Papercrafted maps?

[Tyndmyr]

I followed a link in....some conversation on here, and eventually ended up at http://www.worldworksgames.com/.

It looks pretty cool, but before shelling out perfectly good money for downloadable patterns, I have to ask...does anyone have any experience with this, and is it worth it? Will stuff actually look like the pics once finished, or is it a giant pain, resulting in a crumpled up ball of sticky paper?

[AmberVael]

Oh. That kind of stuff. My advice? Don't bother with it. Sure, it is nifty and cool and all, but with a bit more effort and work, you can get it for free. Paper models and stuff like that can be found all over the internet, and I've seen with my own eyes the things my father has made with a bit of cheap glue, some card stock, the internet, and a printer.

And yes, it works. Works pretty well, too, if you know what you're doing at least. If you don't want to do the work hunting down models that will work for a fantasy setting, then yeah, that site might provide, but I don't think it would be necessary.

[Tyndmyr]

Nifty, well, I grabbed thier free samples at a minimum, figure I'll start out there, and see where it takes me.

[Doc Roc]

I just use a digital mapping program. I've never looked back.

[ericgrau]

Here's a nice example:
http://www.heroesoflesserearth.com/page/20/

I'm amazed at the days and days of labor people will go through to avoid spending money on "something they shouldn't", even to avoid spending a few bucks. And when given something as cheap and time consuming as cardstock PDFs, it's still not cheap and time consuming enough. That's my main gripe against such things. The time commitment is already so much that - in spite about wild claims of poverty even beyond what these websites cater to - 95% of people won't actually be able to see it through. Even valuing the time the same as minimum wage at Mcdonalds shows the actual cost to be exorbitant.

So I went and made my own cardstock stuff, designed to work with single sheets; nothing with fold-up thickness. I used photos for most images. It assembles in minutes with scotch tape, or seconds if you only want floors. It can be easily printed online with minimal time investment and then picked up at your local copy center for a few bucks. The file sizes are too big to upload to a website, but I could be prodded to finally get a file server.

There are some town buildings I plan on buying, like those in the above link. These are too complicated for me to consider putting time into making myself, and once assembled they are more re-usable. My stuff is mainly dungeon terrain, walls, doors, etc.: cut into any shape on the fly, re-usable only by coincidences in room shape.

[Totally Guy]

I've used that site on a couple of occassions and I've been really pleased with the results.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/Coins.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/WholeView.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/Ship1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/Manor1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v44/macdonnell/DSCI0339.jpg

It allowed me to run a D&D session where the game board was vertical. It was a bit more like a platform game with a real sense of depth. Dungeon depth!

I've not used the coins yet...

I need pics for the inside of the mansion...