How do you make effective game use of WotC's Dungeon Tiles?

[blargney the second]

A middle ground is to use the published adventures, but remake the encounter areas based on the tiles. For instance, the first dungeon room in H1 is a 6x6 room. But there's no 6x6 tile yet. Instead of spending 10 minutes searching for the best way to build a 6x6 room, slap down an 8x10 and be done with it.

Yep. Fast and loose are your BFFs when you want to use tiles.
-blarg

 

[T-Bone JiuJitsu]

Here's what I have been doing...

I got some black foam-core poster board. Actually they had some 10" x 12" small boards which I thought would be perfect.

I'm running Keep on the Shadowfell, and we just started the dungeons below the keep. I took the first encounter area and broke it down into 4 pieces that aproximated what the PC's could see. I made 4 "map-boards" out of the Foam-core boards and used this blue clay-like, kinda gummy stuff called Poster Tack. I roll up little tiny balls of this blue tack and used it to stick the tiles in place on the foam-core boards. I can also stick feature tiles on top of the floor tiles which make them kinda 3-D. Anyhow, the four foam-core boards could be placed next to each other as the battle moved from room to room.

It took some time to prep it, for sure, but doing it ahead of time and having them ready was wonderful. I ran into a few snags trying to find the right combination of tiles to make the rooms. I too decided that the exact dimensions of the rooms was not critical, and diverged from the printed dungeon map a little here and there.

What I learned...

1. I need to have at least 3 encounter areas prepped ahead of time to be safe.

2. I need more tiles. The more I prep, the more I will need. I already have DT1 x1, DT2 Arcane Corridors x2, DT3 Hidden Crypts x2, DT4 Ruins of the Wild x1, TD5 Underdark x1, DT6 Dire Tombs X1, DT7 Fane of the Forgotten Gods x1, DT8 Against the Giants x1. That's 10 sets. I think I HAVE to have at least 2 of each. DT7 & DT8 are the next duplicates to get for me.

3. The "black" tiles are actually very useful, but not very plentiful. I need to make some 2x2 and 2x3 cutouts out of black foam-core board to place on top of big room tiles to shape rooms. These are obviously to show "walls".

4. Using the blue poster-tack to stick real 3-D dungeon features to the tiles is great. I used some Mage Knight pilars and some Dwarven forge crates and Barrels and stuck them on with the blue stuff and it worked beautifully and looked fantastic.

 

[megamania]

Not sure if this covered but this is what I do-


prebuild the room

"draw" it on the computer and fill in encounter info

select the creatures and prompts (if i don't have enough of a specific piece or have to add stuff)

then I place the creatures, tiles and extras into a 1 gallon plastic freezer bag and label it according to the room number.


extremely useful when not playing at home and still helpful even if at home.

 

[megamania]

4. Using the blue poster-tack to stick real 3-D dungeon features to the tiles is great. I used some Mage Knight pilars and some Dwarven forge crates and Barrels and stuck them on with the blue stuff and it worked beautifully and looked fantastic.

be careful with Funtac or whatever brand you use. If you leave the putty on too long it particially bonds and when you remove the putty it tears the paper. Before doing the bags I used to attach a section of dungeon to foam board and carry that way but left one set alone for two months and was horrified to damage several tiles when removing them.

Short term the putty works well

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

I have one or more of every set and my experience has been to exclusively use them as components on my battlemap. I don't think I've ever used them to entirely map out a room. They're just not versatile (no pun intended!) enough for that.

They're better for furnishings and detailed stuff that would take far too long to draw. They're better as embellishments, rather than structure.

I took grapple with the storage dilemma and I think I'm going to store them all in one plastic bin, separated by furnishing type.

 

[darkbard]

Klaus's advise:

A middle ground is to use the published adventures, but remake the encounter areas based on the tiles. For instance, the first dungeon room in H1 is a 6x6 room. But there's no 6x6 tile yet. Instead of spending 10 minutes searching for the best way to build a 6x6 room, slap down an 8x10 and be done with it.

Based on much of the feedback here, I think this is probably the wisest approach for me. After all, there really is no need to slavishly adhere to such details in prepublished adventures!

 

[Klaus]

Klaus's advise:

A middle ground is to use the published adventures, but remake the encounter areas based on the tiles. For instance, the first dungeon room in H1 is a 6x6 room. But there's no 6x6 tile yet. Instead of spending 10 minutes searching for the best way to build a 6x6 room, slap down an 8x10 and be done with it.

Based on much of the feedback here, I think this is probably the wisest approach for me. After all, there really is no need to slavishly adhere to such details in prepublished adventures!

Glad to be of assistance. And I think this advice could serve for the WotC authors as well. When sketching the maps for their dungeons, they'd be well served to use the Dungeon Tile Mapper utility available at WotC's site (and mentioned upthread) to get room sizes that work well with the published Tile products, before sending those images to the cartographer for actual producing.

 

[SlyFlourish]

Dungeon Tiles

I'm another member of the black foam board and blue sticky tack club. I didn't have trouble with tearing but I haven't left them for two months - actually I have some that have been left for two months, I'll have to peel it off and see.

I agree that Wizards should really use the dungeon tiles with their published adventures. It makes no sense why their own product lines - 4e adventures, D&D miniatures, and dungeon tiles are so independent from one another. From what I heard at D&D Experience early this year, the production run on D&D miniatures is so far ahead that they don't have a chance to make a set based on an adventure. However they should work on this to make their products more cooperative. I know I'd use more of them.

Now I'm a Dwarven Forge nut, though, so I don't use Dungeon Tiles nearly as much as I did. I still think they're a great product once you use the poster board, though.

 

[GrecoG]

I do what Blargney and Dave do... I keep each set in a small clear plastic, snap lid container. I prep before the game using large zip Ziploc bags for rooms/common areas. I also have resin barrels from Remax Village, Dwarven Forge, crates, and so forth... sometimes I lay out the dungeon first and uncover it as they go, other times I assemble it as I need to. Within a few games, I got familiar with the sets, and although I really don't care yet for the Caverns of the Underdark, I love the rest. I order generally 3 sets each time, although I got 5 of Streets.. because I can set up a few blocks of a town.

I don't know if you've ever gone to look in the aquarium props section of major pet stores, but I have some incredibly cool ruined archways, pillars, tree stumps, fallen logs... which make my 2D tiles come alive with minor dressings and enhancements. My players love them, and once I used them a little, I am very familiar with them.

I keep small boxes or bags of special tiles, like braziers, holy water fonts, trapdoors, ladders, and I do keep all my stairs, chairs & tables, and like bookcase/carpets/pews aside.

I NEVER knew they were dry erase after using them for years, and I can't wait to try them tonite!

 

[GrecoG]

PS - All the RPGA adventures so far, which I have run 4e since June, use Dungeon tiles for all their maps. They even tell you which set each comes from.