Wilderness map on vinyl

For the outdoor map of the region surrounding Dwimmermount that will be printed on vinyl, I am thinking that it will be best to print it with hexes and hex numbers but not icons for the towns and forts, names for the regions, etc. My reasoning is this:

  • like the Outdoor Survival board, the vinyl map can be used to represent a number of different outdoor areas as needed in play; not having any identifiers on the map helps it do this more flexibly

  • different groups may situate Dwimmermount in different areas of an existing campaign world, so that filling in the names etc. on the map will reduce its adaptability. (Note that the outdoor map could still be useful for a group which places the dungeon in a radically different environment by changing the scale; the vinyl map could represent the area immediately around the dungeon, and fit inside the area described at a larger scale.)

  • the players might know the geography of the region (e.g. in the White Sandbox riding around in Celerion’s tarn often gave the Grey Company a birds’-eye view of the terrain) but not know where things were located or what they were called; leaving this blank on the printed map allows it to track the growth in the players’ knowledge

My experience with the vinyl map Jed made me of the Outdoor Survival map has been that it is useful in many different situations especially because he removed its own identifiers like animals and cabins, and that it’s been easy to write in features with wet-erase markers so that they are legible but don’t get accidentally wiped away in play. It’s also been super helpful for specifically Dwimmermount/ACKS situations that came up in the higher-level Lawful Evil game like tracing the lines of a battlefront and marking a village that was destroyed by beastmen.

Is there anyone who feels like they’d much rather get a mat pre-printed with the Dwimmermount locations and names - trading flexibility for specificity?

I like your reasoning and personally find flexibility outweighs any benefits of specificity (even though it might look fabulous).

I’m still intensely curious about the Dwimmermount vinyl mat…

Cheers,
Rusty

I’ve been making some sketches of a possible approach for the dungeon tracker, I hope to post scans tonight.

Tavis, with there be a version of the Wilderness hex map that does include location labels & symbols, for DM referencing - a referees-only version, if you will - that is or becomes available? Perhaps a DM version of the Wilderness hex map (with lables & symbols) could be included in the pdf utility bundle?

I for one would like to have the benefit of having those symbols and location labels marked on the map, even if it’s only a separate map pdf (which I can have printed off or do it myself at home.

Thanks,
Jon

Doh! I meant to say “Tavis, WILL there be a version of the Wilderness hex map that does include location labels & symbols…”

Sorry for any confusion I created.

Yes, we will definitely make two versions of the wilderness map with symbols and locations:

- one to be printed in the Dwimmermount book itself (B&W)

- one as a PDF in the utility bundle (watercolor, like the vinyl one but with labels and symbols for key locations)

Can you provide me the company that you are gonna use to print the vinyl maps. I would like to get a map I made printed on vinyl. You can email me at iandimitri at hotmail. I would appreciate any info you can send me.

Bueller…Bueller…
:slight_smile: