Got an awesome map? How about a secret message you want to pass on to the party? Tired of scribbling something on a piece of scratch paper right after somebody says “I loot the bodies”?

Maybe you just would like to jazz up your pre-printed handouts.

Here are a few ideas.

Try changing your fonts. There are literally hundreds of awesome fonts out there that you can get for free. DaFont is among the best. Fonts range from hand-writing imitations to Old-English style print.

If you aren’t going to invest in buying or making specialty paper (see below), then download a good image of a scroll. A simple google image search for scroll will turn up something you can use. Paste it into the body of your document and set the properties to go behind the text. After you print it, cut the scrap of paper down to the scroll size. You can even tie them up nicely with a bit of ribbon if you print them out full page size.

Buy different paper. Paper comes in hundreds of different colors and textures. Take an afternoon to visit a specialty paper store, or take some time online to find one, and you will be well rewarded. You can find a thicker paper that already has an aged look to it. The majority of these papers are relatively inexpensive. For a few dollars you can buy enough to last you through any campaign.

You can also age your own paper. This is a fun project, particularly if you have younger children who want to help. Start with a decent grade of paper, 20 lb copier paper will work just fine. Don’t use notebook paper as the lines will still be there when you’re finished and that won’t look good.

1. Mix up a batch of your favorite brownish beverage (coffee, tea, hot cocoa, coke, etc.)
2. Place your paper in a square baking pan.
3. Dump said beverage over the paper.
4. Remove the paper from the beverage and place on a rack to dry.

You can dry the paper in the over, however use extreme caution here. The oven should never exceed 150 degrees Fahrenheit or it may combust. It is just as easy to leave it out for a few days until it dries.

The paper will curl and twist and generally feel aged. I like to dry mine in as much direct sunlight as possible.

Most printers will handle this paper just fine. Not every printer will, of course, so you may want to experiment with only one piece at a time, but most printers will. In most cases you will need to feed the printer one sheet at a time.

Be warned that if you print your handout or map or whatever first and then try to age your paper the ink may run. If you used an inkjet paper you will likely lose everything, so prepare the paper first.

Thanks, and enjoy the game!

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Last time I talked about how to make a large dungeon map on standard 8 ½” x 11″ paper.  You can see that article here.  And personally I think it works pretty good.  Sometimes, however, you know that you’ll be re-using a map a lot, or you just want something sturdier.  Here are a few ideas.

 

• Print it on Card Stock.  You can get card stock in various off-white colors at pretty much any office supply store.  There are several specialty paper stores as well, but the office supply stores usually sell for less, though the quality of paper won’t be as nice.
• Print it on paper and then glue it to cardboard.  This is particularly useful if you are going to build a 3D dungeon.  Tape or glue (I recommend glue in this case) the map to the cardboard.  Now you have a perfect template for building your 3D dungeon, or you can use it as-is.
• Print it on clear plastic sheets.  Depending on your printer and or copy machine resources you can print (black and white generally) to clear overhead projector sheets.  Again these are available in office supply stores, though they can get expensive fast if you are using large maps.  Why would you do this?  Well, if you happen to have an overhead projector it works nicely for overland maps.  However, a more common use would be to apply them to a magnetic game grid..  Slip the map onto the grid and you get the benefit of the magnets as well as a more interesting map.
• You could also glue the paper onto even more sturdy backing, such as plywood or even sheet metal, however that is probably going to the extreme.

 

If you have access to a laminator then by all means laminate to your heart’s content.  Alternatively you could apply clear contact paper to the map.  

 

As always, have fun with your game.

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Making fun, interesting dungeons from scratch can be difficult.  Bringing them to life at the game table can be really tough unless you are spend a lot of money buying pre-printed dungeon tiles on a 1″ grid.  So how do you get your newly created dungeon onto a 1″ battle grid?

 

Enter Microsoft Excel.

 

Ok, Microsoft has a lot of bad press, but this is a trick that will save you time.

 

Convert your map to an electronic image.  If you don’t have a scanner, visit a friend who does.  If you are downloading free maps from Wizards of the Coast or another site then you will already have an image to use.  The sweet thing here is that it doesn’t matter the format or size of the image, though I recommend using jpg because the file size is smallest, which works well if you plan to email the finished product around.

 

Now open a blank workbook in Excel. 

• Change your print margins to .5″ all around (1/2″ border all around).  You can go smaller if you like.
• Click Insert | Picture | From File. 
• Browse to the image that you saved on your computer.  Select it an click insert.
• The picture should appear in your workbook.
• Move the picture to the top leftmost area of your workbook, so that the top left corner of the map is covering cell A1.
• Click on your zoom, and change it to approximately 40%.  This will show you how many pages the map will cover when printed.
• If you don’t get the dotted lines for the pages click print preview and then go back.
• However, you’ll want to go into print preview anyway, so open it now and count the number of squares of your dungeon that appear on the page.  Assuming that you are using standard 8 ½” x 11″ paper and printed portrait then you will want 7 squares to appear on the page so that you get nice 1″ squares when you print.
• If there are more than 7 then cancel print preview and adjust your image size by dragging the bottom right corner diagonally down and to the right.
• Go back to print preview and count the squares.  If the squares are too big, then go back and make the image smaller.
• When you have the right size of squares, print the pages.
• Generally speaking you will end up with several pages.  After they print, lay them all out on the table, or the floor if you have a very large map.
• Cut the bottom ½” border off the top row of pages.  This will allow you to tape or glue (I prefer clear tape applied to both sides) the second row to the top row.
• Cut the right ½” border off the left most pages.  This will allow you to glue or tape the next row of pages together.
• The idea here is to end up with a ½” border all around your nice map but still have plenty of room for assembly.

 You can do up an entire dungeon level in one evening and save yourself a ton of time explaining and drawing maps for players.  Personally I like to let my players keep the maps of the areas they have cleared.

 

Hope this helps and have fun!

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