As I've posted elsewhere, I bought a few new things recently. I've now had a chance to look at them, so here's a few thoughts:
GameMastery Flip-Mat (Paizo)
Rightio. I didn't even know this existed. This is one of the times I really like Mind Games Melbourne - it's a big enough store to have a lot of different products. I didn't intend to buy it, it was just there. And it is utterly cool.
What you get is a 24"x30" folding mat - hexes on one side, squares on the other. You can use Wet Erase, Dry Erase and Permanent markers on it. Now, I've owned a Chessex mat for quite a while - it's something like 3'x4' or so, and is wet erase. It's cool, but has two drawbacks: too big, and I can't easily find wet erase markers any more.
Whiteboard (dry erase) markers are everywhere. I mean, everywhere. Supermarkets have them. There I've been, looking for some wet erase markers, and they're nowhere. Instead, I've been taunted by these dry erase markers. So, finally I have something that can use them.
The mat does have crease lines, and has some trouble sitting flat; however, by folding it the other way it sits pretty much flat.
I didn't actually get to use it as a battlemat on Sunday - I will this Friday - but I had lots of fun drawing pictures on it and showing them to my players. And playing Battleship on it. Ok, I was just playing with a new toy. It was fun, though!
City of Peril (Wizards)
The last of the Fantastic Locations range, and it isn't even a "Fantastic Location". It also does a much better job of being useful than most of the others in the line, though. This is for a couple of reasons.
In particular: it reuses the maps. There are four maps here (tavern, market square, thieves' quarters, sewers). The 16-page booklet provides two encounters for each map. This is much, much better than the way the original Fane of the Drow worked, where encounters were keyed to different areas of the map... except they were so close together it turned into one big encounter anyway.
The areas are also much more generic. You can see yourself reusing the maps. Honestly, how often are you going to need the Temple of Lolth from Fane of the Drow? or the Hellspike map?
Another utterly cool thing is that the encounters are presented with an ongoing campaign story... they range from EL 5 to 12 (or so). So, as you revisit this city, you get an ongoing sub-arc to your normal campaign. I appreciate this sort of design, fan as I am of shows like Babylon 5 and the new Doctor Who.
So, I'm quite impressed with City of Peril. I may have to throw it into my next campaign.
Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (Wizards)
Much has been said about this already, but I didn't own it then. Ignoring the mistakes with the cambion, I'm actually really impressed by this product. I really, really like the way that the Demonweb is used in the adventure - and I was a fan of Q1, despite it not fitting into the GDQ storyline.
Do I see problems with the adventure? Absolutely. The key to the storyline - depending on deceiving the PCs - is always going to be a problem. It can work, but getting it back on track if they wise up is something to worry about. If it works as planned, it looks really, really good. Otherwise... not so sure.
I really appreciate how the adventure lays out its structure in the introduction; with these long adventures, I need such help. I am so not a fan of Sigil, but I love the introduction of some other planar destinations.
It's the audacity of the story that I really like. I feel like I need to set up a campaign to really take advantage of it...
Cheers!
GameMastery Flip-Mat (Paizo)
Rightio. I didn't even know this existed. This is one of the times I really like Mind Games Melbourne - it's a big enough store to have a lot of different products. I didn't intend to buy it, it was just there. And it is utterly cool.
What you get is a 24"x30" folding mat - hexes on one side, squares on the other. You can use Wet Erase, Dry Erase and Permanent markers on it. Now, I've owned a Chessex mat for quite a while - it's something like 3'x4' or so, and is wet erase. It's cool, but has two drawbacks: too big, and I can't easily find wet erase markers any more.
Whiteboard (dry erase) markers are everywhere. I mean, everywhere. Supermarkets have them. There I've been, looking for some wet erase markers, and they're nowhere. Instead, I've been taunted by these dry erase markers. So, finally I have something that can use them.
The mat does have crease lines, and has some trouble sitting flat; however, by folding it the other way it sits pretty much flat.
I didn't actually get to use it as a battlemat on Sunday - I will this Friday - but I had lots of fun drawing pictures on it and showing them to my players. And playing Battleship on it. Ok, I was just playing with a new toy. It was fun, though!
City of Peril (Wizards)
The last of the Fantastic Locations range, and it isn't even a "Fantastic Location". It also does a much better job of being useful than most of the others in the line, though. This is for a couple of reasons.
In particular: it reuses the maps. There are four maps here (tavern, market square, thieves' quarters, sewers). The 16-page booklet provides two encounters for each map. This is much, much better than the way the original Fane of the Drow worked, where encounters were keyed to different areas of the map... except they were so close together it turned into one big encounter anyway.
The areas are also much more generic. You can see yourself reusing the maps. Honestly, how often are you going to need the Temple of Lolth from Fane of the Drow? or the Hellspike map?
Another utterly cool thing is that the encounters are presented with an ongoing campaign story... they range from EL 5 to 12 (or so). So, as you revisit this city, you get an ongoing sub-arc to your normal campaign. I appreciate this sort of design, fan as I am of shows like Babylon 5 and the new Doctor Who.
So, I'm quite impressed with City of Peril. I may have to throw it into my next campaign.
Expedition to the Demonweb Pits (Wizards)
Much has been said about this already, but I didn't own it then. Ignoring the mistakes with the cambion, I'm actually really impressed by this product. I really, really like the way that the Demonweb is used in the adventure - and I was a fan of Q1, despite it not fitting into the GDQ storyline.
Do I see problems with the adventure? Absolutely. The key to the storyline - depending on deceiving the PCs - is always going to be a problem. It can work, but getting it back on track if they wise up is something to worry about. If it works as planned, it looks really, really good. Otherwise... not so sure.
I really appreciate how the adventure lays out its structure in the introduction; with these long adventures, I need such help. I am so not a fan of Sigil, but I love the introduction of some other planar destinations.
It's the audacity of the story that I really like. I feel like I need to set up a campaign to really take advantage of it...
Cheers!
