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I've been trying to think of different ways to make Kingmaker more player accessible without breaking my budget. I'm still in Stolen Lands, only two sessions in and my players are already exploring a whole swath of the map. I have printed out two copies of the Hex-ploration map in the Player's Guide to keep track of where they've been, seen, and done. One copy for may players, and one for myself. The problem is that the only person who really gets to see the map is the player who is drawing and dealing with the player's map. At first I thought of making more copies for the other players, but then I realized any discrepancies between the individual maps would cause a lot of confusion at the table.
For now I've come up with a solution that I hope will work. I've taken the images from my digital copy of the Kingmaker Map Folio and cut them into the individual Hexes. I've uploaded these images into my tablet and will present them to the players during the game. I know this is probably just a temporary solution, as the tablet's battery won't likely last the entire session and/or the players will have difficulty viewing it at the same-ish time. Not to mention I'd have to have multiple versions of each map hex; with and without encounter locations listed. I have been able to rip the maps out of the Map Folio without any of the text or labels.
I am looking for a way to bring the exploration map to my players in a way that presents the images in a readily accessible format without costing a lot of money to produce. As of now I have access to... Kingmaker Map Folio, Gimp (free version of Photoshop), Ink-Jet printer, freshly refilled ink for said printer, some 100 odd sheets of Card-stock, and anything else I can find at a craft/hobby store for less that $15. Any ideas for making the maps player accessible? I was toying with the idea of printing and cutting out the hexes but I'm not sure how to attach them to the map during game without the messiness of glue or the ineffectiveness of tacks or something. If I come up with something or if the tablet works my next session I will let you guys know.
We used the plain white hex maps for about half-way through book1.
Then we took out the map folio and cut out the Charter area with scissors, and used that for a while. Drawing what we needed directly on the map in pen.
What might be a little better would be to print out a 1 page map of their explored area, the whole charter area can fit nicely. With any graphics program you should be able to manipulate the un-explored areas to being ghostly images barely visible, while explored areas are full color.
Just bring them a printout of their currently explored/un-explored map at the start of each game. It's only 1 page. Update with new game info that session.
Sooner or later they'll have the whole map, taped together and getting more and more raggedly as the game goes on (as it should).
After finishing KM use map for new campaign in your kingdom starting 20-100 years later at 1st level.
Just a one page map will do wonders for you.
A solution I read here:
Print the whole map and put it inside of a plastic sheet protector (like those we used in binders in school).
Using a dry-erase marker, hide all the unexplored hex. When the PCs explore a new hex, they only have to erase the marker on that spot.
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I used Staples (the office supply store) to print a giant 8' x 2.5' composite of the entire map on a vinyl banner. I then used photoshop to make a pages of hexes (I think 8 full 2" hexes on each sheet) and cut them out. A little sticky tack to mount the paper hexes on the vinyl map and I now have a giant KM map that can always be seen and still maintains the mystery.
I took it a step further and printed icons for hex improvements (stolen from Civ) and striped borders in different colors. I'll try to take a picture and link it here in the few days.
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Just bring them a printout of their currently explored/un-explored map at the start of each game. It's only 1 page. Update with new game info that session.
I like the idea of updating the map each session, but instead of printing it out each session and going through a lot of ink I think I will upload the image to my tablet. It can handle really large images, and if they can zoom in it will be a lot more immersive. It won't help between sessions but it will be great for recap and invaluable during Kingdom building.
A solution I read here:
Print the whole map and put it inside of a plastic sheet protector (like those we used in binders in school).
Using a dry-erase marker, hide all the unexplored hex. When the PCs explore a new hex, they only have to erase the marker on that spot.
In my experience dry-erase markers do not erase anytime after a day or so of being drawn on a surface like a sheet protector or a flip map. I transport my gaming materials to one of my player's house and somewhere between drawing a big flip map and going home the dry-erase becomes semi-permanent. Nice idea though, I think I may incorporate it into a 'fog of war' look for the unexplored parts of my map either in the final print or on the tablet images.
I used Staples (the office supply store) to print a giant 8' x 2.5' composite of the entire map on a vinyl banner. I then used photoshop to make a pages of hexes (I think 8 full 2" hexes on each sheet) and cut them out. A little sticky tack to mount the paper hexes on the vinyl map and I now have a giant KM map that can always be seen and still maintains the mystery.
I took it a step further and printed icons for hex improvements (stolen from Civ) and striped borders in different colors. I'll try to take a picture and link it here in the few days.
If you do not mind me asking kadance, about how much did it cost to have the composite of the entire map printed at Staples? Also your description is a little confusing. From what I am reading, you printed a banner map, then covered it in blank hexes that could be removed later to reveal the map? Sounds brilliant. I may try something in miniature if the Staples option is too expensive. I would have to find some sort of adhesive that wouldn't destroy the image below. Could also be good for Kingdom building.
Aye, you have the right of it. I waited till staples had a sale on their banners, so it was $20 and change for the big one. Simple blue tac or white sticky tac hasn't damaged the image on the vinyl banner.
Hope this works.
Kudos for the Civ5 tokens ;)
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For some reason when I started this thread I never really thought of having the main map in the background with 'blank' hexes blocking what the player's haven't seen yet. Going along those lines I should be able to make something that will represent the map for my players fairly cheaply while still looking good and being effective. The major hurdle I have to get past is ease of transport. My game shifts from house to house each week and the materials need to be put out of the way whenever we're not playing. I figure going along with the 'poster' idea but chopping the map up into portions generally the size of a standard piece of printer paper would not only look better than a hand-drawn map but would also meet my other criteria (namely moving it around a lot).
My local library charges about $0.50 per color page which saves me from wasting all of my color ink. The local craft store has cardboard/foam board, glue, and tack all for less than $5.00 total. Printing the blank hexes, since they are black and white, would be about $0.25 a page and save my at home ink as well. I'll let you all know how it goes, but please keep brainstorming for the community's benefit. Some of the ideas you've generated already are rather brilliant and much more practical than what I've chosen to go with. I just have a certain cash, time, gas money, and transportation limits that keep me from doing certain ones. (The best of which so far was kadance's banner poster map IMHO)
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I just made a map of the Stolen Lands. I hope somebody here can find some use for it. Maybe print it out, put it on corkboard or foamboard, put some stickers and pins on it, etc.
Really nice, Yusuf. I like the clean style.
Printing a new map for each game is not ink intensive for us. Each game is every other week for about 10-12 hours.
Only explored areas are in color, unexplored is b&w, other lands are sepia.
So one page of legal paper is fine for the full kingdom map.
The map you print only needs to cover part of the full 4 panel KM map folio.
Book 1: Just the charter hexes and 1 more hex row to the south.
Book 2: the Greenbelt map
Book 3: Greenbelt + Nomen Heights maps
Book 4: Hook tongue + Greenbelt + Nomen maps
Book 5: All 4
Even with all 4 put together on just a single page of legal paper makes a good map.
Printing the complete map at full scale on pages of letter size in draft mode and trimming and taping it all together is easy and inexpensive, and still looks good.
Printing banners of Varnhold at 1"=10' is a bit pricey but awesome.
Printing a banner of your kingdom at full scale at the beginning of each book is nice too, I think it was $25 at OfficeMax at the start of book 4.
Whatever you use, the best are the folio maps or copies of them, and make sure you can just write on them.
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If technology is option. I'm running a game with five players and two of them are remote. We use D20pro for mapping. I loaded the map into D20pro and created a fog of war for each hex. At game sessions I run the GM server and we plug a single laptop into a large TV so everyone at the table can see the map. I did this so all my players wouldn't be buried behind laptops. It was pretty inexpensive since we had all the gear.
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I just made a map of the Stolen Lands. I hope somebody here can find some use for it. Maybe print it out, put it on corkboard or foamboard, put some stickers and pins on it, etc.
Love that map.
#YOINK
A very nice map indeed Yusuf!
+1 #YOINK
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Thread Necro... I am running the game for my kids and their friends and I was trying to do the same thing, 4 years after you did ;). My resolution was poor though and I didn't want to spend the $80 on something that might not turn out. Do you still have the high def file you used, or was your map "fuzzy" too?
I used Staples (the office supply store) to print a giant 8' x 2.5' composite of the entire map on a vinyl banner. I then used photoshop to make a pages of hexes (I think 8 full 2" hexes on each sheet) and cut them out. A little sticky tack to mount the paper hexes on the vinyl map and I now have a giant KM map that can always be seen and still maintains the mystery.
I took it a step further and printed icons for hex improvements (stolen from Civ) and striped borders in different colors. I'll try to take a picture and link it here in the few days.
Let me know if you need it in another format, or with the extra compasses removed.
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Thread Necro... I am running the game for my kids and their friends and I was trying to do the same thing, 4 years after you did ;). My resolution was poor though and I didn't want to spend the $80 on something that might not turn out. Do you still have the high def file you used, or was your map "fuzzy" too?
I used Staples (the office supply store) to print a giant 8' x 2.5' composite of the entire map on a vinyl banner. I then used photoshop to make a pages of hexes (I think 8 full 2" hexes on each sheet) and cut them out. A little sticky tack to mount the paper hexes on the vinyl map and I now have a giant KM map that can always be seen and still maintains the mystery.
I took it a step further and printed icons for hex improvements (stolen from Civ) and striped borders in different colors. I'll try to take a picture and link it here in the few days.
It's kinda an odd feeling to have your old thread get Necro'ed years after posting it. Even stranger when you've gone EXACTLY with this advice for running Kingmaker again. I've added a little element that my players enjoy; full page printable stickers. If they find something, do something, or finish an encounter they want to remember then I make a sticker for it. I pre-printed a page or two of icons from The Stolen Lands map key from the adventure pdf. It's easy enough to plaster them where they need to go. I've so far posted every planned hex encounter or location like Oleg's Trading Post, The Sootscale Tribe, and The Gold Mine. But I've also had a few unmarked icons for things like river crossings (I just use the Bridge icon, regardless of how they got across), a deep woods semi-permanent camp, and the sites of any nasty random encounters they thought were planned. I can keep my players in the dark about encounter locations they haven't found but still show them the map, and I can show them what they have found and keep them interested or involved in the exploration aspect of the game.
If you have attempted to get to my linked file(s) above and found that you needed to ask permission, you have my apology. I was not regularly checking the e-mail address attached to the account.
I have now removed the google security update from hundreds of my shared files, so hopefully no one will have to ask permission to view them.
I just made a map of the Stolen Lands. I hope somebody here can find some use for it. Maybe print it out, put it on corkboard or foamboard, put some stickers and pins on it, etc.
Still really good and clean.