Battle Maps
Mapping out the chaos of battle is sometimes a necessity when you are working with large groups of enemies, range and high powered magic spells. Let's take a look at our options in giving our players the tactical information they need to kick some buns.
Graph book
I picked up an A4 1 inch squared book from Amazon to test it out. I thought that I could make the individual rooms for the Tales From the Yawning Portal dungeons. This would've meant that I had a main map on the table of the full dungeon and then if a battle occurred I could just go to the right page and we would be ready to fight. Unfortunately the pages are a 10x8 squared grid which is just slightly too small for most dungeon rooms. This is very useful if you're making dungeons with small rooms and it's cheap but it is very limiting unless you start cutting the pages out.
I've been using mine for about a year now and they are so versatile. You get four different backgrounds (grass, water, tile and stone) and they are wipe clean so you can draw on them with dry erase markers. The first issue I have had with them is that you can end up rubbing out the lines when moving things around on them. This also means you can't really draw out the maps before the session as they are likely to get ruined; this can slow down combat quite a bit if you have large or complicated maps to draw. Another minor problem is that they are a thin folded cardboard so the folds don't always lie flat on the table so your minis can start sliding around. Very useful though, I always have them behind my DM Screen.
New on the scene is an official Dungeons and Dragons battle map. It's thicker than the Pathfinder version and as such doesn't have the issue of raising up at the folds. With only two types of terrain (stone tile and rural) it's a little limiting. Go for this if you're like me and it eats away at you that there is a mismatching product on your game shelf!
Cardboard/Foamboard
Time to get crafty and build your own game tiles. Making modular dungeon tiles gives you the freedom to dress your dungeon however you like. It shows that you've gone to a real effort to make the experience memorable. It is time consuming but the results are reusable so once you are finished you can make new dungeons with them. Save up the cardboard from all the things you get delivered from eBay and Amazon (is that just me?) or get some foam board from your local craft shop and dive into it.
These are open source, community made modular dungeon tile and terrain for 3D printing. They are solid tiles that are durable and editable for your needs. These are time consuming to make and finish but they are very impressive.
So these are your options if you want to get literal and tactical during combat. Beware that bringing out a map or piece of scenery tips off your players to a set piece you're working towards.
May you roll well...
