New Map Pack - Fantasy Maps: Graveyard and Church

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Hey guys! I wanted to announce the release of a new map pack. "Graveyard and Church" is a gothic graveyard encounter map, released just in time for halloween. There are a total of seven maps included: the base map (48 in. x 36 in.), three maps for the interior of the church, one map for the interior of the grave keeper's shack, one map for the interior of the mausoleum, and one map for the crypt! As always, full MapTool support is included as a .cmpgn file with object layer and vision set up for you.

I'll paste the copy below. Feel free to take a look--I definitely recommend checking out the flash preview on RPGNow.

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Fantasy Maps: Graveyard and Church Map Pack


http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php? ... s_id=95929

What evil lurks in the graveyard that is causing the bodies of dead to reanimate? Who is responsible for the evil, the dirty grave keeper in his small hovel or the pious holy-men in their country church? Has an innocent child become lost in the catacombs beneath the mausoleum, or have filthy grave-robbers moved in with an eye on plunder? With D20 Cartographer, the story is in your hands!



"Fantasy Maps" are full-featured encounter maps designed to fit any traditional fantasy world. This release, "Graveyard and Church" is a massive 48 in. x 36 in. encounter-scale map which includes six additional indoor maps for the included structures: a 3-story church complete with bell-tower, a grave keeper's shack, a mausoleum, and a subterranean crypt! All maps are in the traditional 1 inch = 5 feet scale.

Included for your convenience are several different formats including:
• Full-color maps in .jpg format
• High-contrast black and white maps in .jpg format
• PDF files with images sliced up over multiple pages for easy home-printing (compatible with both US Letter and A4 International paper)

D20 Cartographer also supports virtual table top (VTT) systems and includes:
• 100 DPI gridless map with objects removed
• A folder with all ‘objects' in .png format for use on this map or reuse on your private maps
• An RPTools MapTool VTT file (.cmpgn) with vision blocking and object layer set up for you

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Anyway, thanks a bunch for reading! I wish you good gaming and a happy Halloween!

[wolph42]

Hi, its been a while since last time I heard from you, congrats with the new release, curious to the result!

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Hi, its been a while since last time I heard from you, congrats with the new release, curious to the result!

Hey there! Yeah, I have been pretty busy with big life changes--moving and the like--so I haven't been mapping as much lately. But now I'm back in the game, and rearing to release a whole heap more stuff! Thanks again for all your hard work--your map-transition macros made it into the .cmpgn file, and you are listed on the 'special thanks' section on the first page of the readme!

[wolph42]

Ok I've just downloaded the graveyard and 'walked around', Initially I expected an .rpmap and though that you might have made a mistake but you've made use of different maps for the levels.
Anyway my reaction so far: h0ly sh#t its Awesome!! I really have to think an adventure around this one! Very very cewl!

[erebus2075]

hi there so i just joined up today trying out this very nice freetool and it just struck me; so you are using this tool which some one have used alot off efford to make and make freeware so that people could enjoy it to profit off this persons hard work?
dont you find that just a bit immorale to say the least? i mean the creator off the maptool is the one who should profit for his hard work if any, and you deciding to make a profit off his hard work seems very wrong in my eyes:

just thought i would lay the thought out there since it didnt seem like it had occured to you.

best regards

me

[aliasmask]

hi there so i just joined up today trying out this very nice freetool and it just struck me; so you are using this tool which some one have used alot off efford to make and make freeware so that people could enjoy it to profit off this persons hard work?
dont you find that just a bit immorale to say the least? i mean the creator off the maptool is the one who should profit for his hard work if any, and you deciding to make a profit off his hard work seems very wrong in my eyes:

just thought i would lay the thought out there since it didnt seem like it had occured to you.

best regards

me

MapTool is a tool like a computer with only the OS loaded. You'll have to provide your own content to get the full use of the program. The only graphics provided by it were volunteered by its users and even then it's a separate download. If someone wants to sell artwork that can also be used for MapTool, I don't see the problem. There's plenty of "free to use" artwork online that can be used by MapTool and if someone want to buy his artwork for their campaign for a couple of bucks, the market will decide if that is fair.

[brad]

I also do not see the problem. Maptool is still free. There is still a ton of free content out there to download and use on this free tool. RecklessEnthusiasm is not the first to offer quality for sale content for Maptool. I applaud it as I think it adds more options for the users of Maptool, which adds more value to Maptool.

On a side note, while for a very long time Maptool did rest on the shoulders of one person and it probably wouldn't exist today(at least not in its current level of coolness) were it not for his countless hours of machine like coding, in the last couple years Maptool has evolved to more of a group effort. Sure the bulk is still handled by a small handful, but it is more of a community effort now.

[wolph42]

Well let me put in my 5ct towards this rather bold statement ('immoral').
I do understand your point, its a free tool, build for free and commercially used by another. If you put it like that then yes, you have a point

However I'm of the opinions that you are taking the wrong perspective. RE created an awesome piece of work, and he was an artist before he started using MT and with which he makes a few bucks. He could choose to just put it for sale without the MT support and I don't doubt that it would sell equally well, without the extra effort he needs to put in to create an extra layer especially for the MT community.

So to me its an added bonus that not only he created a great map which you can buy, but he also took the effort to add a version that can be used straight in MT. I mean make a comparison of other art work for sale on RPGnow, the prise asked for that, which do NOT have MT support and you can only conclude that this really is a bonus for free.

Another thing to keep in mind is that MT is an enabling tool, I mean if you use a free drawing program to make commercial maps in, is that immoral? If you use open office to write your book in that you sell, would that be immoral?
It would be immoral if RE would *sell* MT itself, but he only sells something he *created* in MT.
Granted he also sells something else created in MT (my drop-in) but the asked permission for that and I (fully) agreed.

So in short, no I do not think this is an immoral action and I fully support his actions!

[Azhrei]

Let me say that as the (seemingly) main spokesman for the development team, we don't want your money.



Well, that's not really true. We'll take anything you care to give. (There's a Paypal donate button on the main site, but we don't pressure people into using it.)

We work on MapTool because it's a cool project and we like making things that lots of people can use (including ourselves). If we didn't have 7000+ users on the forums and 300+GB of downloaded code and artwork each month, we'd still do this. Or at least, I would.

But I will admit that having such a great community here really makes working on MapTool enjoyable. I'm thrilled that people like torstan and RE create artwork, that folks like CiF and aliasmask and wolph and neofax (and plenty of others!) work on frameworks, and so on. I tend to think of this community as a "family" or "group of friends" rather than a loosely knit bunch of strangers. The people here care about the other folks on the forum. You can't put a price on that.

Besides, if we started making money on this we'd have to charge sales tax, claim income, and so on. What a pain that would be! It would take all the fun out of programming!

[CoveredInFish]

I tend to think of this community as a "family" or "group of friends" rather than a loosely knit bunch of strangers. The people here care about the other folks on the forum.

+1

This is/feels so true and is something that is really rare in the internets.

I'd have commented on this harsh critique myself but pretty much all important has been said. Maybe one point left: I'm busy and I like to use my spare time so that it counts. While I can do some so-so-graphic I'm really happy to use awesome graphic by arty people - they do that better. Maybe I can help them out with some coding, fine. But if they work hours on a project and want little money for that (just a few dollars/euros) I so have no problem giving that.

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Wow, thanks for coming to my defense, everyone. It honestly never occurred to me that someone might look at it from erebus2075's perspective. I do believe that commercial support can only be good for MapTool, though. It is really good to hear that others (including Azhrei!) see it the same way.

All that said, I'm really grateful that the RPTools community is so supportive and I'm always eager to reciprocate that support in any way I can, commercial or otherwise. I have been meaning to do more "not-for-profit" stuff like my chess map (http://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php ... 8&start=38), but have had a lot of other stuff going on. This serves as a good reminder that I can give something back!

I also intend to do a free tile-set at some point, but that'll be a big undertaking and take some time. It is on the docket in my mind though!

[RecklessEnthusiasm]

Ok I've just downloaded the graveyard and 'walked around', Initially I expected an .rpmap and though that you might have made a mistake but you've made use of different maps for the levels.
Anyway my reaction so far: h0ly sh#t its Awesome!! I really have to think an adventure around this one! Very very cewl!

On a lighter note, Wow, that's some high praise! Thanks a bunch, my man!

I am really starting to be attracted to maps with greater size and scope like this. I have switched to .cmpgn since, like you said, there are enough levels and complexity that sticking them all on just one map would get a bit cramped/confusing. I see myself continuing to do big maps with lots of levels for the foreseeable future. Actually, my next project is going to be absolutely epic in size and scope--I think you will like it!