For the past 27 years or so I have used large square wet erase gaming mats. I started using them with Top Secret/S.I. in about 1988 and eventually started using them for D&D as well.
Over the past few years I have been collecting these D&D boxed sets of terrain tiles. I'm not sure if that is the actual name of them but each box is themed, such as a dungeon, outdoors, city, etc. Basically they are some sort of heavy cardstock with a slick glossy finish on them and they are double sided.
Can these be written on using a wet erase pen without damaging the product? I'm considering gluing the larger pieces on some sort of background such as cardboard in order to keep them together as one piece. Of coarse doing so would ruin the less desirable side.
Has anyone tried to scan these pieces and then laminate them in order to increase the number of pieces you have available?
I really haven't used them at all primary because I either didn't think I had enough or because they looked "different" then the dungeon I was using. Now I'm looking at being more flexible in how the module reads and what the room looks like and thus I can see me using these tiles for my dungeons.
I've also purchased some 3-d terrain. I don't have a lot and used it just to place miniatures around for decoration rather than utilize it in the game. I've also bought 3-D terrain items for fish tanks. These seem to mesh well for miniatures too.
So I would like to hear is what other people use for miniatures. Do you use these terrain tiles in your game? What company do you buy them from? What did they look like? Was the purchase worth it? How well do they work for generic dungeon use? I find generic plain looking ones the most useful as opposed to those that include stairs, skeletons, treasure, debris or other objects on them. Can you recommend any?
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I have the three boxed sets of dungeon tiles from WotC, City, Wilderness and Dungeon boxes. I also picked up a copy of each of the add-ons they produced so I have a lot of tiles. I love the tile sets, very worth it.
You cannot write on them, even with their coating, and expect the marks to come off. Don't write on dungeon tiles! :-)
Back in the 90's I used to use a lot more 3-d terrain and props, but after too many issues of minis getting lost in the mess or being forgotten or mistakes being made I moved almost exclusively to tiles. Now these days I do about 90% tiles with occasional 3d terrain. Like you I use some fish tank props, and over the years I've collected miniature props like furniture, boxes, chairs, etc.
And to your other inquiry, yes I've duplicated some to make really custom shapes. I'd full-scan a full, plain large tile, then print it out on 8x11 label pages, then attach that to heavy cardboard or card-stock. Then, you're only limited by how many you can print off. :-)
On Amazon to this day you can still type in "dungeon tiles" and they have lots of the add-ons from WotC I spoke of in stock at reasonable prices.