I like the WotC dungeon tiles a lot and have been collecting sets over the years. They offer a number of advantages over other mapping methods.

• They save on your toner bill. Printing out maps is great, but can get expensive.
• Clean. Wet and dry erase ink can make a mess.
• Fast to clean up. No wet cloths or dry brushes – just scoop up your tiles from the table and you’re done.
• More details. Tile art supplies you more features to aid gameplay, description, or flavour than an outline on a battlemat would.
• If you are organized, it is faster to map as you go. Just lay tiles down according to plan. The key is being organized, though, else you’re flipping endlessly through tiles looking for the right ones.

However, there are also some challenges with using this game aid.

Following are 9 tips to help you get the most out of your dungeon tiles.

1. Design with tiles in mind

I gave up trying to match tiles to existing maps long ago. There just are not enough tile variations, plus the square corner nature and fixed sizes of dungeon tiles make it impossible to reproduce maps from most published products.

However, the awesomeness of tiles comes into play when you create your map using tiles first. Layout your tiles to suit your encounter and dungeon needs, and then take that arrangement as your map.

It is tempting to whip out a pencil and start drawing while you design encounters. But if you want to use tiles then you are stuck again trying to match tiles to a pre-existing map.

Instead, get into the habit of keeping your tiles nearby and whipping them out as soon as you need to create a map.

2. Photograph your maps

Take a photo of your tile map design and put them on your computer. Use this to help you layout tiles to recreate your maps fast as you GM.

Use your paint program of choice to annotate map photos. Use these versions to help you record and track GM-only details:

• Secret doors
• Traps
• Inhabitants
• Treasure
• Pre-planned tactics

3. Keep tiles from moving

Game tables get bumped, players jostle tiles when moving minis around, and GMs nudge tiles out of place when laying new ones down.

One option to prevent moving tiles is shelf liner. You can get this stuff inexpensively at dollar stores and department stores. It grips most table surfaces as well as tiles. As a bonus, you can get different colours to serve as thematic map backgrounds, such as gray for caverns, brown for dungeons, and green for outdoors.

You might consider getting a large piece of cardboard, foam board, or cork board. Lay tiles on the board and use push puns to pinch tiles in place at corners.

A third option is to use non-residue tape to fix tiles in place.

Finally, sticky tack – the kind you use to put stuff up on walls – can hold tiles in place.

I prefer the shelf liner. Pins only work if you have a complete map laid out and can see the best pressure points to pinch. Using the wrong kind of tape and sticky tack can leave residue on your tiles, or rip the top surface off tiles.

And for speed, you can’t beat just laying down tiles on a non-slip surface rather than messing with tag, pins, or putty for every tile.

4. Use tiles to enhance battle maps

Instead of drawing the whole map with tiles, use tiles in specific places on your maps for flavour, extra detail, or special areas.

For example, draw out your map on your battlemat like you normally would. Then lay down a couple tiles in spots for special purposes. This offers you the speed and freedom of freeform hand-drawn mapping, plus the special qualities dungeon tiles offer.

Example enhancements using tiles:

• Furnishings
• Hazard areas
• Spell effects, magical areas
• Doors and stairs
• Elevated platforms
• Hybrid areas with natural caverns and worked or crafted areas (i.e. a cavern with a temple carved out in the back)
• 3D environments

You can also switch up between hand-drawn areas that would be difficult for tiles to represent, and rooms and corridors perfect for tile use.

5. Tiles work with dry erase

You can write on tiles to add extra details or modify zones in ways the tiles cannot represent.

For example, you can draw such things as pits, walls, and pools. You can add doors, altars, and furnishings.

When done, just erase before putting tiles away.

A couple caveats with this tip. First, I have not left marks on tiles for more than a few hours. Maybe someone has tested and can let me know if you can leave dry erase on for longer.

I have also only used black and blue markers. Like battlemats, there might be colours that leave stains, such as red. Maybe somebody could advise me on this, as well.

Dry erase particles will get into the tile surface. You will not be able to 100% clean the dry erase marks off tiles. Look close and you can see how the manufacturing process has left bumps in the tile surfaces. Some of the dust will get into these. It is easy to wipe well enough so tiles look clean, but just be aware some dry erase always remains behind.

6. Use on a coloured surface

As mentioned above, you can enhance theme and flavour by placing tiles on a coloured background. Castles go on gray, forests go on green, dungeons go on black, for example.

Go to a stationery or art supply store to get large sheets of heavy paper or light cardboard coloured to suit your needs. Alternatively, you can get felt in a variety of colours. And then there’s shelf liner material that also offers no-skid properties.

As a bonus, the background material can help protect your dining room or kitchen table top, and hide irritating table patterns that break the mood.

7. Get to know your tiles

One of the most common complaints I have heard about tiles is finding the right pieces for the map you’re using or designing. While part of the problem is tile inventory – if you do not have the right piece then you are out of luck – I feel the main issue is lack of familiarity with what tiles you have.

Tiles offer art on both sides, further complicating the problem. And, after not finding a needed tile in-game a few times, you might be inclined to put your tiles away and stop using them altogether.

Before going to that extreme, try getting to know your tiles. Nothing makes tiles more useful than a GM who is familiar with his tile inventory! If you know the shapes and features, plus typical design patterns, tile selection gets faster and easier.

Get your tiles out and start creating maps with them. Do not try to recreate a map. Instead, just freeform it. Make your designs as interesting as possible, which you can do a couple of ways:

• Looks cool. Make maps that are aesthetically pleasing. (I’m too left-brained for this, unfortunately, but you might have an artistic eye to make this possible.)
• Tactical. Make maps that would enhance combats by offering tactical choices. For example, choke points, cover, and sneak attack zones.
• Unique. Avoid big square rooms. Layer tiles on top of each other, and mix up designs so you do not make a bunch of boring spaces.
• Mix sets. At first glance, that wilderness piece might not fight your cavern motif, but experiment anyway. Use your imagination to explain why a forest might be underground, or why there’s a tent in a dungeon.

The purpose is to fiddle with tiles, flip them over, and put them together in different configurations so you become familiar with all the art of each set and what tiles offer what mapping opportunities.

However, as a big bonus to this exercise, after each map is done you should take a picture of it. Why buy a book of map templates when you have a fun map generator at your finger tips? Make 10 maps from a set, take a pic of each, and now you have 10 maps to use any time, any way you want. Best thing is, these maps are digital, printable, and tile-able!

Help me with the holy grail

In preparation for this article, I racked my brain trying to think of how you could make a game out of dungeon tiles. Perhaps something like Carcassonne or another tile-based board game. Or maybe something with dice + tiles.

If there was a fun game that involved tiles that also created maps for you when the game was over, you would have the holy grail of GM prep on your hands. Not only would you play the game often because it was fun, but you would learn your tiles inside and out for very easy future tile use. And after several playthroughs, you’d have a cool collection of maps (by taking photos after each game) that took no effort to build.

Help me turn dungeon tiles into a short 1, 2 or more player game. Send me your ideas or comment below. Best idea gets a prize!

8. Combo with printable tiles

Combo printable tiles with dungeon tiles to get a whole lot more mileage out of your tile sets.

RPGNow abounds with inexpensive printable tile products, and you can always design your own on your computer with art software.

Use printable tiles to fill dungeon tile layouts with shapes and types missing from your collection.

You can also enhance tiles by stacking them. Take those big area tiles and put printed special-use tiles on top to run more interesting terrain, hazards, and battlefield features for combats.

9. Accent with wooden blocks

From Bill Hein

Invest $20 in two $10 sets of blocks at WalMart. Nothing fancy, just the wood blocks we played with as toddlers. This gives you walls, arches for doors, cylinders for columns, and more.

Combine them with the dungeon tiles. The blocks make the walls, while the tiles are pretty enough to evoke mood. I thought about painting the blocks darker colors, but passed; when they’re bright, it’s obvious from across the table where the wall is.

If you can find the old WizKids Dungeon Tiles for Mage Knight, they’re useful too. I bought mine a long time ago on clearance, but I still stumble across the stuff at rummage sales and flea markets.

Aquarium terrain is good stuff, too. I don’t much like the standard prices, but used stuff on eBay, garage sales, or flea markets works well.

Do you use tiles? If so, you will find my dungeon tiles tips over at Campaign Mastery, as well: 8 Easy Ways to Organize Your Dungeon Tiles.

If you don’t use tiles, check out a few sets I recommend at Amazon.

Depicted here are the seven tiles

The Stone Bard Inn city tiles by Three Sages Games are seven slick full colour productions designed to enhance tavern brawls and inn encounters.

The tiles are actually letter-sized plastic sheets with anti-skid foam backing. Because of the plastic, you can use wet and dry erase markers on them.

Three sheets combine to offer a large tavern area, replete with a 35’ long bar.  The illustrated chandeliers and stair banister will hopefully inspire creative combats in your games.

The other four sheets cover entire floors of the inn. GMs can use them as standalone areas for one or two storey inns, as well. In this way, you can build a few different inn variations, even though the tiles are designed to represent the large Stone Bard Inn.

The 1” squares for minis use are subtly marked with crosshairs. A pet peeve of mine is gridlines so dark or thick they interfere with mapping. So I’m glad to see the faint crosshair approach on Three Sages’ product.

The maps are fully detailed as well, with graphics for chairs, tables, shelves, beds, and numerous other furnishing.

Summary

I give this product a thumbs-up. They save a GM time mapping. The tiles are ideal for a frequently visited inn, however I would also feel comfortable reusing them in a world as standard inn designs.

I like the fact the tiles support wet and dry erase. The full colour and great details are a bonus.

Frugal terrain for RPG

Last week featured minis tips on the cheap. This week, the series continues with ideas for doing terrain without breaking your budget.

1. For scenery, keep some rocks, pebbles, lichen and large chips of bark in a shoebox. You can increase the atmosphere a lot with simple terrain.
2. Junked tire. Cut an old tire from a car, bike or lawnmower into strips or squares for use as terrain markers, burned out building ruins, strange floors, and so on.
3. Playdough. Easily moldable into virtually any shape, and near infinitely reuseable (just add water) it makes for excellent terrain with minis. Use the various colors combined with some cookie cutters or mini molds to craft forests, trees, building shapes, boulders. Let key pieces harden overnight to give stone walls more durability, and leave more easily destroyable things (such as bushes) soft and deformable to the encounter’s conflict.
4. Use playdough to make enjoyable area effect displays (from things like spells or explosives) to spice up combat. Most players I know love to deform the terrain when using minis if given the opportunity. Google for easy playdough recipes.
5. Aquarium decorations make great cheap alternatives for terrain. For example, plastic coral makes great mountains.
6. Use styrox, or as some call it, expanded polystyrene (EPS). It is available for a pittance or for free. Use a sharp knife to make near-instant 3D landscapes. Make them modular for easy storage. Add key features from toys or crafts. Glue felt or canvas on the styrox for colour, or use spray paint that does not melt the shapes.
7. Use water-based paint to temporarily paint dried playdough figures and terrain areas, or to add a splash of color to dry erase style boards and battle mats without burning through the colored markers. (It generally washes off dry/wet erase boards without staining them, but check in a small corner to make sure first.) This can be good for adding trails of blood, splashes of acid or fire, or other sudden special effects to terrain, and gives them a more natural 3D quality than a marker would.
8. Legos. These are fun and easy enough to acquire in bulk from yard sales or eBay (or raid a family member’s toy box for the evening). While a little pricey when buying new lego kits, the reusability factor alone makes them worth the cost (and with a little paint and artistic flair, they can be further customized easily). They have the added benefit of being destroyable during combat encounters, adding another level of interactivity to scenes.
9. Lincoln Logs. Another reusable terrain option you can buy on the cheap at yard sales or eBay. They can be used to quickly construct buildings or barricades on mini maps without much fuss, and can be reused endlessly. For sci-fi games, a little paint can turn them into passable steel tubing or metal walls without much effort.
10. Sugar cubes and hot glue. These work well to quickly build walls or ruined building structures without a lot of money or effort. Perfect for winter settings, a quick hit of gray spray paint after building can turn them into castle or stone walls in no time.
11. Carpet and linoleum scraps. Nearly any furniture, tile or carpet store will have a ton of these they’ll be happy to part with for free. You can find pieces ranging from as little as 1 foot square to as much as 4 foot long strips several inches wide. A little model knife or scissor work later and you have lots of ground material for forests, rivers, buildings, and so on. Trim tall carpets with sharp scissors so minis stand on them well.
12. A small sand box. Play-sand makes perfect terrain. Use brown sand for desert, white sand for arctic or winter. Mold sand into all sorts of destroyable terrain with minimal effort and a few drops of water. One small caution: if used in an area where cats are present, keep the box covered when not in use to avoid unpleasant random encounters.
13. Zen garden. Did you get a zen garden as a gift one year and now it sits unused? Put it on the game table as a cool special effect area or use it as a physical puzzle.
14. Printable paper terrain works great.
15. Putting together furniture and other objects commonly found in taverns and houses is a good investment since they can be reused quite often.
16. For zones or spell effects, I like to make custom templates from paint swatches that are available for free from the hardware store. For walls, I take a pipe cleaner and attach 1″ squares along them to mark out the shape. After that, I make a 1×2 stand-up card to represent the effect (fire, ice, smoke). I’ll be writing a post on how to do this on rpgmusings.com, where I’ve also explained how to make zone effects, under the title DIY Templates.
17. Add 3D relief to your battlemats. Cut out sections of gridded paper and glue it to different sized cardboard boxes.
18. Players shouldn’t be scared to make their own mini monsters. Good times making soap monsters, golems out of any material that will dry or stick together, cutting up farm animal figs or other toys to make giant abominations.
19. Christmas time at the dollar stores is ideal for cheap minis terrain. I’ve picked up packs of trees for a buck. I even found some dungeon type walls. Some minor painting gets rid of the xmasy look on them.
20. To make blast and burst templates, use pliers to open up a metal coat hanger. Bend the hanger into the appropriate sized shape. Cut the ends with a cheap pair of wire cutters. Use a file to dull off the sharp wire ends. Bonus step: I use heat shrink (you can get this at Radio Shack) to close off the square to eliminate the sharp ends and help keep the square whole.
21. For swarms and minions, I make tokens out of Sculpey and write letters and numbers on them once they’re done. You just roll the clay into a ball then press down with your thumb to make the tokens.

Scratched and old CDs (AOL and WoW discs, anyone?) make ideal bases for do it yourself terrain. Paint the disc, glue on your rocks, peddles, trees and other terrain, and then place on the battlemat whenever you need.

Photo courtesy of Nicolás Sanguinetti

Late last year RPT ran a contest for tips about minis and battlemats, with prizes graciously supplied by Gator Games. Response was tremendous!

Below is part one of a new series that presents the awesome tips RPT readers submitted for the contest. Part one and two will cover tips aimed at gamers on a budget. The other parts will focus on tips about:

• Modding minis
• Using minis better or more creatively in-game
• Storage and organization
• Battlemats – usage and substitutes

Minis Tips For Gamers On A Budget

1. I use numbered tiles for my bad guys. The NPC marked #1 is always the leader of the group (if there is a leader). I typically have only one or two stat blocks for all the NPCs in my bad guy party. I reference the stat blocks during combat. On a sheet of scrap paper I just write the numbers #1 through #5, and beside those numbers record things such as HP, current penalties, current bonuses, and conditions until the NPC dies.
2. Use minis and playdough to make casting molds for more playdough minis. Press the mini face down in a 3 inch thick brick of play-dough (or clay) then repeat on another brick with the back of the mini. Let the bricks dry (or bake’em in an oven) to create simple molds you can stick play-dough in, press together, and “clone” a destructible goblin army pretty much for free.
3. Don’t be afraid to mix miniatures and paper counters and chits to maximize your spending dollars.
4. Search thrift stores and second hand shops for old board games. Mine them for pieces to use for minis and table dressings.
5. Don’t be afraid to shop around for bargains with miniatures. There are dozens of instances of people getting out of the hobby and you can get fantastic deals on large quantities. Better yet, sell the ones you have no use for after getting them.
6. Keep up to date with Borders coupons. They can make buying the official D&D miniatures much cheaper with as much as 40% off coupons such as this one.
7. Buy mixed lots of Heroclix, Mageknight, Dreamblade or Horrorclix on eBay. Break off the bottoms and super glue onto plastic or wooden circles.
8. Use 1″ washers as tokens. Cut or punch out a picture of a monster and glue it to a washer. Easy way to get 46 kobolds.
9. I have a tub of multi-colored craft clay (the kind that never dries out). When I need a set of faceless goons, I just make little balls of clay. If I have multiple types of goons, I use different colors. We can even etch numbers in with a pencil so I can keep track of which goblin has taken which damage. If I have a major villain, I’ll make a crude figure. Why have an elegant, painted mini if you’re going to kill him in the near future and never see him again? The absolute best part is the squishing. The player whose character kills a creature gets to physically squish the ball of clay with a vehemence proportionate to how frustrating the NPC was.
10. When starting a mini collection, you can buy inexpensive singles (less than $1.00 each) to stand in for a variety of monster types, then expand your collection over time.
11. Who needs minis – use paper! Find or create a template of the right size, then use your favorite graphics program to create your own custom minis. Just google the type of character you want and resize and paste that into the paper template. Then trifold and glue or tape. This allows players to use whatever exact photo they might want for their PC. For example, this pic.
12. I collect bottle tops and caps from milk and soda. They come in a variety of colours and sizes, making them useful stand-ins for just about anything.
13. Toy soldiers. A few hundred of them are $2-$5 at most stores, and work well as faceless minions in large scale battles, especially in modern day and sci-fi settings. A little model knife work will also quickly trim off the rifles and modern gear if one feels picky or creative for fantasy. As a plus, they can be used to hone painting techniques and style before working on a valued mini.
14. Now that my son is older and no longer into Pokemon and the other kid-friendly CCGs, I’ve been digging into and removing all the little PVC figures that he’s collected and that seem RPG compatible. It’s a nice, fast way to fill out those battles when you don’t have a lot of the same type of monster.
15. Star Wars minis crossovers. I keep a handful of Star Wars miniatures for use in my D&D games. Certain ones can pass well as D&D figures. Mon Motha in her white dress and Grand Mof Tarkin in his uniform are my go-to figures for noble woman and elder unarmed human.
16. Print tokens to represent enemy NPCs. One useful tool can be found here.
17. All my NPCs are nothing more than 1″ wooden discs with numbers written on them (typically numbered 1 through 5). The flip side (opposite the numbered side) has a big black “X” written on it. An NPC still alive lies with grid number side up. Dead NPCs get flipped over with the black X facing up.
18. We use standard 30 mm plastic bases for small and medium sized characters, and 50 mm plastic bases for large characters. We built an Adobe Illustrator round template where we put character illustrations. Grey border for player characters, black border for enemies, and red border for elite and solo enemies. We print and glue the round pieces on the plastic bases.For monsters, we put a small area in the template where we can print the number (Orc #5) or names (Orc Chief Bar’khul). We use plastic transparent bases from hovering vehicles in Warhammer 40k for flying or jumping characters. We also use bingo tokens and painted bases.The painted bases are for permanent or semi-permanent effects forced on the characters (Warlock’s curse, Bloodied) and put them under the character’s token. The bingo tokens are put on the character’s token, and can mean a short-spanned effect (warrior’s mark, ongoing damage, etc.). We store bases and tokens in rolls for quarters and coins.
19. I supplement my miniatures collection with cheap plastic dinosaurs you can get in toy sections or as party favors in other store sections. They’re typically small enough so all four feet fit in a 1″ square on the combat board, and they make great, generic, random encounter monsters that aren’t easily identified by meta-gaming players.
20. Buy minis that are versatile and can be used for many concepts. Troglodyte minis can be used for lizardfolk, for example. There are many different human minis, so have a few for fighters, casters, clerics, scouts and you’ll have all your roles covered for any fight using humans. Now you’re spending less money and saving space in your minis container.
21. The pre-painted D&D halfling miniatures make great stand-ins for children.
22. To represent carts while gaming, we have used packs of playing cards, Altoids mint tins and packs of cigs.
23. Wine corks work great for pillars and pedestals and work great with Dungeon Tiles as well.
24. As a guy with very few minis, I often reuse the same minis over and over. My players have come to hate the fighter with the blue cloak (whom they have dubbed Captain Blue Cape) and will attack him no matter what he represents. I often place this mini in the most strategically advantageous location on the battle map. If the PCs want to kill him they have to do it on his terms.
25. I don’t have a whole lot of miniatures, so I often use the wrong thing for the wrong person. But what my players care most about is having that one miniature that looks like their character. You can burn piles of money hoping you get something close, but it’s easier to drop 7 bucks online and get 5 or 6 minis that look similar to what the people you know like to play.If they change, drop another 75 cents and you’ve got their old mini as an NPC and the new mini for them. Unfortunately, this means you’ll end up with a lot of hero type minis.
26. Go to a hobby shop and get different colored square or hex pieces of glass (they fit perfectly for the map) and use the different colors to represent effects – marked, prone, ongoing damage – much cheaper than a similar product out there.
27. For horses, we take thicker paper like 3×5 cards or the cardboard backing from comic books and cut them down to 1″x2″ then hand draw a picture of a horse on it. Place your mini on the paper mini and now he’s ready to ride! You don’t have to worry about the mounted figs falling over like when you use mounted metal miniatures.
28. Grab circular stickers such as what you use to label stuff at a garage sale. Write the names of the monsters on them, and apply them to quarters. You might feel apprehensive about wasting perfectly good coins, but the stickers can be removed easily, and 25 cent miniatures are the cheapest ones you’ll find. Bonus: different colored stickers can make it easy to distinguish monsters. “I attack the orange kobold!
29. Glass markers. Go to a craft store and get a 2 pound bag of colored glass beads for $2.99. It’s about hundred of them. Way cheaper than getting 2 dozen glass beads from a gaming company.

Chris, I wish I was playing in your game.

Orcus is a nice guy, once you get to know him

A reader emailed me this week with a request on where to buy cheap minis online. I know I have stumbled onto a couple of good sites in the past, but darned if I can find the links now.

So I tweeted the request and got some great replies. Thanks folks. Now I’m posting to the RPT blog to see if you have any bookmarks or preferred places online to get great minis for a low price.

Where to find cheap minis online

The list so far:

• GMSarli Games – Star Wars minis
• The Miniatures Page
• eBay – D&D minis lots
• Amazon – tagged as “miniatures”
• Troll and Toad’s miniatures area

Also, this article was pointed out to me that might be of interest to you: Fistful of Lead: All the Monsters on a Budget.

So, where else can RPT readers find cheap minis online?

(BTW, time is running out for a chance to win packs of D&D minis. Enter the contest now before it ends.)

Enter minis tips for a chance to win a pack of D&D Heroes minis

Time for a new Roleplaying Tips contest. Gator Games has kindly offered an amazing 12 packs of D&D Heroes minis as prizes. There will be four winners in all, each will receive two or more packs of minis. Thanks very much, Jean!

How to enter

To enter, email me a tip related to minis or battlemats, or comment below with a tip or piece of advice about them.

• Do you have a cool minis storage idea?
• A neat way you use minis in game?
• A great way to organize minis?
• Ideas on how to use minis for better storytelling or faster combats?
• Pointers on keeping battlemats clean?

You can enter as many times as you like. Each entry gives you a chance to win a pack of D&D Heroes minis by Wizards of the Coast.

Even if you do not play Dungeons & Dragons, you can still use minis you win for your game. Or maybe you just want to put them around your monitor at work to wage mock battles with when the boss isn’t looking? I got your back.

How to win

Winners will be selected at random. So do not worry if you can write well or not – it’s the idea and tip that counts.

Due to shipping restrictions, minis can only be sent residents of Canada and United States. However, if you do not live in those countries and win, I’ll hook you up with a cool RPG PDF.

Contest ends November 30. Minis will be shipped in late December, when the final packs are released.

I’ll assemble and edit entries, and give them away to Roleplaying Tips subscribers. So your tips will be helping game masters have more fun at every game, too.

About contest sponsor Gator Games

Krog must have minis! Enter to win today.

Gator Games is an FLGS (Friendly Local Gaming Store) operating in San Mateo, CA. If you’re close enough to make them your Friendly Local Gaming Store, please go check them out in person.

If you’re clear across the country, Gator Games has an online store full of used games, minis, and all sorts of goodies for ultra savings. Use coupon code rpgsrule for additional savings on non-discounted items.

You can also sign up for the weekly newsletter to get a quick review of all the new releases of the week.  Last, but not least, feel free to friend them on Facebook (Gator Games & Hobby), Myspace, or FriendFeed in addition to Twitter.

Gator Games & Hobby
4212 Olympic Ave
San Mateo CA 94403
650-571-PLAY(7529)

Enter now

Ok, it’s time to enter. Send in your tips.

Good luck in the contest! I look forward to reading everyone’s tips on minis and battlemats.