me select and copy maps from, say, Pathfinder 13 and doesn't from Ire of the Storm. I have them both open at the same time on the same machine now. Something has changed about the way you're putting the PDFs together, Vic.
It's making me reconsider my modules subscription, as the PDF is less valuable for VTT play.
I can verify that nothing has changed about our export or watermarking settings that would have caused this (but, there may be an image element causing the problem). To help us troubleshoot the issue, can you let us know which pages you're attempting to select maps from in Ire of the Storm in Adobe Reader?
In the meantime, have you attempted try Option+clicking (OS X) or CTRL-clicking (Windows) to select image elements out of this PDF in that program?
I can verify that nothing has changed about our export or watermarking settings that would have caused this (but, there may be an image element causing the problem). To help us troubleshoot the issue, can you let us know which pages you're attempting to select maps from in Ire of the Storm in Adobe Reader?
In Reader X, I tried to select the map of Fort Breakthrough on page 10 and couldn't get it to switch from the text-select cursor to the image-select one. I also couldn't get any of the NPC portraits set in the text or the hex map.
When I had trouble in Reader X, I downloaded Some PDF Image Extract because I'd seen some other posters mention using that software with Paizo PDFs, but it only extracted the maps from the inside front cover, the map on page 3, the cover picture, the dinosaur picture from the top of page 1, the half-page picture from page 2, the Modules logos and green backgrounds to the sidebars, and, for some reason, the transparencies around a few of the inset pictures like the compy and the logos. None of the encounter maps other than those from the front cover made it, nor did the hex map of the area or the other half-page images from the chapter heads.
Now that I've upgraded to Reader DC, I'm able to select any of the pictures and maps I want. My fault for not keeping on top of the upgrades. (As I recall, I was avoiding Reader 11 for some reason, and I never realized how out of date X was getting.)
It's too bad Adobe and the PDF format became a standard for everyone. I've never liked Adobe or PDFs.
Did you read this?I am sure it is about coming to terms on "fee" or an agreement with Original Artist to be able to have someone else to produce the Scaled Battle Maps.
I am sure that they could sell enough Map packs on each set to more than make up any Cartographer cost..
My Map original map sets sale for $5 each and include a grid and no grid version...Not big sellers I agree but then again I am competing against Free Nonspecific settings and not "Offical" Paizo product lines locations.
Map Packs and Interactive map sets should be an Indicator of how well they would sell...
I believe the real truth is they are just not interested in selling them. Now if WOTC starts offering them or 3rd Party Companies start selling them as a standard product line then they will look seriously about offering them all the time.
I've read that. What I'm suggesting is if you are already paying an artist to draw a map maybe you can try finding an artist to create the map as an SVG. They can even use free software, like inkscape to create it with. You can still then convert the svg to a png or pdf file at the resolution and scale you desire. You can also then easily release the svg file so people can create a VTT map at the scale and resolution they want to use it.
I strongly urge you to take the 5 minutes required to read the wikipedia article and learn more about the magic that is SVG. Honestly, PDFs are some ancient beast from the 90s. Paizo exists because of the concept of FOSS, it would great if Paizo also embraced free and open source software throughout their technology stack.
I'm with Trimalchio. SVG images are vastly superior than PDF images.
Sure, but you're the client, you can almost certainly find talented artists willing to meet such a requirement.
I know it's easy to give arm chair business advice, still it's worth an experiment or two.
Armchair quarterbacks unite!
|
|
I have a simple solution.
Allow Someone like me to re-create scaled 1"=5' Maps and sale them under an agreement on DriveThruRPG or through Paizo?
A Win Win Situation> Paizo keeps their Cartographers busy and they keep making the Maps for printing and PDFS and use Freelancers like me to make the "official" Digital Versions of Battlemaps. If they don't sale Paizo loses no money on the Deal
Everyone is welcome to look at my "Free Maps" I have done over there years. Look at them online through Windows Picture Viewer and See if they are as good if not better than a Cut and Paste picture from An Official PDF
Hello everyone, glad some of you like my work.
One of the main issues is that its takes hours and hours of work to do even one "decent" looking scale-able battlemap that can be printed to a 1" grid. Then there is the time to find the right artwork that is common-use that goes with the theme of the map, etc. etc.
When I started making the maps for the AP's I was contacted by Paizo and at first was told that they couldn't be done because of copyright. Later it was worked out where I could release them and the disclaimer that appear on all my maps was given to me by Paizo.
The maps can not be sold for profit at all. So I can't do a AP of maps and put them up on DriveThrough or anywhere else for ANY price. So I stuck with doing donations which are almost none existent for the time involved.
Example when I look at my server for the Mummy's Mask maps they have been downloaded over 1,000+ times.... So far I have had $97 donated off of them. So with roughly 40 hours in the maps.
You see where this is going....
If Paizo freed up on their tight (not for profit) leash I would be glad to get more out there. Until then I will release them as I make them for my personal campaign and right now we are all playing 5e.
|
|
Example when I look at my server for the Mummy's Mask maps they have been downloaded over 1,000+ times.... So far I have had $97 donated off of them. So with roughly 40 hours in the maps.
Imagine if you will...A place in time and Space where...Paizo would allow a Freelancer the opportunity to sell their Maps....
Imagine if you will ...say a Modest $1-$5 cost to download a set of Maps scaled at 1"=5" (instead of $14.99 for the Interactive Non-Scaled Maps) you could have Sold 1000+ making anywhere from $1000 to $5000...Now Divide that $1000.00 to $5000 by 40 hours you would make $25 to $125 per hour. Just a rough estimate.... Gotta Ask was these 40 Hours that you took away from watching TV, Playing Games online, Taking the Family, Called in Sick to work, faked death in the Family to complete.....Or like me..had nothing better to do. And made them. Like you I make them as we play....or i get a very special request to make them.
Now Paizo could do 30% like DrivethruRPG does...they make money letting someone make maps.
Granted Free always hurts you...
Donations hurt you..
I know
My Totals 2016-01-01 through 2016-05-23
(My year to date on DrivethruRPG on Generic Battle Maps.)
Grand Totals: (including Free and Pay what you Wants)
Downloads 2685
Price collected all together $24.10
Earnings after their Commissions $16.87 ....woooowhooooo I am getting rich fast :)
I made $150 on 3 private Commissions..go figure. And a Funny thing about these requests....All they wanted was Structural Maps....No Detail Fluff...They sent me an Outline...All I did was Walls, Doors, Stairs, Windows, Arrow Slits....nothing else...alas seems some VTT you can detail out the maps on your own.
That's behind the scary door, JPSTOD. Oh, and Billy, I'm gonna drop you some dough, too, but... I have been tardy. Granted, it won't cover your actual time...
If you're serious about wanting to license recreated maps, you should send a business proposal to licensing@paizo.com. The worst they're gonna say is "no" and you can keep doing what you've been doing. But they might also say yes. :)
|
|
If you're serious about wanting to license recreated maps, you should send a business proposal to licensing@paizo.com. The worst they're gonna say is "no" and you can keep doing what you've been doing. But they might also say yes. :)
How do I do that?
How exact would it have to be?Do I need to send some examples of Maps?
I realize this is an older post but...
I have a digital D&D table and larger maps would be great. I don't even want to print them, just stick them in Roll20. Briarstone Asylum looks pretty fuzzy when I stretch out the PDF image onto the digital table.
I realize this is an older post but...
I have a digital D&D table and larger maps would be great. I don't even want to print them, just stick them in Roll20. Briarstone Asylum looks pretty fuzzy when I stretch out the PDF image onto the digital table.
I second this. We've printed out several maps in the past for table top use, but most, especially the larger ones, are very blurry after enlargement. I'm honestly not sure what the use is for a lot of the pdf maps in the AP map packs. Not really great for vtt or printing, so we are stuck mapping by hand anyway. They're obviously not drawn in the relatively small scale supplied to us in the pdf; I'd be willing to pay a little extra for the original higher resolution images.