D&D 5E Lost Mines: Map Size Shenannegins

[Nebulous]

We generally left Wave Echo Cave at 10' scale and just fudged it some, and sometimes we drew it up into 5' scale on dry erase if the combat was large and complicated.

 

[MrHotter]

I agree with the others who use a dry erase mat. I have a 34x48 Chessex battlemap that I keep on the table. I can draw rooms and erase them as needed while mapping is done on either a normal piece of graph paper or with a printed map that I reveal with sticky notes as they move.

I also have a smaller game mat that I can draw ahead of time and drop on top of the other mat if I want a section with more details than what I can draw quickly.

 

[Awesome Adam]

I drew it out on big sheets of cardboard, a few rooms to a sheet, and just changed sections as the players moved through the rooms.

 

[LordEntrails]

Used to use dry erase. Now we use a digital map via a VTT.

My players and I love large maps, and hate to have to fudge things just to make it fit on our table. I guess one too many battles against a huge dragon on a standard battle map have jaded us to the ridiculousness of doing so.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

We use Tact-Tiles. This allows us to just add to the map no matter what direction we're going in.

Depending on the likelihood of us having another encounter in the area already drawn, we either erase those tiles, or keep them off to the side to avoid having to re-draw that area.

Other than a bit of staining of the tiles from the dry erase markers, I've been very happy with them as we never have to worry about running off the edge of the battlemat any more.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

I went the other way - I thought the cave was too small (it is supposed to be a working mine, after all!) and redid it to make it much bigger.

As for table maps, I use erasable markers and only drew one or two rooms at a time.

 

[Tormyr]

To expand on the printing on to foam board idea for those who don't have access to a wide format printer, dollar stores sell 20"x30" foam board. About 6 would cover wave echo cave. You can use gimp or another image editing tool to resize the map to 1" to 5' scale and then print the image from Adobe pdf reader in poster mode. It automatically subdivides the image on a regular printer. Then glue the papers to the foam board and cut it out.

You could also use the cheap poster board which would be even cheaper per square foot (and easier to cut).

 

[CapnZapp]

Wow, 18 replies and noone has asked who Shenannegins is?











PS Google the video "how is prangent formed" (contains NSFW language). I love it

 

[jasper]

what what. We are suppose to print or draw out the maps. Not chain the players together and drop them off at Desoto caverns to build it. Hmmm I be back in 3 or 4 hours.

 

[Ganymede81]

dollar stores sell 20"x30" foam board.

Cheap foam board is a great way to do it. I didn't know it was at the dollar store; Staples and the like sell it for almost five bucks a sheet.