The subject pretty much sums it up. We're about to start a Runelords campaign, and the halfling rogue has decided to spend money on maps, but no ranks in Geography. He's just fascinated with maps.
The player has already given me license by saying I can just give him a list of maps the character has picked up - they can be a useful or not for the campaign as I want them to be. I thought I'd throw this out to the community and see what everyone thinks I should give him. Ideally I'd like to find some actual maps to print out and give him, but I'm not a cartographer, and I don't really have time to learn the skills between now and when we start.
But even if I don't have actual handouts, I'd like to come up with some interesting places in Golarion that he might have maps of. I was already thinking of some of the more exotic locations (ie Vudra, Minkai, etc) possibly of questionable veracity. I also thought it would be very cool to possibly drop something in at the start of the campaign that only becomes obviously useful much further down the road.
I'm sure I can come up with something to satisfy my player, but I would really like it to be as interesting as possible. Any thoughts?
Make good use of Vaznutt Parooh, the gnome cartographer in Sandpoint. He runs an exotic map shop called "The Way North". All from Pathfinder #1 but if he's obsessed with cartography, this is an NPC that is likely to be useful.
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One thing you will want to consider is how accessible you want cartography to be in your campaign. Veznutt Parooh is a fantastic source of information, but in my campaign, all but the most common and simple maps are out of the price range for a 1st level character. (Of course, I've also got Veznutt trying to train a squirrel to help him sort his maps and scrolls...it's a gnome thing.)
The rules don't specify how much a map should cost, but I would say that a simple map of the local region would be often-copied and fairly easy to come by, but wouldn't have anything more than the most prominent features. More detailed maps would require knowledge and skills from experts, and would cost quite a bit more.
If he's only concerned about getting copies of maps (rather than historical works or originals), then they wouldn't cost much more than the parchment and ink used to make them (maybe about 1gp or higher for particularly complex or artistic work).
In Varisia, maps of far-away locations are going to be rare and come with a price tag to reflect how hard they are to come by. This would be especially true if the maps actually provide correct and useful information. Less expensive maps were likely drawn by someone going off of second-hand accounts or by making up information based on legends or their own imagination.
For handouts, I'd start with the kind of regional maps you would find in the map folios, perhaps with a couple of interesting locales from other Paizo products. The rough map of Katapesh from the interior front cover of the Legacy of Fire Player's Guide is a good, hand-drawn map example and the maps of Darkmoon Vale and related locations are good, too. Unfortunately, there aren't any published maps of Vudra, Tian Xia, or other exotic locales.
The thread of Community Created stuff has a lot of useful things, most for the DM to help run combats and encounters. I found this MAP someone created and intend to give it the the party as a gift or a cheap sale from the "Way North" after they become heros during the begining of Burnt Offerings.