Zombies, Robo Rally, Catan; each of these have one thing in common with RPGs. They need a map. Many board games use a map in the form of their boards, but these games use a random board made form various tiles like can be purchased for many of today's RPGs. Lets look at each one.
Catan: Here you have hexagonal tiles that are laid out randomly to design a game board that is different each time with the except of the boundaries of the game board that remain the same, and the newest incarnation have interlocking borders to help frame and hold your game board together. This is great! It gives flexibility in mapping and board design since you always use the same tiles to form your map. There are some expansions to allow for more players that will expand your map, and even add some new elements to the game, but the same idea remains behind your game board. The random distribution of tiles to create it.
Robo Rally: Here you have the same concept, but there is no real set design to the map but it moves from one completed portion to the next. Again you randomly place the preset allotment of tiles to form the next section of the game board. You have a little more diversity in the game board since it gets built as you play from the starting point to the exit point or goal line for the game.
Zombies: Here you also have random tiles that are shuffled up. The game board start out a little defined with a set few tiles to have to begin with or a set number to start with more than the one from Robo Rally, but less than the entire board from Catan. Unlike Robo Rally, there is no start point, but as play progresses each new part of the game board can go anywhere that allow a connection to be made. Basically connecting roads together to run away from the city to get to your helicopter to escape the zombie attack. As each new portion of the game board you have more zombie appear as well as new items you can grab to use against them. While Catan has the robber and other player to ward off during play, and depending on the expansions used some knights or other obstacles; and Robo Rally introduces new traps; Zombie adds the element that more things will appear to block your progress across the game board to your goal, and these things can move to follow or further impeded your path.
Reading the recent DDI article about Streets of Shadow maps got me thinking as how in RPGs and D&D specifically we use the tiles in a similar fashion to create various maps in combinations rather than have to have a whole printed map for each new thing and the advantages these maps offer.
Of course, this comes right away to anyone using the tiles to create their maps, but one thing puzzled me when looking at the other tile based games and comparing with the way D&D is played and how the tiles connect.
With the three previously mentioned games one defining factor of the game board is that it is a single layer. Each tiles connects to one of the sides of another tile. With D&D tiles you have tiles that can easy be laid atop another to alter the space. You can see in the two maps provided with this article that often you need to over lap maps to get the grids to form up and line up and get things where you wants them.
Again I thought of the previous 3 games and tiles in general. Catan has some pretty form tiles made from game board stock material so that it can hold up and last for a long time as buying a new game board means pretty much buyin a whole new copy of the game. Robo Rally seems to be a little less like your average Monopoly, Risk, and other game boards but still in the same vein for purposes of durability of the figures uses on it. Catan having wooden figures that could damage the board tiles, and Robo Rally having metal figures that could damage it's tiles as well. So then looking at Zombies, I noticed something. The tiles are about the same stock as a premium greeting card. The reason was because the player pieces and zombies were small plastic figures, and the item chits are made from stock similar to the tiles.
So what has D&D tiles to offer? You have pretty much the same stock as Catan, and plastic minis with smooth bottoms for the official combination of product lines. Why does the near rubber plastic minis require such firm stock from the tiles that may need to overlap while Zombies that don't overlap can get buy with a thinner stock of card for the tiles?
Do we need D&D tiles to be game board or near quality stock? Looking at the mini games I felt was the next step. DDM started with tiles, so that was a dud. Mage Knight could have 3D terrain like Warhammer games, but could easily be, and was provided free, templates of 2D forms for terrain. Mage Knight phased out and other Clix games came into place, and joining their idea DDM adapted to use printed maps. Well this brings us back to needing a map for each new thing.
I looked again at Mage Knight and Warhammer. Here these two games offer the option for 3D terrain. While it would be nice to be able to load up on Dwarven Forge sets, or Hirst Arts molds to create 3D terrain that could be used with Warhammer, this is not the best thing for weight and storage. Some form of paper idea seems better. Fat Dragon Games and a few others have paper terrain. They looks great, but again probably not the best option when your terrain needs to travel like tiles offer. Definitely the paper 3D terrain is an innovation that is an excellent compromise when you don't have to carry all sorts of terrain around.
So is there a compromise anyway that can give the transportability of tiles and modular ability of some of the 3D terrains without a minor problem or two. That being the expense of game board stock tiles, and needing so many to actually make some things out of since you get one per package.
Do we need the game board stock? I say no we don't. Tiles can be made from paper and die-cut or even cut with a paper slicer or pair of scissors. This would allow more pieces per physical product. It could also mean that overlapping tiles do not have that much overlap.
There would be a few downsides to "pads od tiles". You might need some tape to hold them together, and do a bit of work before play to get section of your game board, or in the case of D&D your map sections ready. But I think it would offer more tiles for a lower cost, and the overall set-up time being spend prior to the game helps from fumbling to find the right tile while playing it.
Imagine the D&D tiles were regular paper. You design a map and overlap a few "tiles" and have this section of the map ready in advance for a reveal at play time. It is all stuck together. You don't have to bag a room up and find the bag with the right room when you need to reveal, but just pull out the "page" or grouping of paper tiles you have assembled and your room is ready to just lay down with the grids and all aligned and ready. Since there are cheaper and more to a pack you can cut them to make them fit better, and cut out entire buildings the place in different surroundings, and even leave an entire room together for later use. While some people may prefer to not reuse rooms, it may not appeal to them as they would have taped things up and have them just sitting there unused for all eternity like poster maps of old. But to those people I offer this, if someone else wants to use your rooms or maybe even borrow them then you could easily just share them or give your rooms away or trade them for other rooms as you would still have a cheaper replacement assortment of tiles to create new rooms. Likewise with paper tiles that are easily replaced you can number your rooms for encounters directly on the map and your players would still know very little about the map except you at least have a description for the room they are looking at.
Likewise to help protect paper maps a clear piece of plastic wouldn't hurt and this can be gotten from many places that sell those cheap poster hanging frames.
So why do we use game board stock tiles? Would people use "pads of tiles" that they could cut up, tape up, and leave entire rooms together and more easily design with and have ready in advance of a game to fumble with less?
Am I the only one that would like cheaper "tiles" to form modular maps with that could be shaped to my own liking, say even cut a section of desert to spill into a building taken from a forested tile section and have the desert coming into the building from use of the entrance?
What do other people think of the way "tiles" and maps are designed now for RPGs, and what ideas would you have to improve them, if you don't like the idea of paper tiles that you could cut, tape/glue, and shape you own personalized maps for home designs or even official game maps or 3PP maps?
Catan: Here you have hexagonal tiles that are laid out randomly to design a game board that is different each time with the except of the boundaries of the game board that remain the same, and the newest incarnation have interlocking borders to help frame and hold your game board together. This is great! It gives flexibility in mapping and board design since you always use the same tiles to form your map. There are some expansions to allow for more players that will expand your map, and even add some new elements to the game, but the same idea remains behind your game board. The random distribution of tiles to create it.
Robo Rally: Here you have the same concept, but there is no real set design to the map but it moves from one completed portion to the next. Again you randomly place the preset allotment of tiles to form the next section of the game board. You have a little more diversity in the game board since it gets built as you play from the starting point to the exit point or goal line for the game.
Zombies: Here you also have random tiles that are shuffled up. The game board start out a little defined with a set few tiles to have to begin with or a set number to start with more than the one from Robo Rally, but less than the entire board from Catan. Unlike Robo Rally, there is no start point, but as play progresses each new part of the game board can go anywhere that allow a connection to be made. Basically connecting roads together to run away from the city to get to your helicopter to escape the zombie attack. As each new portion of the game board you have more zombie appear as well as new items you can grab to use against them. While Catan has the robber and other player to ward off during play, and depending on the expansions used some knights or other obstacles; and Robo Rally introduces new traps; Zombie adds the element that more things will appear to block your progress across the game board to your goal, and these things can move to follow or further impeded your path.
Reading the recent DDI article about Streets of Shadow maps got me thinking as how in RPGs and D&D specifically we use the tiles in a similar fashion to create various maps in combinations rather than have to have a whole printed map for each new thing and the advantages these maps offer.
Of course, this comes right away to anyone using the tiles to create their maps, but one thing puzzled me when looking at the other tile based games and comparing with the way D&D is played and how the tiles connect.
With the three previously mentioned games one defining factor of the game board is that it is a single layer. Each tiles connects to one of the sides of another tile. With D&D tiles you have tiles that can easy be laid atop another to alter the space. You can see in the two maps provided with this article that often you need to over lap maps to get the grids to form up and line up and get things where you wants them.
Again I thought of the previous 3 games and tiles in general. Catan has some pretty form tiles made from game board stock material so that it can hold up and last for a long time as buying a new game board means pretty much buyin a whole new copy of the game. Robo Rally seems to be a little less like your average Monopoly, Risk, and other game boards but still in the same vein for purposes of durability of the figures uses on it. Catan having wooden figures that could damage the board tiles, and Robo Rally having metal figures that could damage it's tiles as well. So then looking at Zombies, I noticed something. The tiles are about the same stock as a premium greeting card. The reason was because the player pieces and zombies were small plastic figures, and the item chits are made from stock similar to the tiles.
So what has D&D tiles to offer? You have pretty much the same stock as Catan, and plastic minis with smooth bottoms for the official combination of product lines. Why does the near rubber plastic minis require such firm stock from the tiles that may need to overlap while Zombies that don't overlap can get buy with a thinner stock of card for the tiles?
Do we need D&D tiles to be game board or near quality stock? Looking at the mini games I felt was the next step. DDM started with tiles, so that was a dud. Mage Knight could have 3D terrain like Warhammer games, but could easily be, and was provided free, templates of 2D forms for terrain. Mage Knight phased out and other Clix games came into place, and joining their idea DDM adapted to use printed maps. Well this brings us back to needing a map for each new thing.
I looked again at Mage Knight and Warhammer. Here these two games offer the option for 3D terrain. While it would be nice to be able to load up on Dwarven Forge sets, or Hirst Arts molds to create 3D terrain that could be used with Warhammer, this is not the best thing for weight and storage. Some form of paper idea seems better. Fat Dragon Games and a few others have paper terrain. They looks great, but again probably not the best option when your terrain needs to travel like tiles offer. Definitely the paper 3D terrain is an innovation that is an excellent compromise when you don't have to carry all sorts of terrain around.
So is there a compromise anyway that can give the transportability of tiles and modular ability of some of the 3D terrains without a minor problem or two. That being the expense of game board stock tiles, and needing so many to actually make some things out of since you get one per package.
Do we need the game board stock? I say no we don't. Tiles can be made from paper and die-cut or even cut with a paper slicer or pair of scissors. This would allow more pieces per physical product. It could also mean that overlapping tiles do not have that much overlap.
There would be a few downsides to "pads od tiles". You might need some tape to hold them together, and do a bit of work before play to get section of your game board, or in the case of D&D your map sections ready. But I think it would offer more tiles for a lower cost, and the overall set-up time being spend prior to the game helps from fumbling to find the right tile while playing it.
Imagine the D&D tiles were regular paper. You design a map and overlap a few "tiles" and have this section of the map ready in advance for a reveal at play time. It is all stuck together. You don't have to bag a room up and find the bag with the right room when you need to reveal, but just pull out the "page" or grouping of paper tiles you have assembled and your room is ready to just lay down with the grids and all aligned and ready. Since there are cheaper and more to a pack you can cut them to make them fit better, and cut out entire buildings the place in different surroundings, and even leave an entire room together for later use. While some people may prefer to not reuse rooms, it may not appeal to them as they would have taped things up and have them just sitting there unused for all eternity like poster maps of old. But to those people I offer this, if someone else wants to use your rooms or maybe even borrow them then you could easily just share them or give your rooms away or trade them for other rooms as you would still have a cheaper replacement assortment of tiles to create new rooms. Likewise with paper tiles that are easily replaced you can number your rooms for encounters directly on the map and your players would still know very little about the map except you at least have a description for the room they are looking at.
Likewise to help protect paper maps a clear piece of plastic wouldn't hurt and this can be gotten from many places that sell those cheap poster hanging frames.
So why do we use game board stock tiles? Would people use "pads of tiles" that they could cut up, tape up, and leave entire rooms together and more easily design with and have ready in advance of a game to fumble with less?
Am I the only one that would like cheaper "tiles" to form modular maps with that could be shaped to my own liking, say even cut a section of desert to spill into a building taken from a forested tile section and have the desert coming into the building from use of the entrance?
What do other people think of the way "tiles" and maps are designed now for RPGs, and what ideas would you have to improve them, if you don't like the idea of paper tiles that you could cut, tape/glue, and shape you own personalized maps for home designs or even official game maps or 3PP maps?
