Which battlemat to get?

[Piratecat]

For another low cost solution, any office supply store will have flip-charts (the battlemap-sized pads of paper used in presentations) that have a 1" grid on them. A pad may cost $15 at most, and you can flip back to old dungeons.

 

[HellHound]

I've used the Chessex mat in the past. It worked well, but got eaten by mice in the twelve years that I didn't use it.

So I bought a Crystal Caste mat (double sided, hexes and squares). It is not QUITE as good at resisting stains as the Chessex one was. But it does the job.

HOWEVER, if I had a choice now, I would buy the Tact-Tiles - they weren't out yet when I bought my mat, and ever since their release, I've been yearning for them.

 

[msd]

How many sets do you need for an average game?

This is the same question I have. They look awesome, but I am wondering about portability (a big factor for me as I mostly game at friends' houses).

Do you guys find that 9 tiles are typically enough (the smaller size kit if I understand correctly)?

Another more general question...

Given the overall slickness of this (and other) battlemat products, do you guys find that you use battlemats for more than just diagramming combat? I ask for two reasons:

(1) A lot of the screenshots on their site seem as if almost everything that *can* be realistically diagrammed on the battlemat is.

(2) I personally don't find the battlemat stifles my imagination. In fact, I find the opposite to be true. Anything that gives me a better sense of the size, shape, and layout of my environment and where I am situated within it simply fuels my imagination. In other words, if I could do it without really slowing down the game, I would diagram a lot more

I know YMMV may vary on a lot of this stuff and this is certainly just a set of personal opinions. I am interested in feedback from the group though...

Thanks again,
matt

 

[The_Universe]

Tact-tiles

Coolest. Battlemat. Ever.

I don't suppose if anyone knows if these will be sold at Gen Con, somewhere?

 

[Thotas]

The Tac-Tiles are 10 x10, so the set of a dozen (that's what I got) gives you a 40 x 30 area at it's most square. And they are great. Nicest feature is that is no longer an edge to the board, you just erase something you aren't using and add it on. I've never needed more than my 12, but I have to admit, I'd sure like to get a second set in case I ever need/want to do something really big.

 

[GlassJaw]

The Tac-Tiles are 10 x10, so the set of a dozen (that's what I got) gives you a 40 x 30 area at it's most square. And they are great. Nicest feature is that is no longer an edge to the board, you just erase something you aren't using and add it on. I've never needed more than my 12, but I have to admit, I'd sure like to get a second set in case I ever need/want to do something really big.

I was wondering about this actually. I have a tendency to create maps that can be put totally on a battlemat. I just like the players being able to go wherever they want in a particular area without having to consult smaller maps. I'm not a fan of huge dungeon crawls anyway.

It seems the Tac-Tiles would be right up my alley. They ain't cheap though! You can two battlemats for the price of 12 tiles. They are a lot mroe versatile though.

 

[d20Dwarf]

I don't suppose if anyone knows if these will be sold at Gen Con, somewhere?

I"m wondering this too. I need to pick up a Battlemat on Thursday morning and I'd like to take a look at these first.

 

[Old One]

Question on Tact-Tiles...

Any of you Tact-Tiles users have experience pre-drawing major encounter areas then transporting to a game location? Since these are stackable and easily transportable, that would be pretty handy, but does the dry-erase wipe off to easily?

Thanks in advance!

~ Old One

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I've grown to be quite fond of custom tiles like these:
http://www.aginsinn.com/tiles.html
http://www.0onegames.com
http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/hosted/csp/
MerricB's site has links to a lot of D&D minis tiles I also use.

When combined with a battlemap, they can do pretty much anything I want them to. The benefit of them is that they are much more detailed than the typical battlemap. Ordinarily, on a battlemap, I see floorplans being drawn out but doing much more detail (crates, shelves, tables, sometimes windows) is often more than DMs want to interrupt gameplay to draw. Consequently, while the battlemap is an aid to imagination in terms of giving a quick and solid grasp of the dimensions of the room, it tends to work against using more ephermal terrain features. On the other hand, when a group of Slaadi walked into a bar to kill the PCs for meddling in their plans and I was using tiles (Ron Shirtz's inn in this case), the PC who was stunned, blinded, and knocked prone rolled under the table to retreat from the Death Slaad (thus avoiding AoOs) and the Monk jumped up onto the bar in order to kick it in the head (higher ground). Having more detail, IME, results in a more cinematic and interesting experience because detail inspires tactics that utilize that detail.

 

[JDragon]

Any of you Tact-Tiles users have experience pre-drawing major encounter areas then transporting to a game location? Since these are stackable and easily transportable, that would be pretty handy, but does the dry-erase wipe off to easily?

Thanks in advance!

~ Old One

The tiles come with a thin sheet of foam between the tiles. In a set of 12 tiles you get 6 sheets. So you store them face to face and back to back.

For the predrawing I have done it with decent success. If possible try to do it where they will have 30 min or so before you pack them up to let the ink dry a little better. Then use the above mentioned foam between them. Try to keep the movement of the individual tiles to a minium so your work doesn't scrape off. You will have to touch up a few places as you put them up, but you should have 95% plus of your map drawn and ready to go.

I have 2 of the large sets for a total of 24 tiles. I haven't used my battlemats since I got them for x-mas. Depending on how big of combats you like to do I would say 12 is good for most groups. I have more because I'm running RttToEE and like to have as much maped out ahead of time as I can. They are also good if you have a small area, so as they go down the long hall you remove one end and add to the other with out stuff hanging off the end of the table.

For transport I'm using a small hard plastic file box that I had sittind around. It hold all 24 tiles and has room for the bag of pens & eraser. Its no tougher to carry this than a roll of 2 or 3 battlemaps that I used to carry.