Forum

I actually dreamt we played Forbidden Lands last night! (I often get ideas while sleeping – that's why I have a Whiteboard at the wall by my bed.)

Anyway, we had some cool device that I was thinking of ways to implement: since you start att one point on he map and characters don't know that much about the world, would there be any practical way of keeping the map hidden, revealing it as the characters travel? I think that would be cool and simulate the first times I played D&D when the map was drawn as we went. Also this is standard in many computer games.

A simple way would be having a black (or bloodmist red) sheet with hexes covering the map, cutting or even punching them out one by one as knowledge expanded. Perhaps there already is a way that I simply don't know about or perhaps this map mask could be a SG?

That's a really interesting idea - how about...

Print the map on card and cut it like a jigsaw, or into tiles? Then just build it as the party explore...

Thinking about it, I suppose it might not be practical depending on the scale of the hexes. If you're in a valley you may only see the next hex from the one that you're in. If you're on top of a mountain, you may be able to see several of the surrounding hexes.

Alternatively (and this is a slightly sillier idea,  but I haven't had much sleep), alongside the full-size GM's map, you could have a smaller players' map that was basically just a like a giant lottery scratchcard - wouldn't have to have all the detail, just look like a sketch map. We bought a world map for my brother and his wife, who both loved travelling, where you scratched off the countries that you visited.

Perhaps you could do it on a computer screen: a black overlay on the map, where the GM unscratches what he/she considers the party have seen, including mountains further off. Would be cooler to have it on the table though.

I think as a new SG or as an add on you could take the map and break it down in hexes (thick cardboard like for a good boardgame). The hexes have to be numbered so you can place them correctly together.

The usual techniques for such exploring are:
-roll20
-A beamer mounted on the ceiling, with computer connected to it, GM can change the map&battlemaps on the fly
-whiteboard or a hexmap. Chessex produces such blank maps
-put the (fully fleshed out) map in a picture glassframe with a heigthened edge, put sand on it, move the sand while exploring the map.

-put the (fully fleshed out) map in a picture glassframe with a heigthened edge, put sand on it, move the sand while exploring the map.

Wow. Why didn't I ever think of that? So cool!

-put the (fully fleshed out) map in a picture glassframe with a heigthened edge, put sand on it, move the sand while exploring the map.

Wow. Why didn't I ever think of that? So cool!

Agree!
You could also paint the glass with suitable paint and scrape that off with exploration. Then the map would be easier to move.

I‘m a lazy GM - I would like to have hex cardboard tiles to lay them out for the player. Hex is even in Hex-Crawl

The ideas above would be great for exploring an undiscovered land.  I am not an expert on the lore, but I don't get the feeling that the Forbidden Lands are undiscovered.  They just haven't been visited by outsiders for several hundred years.  Physical geography (which is mostly what the game map depicts) seldom changes over such short time spans.  I don't imagine this game as exploring uncharted wilderness so much as venturing into a post-apocalyptic landscape with an out-of-date map in-hand.

My assumption will be that the game map represents a copy of a map made hundreds of years ago.  Mountain hexes will still be mountain hexes.  Grasslands will still be grasslands.  Castles and settlements are another matter.  What was depicted on the map as a city might now be ruins.  Fortified towns may exist where the map shows nothing.  My view of exploration in this game involves discovering what is in this swamp hex now, rather than discovering that this is a swamp hex.  I need a suitable way to make a subtle mark on each hex that the party has explored so they can see what remains unexplored.  Maybe a single dot in the center?  Maybe a small reference number so players can make notes on what they found in some type of log book?

In other games I have done hex crawling adventures on blank maps and enjoyed it very much.  I just don't plan to do that with FL.  That map is too pretty to hide.  For those who want to hide it, I'd suggest a digital solution using roll20.  The sandbox sounds fun but it would be easily ruined by an accidental movement and we don't even want to consider what would happen if the family cat decided to visit the Forbidden Lands.