Hot answers tagged battle-map
15
These are on two different scales. Generally it does not matter where a Player Character is on board a ship in ship to ship combat. Treat each ship as a figure until they are at boarding action, then the exact location matter and change scale. That is, for ship to ship combats have a Sea Map with Ships on it. Once the ships are in contact, change to two ship ...
13
4th Edition, from experience
When inflicted on a 4e group as part of a curse, it gave everyone a headache and made combats incredibly long.
The hex based map presents incredible difficulties in calculating zones relative to the ease of calculating zones in a square map. Either zones in a hex grid are the same area as a square grid or they are the same ...
12
Wizards.com itself has a massive collection.
Finding exactly what you need can be tedious, but for sheer volume it's hard to beat the wizards.com galleries and archives.
The Art & Map Gallery and the Map-A-Week Archive are both free, and give access to most of the maps published in D&D 3.5 physical volumes and adventures (though not the content ...
10
Option 1: Reference Speed
This is the quick and dirty approach (and the one I've used most). Effectively, you move the map at the same speed as one of the things on the map. That thing doesn't move, everything else moves around it.
For example, a ship moving north at 30 squares/turn, chasing another ship moving north at 25 squares/turn. The faster ship ...
9
The d20 SRD has a simple and useful section on using hexes instead of squares. In terms of ramifications it has this to say:
Using a hex-based grid changes relatively little about the game, but poses a mapping dilemma for the GM. Most buildings and dungeons are based on 90-degree and 45-degree corners, so superimposing a hex-based grid on a structure ...
8
Savage Worlds Deluxe edition is designed to be played with miniatures and battle map.
Using Miniatures
The rules are written for the table-top because that requires exact
measurements and precise rules. That’s why all the weapon ranges and
movement values are listed in inches (rather than yards or some other
unit). Using miniatures and ...
7
Make your own using a variety of options.
Kittrich Corporation Con-Tac® brand
It's almost always 18" or 27" wide.
checkerboards/White
922300 Blue /White
9P2300 Black/White
921300 Yellow/White
hex-grid equivalents
961300 Marigolds on White
Clear
Use for covering some other option…
9993 (18"x9')
999800 (18"x24')
Note also: Kittrich used to make, and ...
7
You can make your own with paper easily.
Take a standard sheet of paper and put the grid on it manually. Graph paper will make this step easier.
Once you have one page with the proper gridlines, photocopy as many as you need for your mat (I'd estimate somewhere around 15 or 20).
Match the gridlines up and tape the pages together.
Now get some clear ...
7
Pat and Scott both have excellent answers. Here are some other things to think about.
First there is this link where a guy goes step by step through building a digital game table with the projector mounted from below.
Remember you can project from above or BELOW. In either case you need to figure out how far your projector needs to be from the surface to ...
7
Cartographer's Guild has a wide selection of maps, some of which are gridded for tabletop gaming.
Paratime Design released 100 Creative Commons licensed, black and white dungeon maps in the style of old D&D.
6
Amit Patel has a nice blog that has a section regarding hex maps. I especially like the Isometric cube coordinate system.
Regarding icosahedrons, consider each facet to be a triangular hex map where edge hexes(FJM, NLI and BCD) are shared between two facets and corner hexes (A, E and O) are actually pentagons common to all five facets at the vertex.
O
...
6
This might be a digression but there's always the option of using neither of them.
A tape ruler and some wargaming templates (warhammer or warmahordes) and you're good to go. Replace squares/hexes with inches and you have a pin point accurate system. Takes a little getting used to at first but it works smoothly once you get going.
For the GM, maps suddenly ...
6
I hate to say it, but is there any reason why you just aren't using Photoshop (or a free equivalent like Gimp)? You seem to be a more advanced mapper, and that is the route that I would recommend. I don't know if Photoshop elements would be enough to fit what you are looking to do, but I can't think of a better graphics program for large scale mapping.
6
I would recommend that you also consider taking a look at the dungeonmorphs products. Rather than a map, they are like Legos for building maps in a moment or two. The dungeonmorphs are classic old-schoolish square-grid maps with exits from each tile at the same locations. So you can use the dice, cards, battlemat images, or fonts to create dungeons at high ...
5
You may want to use a staggered square grid. It works like a hexgrid, but is all squares.
Here's a poor ASCII art version...
+---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
+---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
+---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
+---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+ +---+
+---+ ...
5
Chessex manufactures grid maps that you can draw upon, with water-soluble markers ("overhead" pens). These are available with a variety of pre-printed patterns, so you can get those with hexes, squares, and so on.
I personally use a mixture of one of these mats, "dungeon tiles" (tiles of various shapes with terrain pictures on them, plus pre-printed grid ...
5
I'm not sure about papercraft, specifically; but, I've seen a lot of people at conventions transport a variety of model terrain using large plastic buckets or tubs (with lids). I think this would probably work well, as long as you avoid mixing large, heavy items with structures that are very light and fragile.
I would sort out the items according to size, ...
4
Here are a few things I try to do when working with any game props, not just 3D terrain.
Try it out before you play.
During the game run is no time to be figuring out how things work. Have a dry run to work out any kinks. If you're setting up a map, lay it out beforehand and figure out if you need to make any changes. If you want the fog of war effect, ...
3
It is all to do with graph theory. You can model your hexes as nodes in a graph. The arcs will just be of fixed length with a cost of travel depending on either hex "geography". From there on, a shortest path algorithm will give you want you want. The generic case is NP hard -- aka travelling salesman -- but there are some good approximations.
Edit: As ...
3
Given that it sounds like you are willing to do some work here's another option that I've seen work, but not done myself.
Start with a piece of hard wearing cloth of a suitable colour.
Get a piece of perforated hardboard where the holes are in a triangular pattern.
Using a marker pen draw the hexes of the desired size by linking the holes.
Make an ...
3
One option to look at (and I have no idea of the availability where you are) is a silicone baking mat or a pastry rolling mat or maybe even a flexible cutting board (the links are to Amazon). They are $5-$25 USD, depending on size and type. And sometimes they come with 1" grid already! You might be able to find a larger one at a restaurant supply store. If ...
3
The best way that I've seen to handle this is to draw the map in chunks. Before the session, draw the first several rooms of the crawl, either as part of your pre-game prep or as people are coming in and getting set up.
If you have a break in your session (say, to order pizza), spend some time during that break erasing the map and drawing out a new set of ...
3
You can purchase at a Staples or any other decent office supply a pad of 1" grid marked paper. These pads look like post-it notes and a that single band of sticky stuff at the top like post-it notes. They are about are about 24 inches wide by 30 inches tall.
Last year I went on vacation and took a few of these with. We ran an evening D&D game every ...
3
Maybe a transparent overlay? Cavalier Games is currently selling 2" hex grids on transparent material.
The table-makers at Geek Chic sell transparent Lexan hex grids as part of their Sultan table. They're a small outfit -- I wouldn't be at all surprised if they'd sell you just the grid without the table if you asked. They might even be able to do the ...
3
We have played with the map projected on the wall. It worked very well and engaged everyone. The projector wasn't mine so I can't help you in answering that aspect of your question.
The software we used is called Maptool. It is freeware and well supported. There is a very active user community. It takes some time for the DM to prep properly, but it can ...
3
I created a blog about our new table. We just started using it. Most of the setup is shown on the blog posts and pics. I'm happy to answer any questions about it.
http://ubergeekgametable.blogspot.com/2011/09/uber-geek-game-table-this-is-log-for.html
3
Yes, you can play on a grid effectively.
A hex grid doesn't require much effort to play on. You can just treat any mention of "inches" as "hexes" instead. Playing on a square grid takes a little bit more conversion, but not much. There are a few gotchas though:
For squares, you have to decide how to handle diagonal movement. The "3 inches for 2 diagonal ...
2
If you have an opaque table, then you can't project from below.
From above, it might be quite difficult to fix the projector to the ceiling, or that may not be far enough away.
I would suggest fixing a mirror to the ceiling, and putting the projector facing up on a table next to the game table.
This will allow you to have a large projection on the table and ...
2
This requires a bit of cash to setup and certainly isn't for every game group, but it looks pretty awesome.
The crux of this idea is that they use a short throw projector to show the map on a whiteboard that lays flat on the table. Most of the materials cost are in the projector, but the frame is a bit pricey as well and requires some construction. But the ...
2
PBPMap looks nifty. It offers a PBP Web Program that they make available to those who request it. There doesn't seem to be a means to simply download it.
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
