Are you using battlemats or similar visual representations in your games?

[Perram]

When I used to run and play 4e, we always used a map of some sort. This was mostly true of 3.x before it and still holds true now that our groups have switched to Pathfinder.

I use flip-mats and blank battlemats most of the time when I have to travel, but whenever I'm able any more I use 3d terrain, mostly Fat Dragon terrain, but plenty of other pieces integrated as well.

As for minis? Mostly plastic D&D minis for the monsters and painted Reaper minis for the player characters, but I'm moving most of my minis over to painted reapers as much as possible.

 

[Festivus]

I have two flip mats, and want to buy a third (I agree with others, totally worth the money). I predraw all my maps with wet erase so that I can keep things moving fairly quick during the story.

I use tiles occasionally, but find they often take too long to setup, and aren't easy to transport if you sticky them to a board or something.

My buddy uses a LCD projection system to play when we run his Pathfinder game, but you asked about 4e

 

[TerraDave]

For almost 20 years (dry erase mats with square grids. Now use some other types as well).

I was releived when the game finally caught up with me.

 

[Nikosandros]

No battlemat for AD&D. Very rarely, I use some dice or beads to approximately track positions if the combat is very complex.

For 3.5 and PF I use a maps and miniatures rather often and do it almost always in 4e.

 

[SunRaven01]

Cardstock terrain like from World Works Games. My players LOVE it.

 

[Stoat]

For the last several years, I've gamed almost exclusively online. For the most part, I create maps using CC3. Sometimes, I'll grab maps from the internet to use, but more often than you'd think they really don't line up well on a 5' grid.

I almost never used minis or a grid when DM'd 2E. My group started using a battlemat when we switched to 3.E. We used Chessex vinyl mats, a sheet of gridded white paper under plexiglass and electronic maps projected on a screen. (With a little extra work Campaign Cartographer maps work great this way.)

 

[Twowolves]

Back in my 2nd ed days, I took a sewing board (3'x6' cardboard with a 1" grid already on it) and covered it in clear shelf liner. Voila, instant dry eraseable battlemat. It also conveniantly folded down to 3'x1'.

When we started 3rd ed, we had a Chessex mat, until the group built a custom gaming table. 4'x8' with a removable plexiglass top (to put the various maps beneath). Recently, I've been running Rise of the Runelords with the Pathfinder rules, and so far have had great success with the comunity created battlemaps. I print them out, cut out each room ahead of time, and then as the party explores I lay down the next room and secure it with blu-tac. Fast and easy, and it looks pretty good.

As for minis, two of our group are pretty good at painting (myself included), so every PC has a metal mini and every major monster/NPC is usually metal as well, with D&D Minis (90%), Firey Dragon 2-D counters (5%), or cardboard stand-ups (5%) for everything else.

 

[MacMathan]

Let's see have used maps and minis since 1e. Currently we use:

Chessex Mega Mat 4'x8'

Paizo Flipmats (I love these things as a DM)

WotC Dungeon tiles

Custom 3-D maps and structures made by some of our more industrious DMs

For minis:

WotC Plastic for Monsters ad 99% of the bad guys

A mix of painted metal and plastic for pcs.

 

[buddhafrog]

Starship Troopers Floorplans -- I never see anyone mention these. I got these after hearing them recommended by the icosahedraphelia podcast. They're really, really useful and only cost about $7 for a set of eight landscape battle maps - snow, water, dirt, swamp, woods, etc. Has anyone else used these?

I usually use these starship troopers floorplans or other battlemaps, but I put a thin acrylic sheet ($1) over it and tape two sides. This keeps the maps flat and allows me to use wet-erase on them. This way, they are much cheaper than the flip-mats yet with the same flexibility. Also, the starship troopers floorplans are similar to the chessex mats in that they are no buildings/features, yet they still give a sense of the area the PC's are in.

Additionally, I print out rooms/maps/tiles are alternately slide them between the map and the acrylic sheet (fast and easy) or place D&D tiles on top of the sheet.

 

[I'm A Banana]

Grudgingly, but I don't think I could get away without them.