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One of the things I love most about Paizo Adventure Paths are the maps. They're always interesting and atmospheric... which is why I don't want to just draw a sloppy approximation of them with dry-erase markets. For my upcoming Kingmaker game, I want to do something really special.
Assuming they look decent when blown up to the proper grid size, I was going to either have color copies made of the major maps, fiddling with them in GIMP so each part is an individual file that prints at the correct size to link together, or I was going to try building 3-dimensional versions out of Terra-Clips(World Works Games).
The main problem with the Terra-Clips maps is that I'll lose the exact shape of the maps. Just looking at the Stag Lord's Fort map, I can already see it's impossible to do with the pieces WWG currently sells in their sets.
Likewise, blowing up the map images will likely distort the fine detail.
So here's my question to the Paizo community: which would you do, assuming the issue is quality of gaming and not price(I think offhand that Terra-Clips will be cheaper in the long run, since they can be reused)?
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One of the problems with printing out the maps is the secret doors, traps and other things your players shouldn't see. Jade Regent has the interactive maps that fix this problem, but you said you're running Kingmaker.
I know when I did a 3D model of thistletop for my RotRL game, it got a really big reaction. I actually did it all kinda freehand. Not the most cost effective, definitely. But the wow factor is definitely there.
I have also made my own map tiles for games before. Doesn't use up nearly as much card stock. If you're a half decent artist, you can add all the detail you want.
Just my 2 cp
One of the problems with printing out the maps is the secret doors, traps and other things your players shouldn't see. Jade Regent has the interactive maps that fix this problem, but you said you're running Kingmaker.
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With the exception of the earlier APs, most of the maps can be exported from the PDFs without secret doors and other notes on them.
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I'm both a fan of the detail put into Paizo's AP maps, and I'm a GM who doesn't have a lot of time for game night setup.
I've taken to extracting the images from the pdfs with Some PDF Image Extractor (freeware), and then importing them into Paint.NET (although GIMP should work just as well). From there, I re-size the maps (so one square = one inch) and do some editing (cutting out empty space, separating levels, sharpening the image, and removing secret doors with the clone tool), and import those images into Excel (the only program I could find to not keep resizing my images when I try to print them). After playing around with the printer settings there for a while, I end up with a serviceable, detailed map for my players to enjoy. Hopefully.
Another thing to consider, if you've got tiles or terra-clips, and you've read the module carefully, you don't really need to worry about re-creating the exact map. You can restructure things so long as you keep the same 'beats', and don't forget to include anything that the PCs need to succeed. Lastly, be prepared to improvise, as the PCs may interact with their new environment that the AP designers (and GM) didn't expect.
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Another thing to consider, if you've got tiles or terra-clips, and you've read the module carefully, you don't really need to worry about re-creating the exact map. You can restructure things so long as you keep the same 'beats', and don't forget to include anything that the PCs need to succeed. Lastly, be prepared to improvise, as the PCs may interact with their new environment that the AP designers (and GM) didn't expect.
I want to thank you and the others for the help. For now I think I'll try a mix of the two, doing my best to create 3-D structures that make an impression and use print-outs of the more intricate, irregular maps. If I had the time, the patience, and a robo-cutter, I'd probably try the Terrainlinx card stock models WWG does, but for now I'll have to be content with simpler 3-D structures and flat maps.