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I generally purchase my Paizo products as PDFs and print them out myself. I have purchased a few of the flip maps and map packs, I have printed out and laminated all of them, however, because of our limited space I actually use a tablet and external display or overhead projector. I was told that for PFS games I had to use physical maps. Is this a requirement?
Venture-Captain, California—Sacramento
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Nope. If it was online gaming would not work. If you are lucky enough to have a projector and the space to use it, and a program to show minis on maps, that is even better. Bonus points if it supports fog of war.
If I were going to do this, I would bring a digital camera with micro focus, so that I could use pictures of people's minis.
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Briefly, no, especially as you've explained it.
You should use a gridded battle map, because it becomes difficult for players to use, or the GM to judge, many standard Pathfinder class abilities without it. As long as you represent the encounter and position of characters clearly, such that the published rules work as expected, nothing specifies what physical items you have to use to do so.
It would be very difficult to have an online play establishment with Paizo-appointed campaign staff if that was a rule.
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Well the way we are planning to do the final setup, is I have a bunch of older tablets. So each player can have one to use during the game that will be logged into roll20 and I will use it to display the map on the screen or projector. They will be able to use their tablet to control their character as if it's an online game. We have all agreed this is the best way for us again because the store we play in is limited on space as all day Saturdays it's filled with card game players. And although this has started a good sized interest in RPG games, it's still not enough to take over a sizable area in the store... Yet.
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Well the way we are planning to do the final setup, is I have a bunch of older tablets. So each player can have one to use during the game that will be logged into roll20 and I will use it to display the map on the screen or projector. They will be able to use their tablet to control their character as if it's an online game. We have all agreed this is the best way for us again because the store we play in is limited on space as all day Saturdays it's filled with card game players. And although this has started a good sized interest in RPG games, it's still not enough to take over a sizable area in the store... Yet.
Given how many of us use Roll20 and Google Hangouts (or equivalents for both), this should not be an issue.
We even have a VC and VLs for Online Play....
This will vary by group. If you are good at explaining, the players understand well, and you drop a few rules then no, but otherwise the way you explain position of objects and creatures will likely be misunderstood or something will be forgotten.
I personally need the map because I don't want to do that much explaining, nor do I expect everyone to remember where things are or how far they are away, even if I have minis without map.
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The accounts are generic and setup per tablet just so they have a way to move their character around the map. And I pretty much figured it was legal as Jared said "online gaming wouldn't work". And according to Paizo online games are legal. But I wanted to make sure there wasn't something that stated physical table games require physical maps. The VC I'm working with didn't seem interested in me running my games this way.
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The accounts are generic and setup per tablet just so they have a way to move their character around the map. And I pretty much figured it was legal as Jared said "online gaming wouldn't work". And according to Paizo online games are legal. But I wanted to make sure there wasn't something that stated physical table games require physical maps. The VC I'm working with didn't seem interested in me running my games this way.
Funny thing is, though, there are pictures from Paizo Con of a projected table-top surface with characters, so I can't imagine this being much different.
If anything, space typically being at a premium at most venues, this should theoretically help cut down on space.
Now, on the other hand, the initial outlay for tablets, program, etc could be a thing if someone spills a drink on one. (We get excited/distracted/etc -- it happens.)
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The accounts are generic and setup per tablet just so they have a way to move their character around the map. And I pretty much figured it was legal as Jared said "online gaming wouldn't work". And according to Paizo online games are legal. But I wanted to make sure there wasn't something that stated physical table games require physical maps. The VC I'm working with didn't seem interested in me running my games this way.
As long as the players can see their characters in relation to the bad guys, I can't think of any reason it would be a problem. It's more an issue of whether your players can adjust to it.
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This will vary by group. If you are good at explaining, the players understand well, and you drop a few rules then no, but otherwise the way you explain position of objects and creatures will likely be misunderstood or something will be forgotten.
I personally need the map because I don't want to do that much explaining, nor do I expect everyone to remember where things are or how far they are away, even if I have minis without map.
In my experience, playing without a map may work fine for some game systems, but once you get into Pathfinder, you start to get the various battlefield control builds, which all need really solid visibility on where everyone is, and where they are moving.
Remember to explain waypoints in Roll20, if you do use it, It can help see actual movement of the miniatures, rather than just Point A and Point B, so the GM can see if the PC wandered over a trap, or either side cvan see potential AoO points.