Battle Maps Ideas

[Smoke Jaguar]

I am curious to hear what other adventurers use for their maps.

chess ex battle maps?
official d&d tiles? Which do you recommend for a starter?
White boards?
Card board cutouts?

I would also like to hear what people use to create world maps, preferably free.

I don't want invest a bunch of money until I get recommendations. Thanks as always.

 

[Trit One-Ear]

Back when my game group all lived in the same city (or even on the same coast) we used mostly chess ex maps and other similar types. Occasionally we'd pull out a old board game board (Heroes' Quest, Dragon age etc) for adventures where it was appropriate.

Now, since we're playing online we use Maptool, which is pretty excellent. But it'll never beat tabletop playing on an actual table with any kind of map, IMO.

I've also been looking for a good (free) world map creator, with little luck. A while ago Chris Perkins over at WotC had an article about using simple Photoshop commands to make his large scale maps (Linked here: Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Big Map Attack) )

I tried a little with his ideas, and wasn't pleased with the way mine looked, but I wasn't very patient, nor am I very good with photoshop

Let me know if you find a cool program!

Trit

 

[underfoot007ct]

I mostly use the common chessex battle mat, but also have a few flip mats. A squares/hex (got it when it came out) & and a city mat. I want a forest mat, but don't like the current version, hoping for an alternate.

Sadly, world maps I draw by hand, But I also am interested if anyone has a free mapping software.

 

[klofft]

We use MapTool at our tabletop game, using a 25" monitor for everyone to look at (as well as separate 15" laptop for the DM).

We use published stuff, which allows us to take maps straight from the products and drop them into MapTool, which generally works great (especially when combined with tokens that actually look like what they're supposed to look like).

But even when I deviate from published material, it's easy to find a good map through an image search and just use that.

I don't bother with world maps anymore, because I rarely find that I need them.

 

[Kinak]

We use Gaming Paper for battles. Just get some big rolls, they're like wrapping paper with grids/hexes on them.

Drawing during the game worked great and (since it rolls up), drawing before hand worked a lot better for me than setting out tiles or 3d stages. I also like being able to draw things like rockslides directly on the map.

One unexpected thing I found that was handy is that I developed a sort of library as we went. So if they ended up having a fight in the same valley again, I could just pull out that map. It provided a nice continuity.

For overworld mapping, I like Hexmapper. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good and it's free. My last game had a ranger and his player loved getting updated maps as they expanded their knowledge.

Cheers!
Kinak

 

[Radiating Gnome]

I use a variety -- depending upon what feels like it'll be the easiest.

We use a projector directed at the tabletop to project a map quite often -- since we play at my house but swap DM duties, that tends to be easiest for the other DMs (they don't have to worry about bringing a lot of maps).

I have battlemats, flip mats, a huge collection of poster maps from assorted products, too many tiles, and a pretty good sized stack of a no-longer-available product called Dragonscale Tiles. More often than not, though, if I'm going to prepare a map ahead of time by hand (not using the projector), I'll use an easel pad opf 1" graph paper. I imagine that's about the same as the gaming paper.

-rg

 

[Ryujin]

Until recently I was using 1" ruled graph paper, that I would simply draw on with Sharpie markers. Cheap, easy to source, but time consuming.

A few weeks ago I finished a bottom projection table, that we're using with MapTool. To start with I'm just using the map images provided by the Wizards site, for the canned adventures, but we'll also be able to use it for other stuff as well. It can also be used just to under-light the old 1" ruled graph paper maps, that I used in the past, by putting a lamp under it.

We use it with a 2'x3' mirror, set at 45 degrees under the table, with the image projected by a high resolution data projector from a few feet away. The projector is connected to a desktop computer, that acts as a connected player in MapTool. We still use figures on the map, but MapTool provides a great deal of assistance with lines of sight and hiding the opponents, via 'fog of war.' The players are already finding it more immersive.

 

[Radiating Gnome]

Until recently I was using 1" ruled graph paper, that I would simply draw on with Sharpie markers. Cheap, easy to source, but time consuming.

A few weeks ago I finished a bottom projection table, that we're using with MapTool. To start with I'm just using the map images provided by the Wizards site, for the canned adventures, but we'll also be able to use it for other stuff as well. It can also be used just to under-light the old 1" ruled graph paper maps, that I used in the past, by putting a lamp under it.

Love the table -- what sort of rig do you have for the projector?

 

[Tukka]

I thought about getting a Chessex mat but didn't like not being able to draw in much fine detail, or not being able to prepare multiple maps ahead of time, so opted instead to get a couple 1" grid easel pads. It's a good solution whether you need to improvise a map or want to prepare something really complex ahead of time. You can fold up the sheets so they're pretty compact and they make for an unobtrusive presence on the gaming table. It's also pretty convenient to write on the map itself, which saves you from needing an extra note pad/device/whatever to track initiative and status conditions.

I'm running my first online game now, a PBP Zeitgeist campaign on a different forum, and when possible I import the maps from the adventures themselves into MapTool (sometimes doing some editing in Paint.NET or Gimp first to remove details like secret doors or details that I don't want to draw the players' attention to until later).

I haven't really found a solution that I really like for creating maps for online use. MapTool is adequate for map creation though, especially if you have a workable library of art assets like CSUAC, but I don't really like the look of the few maps I've produced through MapTool. The other applications I've tried really aren't any better. Even with my limited drawing skills, I'd prefer to be able to just draw my map on an grid paper and scan it in, but I don't have a scanner, and even if I did, unless it were very large I'd probably have to scan most maps in two or more goes, then stitch them together using software -- also a bit of a hassle.

I've downloaded all of the maps available on D&D Insider, as I generally like the art style they employ, and they often have a lot of interesting terrain features, but a lot (most?) of them are from other published adventures and aren't meant to be used directly as battle maps, so many squares are all marked up with areas indicating enemy positions, traps, etc. which is a shame.

 

[Ryujin]

Love the table -- what sort of rig do you have for the projector?

Sorry, I edited the original post to add a bit more detail. i used a piece of 0.118" acrylic mirror, which is thin enough to not give a double reflection. I backed it with 1/4" fibreboard, to make it flat and straight, then mounted it on a frame that I built from an old LCD monitor base.

The back/bottom of the plexi, that I used for the table top, is covered with a sheet of plain white 'privacy film', that's used to cover residential windows.

This is the projector that I used. There are obviously better choices, like business short-throw projectors, but I picked this up cheap, on sale.

Optoma SVGA 3D DLP Data Projector (TS551) : Data Projectors - Best Buy Canada