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Tiles? Terrain? Battlemats?
- Thread starter Zaukrie
- Start date
Pbartender
First Post
I've got a huge battlemat that we usually use with Staedtler overhead projector wet-erase markers.
I've also got a 1" grid that I printed out on Letter-sized overhead projector transparency sheets, and use with the same markers. Very handy for transportability, and you can simply plop them on top of a printed map.
For minis, we use a combination of lead minis (painted and unpainted) and the WotC plastics (from before we stopped buying them). I also picked up a half dozen sets of simple plastic chessmen from the dollar store to use as counters for the bad guys... "Black pawns are goblins, white pawns are skeletons, the black rooks are ogres, and the white queen is the necromantic sorceress."
I've also got a 1" grid that I printed out on Letter-sized overhead projector transparency sheets, and use with the same markers. Very handy for transportability, and you can simply plop them on top of a printed map.
For minis, we use a combination of lead minis (painted and unpainted) and the WotC plastics (from before we stopped buying them). I also picked up a half dozen sets of simple plastic chessmen from the dollar store to use as counters for the bad guys... "Black pawns are goblins, white pawns are skeletons, the black rooks are ogres, and the white queen is the necromantic sorceress."
Scribble
First Post
I used to make terrain for my game... When I was single. 
Now I don't really have the extra time to make terrain all the time. And also, the group I game with isn't very particular about these things... We don't use a battle mat... Just the table and some minis... Things can move roughly however many inches... Not exact.
Now I don't really have the extra time to make terrain all the time. And also, the group I game with isn't very particular about these things... We don't use a battle mat... Just the table and some minis... Things can move roughly however many inches... Not exact.
DrNilesCrane
First Post
Digital Projection along with Claudio Poza's counters from Fiery Dragon. I can create a map in NWN or double click on an existing JPG in less time than it would take to scribble a few battle mat lines and then try to explain what the squiggles mean. However, portability and cost are factors for some groups (although our group split the cost eight ways as an X-mas gift to ourselves, so the cost wasn't bad at all).
Last edited:
KaosDevice
Explorer
We use (literally) anything we can get our hands on. Mostly it is battlemat, marker and minis/counters. But we've used cardstock buildings, dungeon tiles, you name it. If it works for the game and helped everyone visualize we are using it.
Steel_Wind
Legend
Sammael said:
Our projector rigs are quite portable - we've moved them before. They take about 2 minutes to set up - if that.
I ended up wanting one at my own place as well - instead of just at my friends where we usually game. So there isa DLP there and an LCD at my own place. MY wife and I use it for movies mainly which is why I wanted one here. We game here once or twice a month.
I can load a map in about 2 seconds. If I had to freehand it first in the toolset - I can create a map that will leave your jaw on the floor in about 1-2 minutes, max.
There is not a chance - not even 1 in 1,000,000, that you could approach a map with the size and level of detail I can create in NWN1 in 2 minutes if you gave a wet-erase pen to each of your players and were psionically linked as you drew it.
Plus - digital maps scroll as the players progress - Battlemats don't. (That's why Tact-tiles are lauded as being so cool in the first place).
The whole independently weatlhy line is a crock. Our group each pitched in to buy our DLP projector for a tad under $600. It costs each of us about the same as the 3.5 Core Rules. We could get it for less now.
The number of gamers on ENWorld who have spent more on a single case of D&D minis is probably in the thousands. On game books? It's in the tens of thousands. "Independently wealthy" is nonsense.
Once you go digital - you won't ever willingly go back to a battlemat/flip-mat/tactiles - doesn't matter.
I just use sheets of paper.
I have a ton of skeleton key games dungeon rooms printed out on paper, I just print them, cut them out, set them down room, by room as needed. They are totally reusable.
I take a lot of the maps from Dungeon magazine, scale them up to 1" = 5' and then print out each room separately. If secret doors are marked, I just erase them with the blur tool in the picture editor that came on my computer.
Also, using just MS word, I can take any picture from the net, lay a grid down over it (just make a 8" by 10" table, with 1" squares) and print it out. I can make a battle mat out of any picture I find on the net. Use google image search to find any kind of floorplan or terrain you want.
I also just made a lot of blank grids, with different looking surfaces: marble, cobblestone, wood planks, pebble, sand, grass, stone. I have a stack of these handy, and as needed I can freehand draw a room and lay it out, or just cut out the shape of the room with scisors.
Honestly, these battlemats are great for our game. They add a lot to the feel. They scroll, in that I only lay down the rooms as necessary, the party can't see what's coming next. They don't need much space, so you can play on a coffee table or even a surface the size of a side table or a spare kitchen chair. They are cheap and portable, reusable, disposable, and you can write on them.
Paper battlemats are cool!
I have a ton of skeleton key games dungeon rooms printed out on paper, I just print them, cut them out, set them down room, by room as needed. They are totally reusable.
I take a lot of the maps from Dungeon magazine, scale them up to 1" = 5' and then print out each room separately. If secret doors are marked, I just erase them with the blur tool in the picture editor that came on my computer.
Also, using just MS word, I can take any picture from the net, lay a grid down over it (just make a 8" by 10" table, with 1" squares) and print it out. I can make a battle mat out of any picture I find on the net. Use google image search to find any kind of floorplan or terrain you want.
I also just made a lot of blank grids, with different looking surfaces: marble, cobblestone, wood planks, pebble, sand, grass, stone. I have a stack of these handy, and as needed I can freehand draw a room and lay it out, or just cut out the shape of the room with scisors.
Honestly, these battlemats are great for our game. They add a lot to the feel. They scroll, in that I only lay down the rooms as necessary, the party can't see what's coming next. They don't need much space, so you can play on a coffee table or even a surface the size of a side table or a spare kitchen chair. They are cheap and portable, reusable, disposable, and you can write on them.
Paper battlemats are cool!
TheAuldGrump
First Post
Counting Tact-Tiles my answer is 'Yes'. I use everything, and an Easel Pad as well. (If the map is going to be used for multiple encounters - such as a small village - having a permanent to scale map really helps.)
Lots of cast resin furniture, some cardstock buildings from several sources (including WotC, World Works Games, and Fat Dragon) and some trees, hedges, bridges, fences, and walls bought cheap from Michael's after Christmas. Sure the Michaels stuff is covered with snow, but pain the snow green, flock it, it works fine.
I tend to build the cardstock stuff for set locations - important encounters that I want the players to remember. Others I used to build as prizes for games at a local game store. My most permanent set is a bunch of sewers from World Works, mostly for Mordheim, but the players always seem to find their ways into the stinking darkness below Corvis. (Even when they have no eartly reason for heading down there... very odd behavior.)
The Auld Grump
Lots of cast resin furniture, some cardstock buildings from several sources (including WotC, World Works Games, and Fat Dragon) and some trees, hedges, bridges, fences, and walls bought cheap from Michael's after Christmas. Sure the Michaels stuff is covered with snow, but pain the snow green, flock it, it works fine.
I tend to build the cardstock stuff for set locations - important encounters that I want the players to remember. Others I used to build as prizes for games at a local game store. My most permanent set is a bunch of sewers from World Works, mostly for Mordheim, but the players always seem to find their ways into the stinking darkness below Corvis. (Even when they have no eartly reason for heading down there... very odd behavior.)
The Auld Grump
Frostmarrow
First Post
With Red Hand of Doom I blew up maps from WoTCs site to miniature scale and used those for the game. I have a large format printer at work that I can use. I guess it can be done with several regular sized prints stitched together. Anyhow, those maps turned out great particularly since several of them can be used in more than one encounter. For instance there is a keep in the module that my players first assaulted but had later to defend from a counter assault.
Curiously, my group have since used those maps for other games, both D&D and others. In a Tribe 8 game the keep served as a sewer. The details of the map still served the game even though the setting was completely different.
Curiously, my group have since used those maps for other games, both D&D and others. In a Tribe 8 game the keep served as a sewer. The details of the map still served the game even though the setting was completely different.
The_Universe
First Post
Chessex Megamat, Tac-tiles, some pre-printed tiles (from Dragon, Dungeon, and the like), some home-made tiles from Dundjinni, some home-made terrain (foam, hirst arts, rocks, etc), some pre-made Dwarven Forge terrain, and some resin walls, doors, and furniture (from a company called "ka-zoom, I think); all used with (mostly) painted metal miniatures. There are a few painted (heroquest) and pre-painted plastic (MageKnight, HeroClix, D&D) in there, as well.
I friggin' love this stuff!
I friggin' love this stuff!
