Fog of war on a Battle mat with lots of cutout circles.

[darjr]

So in this video at about 24 seconds in there is a glimpse of a table with a bunch of cut out circles on top of the battle map. I think it's for fog of war and if it isn't I think I'm going to use it as that kind of idea anyway. Maybe heavy black or grey construction paper. I've never seen this before. Any other ideas for 'fog of war' tricks?



http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iFB25pg2WqA#t=24
[video=youtube;iFB25pg2WqA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=iFB25pg2WqA#t=24[/video]

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Modular maps ... whether by tiles or by individually printed sheets.

Or my technique ... I only draw on the map what the PCs can see.

 

[darjr]

What I like aboiput this is it looks like it be tons faster than drawing during the game and no hunting down the correct tile. It has the added advantage that I can draw or buy really detailed maps before the game that I either could never draw during the game nor would tiles look as good

 

[amerigoV]

I have used paper towels with dwarven forge. I usually only use DF for a big, meaningful scenes. I prebuild those and cover them up, revealing as we go (building at the table just kills the pace imo)

 

[Balesir]

The best I have seen, for if you have space and money, is a frosted glass tabletop with a small PC-linked projector underneath and a mirror at 45 degrees to project the map (which is on the PC) onto the tabletop. For the PC there are some excellent programmes (Maptools and Battlegrounds RPG spring to mind) that do 'fog of war' live on screen. You just define the positions of characters and light sources (BRPG at least lets you assign vision types to characters) and the software auto-reveals as appropriate. You can then put minis and "dungeon dressing" on the glass top. You can even have a DM's view on the PC screen (with the 'fog of war' translucent) and the players' map on the projector as a second screen.

All I need is the time and cash to set it up!!

Of course, the "endgame" here is a huge MS Surface-equivalent with touch screen and so on...

In the meantime, look here. Oh, or here - the video has folks using just the under-shot system I described with a Wii Remote.

 

[GX.Sigma]

It looks like the old "tons of post-it notes stuck to a pre-drawn map" trick. I don't know why they used circles; maybe it was all they had.

 

[darjr]

Modular maps ... whether by tiles or by individually printed sheets.

Or my technique ... I only draw on the map what the PCs can see.

I love the old standby's I'll always use those in a pinch.

Never thought of postit notes. How reusable are they? I'll keep this one for a just in case as well. In the mean time I think I'm going to make mine out of some heavy felt.