map suggestions?

[badula]

okay well i'm looking at doing a sewer encounter for my next session. i have the tiles from the WoTC City set, but honestly its not very much. so here's what im debating on doing:

1. staying old school and basically describing everything and going through the adventure without a map or mini's until an actual encounter begins. then i bust out a small/mid size dungeon tiles map for the battle. this is what i've been doing for the most part all along

2. get a battlemat and draw out the sewer tunnels and have the players go through the entire sewer environment. if i do this one...that leads me to the next question...

what battlemat to buy? chessex (wet erase), gamemastery (any marker type)...folded or rolled? i already have a dry erase board that i could score with an exacto knife and make my own but it looks a little messy from pictures i've seen. suggestions?

also, this map doesnt have to be portable as it will stay in the same location for gaming. and how do you guys handle revealing parts of the map? if its wet erase and you have the whole map of a large area drawn out...how do you handle the fog of war?

well there isn't a true answer to your questions... it depends on the flavour you AND your players want from the session!

On my table description is MANDATORY even if i draw out all the dungeon in advance.

I'd say that uou should concentrate on creating good layouts only for combat encounters, mostly to have a complex combat ground.




I'm using chessex megamat in my games wich is useful not only for drawing but also preventing beer and snacks to spill over the table!^^
I can give you an advice:
For drawing i found that water based colors (those made for little babies) are really good they are easy to remove and the price is ridiculously low!^^

You can also draw an a little scale on the mat and then "zoom in" for the combat using tiles or a premade map.


I hope you won't get lost!