Travel map size

[Ellspeth]

I have no doubt this question has been answered many times but as always I am having trouble finding it. I have a country sized map as a travel map for my campaign of England, just blank topography. What size is recommended for the larger travel maps? I can resize in paint. Or would it be best to break it into sections? I know large maps can muck up loading for players. Thanks.

[Zacchaeus]

You mainly want to keep the size of the map to well below 1mb, ideally about half that really. It's not so much the dimensions i.e. the number of pixels high and wide. The important thing when considering how big the map is is the file type. You want it to be in jpg format so that's the format you should save or export your map in. So load your map into paint and then Save As and select jpeg picture. This should considerably reduce its size (unless of course its already a jpg of reasonable size).

[Ellspeth]

Thanks Zaccheus, I have had this explained before but am no better with taking notes than back in the university days. Technology means I can just screenshot your answer for future reference thank you. ps. 1000 kb = 1mb right? so a jpg at 675 kb is okay?

[Zacchaeus]

Yes, 675Kb should be fine and yes 1000Kb = 1Mb.

[Trenloe]

The two main things I look for are:
1) file size (as Zacchaeus mentions above).
2) Dimensions: Maps work better in FG as landscape (wider horizontally) as you can fit them better on the screen.

As you're talking about an overland map you have a couple of things you might want to do:

1) Have a big map that you zoom out to give a good overview, but then zoom in on specific areas to show more detail as the party progress. The issue with this is that it needs to be very large (pixels and filesize) to do this to a nice level of detail when you zoom in. You'll probably find you get to a specific area coverage size where beyond that the size of the map gets too big for the zoom detail you require. Sooo.... option 2:
2) Do a top level map, but not with zoom up close details. Then, split key areas of your map up into more detailed, but smaller areas as separate images. Then use FG links on the top level map to the more detailed level map.

Option #2 is an approach I took with some maps here: https://www.cartographersguild.com/album.php?albumid=3017 I don't have the top level map (as this was taken from a commercial product) but each of these maps were linked into the main map and I displayed them to the players as they were travelling through the area in question. Each map also concentrated on main adventure locations within the campaign.

Using option #2 is a bit more work up front, but it allows for more efficient map transfer from the GM to the players, less FG memory usage and the ability to keep your players looking at just a specific area map rather than messing around zooming in/out on a huge map.

[Ellspeth]

Thanks trenloe, option 2 is in part what I was looking for. I am willing to do the extra upfront work because this map applies to the entire campaign, the players have shown so much enthusiasm and effort on their own part for what is my first campaign I can do no less.

[Zacchaeus]

Oh, and by the way if you are going to be wrecking havoc in England you'd better have a couple of Scotsmen PCs in the party :)

[Ellspeth]

Well 2 of the players are Brits, but indeed one is in Glasgow. However at 44AD the Scots were something else entirely. I did let him have a Celtic wolfhound. PC's are all Celts, well except the poor Roman fleeing a death sentence, not sure how he is going to fare among the bloody Celts.

[Zacchaeus]

Well 2 of the players are Brits, but indeed one is in Glasgow. However at 44AD the Scots were something else entirely. I did let him have a Celtic wolfhound. PC's are all Celts, well except the poor Roman fleeing a death sentence, not sure how he is going to fare among the bloody Celts.

Ah, true enough. That far back the Scots hadn't even been discovered. :)