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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merova" data-source="post: 1200436" data-attributes="member: 2505">Hi all!A few questions:Do you use maps in your games?If so, what is their function? Tactical? Establishing mood?Does it help your group get "immersed" in the setting or does it bump them?My thoughts:I normally use a battlemap when GMing a game that includes a tactical element as part of regular play, be it due to a combat focus or an investigative focus. I find that having a mapped out environment aids in quickly adjudicating things like area effects, ranges, and terrain complications. Normally, I just mark it down on my handy battlemaps with a pen.I've rarely used a map when running a game that doesn't heavily feature either combat or investigative elements. For instance, in social or survivalist focused games, I usually narrate the setting. After all, there is no range modifier on bluff checks. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />However, I'm wondering if using maps and minis as often as possible might aid in creating an immersive experience for the group. I've recently taken up reviewing at the d20 Magazine Rack, and was assigned to review a series of pdf playing aids from SkeletonKey Games and 0one games. At first, I was a bit in a quandry; how does one review floorplans and environmental tiles? I looked at them, and felt totally disinterested; yeah, they were pretty, but they were just floorplans, not much different than what I can scribble out at a moment's notice on my battlemap. Or so I thought. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />However, it's my policy to playtest everything before reviewing. So, I printed them out and mounted them on some posterboard, then took them to my Saturday game. It was an "intrigue" night in my Ravenloft game, but I used the tiles whenever I could. Conversations were held in collumned or statue-lined hallways. Walks through the gardens included faux-ruins. I didn't run a single combat that evening, but the tiles were used aplenty.The result was that my players really got into the setting, even though the maps were only being used for backdrop purposes. My players normally are inclined towards "exploration of setting" type of interests, but their reaction was much more enthusiastic than usual. Way more than when I just narrate or scribble out a sixty by twenty corridor.Then, a few days later, I was playing at my Greyhawk game. The GM asked to use the wilderness tiles from SkeletonKey for a fight among some ruins. So we laid them out and put them to excellent use. Normally, GMs don't put in little things like bushes or smaller structural elements like a bit of crumbled wall, when drawing battle scenes. I certainly don't; it's too much effort to make on the fly. The use of these printed tiles made the game much more tactically diverse and created a more immerse experience to the combat. It was easier to imagine "being there."So, that's my recent experience. What's yours?Thanks for reading. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />---Olivia</blockquote>

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