Using a digital projector to deliver the ultimate mapping solution for your game is something of an evergreen topic among GMs: There’s always interest in it, and once you’ve heard about it, chances are you wish you could do it yourself (I know I do!).
d20srd.org (an all-around fantastic site for D&D GMs) has a page dedicated to Jans Carton’s delicious, enviable digital projector setup. It’s not a step-by-step guide to creating your own projector mapping nirvana, but it’s chock full of useful tips and details — plus screenshots of the map creation process, as well as games in progress.
If you’ve been considering taking this plunge, this just might be the page that pushes you over the edge — I know my mental gears started turning when I read that Jans’s projector can be had on eBay for under $300, which is about $1,700 less than I expected. (Via The Island of Eime.)
*drools*. It’s a shame that all the pre-editing of the maps to make them work is something that I would really stink at doing. 🙂
I’m just about ready to take the plunge. I have been using Dundjinni to make maps for quite some time. Unfortunately, very quickly on, I learned how expensive it is to print them out. Even when purchasing generic ink cartridges, it still costs me about 50 cents per page. With most maps coming in at around 16 pages, it can get costly.
I tried the route of showing the maps on the computer screen and then passing the wireless mouse around so players could move their “virtual” minis. Although the maps looked great on the monitor, it just didn’t have the same impact moving actual minis around on a battle map.
If I can find a projector in that $300 range, I’ll be ready to go.
Frost, if you do give this a shot I’d love to hear about it in our forums, or as a guest post for TT. That goes for anyone else who’s got a digital projection setup going — this is a topic that could really use a nice step by step guide for GMs.