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<blockquote data-quote="ThirdWizard" data-source="post: 2428327" data-attributes="member: 12037">Best reason ever. XDI use the battlemat for non-combat situations. Using a dry erase board means I can draw (or have a player draw) an interesting area, have the PCs move about the area and encourage them to tell me where they're standing and why. It encourages everyone to interact with the area more, especially anyone who is normally shy and just hangs in the background in situations where their PC isn't well defined/integrated. For certain areas (like dungeons and other such areas) it can add some ambiance as I use five or six colored markers and draw out various things; it encourages me to never have a &quot;generic&quot; area and to always add something interesting and different, even if unimportant, to the map. Lastly, battlemats are fun. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile&nbsp; &nbsp; :)"&nbsp; data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />EDIT: The trick is to describe the area while drawing it out. You can't draw it out and then describe it, and you can't describe it then draw it out. The first makes the PCs draw conclusions about the area and dilutes your descriptions, IMO. The second way leads to inattention of the players while you draw it out, IMO. You gotta be able to learn to draw while talking about it for full effect.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ThirdWizard, post: 2428327, member: 12037"] Best reason ever. XD I use the battlemat for non-combat situations. Using a dry erase board means I can draw (or have a player draw) an interesting area, have the PCs move about the area and encourage them to tell me where they're standing and why. It encourages everyone to interact with the area more, especially anyone who is normally shy and just hangs in the background in situations where their PC isn't well defined/integrated. For certain areas (like dungeons and other such areas) it can add some ambiance as I use five or six colored markers and draw out various things; it encourages me to never have a "generic" area and to always add something interesting and different, even if unimportant, to the map. Lastly, battlemats are fun. :) EDIT: The trick is to describe the area [i]while[/i] drawing it out. You can't draw it out and then describe it, and you can't describe it then draw it out. The first makes the PCs draw conclusions about the area and dilutes your descriptions, IMO. The second way leads to inattention of the players while you draw it out, IMO. You gotta be able to learn to draw while talking about it for full effect. [/QUOTE]

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