How do you make effective game use of WotC's Dungeon Tiles?

[darkbard]

As my mini's collection grows ever larger, last week I took the plunge and bought 5 or 6 sets of WotC's Dungeon Tiles (all except the original set and "Hidden Crypts," I believe). At first, I was delighted. These are double sided, of many different shapes and styles, and more versatile than I thought, I said to myself.

Then last night I spent about an hour trying to "build the set" for a simple encounter from H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth (area C1 from adventure book 2). Not only was this super time-consuming, sorting through piles of different tiles, but I discovered I couldn't quite build the room as depicted: not enough rubble tiles of the correct size/shape, nothing to adequately depict a balcony, etc.

Has your use of dungeon tiles been similar to mine? Is it similar to use of minis's (okay, I only have 3 gnolls, so these 2 hobgoblin mini's are actually gnoll archers...), with just rough approximation of locales? (Though I seem to recall a thread where someone built all the encounter areas of H1 Keep on the Shadowfell by using dungeon tiles.)

What tips do you have to get better use out of the tiles (especially how to save time in set up during gameplay)? Any and all input is appreciated, but please don't turn this into an opportunity to smear the products: I really like these products and want to make effective use of them.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Just as with minis, you sometimes have to improvise, and use non-rubble tiles to mimic rubble, and so on.

I recently acquired my own first set, the Hall of the Giant Kings. We already own several of the sets, but this one stood out for me in that it added a lot of "generic ground tiles" (on the back-side of "themed" tiles) to our selection that allowed me to rebuild a lot of the KotS maps with a high degree of accuracy. Of course, I still had to improvise for special squares and objects (like using a giant throne/chair as a table).

Building up a floor plan seems always to take more time then just drawing it. It seems to help organizing tiles by size and themes (doors, indoor/outdoor, furniture). Worry about the general shape of the area first, about special tiles later. Sometimes, you shouldn't worry that much to give an accurate display of the original map from an adventure or your own making. But ensure that you get "major points" right, like enemy and PC entrance areas, areas with difficult terrain, cover. But few will notice if the room is 6 x 8 or 8 x 8.

If possible (in my case, it is not), you can try to build the map beforehand and sort all tiles you want to use.

 

[Obryn]

Honestly, my experience is pretty much the same.

They're awesome, but they take too much time for me. I like to keep my game fast-moving, and they don't help at all.

-O

 

[rowport]

...Building up a floor plan seems always to take more time then just drawing it. It seems to help organizing tiles by size and themes (doors, indoor/outdoor, furniture). Worry about the general shape of the area first, about special tiles later. Sometimes, you shouldn't worry that much to give an accurate display of the original map from an adventure or your own making. But ensure that you get "major points" right, like enemy and PC entrance areas, areas with difficult terrain, cover. But few will notice if the room is 6 x 8 or 8 x 8.....

I used a combination of drawn plans, with "highlights" built using the tiles (which are more visually interesting). For instance, the exterior walls of a room might be hand-drawn, but the entrance hallway and room/terrain features are indicated using tiles. It is ultimately about the same time as just hand-drawing the whole room, but much more interesting to see.

 

[davethegame]

I grapple with this issue too- I own one of every set, and really enjoy using them, but logistics is an issue.

If I just have a few small encounter areas (non-dungeons, usually) I'll assemble them into a baggy with any other terrain pieces and monster miniatures.

If I'm making my own dungeon, I'll lay out the tiles with the minis on them to form the dungeon, take a picture, print it out, make notes, and put all the tiles needed together and refer to my picture to place them as we go.

For published dungeons and similar, I tend to just take a bunch of tiles with me, organized by size (and leave out any non-dungeons, like the outdoor tiles) and just find them as they go through the module. This tends to take the most time during the game, which is somewhat annoying. (Quick plug: I talk about using dungeon tiles in Treasure of Talon Pass in my review: Review: “Treasure of Talon Pass” : Critical Hits)

At GenCon, the delve tables had dungeon tiles attached to matte board to form the whole dungeon, so the entire board could just be pulled out. You can also cover up portions and reveal them to get more of that exploration feel.

 

[Klaus]

I found it to be easier to place down the largest tiles (or a battlemap), and then "block out" the walls, shaping the room to my desire. I then place furnishings about.

If you feel you don't have enough, say, piles of rubble, I'd be remiss not to mention that Fiery Dragon will include some high-quality dungeon dressing tiles in the upcoming BattleBox 4e.

I should know, did 'em myself.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Although my experience is similar to the OP's -- I own two sets of each so far, and have only used them a couple of times -- I should point out that you can write on the tiles with dry-erase or wet-erase markers.

Be sure to test your markers on one of the punch-out sheets first, and be sure to do a long-term test (at least a couple of days of marker on the board).

Oh, and also, there is a Dungeon Tiles Mapper utility. You can find it on a Yahoo! Group of that name, and the folks there have all of the sets digitized for the utility. It's pretty nice. (It was actually my suggestion to the coder, though of course I get no credit ... )

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Double post.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I'm in the same boat. I've got 2 of each set (apart from the last 2 sets, I'll probably get them eventually) but figuring out the best way to use them in my game has been something that I am yet to figure out.

I tried using them for the Shackled City AP but so far I have found it too hard. Jzadirune is a pretty big dungeon so even with all the tiles I had I still wasn't able to map it out. Even if I did have the tiles, figuring out the logistics of using them that doesn't make things slower than just drawing the map by hand has been a challenge.

Heck, even figuring out the best way of sorting and storing the buggers has been difficult. I'm still not entirely happy with my current system.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Fallen Seraph]

I honestly just use them as quick approximations of a space. I slap down a random piece or two and describe what it looks like and where things are, it simply serves to show the size of the area and for using the tokens on of course.