How are other GM's handling HUGE maps later in the AP?

[yarb]

I like to pre prep all maps in an adventure, not just the combats. What I usually do is use a combo of cut out gaming paper and dungeon tiles to build the map and then postertack it all together on black foamcore in 2 or 3ft sections. Then I keep that dungeon in a stack and lay it out as the party explores. but holy gaming paper batman! Fortress of Thousand Fangs would be about 10x10ft (just main level) and The Hunters' Maze is roughly 7x8ft.
I'm curious what other GM's do when maps get this big. Do you hand wave most of the layout and just map rooms for combat. Does any one just show the players a copy of the map?
I know that some project the actual map on the play surface but unfortunately not an option for my group.
I really like the included maps and want to use them in there entirety so just rambling and looking for ideas.

[Laithoron]

Right now in my local game I've got about 3 flip mats taped together for a fairly large dungeon that the party is progressing thru in Savage Tide. In your shoes I'd either join flip mats together, or run MapTool on a monitor/TV for exploration (it has fog of war), then quickly sketch out the area of any battles on a flip mat when an encounter starts.

[yarb]

Asphesteros or BQ,

You two have been instrumental in my SS prep. How did you two handle this?

[Asphesteros]

I'm in Seven Spears now, and for that have decided to go very loosy goosy freeform. My 'palette' is the Gamemastery Ruins map pack building the encounter areas improvising on the spot only where necessary, handling everything else as narrative. I use this magnetic material backed wet/dry erase battle mat as a background and these status flags to mark progress and locations on the large scale maps that go with the AP (Paizo really needs to cut a deal with those guys, that magna map is best thing I've used).

I agree, the scale makes it very cumbersome to try to mock up things ahead of time. I'm not sure yet, but I might print out the map art, leaving it small scale, cut it up and hand it out bit at a time to the players as a reference, while sketching out the battle map only where necessary the old dry marker way. Not as immersive, but more manageable, while letting the players get to see the map art (which they otherwise never get to see). I did that in Shiv for the cannibal camp and other areas, and it worked pretty well.

[UnboltedAKTION]

Does anyone know if they ever came out with a hex map of Savinth-Yhi? That would be extremely helpful for when my PCs finally explore the city.

[XCountry DM]

I've been looking hard for any maps of Savinth-Yhi that might be available and I haven't found any luck at all. I'd make one myself if I had any mapping skill with maptool at all. Sadly, I really kind of suck at that.

[yarb]

Bump! really? No one that got through this AP has a suggestion or example? (snark not intended)

[Nullpunkt]

I simply go with the GameMastery maps printed in the module. It gets a little repetitive now that we're half-way throuhg but it gets the job done. Still I look forward to Vaults of Madness with those beautiful dungeon maps.

[Ice Titan]

I just gave up. Whoever drew the maps wasn't thinking "someone with a vinyl mat should be able to render this", they were thinking "oh wow it'll be so cool that it is so gigantic."

We ended up drawing like four locations and just skipping through the whole 5th module anyways. This is from a guy who has all of Castle Scarwall drawn out in a poster tube behind him, by the way. Fortress of a Thousand Fangs was just a) absurdly huge and b) ... boring.