Maps/Tiles or Dry/Wet Erase?

[S'mon]

I like to use the flip-mats, but I also use gaming paper for large complex maps I want to have pre-drawn. The gaming paper comes in 30" x 12' rolls for a reasonable price, and has a 1 inch-square grid printed on it.

The real advantage for gaming paper is that I can sit and draw out large numbers of maps, have them prepared, but even so can still bring them along because they are lightweight and fold easily.

I think I might pick up some gaming paper when I'm up at Leisure Games this August. My thinking is that I could use it to pre-draw areas for published adventures, especially for areas that are complex and/or are likely to see repeated use.

I'll have to consider price vs utility though, and the question arises: If I am going to take the time to pre-draw maps on paper, could I not pre-stick dungeon tiles to cardboard & get something prettier, if less accurate?

 

[Nilbog]

Dungeon Tiles for me, I have a fair few sets and I find they really add to the game. I prepare the encounter map when I build the encounter and blu-tak the tiles to a bit of card (generally A3) then transport them to the game in an art folder.

I find this approach works well for me, as I'm not great at drawing maps on flipmats etc (left handed, smudginess everywhere!!), and I found it was taking me too long, leading to players losing focus.

The downsides i think to this are its not easy to represent unusual locations (such as planar encounters) and the fact that as players tend to do they find encounters they i hadn't planned for!

 

[IronWolf]

Paizo Flip mats and a Chessex battle mat. Wet Erase for both.

 

[Sammael]

I bought some gaming paper a while ago and it's not bad, but it's really prone to smudging and any grease or sweat on the fingers will really ruin your map. Plus, international shipping was really expensive.

 

[JediSoth]

I usually use Tact-Tiles, but I also have a bunch of Paizo Flipmats and some other poster-size maps. I prefer dry erase, and won't use wet erase. I'm looking forward to seeing how Crayola Dry Erase Crayons work versus standard dry erase markers. My preliminary tests show that accidental erasing is MUCH more difficult, though it's still pretty easy to erase on purpose and way less messy that any kind of marker.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

I was able to buy a big roll-up dry erase mat from my FLGS.

The owner was planning to replace his old one. I saw it rolled up behind the counter one day and asked if they sold that type of mat there, they didn't, but he offered that specific one to me at a discount.

It's in pretty good shape. It's tough to erase sometimes, and a slow process especially mid-session when I have to get rid of old lines to put in new ones. It's been good to me though. I was lucky to have been in the store and spotted it.

 

[Agamon]

Tact-Tiles pretty exclusively. Wet erase is messy. I have some Dungeon Tiles, I sometimes use smaller pieces as furniture, etc on the Tact-Tiles, set up with DTs isn't very effeicient.

 

[thedungeondelver]

Some us, of course, have found a third way.

 

[jcayer]

I've tried a lot of those. We started with a dry erase board and the occasional cardboard cut out. Moved on to dundjinni and printed out the maps, taping them together. That was too much effort. I looked at the Wizard's tiles, but found them too limiting. We had used mini's up to this point. Then everyone chipped in and we bought a projector.
First we mounted it over our heads and used the mini's. Too many shadows. Somewhere in here, we switched to Maptools as one of our player's travels a lot now.
Now we're projecting it on the wall using the tokens built into maptools. We like the big giant picture, but I miss the looking around the table thing.
So now I'm building a multitouch table. Here is a link in case anyone is interested. I plan to start a thread when I get a little further along.
MT Table

 

[dagger]

We don't use either.

We use a Chessex battle mat with a thin sheet of Plexi glass over it. Same mat since the early 90's and it still looks brand new. We have replaced the Plexi 4 times over the years, and each time its cheap.

You can use wet erase on the plexi I guess, but we just use grease pencils, no liquids needed.

If we have special maps and stuff we just put them under the Plexi.