When I'm not working on the next upcoming hardback rulebook, or apps, or whatever needs to be done around this place, my mind is on maps. While the talented Jason Engle makes our Flip-Mat and Map Packs gorgeous, I'm the guy who dreams up what goes on those maps and how they work together. And that's a fun job!
For the past year and a half I've been working hard to make these lines as fun and useful as possible. I've worked to make many of our Map Packs more modular, so that you, the GM, can build the kind of complexes and adventure sites that dance around your imagination. I've also been working to create synergies (excuse my use of such an overused and often misused term) among these products whenever possible.
For example, if you have both Map Pack: Marketplace and Map Pack: Rooftops, you'll notice that you can use them to create large and evocative city spaces. I like running urban adventures, and I'm a sucker for mapping aids that will help me illustrate the twisting alleyways that serve as the stage for a chase, gang war, or a run-in with local bravos with more guts than brains. When we put these products on the schedule I wanted to create the product that I always wanted, and that I figured a lot of you would want too.
But there are other types of synergies within current mapping products. Lately we have worked to have some of our maps fit well with some of our Adventure Paths. The latest ship maps provide the layout for the chief vessels the PCs command in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, and Flip-Mat: Town Square provides two chief encounter locations within the town of Sandpoint for those of you running Rise of the Runelords. The goal of this type of synergy is to give a tool to GMs who are running Adventure Paths, without making the maps so specific that they're hard to use for those GMs who aren't.
The question I pose to you all on this fine autumn Tuesday is, "Are we on the right track?" Do you like the synergies in the mapping products? Have you noticed them? Are we going far enough? Let me know your mind on this matter and help me to create the best products for your Pathfinder game.
Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer
