Snowys Maps has been kind enough to come to me to talk about their product. They offered me 2 of their spiral booklets for free (just a press review version which is not the complete one) and allowed me to speak my mind of them. When this happens I try not to post negative reviews, talking directly to the creator why I think that. However, with Snowy’s Maps, the moment I had them at hand I felt the need to try them out in a one-shot with some players. I must say, they were a true success, so I come here to give my own take on them, and state why I believe you should check them out!
The non-gif images were taken by me, so you can see the incredible quality for yourself! Over 82 maps will be on the final product, with everything from barns, inns, taverns, temples, marketplaces, gardens, cultist bases, and much more to see!
If you don’t have too much space you can always just use one page
Art
A quick glance at Snowy’s Maps can show the level of quality they display. The city streets look incredibly detailed with plenty of stuff for the players to want to interact to. I have found that these kinds of detailed maps allow player’s imaginations to go wild. There’s a blanket from a vendor on the ground filled with jewels on top? I am sure a player will sometime ask to pull from it for the jewels to break to create a distraction. A fruit cart? You know the barbarian is going to throw it at enemies creating an incredible cinematic experience.
What I intend to say is that there is a delicate balance regarding how much flexibility and immersion a map can give. Theatre of the mind gives plenty of flexibility but it might not trigger the player’s ingenuity as much as actually seeing stuff to interact with. A simple marker-drawn map falls into the same problem. If there is a reason for you to want amazing art it is because it allows you to not have to worry as much about placing fun stuff for players to interact with.
One last detail that I consider incredible is the fact that if you have good minis you can take gorgeous photos with these incredible looking maps. I mean, just look at the pics I took myself that decorate this article. Incredibly cinematic, right?
Look at those details!
Flexibility and ease of use
The spiral notebook format allows for you not only to use just one page, but with it fully open, using both pages of the notebook at once. If you get a second one, you can even go further than that and make the battlefield even greater. Excellent for city chase scenes!! How about a third one? Let’s make a whole battlefield for an Avengers Endgame finale-like fight, as I did with my Waterdeep Dragon Heist campaign.
The pages are A4 sized, an excellent size to carry in a bag wherever you go. If you get two of them together you can make an A2-sized battlemap! Get as many of these map notebooks as you need and carry them wherever you go. This product is absolutely recommended for those GMs who meet at somebody else’s house to play and need something lightweight and comfortable to carry their maps while providing superb quality.
Did I mention that these maps are also dry erasable? If you are the kind of person that doesn’t usually get these maps because you can’t write over them, well, this is your lucky day! Draw the area of effect of those fireballs or let your players make notes of which places they should DEFINITELY not go in once they see there are cultists inside.
‘Not here’ can be seen written with a dry-erase marker over one of the houses
Quality
As you may be able to see from the images I’ve taken, the pages are A4, with premium colour quality, 300ppi. Paper quality? Top notch, and does not seem easy to break at all, allowing you to use these for ages to come. I also took the test of writing over one whole page with different dry eraser markers, and they were easily cleaned leaving no trace behind with one simple cloth.
Another additional detail to stand out is that even trying multiple combinations within the two maps they all fit excellently with each other, allowing for endless combinations (maybe fewer than endless but I am not planning on doing the math). Just look at the many combinations of the gif below and see for yourself!
Virtual Table Top-friendly
Maybe you stopped playing in person, or your friends live on the other corner of the world. Why would you want to support this? What if I told you that all these high-quality maps have been created and adapted to your VTTs of choice? The crowdfunding offers a FoundryVTT (V11+) module and Roll20 addons containing lighting, doors, and walls (dynamic lighting) for every map. All the work is already done for you so you can just plug and play!
You can check out some of the maps yourself by checking out the sample provided in the Kickstarter here.
Foundry version. Images not final
Roll20 version. Images not final
Funded Project
With a little bit less than a week remaining, there is practically no risk in getting into the Kickstarter. I have received a review copy that has 38 of the 82 maps it will have, so most of the work is already done. The goal has been met, and all the stretch goals but one have been fulfilled. So be sure to jump in as soon as you can to make sure you don’t miss your chance of getting this incredible pile of maps:
