Will be making some generic 4e maps soon!

[Gamerprinter]

Just so everyone knows, I have only been visiting the RPGNet boards for the past two weeks, but I do go to many other forums with people for and against 4e, EnWorld, Giants in the Playground, etc. So while these latest discussions were at RPGNet, that isn't the only place that I see these discussion. I don't think I am overly influenced by RPGNet, versus any other site - don't get the wrong idea about that. Mostly any forum I go to, if it starts off with 4e, I skip it as I'm a Pathfinder or 3.5 guy. Its only recently that I responded to a 4e thread which got this whole discussion started.

When I use the phrase "throw reality out the window", what I mean is that there isn't always a pit or cliff or other terrain hazard in any given mapped location. Something like a typical city street, while certainly usable for a 4e game makes it less exciting, so throw in a sewer access, cellar stairs, ladder to building roof - adding things that aren't necessarily accurate, yet more varied in terrain makes a better 4e map.

In fact I've already made two different maps specifically for 4e - all of them realistic, yet all of them following the protocols asked by those members...

GP

[Matrix Sorcica]

And they rock! Have some rep.

Looking forward to the next ones.

[CartoGeo]

What are your thoughts on making maps more specifically designed for 4e versus any other kind of map?
GP

I have noticed that, IMHO, that Pathfinder maps tend to be reminescent of some of the old school city maps, and regional and continetal maps of D&D 1st and 2nd Edition... It's not exactly the same, and in many cases 'better' BUT... it varies greatly from some of the cartography that comes out of WOTC... but I think that it is a concious decision on WOTCs part for simplification.. feeling like they just highlight the places presented in their products and you fill in the rest... I am sure there is an work/efficency cost factor to that... but thats just my opnion. Yes, 4e does need more room for fights then Pathfinder, I was bitter about that the other day when trying to decide if a project I wanted to start would be done with 4e ot Pathfinder in mind, MAPs was only main impediment to my creative juices.

[Gamerprinter]

This isn't a thread jack, its related, just read...

Also back on RPGNet, I was having a discussion with Steve Russell of Rite Publishing and Louis Porter Jr. of LPJ Publishing on different business models for promoting RPG products. One thought was a subscription based product, but that model has lots of variables that largely depend on a large audience you need up front. Louis brought up a thought, using Monte Cook's Dungeon-a-Day concept as a free service to attract the traffic while all the ads are either unique products sold direct, promotions for existing and upcoming products and sell space for advertiser banners.

I need a platform to post a free online gazetteer for my Kaidan: a Japanese Ghost Story setting, and my other projects, but in order for a site like this to work, it still needs traffic. So I decided with my huge abundance of unpublished maps, many second place wins in mapping challenges (including this month's it looks like ), as well as my speed at creating new maps in a variety of styles.

I just purchased the domain name: FreeRPGMaps.com and am building a site, adding a Wordpress Blog with plans to offer two free downloadable encounter scale maps each week (first one on each Monday, second map on Thursday) with intentions of posting blog and gazatteer content on Tues, Weds, and Friday.

So while I'm not saying I won't post them here, but I will be giving away these kinds of maps (and others) on this new website I'm building. It should be up sometime next week. I'll post something in the News Forum when its ready. I plan to push more of specific maps offered on my Gamer Printshop site through the new site as well.

So any new maps will be posted there first, then offered through RPGNow as free downloads, then I might post them here.

GP

[tilt]

Good luck with it, sounds like a site to subscribe too

[Gamerprinter]

Thanks, Tilt - I expect you as a member once its set up!

I'm also getting an RPGNow account setup so after I post the maps on my site, I will make them a free downloadable PDF product. Of course I would need one to sell other stuff in the future. So I'll posting two products a week. And downlo ads from RPGNow provide Email addresses of downloads for marketing efforts down the line. Of course the maps come with my ads, included, with a closeup partial map for a cover design.

Been looking at forum software, though I like VBulletin (CG's software) its too rich for me at this time, so I'm looking at Simple Machines Forum as a free one, one of the other sites I'm a member seems to work alright allowing image uploads. I don't know how SPAM protected it is or what security it offers, but most of its visible features are nice - and its PHP/MySQL based. (Remember, I'm an artist, not a coder, though I do build graphic rich sites and barely dabble in HTML, PHP, Java, I don't even know CSS, other than knowing what it is.)

I might need a wiki app, and I do like the CWBP wiki, so I need to look into that. Also a CMS system to swap out maps for automatic posting on respective days of the week - damn lot of work for a non-coder!

Anyway, the trials and tribulations of taking the next step.

GP

[tilt]

looks like you got your work cut out for you ... feel free to ask if there is anything I can help with. I use Wordpress for my invitation site - and the new version of Wordpress I believe comes with a forum (perhaps as a plugin) that should work very well. We currently have 2 pdf's for downloading, but we plan to have a lot more, and its damn easy to use.

[Jaxilon]

Yeah that does sound like a lot. I thought you were already swamped. You must drink Red Bull or something, hehe. Sounds interesting though. I will try to check it out as well when you get it going.

[RobA]

If you plan for more of a CMS, consider joomla. I used it for a fair while when it was still "mambo" before switching my personal site to a blog engine.

-Rob A>

[Natai]

GP, I'm probably similar in coding skill level to you. I dabble occasionally, but it's basically just looking around til I figure out what I'm trying to do at the moment. Most of what I learn in the process gets brain-dumped soon after.
Joomla is not a bad option. It's easy to setup, looks good, and has a large community for support and addons. In my experience it's forum integration is a little lacking. I just switched my site from joomla to VB, which is excellent in terms of how all of it fits together, but costly. VB4 is new and there are still kinks to be worked out, mostly with absent features that need to be added by the VB team. For example, it's not really setup to handle site-wide galleries without a mod, despite supporting user albums.
My suggestion would be to determine the one feature you really need, and use that to narrow down your decision to two or three options. In your case, that will probably be a gallery or download management system. After that, figure out which one has the best remaining features - forums, blogs, etc. Good luck with your site, and don't be afraid to shout if you need some help.