Maps/Tiles or Dry/Wet Erase?

[Reynard]

Just out of curiosity, do you tend to use pre-printed maps, tiles or boards, or "clean" dry/wet erase mats that you draw? If the former, are they purchased or DIY? If the latter, do you draw them beforehand or during play? Of course, "none of the above" or "other" work fine as answers, as well.

For my part, even though I went out and specifically bought the Master Tiles from WotC (PF GM, but tiles is tiles) I have never used them. I tend to use a wet erase board and draw as the game goes on. I tried preprinting large scale maps (I work at a place with a large scale printer) but I found I preferred drawing. I can only draw to the extent of vision, for example, rather than either revealing the whole thing or using paper to over unrevealed areas.

 

[Holy Bovine]

Paizo Flip mats are pretty much all I'll use from now on. You can use dry or wet erase and they come (for the most part) with one side having a kick ass pre-printed map and the other side a 'blank' of the flooring style depicted on the other side. Some see this as a bug but it is a feature rest assured.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I use a couple of things, first lazy DM so I go to threads like: http://www.enworld.org/forum/media-...stuff/300141-map-monday-julys-maps-added.html
use the map and place it on my iPad. From there I use any of the "art/note" apps to open the map and then draw on the map.

On the desktop, I found a dry erase board 3X4 that I laid down a grid on.

 

[Stormonu]

Unfortunately, I've now ruined 3 chexxex mats with wet erase markers (and one accidental use of a dry erase marker), so I've sworn off their use.

I have the WotC tiles and like to use them, but I haven't found a good way to organize them so I can get at them quickly. Likewise, I also like the Paizo flipmats, but they tend to be specialized and don't see a lot of use.

As an aside, I also have a lot of Dwarven Forge blocks, having built up quite a collection before the WotC tiles come out. They are quite gorgeous, but a pain in the neck to set up - I don't use them much anymore except when I have a set piece dungeon or I'm setting up a special game at a Con.

 

[falcarrion]

no matter what you use just put a peice of plexiglass over it.
for example : set up the tiles and put the plexiglass over it. Then you can use dry erase pens on the plexiglass.

for mats you can draw on them and place the plexiglass over it or just draw on the plexglass with mat underneath it as a grid guide.

If you use the wrong type of pens on a mat try hand sanitizer to remove the ink.

The plexiglass also works if you place it over a whiteboard if you use a projector setup.

 

[S'mon]

I have spent around £150 on WoTC tiles, yet in practice I find them too onerous to use 95% of the time, so I typically (ca 80% of recent games) use a blank Paizo dry-erase flipmat and draw the battle site in-play, which I find quick and easy to do, it only takes a few seconds whereas it would take me minutes to assemble a scene in play with WoTC tiles.

I also use (ca 15% of the time) Paizo pre-printed dry erase flipmats, mostly the generic wilderness scenes.

 

[Sammael]

I have spent around £150 on WoTC tiles, yet in practice I find them too onerous to use 95% of the time, so I typically (ca 80% of recent games) use a blank Paizo dry-erase flipmat and draw the battle site in-play, which I find quick and easy to do, it only takes a few seconds whereas it would take me minutes to assemble a scene in play with WoTC tiles.

Same here. I have a bunch of tiles, but I hardly ever use them anymore. Flipmats are the way to go.

 

[Jhaelen]

I use a mix of poster maps, dungeon tiles, and dry-erase battlemats (in that order of preference).

Poster maps are brilliant if they happen to be close to what I need. I often 'mod' them by placing dungeon tiles on top or folding them differently. When I design my own adventures, I always try to make use of them as much as possible.

Most of the dungeon tiles are too fiddly - I'll never understand why they didn't create more sets configured like 'Ruins of the Wild'. If I use them, I plan exactly how I'm going to use them beforehand and make a photo of the setup.

Battlemats are the last resort if nothing else is close to the map I need for an (important) encounter. This is almost exclusively the case when playing official adventure modules for D&D 3e/4e.

I don't print maps since it's too expensive for my taste.

 

[Kerranin]

I like to use the flip-mats, but I also use gaming paper for large complex maps I want to have pre-drawn. The gaming paper comes in 30" x 12' rolls for a reasonable price, and has a 1 inch-square grid printed on it.

The real advantage for gaming paper is that I can sit and draw out large numbers of maps, have them prepared, but even so can still bring them along because they are lightweight and fold easily.

 

[Pentius]

I tend to use pieces of grid paper(1 inch squares) with stuff drawn on them. I tend to use these because I can acquire them cheaply in bulk(read: my brother printed them out at work, now I have a stack). If I were going to spend some money on it, I'd use either a dry erase board or a chessex mat.