I am trying to decide between using D&D dungeon tiles or the game mastery flip maps and map packs. dose any one have any opinions about these two products? Would the dungeon tiles fit in with Pathfinder nicely?
i have used all 3 in the games that my group has been playing. for the tiles, i dont care for them cause they tend to slide all over the place on the table we used. the map packs less so due to the material they are made out of, and i do like the map packs that i have bought. the flip mats are by far my favorite of the three but we only rarely use them due to that we use standard maps with terrain for free form or World Works Games Terrainlinx for others.
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I am trying to decide between using D&D dungeon tiles or the game mastery flip maps and map packs. dose any one have any opinions about these two products? Would the dungeon tiles fit in with Pathfinder nicely?
I have several Paizo flip-mats I use regularly. I have a single Paizo map pack I've used once or twice. I have a whole box of D&D map tiles I've never bothered to use. I think says it all for me.
-Skeld
I bought all 3 and I'm using all of them (for my Pathfinder campaing).
- I prefer D&D dungeons tiles for their versatility/reusability;
- I prefer flip maps for the ability to use markers on them;
- I prefer map packs because they take less time to use than dungeons tiles, but they're also less versatile.
You should buy the best maps from those 3 lines of products instead of limiting yourself to only one line of products.
I use all three. For the D&D tiles and the map packs, I find it useful to put two little blobs of blu-tack on the back to stop them sliding around (they haven't marked my flipmats so far). It takes a certain mindset if you're dungeon delving in that if it's going to save time, it's best not to stress about making it an exact replica of the dungeon map in the module/etc. The other DM in our group doesn't like it if the battlemat is not identical to the module map so for him he prefers to draw them all out - my approach is that sometimes the module gets it wrong a little bit.
If you're pressed for money, I think I'd recommend the flipmats first. I find the other products useful once you've got lots of them, but I doubt I'd use them much if I only had one or two - I'd just draw one out. The basic Gamemastery flipmat is so cheap given the quality - they clean so easily and it takes quite some time before the laminating cracks and ink starts to 'leak' into the folds.
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I love the flip mats for any kind of outdoor adventuring. I don't get much use out of the map packs although I did use the elven buildings set during Second Darkness.
Lately, we've been doing a lot of dungeon crawl stuff lately and the dungeon tiles are great for that.
I also have a couple of large poster size pads of 1-inch graph paper which I use to draw out large areas ahead of time.
The map packs get the least amount of use for me. I just don't find them as versatile.
My Dm used the mappacks for a campaign, it worked really well but i think this is in large part he new exactly which ones he wanted to use ahead of time and purchased accordingly then used them.
the Flip maps are very good though.
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I've used the D&D dungeon tiles and the Gamemastery basic flip-mat. My preferred one is the flip mat. The issue I had with the dungeon tiles is the time it takes to rebuild the maps (we do not use my house for gaming, so I cannot prebuild the map). It seems to interrupt the game flow more than I like. Making a quick sketch on the flip-mat might not be as pretty, but it keeps the game flowing quickly.
To stop the dungeon tiles from sliding everywhere, I bought a roll of drawer liner (like for a kitchen drawer). Get the one that is kind of spongy, the tiles stick pretty well and don't slide around. But I still prefer the flip mat.
I prefer the dungeon tiles myself, with the caveat that they get prepared/sorted ahead of time. It's a pain to find one specific tile in a box full of tiles (I have almost every set except the latest and one of the first ones), but if you organize them by type of tile you can get a dungeon laid out pretty fast. If you know exactly what your party is going to be facing before the session starts, you can even just pull out the specific tiles you'll be using.
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I use flip mats, map packs and dungeon tiles (and Tact Tiles).
My preference is as follows:
4 Basic flip mat / Tact Tiles - Good for when you don't have the tiles to match a particular layout (especially if using a published module) or when you are running a location you didn't expect to. Just draw out the location with different coloured dry erase markers and you're good to go. The reason why its my least preferred method is that the drawings are quite minimal, and players cannot pick up on details that would be in the dungeon tiles or map packs to use in game.
I have two basic flips mats.
3 Flip Mats - Great for very specific locales (e.g. a home base that the players will keep returning to) or generic locales, e.g. the ship. However they are not very flexible and so that not all streets, inns etc look the same I don't tend to use them that much.
I only have the ship flip mat
2 Campaign map packs - These are nice, detailed locales that can be laid out quickly. I have loads of these, but interestingly have found that I have not used them that much, the reason is that they are not very flexible. Many do not allow for re-arrangement into alternate layouts because walls don't line up or tables or carts are cut across two sheets.
Some map packs are more flexible - Sewers and Waterfront for example, the latter has a small ship that fits on two sheets without including any of the dock or piers so I can use it by itself.
Also, some sets I would have expected to be able to fit together to form a whole layout - Fortress, Haunted Mansion, Village, Elven City (not enough junctions for the roads), etc - but really they are just individual room or buildings within those locales that don't always fit together well. The trouble is many combats would spill out of the one or two sheets used for that locale and so as a GM I need to fill in the gaps with either narration, or by using Tact Tiles and drawing on the extra corridors. In the end I often get frustrated and turn to dungeon tiles.
Waterfront is a good example of how to make a set that is flexible but can also fit together as a whole. Graveyard is almost there, but I struggled to get the fences and gate to form even a partial perimeter around the graves.
Map packs work best if you write a scenario to specifically use them.
I have enough map packs to fill two file index boxes, but get most use from waterfront, taverns and the odd campsite or country locale.
1 Dungeon Tiles - These are my favourite and I have every set so far. They are just so flexible! You can build whatever you want and often re-create maps that appear in published scenarios. I was able to re-create the "dungeon" in Death in Freeport pretty accurately even though it included diagonal corridors and walls and octagonal rooms!
The other great thing about dungeon tiles is that you can lay out the map as the players explore it, piece by piece, even adding in secret doors and tunnels that were initially missed by the PCs.
My one criticism is that often you get too many blank floors and corridors and not enough "set dressing" tiles, things like beds, benches, desks, etc. However some of the more recent packs have corrected this to some degree, e.g. Harrowing Halls, and have also included tiles showing fully "dressed" rooms such as master bedrooms, dining rooms and lounges but that are modular enough that you can create varying layouts.
When using dungeon tiles I lay out the tiles before the game and take a photo on my phone to use as a guide to re-create the map at the time. I then put each scene's tiles into seperate zip lock clear wallets so I know all the tiles I need for one locale are there.
See this thread on RPG.net for photos of how I store my dungeon tiles.
So that is my order of preference, but as you can see I own all of the different types; you don't need to limit yourself to just one type as someone has already said. And you can even use different types at the same time! I recently ran a combat using a waterside tavern built using dungeon tiles from the City Masterset that had the ship from Waterfront Map Pack moored up next to it. :) Its all good!