What are the Top 3 things needed in a Map for Table Top Play?

[Ryusamasan]

Hello All,
I would like to pose this question as a practical debate...
So basically please chime in, and make your argument, please use quotes if you must dispute directly someone else's points, or if you would like to firmly agree with the veiwpoint of another...

Below is the list that I have cobbled together (in no particular order):

Physical Size (larger than 8.5x11)
Digital format/option
Map Detail
Map Style
Prominent Cities/Places
Grid (square or octagonal)
Thick Durable Paper
Laminated (or clear plastic overlay)
Rollable
Having Roads/Rivers/costal bays/mines/portals...
"Details" / "Cutouts" of cities or places of import
Companion maps (having details of cites or regions)
Borders
Place Names / Titles
Generic Labels (i.e Castle / Inn / Town, over Full or "Actual" names)
OTHER

[jpstod]

For a playable Tabletop
Playable Size
Grid
Map Detail

[Midgardsormr]

Like many questions, the answer is "It depends." It depends on the purpose of the map, how it will be used, how often it will be used, and probably a lot of other things. Since this is posted in the Board Games forum, I'm going to make these assumptions: The map is for a board game, it is a professional product that I'm going to spend money on, the game is to going to be played many times, and the map is the central prop for play. (Ticket to Ride, Small World, Risk, etc)

The qualities I think are most important for a board game map are:

Lays flat
Easy to read, even when upside-down
Spacious (not necessarily large, but having enough space for all of the pieces that will go on it)

[pelle]

I think OP means hexagonal. Octagonal grids are extremely uncommon.

Also I think a grid is not important, just some kind of markings to regulate movement (ie areas or points will do as well as a grid).

Good size is important. Big that is, usually.

And easy to read with good choice of colors and large enoig fonts.

[Gamerprinter]

I doubt there's such a thing as an octagonal grid, as octagons cannot make a grid without squares stuck within to fill areas octagons cannot mesh. Really there are only square grids or hexagonal grids.

GP

[Falconius]

Can have triangle grids as well I suppose. Or are we talking about useful grids?

[pelle]

Triangular grid is just the vertices of a hex grid. I know at least one series pf wargames using a map that has terrain in triangles (but units still moving in hexagons). Triangles are of course also common for meshes for digital maps.

There has been games using octagons mixed with squares for maps. Not saying it is useful.

[Redrobes]

I would say that for battle maps then it should be scaled so that its 1 inch = 5ft so that standard sized miniatures on it are in scale to the map.

[Kaiserdarkness]

Since we are talking about a board game, the game design should be as important as the aesthetic and material quality of the map. Risk is (in)famous for Australia´s Strategy ^TM, so you can either design the map to reduce those factors or leave the map as it is and make rules that help keep the game balance. Of course, since I don´t know how is your game my advice wouldn´t cover exactly what your game needs. Nonetheless try to see the game as a whole when making your map.