Fantastic Locations: Fane of the Drow map

[KenM]

The new starter set for DDM (War Drums, March 2006) will also have two double-sided poster maps.

Cheers!

I wonder if these means they are no longer using tiles. I like tiles adds variety. I'm not a fan of battle maps that have a map on them. For my RPG games, I use a vinal battle mat with a square grid and wet erase markers.

 

[MerricB]

I wonder if these means they are no longer using tiles. I like tiles adds variety. I'm not a fan of battle maps that have a map on them. For my RPG games, I use a vinal battle mat with a square grid and wet erase markers.

Tiles will be gone from DDM (come March 2006). This good thing about this is how significantly reduces preparation time in game (a major cause of time-outs in tournaments). Oh, and it makes the game a lot more attractive. (If you have a game of SWM and DDM being played side by side, then most casual spectators will go to SWM because the map is so much more interesting).

The new rule is that both players will bring a map to the table, then the winner of an initiative (terrain) roll will choose which map to use. I'm unsure if the loser chooses which side of the map to set up on or if another roll determines that.

Having pre-printed maps does means that the designers can do more interesting things on them - there's an upcoming map with teleporters.

I also use a wet-erase battlemat in my D&D game. When you consider that the DMG has a regular (blank grid) battlemat in it, then I don't think we're losing anything for the purely RPG side of things. The DDM tiles have hardly been that great for RPG uses, after all.

More troublesome is how useful the FL maps are for the RPG. Mike Mearls has this to say about that:

The Fantastic Locations products come with 4 maps, 3 usable with DDM, and a short adventure. As someone who has spent a good amount of drawing maps over the past month or so (and redrawing them... and redrawing them... ) I can say that there's a big gulf between an RPG map and a DDM map.

For instance, a DDM map can't have any chokepoints where Large figures have to squeeze. We also have to look at starting areas, LOS, victory areas, and the speed available to each faction. The differences are big enough that a map has to be designed for one use or the other. You can use a DDM map in D&D, but the reverse isn't true. (Well, you can, but just not in a tournament.)

For that reason, I doubt we'll bother putting that much effort into one map that goes into an RPG product. That's why we're releasing them in the Fantastic Locations products.

Lifted from here: http://boards1.wizards.com/showthread.php?t=473765&page=2

I'd like to see the other FL maps before I really judge their usefulness in the RPG. There are many things about the FoL map that are really nice - the sunken sacrificial altar, for instance - but there's some oddities in wall placement.

Cheers!

 

[Felon]

I also use a wet-erase battlemat in my D&D game. When you consider that the DMG has a regular (blank grid) battlemat in it, then I don't think we're losing anything for the purely RPG side of things. The DDM tiles have hardly been that great for RPG uses, after all.

Well, I'm not looking to break even and "not lose anything". I was hoping for a big stride forward, where we'd have some sectional dungeon tiles that a DM could drop on the table instead of shoving everyone aside to draw rooms out slowly on a battlemat.