I finished my game prep early enough to drop by here and make another mini-post. This time it’s a preview of what awaits my players and is also a showcase of what you can do with the D&D battlemaps, tiles and miniatures.
First we have our heroes leaving the Styx’ Oarsman, a newly opened inn in Ptolus’ Necropolis (yeah, a graveyard-based inn, imagine the patrons).
In tonight’s performance, our heroes are portrayed by:
- Medium White Dragon in the role of Nogard the half-dragon barbarian
- Air Mephit in the role of Lillie the Pixie Shaper
- Stalwart Paladin in the role of Cruguer the Hellbred Crusader
- Elf Archer in the role of Cixi, the lovely Iron Hero Archer
- Wild-Elf Barbarian in the role of Aravard, the Elven Arcane Archer
Don’t they look heroic, huh?
But what’s this, waiting patiently for our heroes outside?
Could it be a posse of Yugoloth Mercenaries?
By Pelor, it is!
The ambush team is played by:
- Green slaad in the role of Ekreziel the Nycaloth Sergent.
- Carnage Demons 1, 2 and 3 playing the roles of Mezzoloths Mooks.
All right ladies and gentleman, I think we have a confrontation shaping up!
Who will emerge victorious of this battle of Mortals vs Planar Scum? The bookies are waiting for you!
Let’s take our Sky Cam to get a complete glimpse of the battlefield…
That’s a lot of green difficult terrain…
The map is actually the King’s Road from the Field of Ruin Fantastic Location accessory with the addition of the Inn tile from the original Dungeon Tile pack (#1) and a few from the Ruins of the Wild pack added to make it more Graveyard-y.
Tune in Friday night for the fight of the year! Or later next week for Chatty’s summary!
🙂
Somehow I completely missed the existence of the Fantastic Location series. I’ll definitely have to pick some of those up just for the maps… I’m addicted to interesting battle maps, and find they really help me in planning my encounters.
I’ve been getting by with maps that I’ve taken from Dragon magazines (then laminating them.) I’ve gotten a lot of mileage out of them, and the one Paizo flip-map I bought, but I’m always looking for more.
Now I just have to figure out a good way to store and transport them.
The Fantastic Location are great battlemaps… so are the ones that come with the D&D miniature starters.
If you’ve planned to plastify them all, I’d suggest buying an Artist’s poster tube (a telescopic black plastic cylindric case… with a screw-on cap) and rolling all your maps in them. You can buy them at your college’s Arts store I’m sure.
Mine are folded and stored in my gaming bookcase.
Ah yes, I have most of the D&D minis maps too. The players are heading to a volcano this weekend, so I finally get to use “Magma Keep” and a few other lava tiles that I don’t normally get to use.
The problem with rolling them up (laminated or not) is the roll factor. I don’t run from home, so I end up rolling them up for transport, but it’s really annoying to have to hold them down with stray books.
Hmmm Dave? If you have the Magma Keep, it implies that you bought the Hellspike Prison Fantastic Location…. (All the D&D Battlemaps are sold as Fantastic Location)
So I guess you bought at least one…
🙂
As for transport issues, do what did…
I bought a house and I made a game room in the basement… now we almost always play at my place.
(I know it doesn’t help you, but it sure made my job a hell of a lot easier)
Nope, Wizards had Magma Keep and one or two others available as free downloads for use with DDM, and I just fired up the old oversize printer at work. At least I know now not to buy Hellspike Prison.
I’ll have to pick up one of these “house” thingys… they can’t be that expensive, right? 🙂
Ahhh, clarity has been achieved.
Actually each pack features 3 or 4 maps (3 if one is oversized). So the Hellspike Prison is still a good deal because it features a Mushroom cavern (I think) and a lava filled Dungeon…
My favorite one is the City one… A sewer, a Thieve’s Guild complex(with planks linking rooftops), an Inn and an Open air market.