Gaming Terrain, Tiles, and Battlemats

Having just come back from GenCon (my first time attending) I've since been inspired by the various options I have available for... lets face it... toys at the game table. But I've had a hard time deciding what I should use.

Currently I use a good old fashioned Battlemat and Wet-Erase markers. While there is very little 'Wow' factor to the battle-mats, it provides me with the most freedom, obviously.

I also have several Flip-Mats that I use, and enjoy. I supplement them with Campaign Cartogropher 3 maps that I make myself and print on 1" scale. Using these are nice, but its often hard to find one that matches some of my more unique locations. Making maps in CC3 is something I'm getting better at, but I've not mastered it yet.

I have a complete collection of Dungeon Tiles from Wizards of the Coast, as well. At least 1 of each set, most 2. I like the product, but I have a hard time organizing it or using it during play.

While I was at GenCon I picked up some of the products from Fat Dragon Games. I've built a few of their EZ-Dungeon pieces, and this certainly has the 'Wow' factor to it! I like that it integrates well with all of my above options, and that I can customize it as much as I want. It is taking me a long time to construct though... and in the end it doesn't look quite as good as...

Dwarven Forge. The Cadalac of gaming supplies, I would wager. This stuff looks amazing... but comes with an amazing price tag. It isn't out of my reach, however, but I'm worried that it would be hard to customize it or create custom items that worked well with it. My other big worry is that I travel to most of the games I run... and it might be a tad hard to transport regularly.

Anyone have any insights or opinions?

There are a ton of neat toys for terrain, but it is all a pain to store (and keep organized). I'm more of a Tact-Tiles and Counters (I make my own) kind of guy myself, but I will make some terrain counters from time-to-time (altars and such) to spice things up.

I use Hirst Arts molds to pour bricks and build my dungeons. I use other wargames terrain as well.

The value add is, I'm a wargamer and modeler, too.

Lemme see, I have:

* Several battemats, including the primary one that is about 84" by 36".

This is what we use 90 percent of the time at the game table.

* Every Flip-Mat yet published.

I love these for any kind of play while traveling, and also for the scenes while not traveling. It's best to take care not to overuse the locations, or players will begin to joke about it.

* Two copies of every set of Dungeon Tiles yet published.

I rarely to never use these. They are an organizational nightmare, and the tool to build maps in advance is clunky and buggy and no longer officially supported, as far as I know.

* Easel pads.

I really, really like these for large set-piece encounters, and for generic locations like "in the middle of the woods." In the latter case, I try to laminate the pages after drawing them out in colored marker. Whether I do that for the former cases depends on what I think re-use utility will be.

* A couple of sets of GameMastery tiles (Campsites and Caravans).

These are good, but extremely circumstantial. They have some of the same problems at the Dungeon Tiles, with the addition that they aren't as modular. (I.e., each set really works best if you build exactly as intended.)

* Several sets of MasterMaze.

I only use these for climactic encounters. The visual impact is amazing. Setup and storage is horrible.

I am a big fan of the Fat Dragon E-Z Dungeons.

I don't have a regular group right now, so when I get in the mood for a D&D fix I just head to the basement and start putting together some cardstock magic!

The big drawback is portability. The few times I've tried to take stuff to an "away" game, I've damaged at least one of my walls or arches.

The only other drawback I've had from 3-D terrain is when there are a larger number of players at the table, the walls make it hard to see/move miniatures during a combat.

So there I was. Setting up Savage Worlds in a Metamorphosis Alpha setting. Showing new players how to play SW and setting up the first combat while they were at lunch.

I was at the game shoppe and decided to ditch the battle mat and just use the green and blue felt, and the warhammer terrain and the templates and the tape measure.

It looked awesome. Nobody had issues using a tape measure to figure out movement and distance. I should have taken pictures, but I'd just finished when they walked in and the wow was cool.

I need to sit down and figure that out for D&D4e.

darjr said:

I need to sit down and figure that out for D&D4e.

Click to expand...

Using a tape measure to replace the grid should be easy enough, really.

Squares translate to inches.
Movement is free in any direction up to your movement value.
Ranges are measured in the obvious way.
Melee 1 means within 1"; 2 within 2"; etc.
Bursts become circular (measured from the center of the miniature).
For Blasts you should probably make cone-shaped (90°) templates, that can be placed with the tip on the edge of the mini's base in any way you like.

Bye
Thanee

well yes, it is simple, initially. but I'd want to see about corner cases and maybe try it in an example game or one shot first before I did it in an ongoing campaign.

Not a lot of work, I agree, but I'd probably like to formalize it and pdf it.

So yea, thanks, I agree, that is the most of it.

Fat Dragon GAmes stuff is great. There are a lot of free 3D buildings on line also (check the Heroscape fansite for links from their custom terrain section).

I carve stuff out of rigid foam insulation. Making the curvy walls couldn't be easier for caverns. Buy the stuff 1.5-2 inches thick. Take a regular screwdriver, and drive it through to the other end, over and over. Remove the lose stuff. Spray paint with grey aqua paint. Super easy cavern walls. You can then place them over grid paper or whatever. I'll have pictures on the Heroscape site or Hordelings at some point (to go with the nearly completed Helm's deep my son and I have been building).

It's pretty easy to make brick walls too. For the bricks, just draw them in with a pencil, and that creates the gaps between the bricks. You can get better results with running crumpled up aluminum foil over the painted walls and then dry brushing.

Lots of pictures of this kine of stuff on line.

Pain the rear to store.

I use maps from the DDM line, supplemented with 3D terrain (my kids have lots of treasure chests and stuff from lego sets).

Zaukrie said:

Remove the lose stuff. Spray paint with grey aqua paint.

Click to expand...

many types of Spray paint eat styrofoam. Not all, but it is common.