I was paging through The Curse of Strahd in the bookstore this weekend and noticed that it had fold-out poster maps in the back. This is the first departure I've seen recently from WotC's practice of simply printing maps on the inside covers of their hardback releases. Is this the start of a trend?

I hope not. I LOATHED the inclusion of the poster map.

WOTC appears to be, at least in some instances, keeping the art (or at least the cartography) right with the artist/creator. That's a positive sign, I'm sure, and has led to things like the creators selling stand-alone versions of their maps. I would assume that the poster in Strahd is somehow related to this.

My issues here are that both are being done at the expense of supporting actual play. Poster map is pretty, but can't be used during game play. wouldn't it have been better to include some reference sheets for the DM? stand-along maps are nice, but should I have to pay so much for them as an alternative to photocopying the ones from the book?

Quote from: bryce0lynch;886322Poster map is pretty, but can't be used during game play.

Says who?  It's a map.  It doesn't magically vanish the moment dice come out.  They're certainly no more awkward than the 17x22 maps I've been making and using for several decades in my own game.

I really like poster maps. I've only gamed for 10 years, so unfortunately most modern game I've played never got poster maps, but the few Star Wars d6 books I own are full of maps and stuff I like to use when GM'ing Edge of the Empire.

So yeah, I'd love that publishers could include maps or other props in their books.

I adore poster-sized maps that are designed for the players. Hanging a nice map of the city or world on the wall of the gaming room adds color and identity to the session; can be used as useful reference during play; and can even be a conversation piece outside of the game.

But if they've got GM-specific information that should not be seen by the players? (As appears to be the case with the Curse of Strahd maps.) Those are worse than useless. The form factor makes them virtually impossible to use at the game table, and I've never really seen the larger size offer any meaningful utility.

The Curse of Strahd poster is particularly egregious because neither side actually features a poster-size image: They're both collections of smaller maps that could have easily been presented in a more useful format.

(I'd love to have a poster-sized map of Barovia that could be shown to the players. Pity they didn't make one.)

That's too bad, that it wasn't actually a proper map.

Of course, to have been truly proper it would need to be a hexmap. It'd be awesome if WoTC could go ahead and introduce those to the new generation.