Countryside is very helpful for above ground encounters. One cannot describe adequately the colors and depth that this product has. Absolutely the best I have seen so far in the Map Pack series. As for the title, there is little contryside other than locations of interest one would find in the country side. There is no hill or bend. There is no slightly forested path such as one saw in Lord of the Rings. There are however bridges and the like which a major encounter would surround itself. So, for those looking for a path ambush, you may have to go to another Game Mastery product. I will say the same complaint that everyone else has said. The "L" shaped ruin is the one you see in the preview above, but it is missing all that green that makes the above the square shape it appears as. That thing above has 4 pages put together, where the "L" shaped one has just three. Maybe I am missing something. Eer, nope. Just looked at the thing and there is no doublesided tile or anything like that.

Regardless of these quibbles, I am very pleased to own this product.

It would be cool if the rope bridge was a bit longer - maybe 50 feet or so. Other than that, I like these, they're nicer than boring tan battle mats. I swear, whenever I see the color beige I reach for a d20...

I put my map packs in a heavy duty ziplock bag, and that seems to work fine for storage. You might also find a plastic pencil case that would hold them and protect them a bit more.

I was thinking that you could lay some of these on top of the back side of a flip mat to get a larger playing area

First of all the art on these guys is just amazing; absolutely top notch.

I have two main problems with them:

First, they are too thin. Something like the WOTC Dungeon Tiles are much easier to handle and will probably hold up better over time. This can be overcome by mounting on foamcore, but that sort of defeats the purpose of buying pre-made tiles.

Second, the tiles are either free standing, or designed to link together in two or three pieces...they doesn't seem to have been any thought toward making the edges of various tiles match up to allow for various combinations of larger areas. You are pretty much stuck using the ones explicitly designed to go together; other tiles just won't match up correctly.

I could live with #1, but to me #2 is just too big a blow to the utility of this product. (**---)

These are great tiles. They are on medium cardstock, and the artwork is creative and easy to understand. The Ropebridge makes this set worth it alone!

I agree with the other reviews: the art on the maps is fantastic, and the tiles that fit together to form larger maps are a nice touch. I'm already plotting how to use start using these in my games.

I'd like to see future sets printed on the back with generic environment art (plain grass tiles on the backs of the Countryside set, for example), and packaging that could store the tiles, like the box for the Three Dragon Ante deck that has a flap with a locking tab, would make these sets just about perfect.

All in all I was pleased with this product, but I can see a growing trend with GameMastery products. Just about every product seems to have some important convenience or element missing.

In this case it's the fact that there is no easy way to link the cards together and keep them from sliding around. One of the other reviews mentioned using a page sleeve, which I thought was an excellent idea. It's too bad that GameMastery didn't add this in. That's not a big deal, but it's indicative of the small details they leave out.

There's also the fact that the cards are loose once you unwrap them. Some sort of sleeve or envelope should have been used to package them to keep the cards protected and organized.

I do have to say that the artwork and usefullness of these cards outweighs the couple of minor problems. Again, overall this is good aid.

I received my first set of maps today and I have to say between collecting minitures, item cards, maps and books maps are an easy 2nd to books.please bring more I would like to be able to say i've spent thousands just on my maps alone. thanks Paizo --jeremy

Gamemastery map pack Countryside is another terrific product from the crew at Paizo. Fantastic artwork adorns every tile. There are several outstanding encounter locations in this set. I have already used the Coaching Inn for a scenario and am planning more adventures using the Campsite and the Ropebridge. The artwork for Ropebridge is particularly inspiring with its depiction of a rickety rope and plank bridge over a ravine through which flows a rushing river.
The only drawbacks to this pack were the Roadshrine and the Ruins. The shrine is only a single card site which isn’t adequate by my standards for encounter maps. The Ruins are not clear on height definitions. I can’t decide if the floor has stairs to higher levels or not. I also feel that having an L shaped encounter map doesn’t work for tactical miniature movement when it appears that characters should be able to cross the gap across the end sections. If the Roadshrine had instead been incorporated into the missing corner of the Ruins I would have given this product a five star rating. As it is I still think it is worth the price paid and I give it four stars and recommend it to any game master who uses miniatures for running encounters.

My Husband, Jonathan Singleton, and I now own the Countryside and Village Map Packs. They are excellent for game play. They are also VERY sturdy once they are taped together and set into place.

We use the TacTile dry erase boards for most of our mapping, but we had to face the fact that sometimes drawing out all that stuff is just too tedious and time consuming, especially if we want detail. Then we discover the Map Packs!!! We can't wait to collect the others. I would be VERY excited to see a set come out that gives us maps of CAVERNS!! Jonathan and I "hate" drawing out caverns. Plus, add more maps to the existing packs. More villages, more countryside, etc.

The GameMastery line is FABulous!!!

Just got these yesterday at my local hobby shop. currently i am DM'ing the Red Hand of Doom which calls for multiple, "on the road" and wilderness, random encounters. so these tiles seemed like a perfect fit. the tiles are quite nice. great artwork to say the least. what is truly needed is an expansion pack to this tile set. for example: tiles of road and tiles of green countryside which could be used to expand the areas, beyond the somewhat tiny, 1-2 tile locations — are a must! to use the campsite in tonights game, i placed the tiles onto a blank battlemat (which they fit into perfectly) and slipped them into a large, top-loading, poster protector. so i drew out the rest of the area and compared to the awesome tiles, it was kinda ... lame. so tiles to help fill in the gaps, i would buy instantly. the image they show here with minatures on the tiles are misleading. there are three tiles which make up the ruins that are pictured, when together form an L shape. but there is a fourth tile in the picture of just green grass, which does not exist in this map pack. but's it's exactly what i'm talking about, plain tiles are needed. also you will need some way to secure the tiles. being as small as they are (suggestion: make them 8.5 x 11) they can easily be moved out of position and require readjustment. i will be getting the other tile packs eventually and can almost bet, that an expaned countryside/wilderness tile set would easily bump up to those as well.