Also noted many of you makes the maps on the computer, any suggestions about that? But would prefer to use pen and paper =)
Any link to tutorials/sites or perhaps your own personal tips would be very much appreciated
cheers
All you have to do is copy and paste a grid and draw wat u want on top...its very crude but it gets the point across
it allows you to label things and add DM notes for how to run the encounter on the side
I'm going to sound like a shill for a second, but the Dungeon Tiles sets are very useful for that. I bought them almost all when they were initially released (still kicking myself over missing the Dire Tombs set, now it's astronomically expensive) and they have proven fantastic for quickly throwing down a small dungeon. I have a few pieces of old games, or toys, or what-have-you which I saved which resembled objects enough for me to use as props.
(Re: "Props" - Doll furniture can help on that score, so long as it is scaled for 1/2" squares against miniatures. The D&D Miniatures line was a godsend, as well, as I now have a whole set of plastic tubs holding the legions of minis corralled . . . they vastly help if I need to show a statue of something in the room.)
The tiles make a huge difference if you can't draw maps or be artistic. I have also a Chessex vinyl mat (uses wet-erase markers) from my old days but as my markers got lost in a move . . . it sits quietly. But if you have problems with drawing squares or shapes to boundary areas then going with the Dungeon Tiles is your best bet. One of the new boxed sets should be enough for a single little encounter.
But if you want to map them out for yourself? Seriously: graph paper notebook, and automatic pencils. Cheap, simple, and you can handle changes easily.
Mathius
1) a simple report cover, which contains
a) my adventure printed out inside
b) a few pieces of paper with a grid printed on it that I made in Excel, measured to fit a pencil eraser
c) the character sheets.
2) a small mint case that contains pencil erasers of various colors (thanks Lisa Frank!) that were ripped from their pencils and chopped into four pieces, then marked 1-4
It's very non-chalant, and is really fast to set up and tear down. I like to be able to have the whole map of the dungeon accessible in case the characters want some control over the battle, such as luring the monsters back into familiar rooms or chase scenes. I can get most Dungeon magazine dungeons on 1-2 pieces of paper. It doesn't have the ability to use painted minis, but it's what works for this particular game.
Now I can render it as ink on parchment on one layer and color it in, modern style on a different layer.
In the end no one's likely to be the wiser... unless of course they grew up in St. Louis seeing outlines of the Missouri, Mississippi and River des Peres.
I don't know if you'll be able to use this method, but it's what gives me my best results.
If it is a regional or global map and you want to redo parts later, perhaps the map the PCs saw was inaccurate (commonplace for Earth's older maps). It could become a game of collecting different maps and seeing where they connect with one another and where they are accurate.
D&D Tile Sets. There are these great box sets WotC has been releasing lately. There is a Dungeon theme, City theme, and coming soon, a Wilderness theme. These tiles have all kinds of stuff printed on both sides, so you've got a lot to choose from. They also have the squares marked on them, so easy movement grids. The boxes themselves have tile art printed on them as well. I specially LOVE the City set, beacuse the art on the 2 parts of the box are rooftops. So if you're chasing down a theif across rooftops of a city, then you're all set.
GamingPaper. www.gamingpaper.com I've purchased a few rolls of this from my local comic/gaming store, and these are wonderful. They come in large 30" x 12' rolls, or in packs of standard 8.5" x 11" sheets. They are also developing their own version of dungeon tiles where you buy a pack of papers with pre-printed rooms on them with various entrances/obstacles/ect. Best part about something like this is you can use the paper to draw out the shapes of the room, then use tiles to indicate other elements, like a circular staircase, bookshelves, alchemy lab table, doors...
Both of these products are most likely available at a local comic/gaming store, and most of the WotC D&D materials are also available at Borders bookstore. I'd recommend going to the local shop first, as they'd usually have a better selection, and could probably order items they don't have in-stock, but I usually buy most of my WotC stuff from Borders since I work there, and get an employee discount.
The boxes themselves have tile art printed on them as well. I specially LOVE the City set, beacuse the art on the 2 parts of the box are rooftops. So if you're chasing down a theif across rooftops of a city, then you're all set.
Actually, the City one is the least acomplished one of the two, IMHO.
Since there are several small pieces to build the outline of the houses, it gives lots of configurations, but there arent any houses in one large piece, which makes constructing houses more trouble (and time consuming) than it should; also there arent many itens to furnish the house (no bar for constructing a tavern, for example), you need other older sets (Harrowing Halls is a must to complement that one).
Also, there arent tiles with roofs in them (a large oversight), just the box you mentioned, which has a BIG problem of being two rows of houses with only a small alley between them (in both the bottom and the top halves).
The sewer and harbour tiles are very nice, though, just finished an harbour encounter with those, and was great (too bad i hadnt any ship tiles though); also plan on having a sewer encounter soon too.
As for the rest, i agree with you, although i prefer a battle map to gaming paper.
@TregMallin: I've been using that cracked paint method for roads for some time now (see spoiler).
Show
GamingPaper. www.gamingpaper.com I've purchased a few rolls of this from my local comic/gaming store, and these are wonderful. They come in large 30" x 12' rolls, or in packs of standard 8.5" x 11" sheets. They are also developing their own version of dungeon tiles where you buy a pack of papers with pre-printed rooms on them with various entrances/obstacles/ect. Best part about something like this is you can use the paper to draw out the shapes of the room, then use tiles to indicate other elements, like a circular staircase, bookshelves, alchemy lab table, doors...
Since i found out about this new adventure with LOTS of maps included from your link, here goes the plug (there isnt much time left to pre-order, though).
A lot of their stuff is for how to create maps using software, but a decent amount of it also relates to pen and paper styles. The River Tutorial, for example, is good for mappers of any sort: www.cartographersguild.com/showthread.ph...
I'm going to sound like a walking, talking advertising machine here, but this is what I use to DM so here goes:
D&D Tile Sets. There are these great box sets WotC has been releasing lately. There is a Dungeon theme, City theme, and coming soon, a Wilderness theme. These tiles have all kinds of stuff printed on both sides, so you've got a lot to choose from. They also have the squares marked on them, so easy movement grids. The boxes themselves have tile art printed on them as well. I specially LOVE the City set, beacuse the art on the 2 parts of the box are rooftops. So if you're chasing down a theif across rooftops of a city, then you're all set.
And to help organize the tiles into maps, I'd recommend pymapper. It is a tile-based mapping program. Notes, layers, and multiple pages are all supported. It's available at pymapper.com.