Reddit reviews Battle Grid Game Mat - 24x36 ULTRA DURABLE POLYMER MATERIAL - Role Playing DnD Map - Reusable Tabletop Square Mats - RPG Dungeons and Dragons Dry Erase Vinyl Tiles - Large Set for Starters and Masters

A dry erase DnD map. I got one as a gift and it was the best DnD gift I’ve ever gotten. I’ll link the one I got below.

A DM screen is always a safe bet too if they do not have one. I assume you can find that thru Amazon.


Map: https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-36/dp/B01MQHECUR

When you say maps do you mean town maps or battle maps? If you mean town maps they were likely just drawn and printed up. If you mean the battle maps that they do mini combat on, replicating or even coming to a close approximation of their setup would be an insane amount of work. I would reccomend using something like this battle mat instead. It still gives you squares to determine movement in 5 foot chunks without needing to put in all the time that printing, sculpting, kitbashing, and painting those glorious setpieces must take.

Questions for DM/Players DnD [5e]

Hey everyone, I have some questions coming from a DM's standpoint. I've recently drug my friends into DnD and everyone seems to be loving it. I still have a few questions regarding how to go about things as a DM though or how other groups go about it, anyways here goes. (We're currently running LMoP by the way)

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1. How do you go about telling certain players what they see if another player might not see the item/object? Do you just tell them, send them a text, write it on a piece of paper, etc.?
   
2. We're currently using a dry erase grid How do you go about revealing areas of the map to them? Do you draw them out in whole and let them venture through, or go about it in sections as they walk into them then drawing out what they see?
   
3. Also how do you go about picking targets if they're engaged in combat? I always feel like I pick on the closest one to the enemy when combat breaks out, am I wrong to feel that way?
   
   These are some of the questions I have for now, but I might be back with more we'll see lol. Anyways thanks in advance for any suggestions or answers!

TL;DR If you want large, vinyl, hexes, and wet erase: look to Chessex. If you want large-ish, laminated, no hexes, and dry erase: look to Pathfinder. I'd say measure your game space first.

The mat you're most likely talking about is the Chessex MEGAMAT.($30) This is by and large the most popular battlemat on the market. It's vinyl, rectangular (3' x 4'), hex reversible, quality make, but it's wet erase. (You'll probs need to buy wet erase markers) This is also the mat I have. Here's my brief critique: it is larger than I have ever needed, though I will admit I have sometimes been encouraged by the mat's size to make a larger battlefield. It's so large that it barely fits on the table, giving my players little room for their papers, making it difficult for me as a DM to quickly access all parts of the map, and making transporting it a minor annoyance. The wet erase is only slightly annoying, but if you're going to be doing a lot of erasing, you'll quickly tire of the rags and water. However, it is very high quality, plenty big, and terrific if you have the right space and table to use it.

A very similar mat is the regular Chessex Battlemat($22) It's smaller (2' x 2'), vinyl, square, high quality, hex reversible, and still wet erase. Really again a great mat that's very similar to the MEGAMAT, just a little less. . . MEGA.

Another large vinyl one more similar to the MEGAMAT is the Wiz Dice Battle Mat.($32) It shares all the same qualities of the MEGAMAT, but owners have claimed that is does not erase quite as nicely. However, it is a clean white mat, rather than the sort of textured beige of the Chessex mats.

Finally, the most viable dry erase mats are the Evolve Skins battlemats($28) which come in white or beige, are not hex reversible, are laminated, are 3' x 2', and seem to not be entirely dry erase. A better choice would probably be the laminated, 2' x 2.5', dry erase, not hex reversible, Pathfinder battlemats.($13)

I'd recommend measuring your game space, prioritizing what you think are the most important qualities, and then comparing these options that I have presented.

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-36/dp/B01MQHECUR/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1542750784&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=dnd+mat&psc=1

I personally use this one .

I’ve been using it every week for about a year and there’s no stain at all, I just wash it quickly after every use. It may be a little more pricey, but I think it’s worth it.

On the down side, it’s one sided and there’s no Hex-grid, but I’d probably never use it anyway.

Get a battlemat. It's a big grid that you can roll up and draw on with markers.

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-36/dp/B01MQHECUR

I just bought this Battlemat and it works great for everything we would need it for. The size is kinda in-between both of the ones you linked, and as a bonus it comes with markers (which work really great btw).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MQHECUR/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My favorite way to map with minis is using a Battlemat which is what I've used for most of my combat encounters so far. I've also printed maps on standard letter paper by breaking up larger maps into multiple prints and taping them together. I personally prefer half inch squares for griding.

I was not sure if I can leave a link. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQHECUR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1KF7Cb2S1HNGT

I'm going to try to be more detailed than is strictly necessary in an attempt to cover all the bases, so apologies if I cover something that seems obvious to you, since I'm not sure what does and does not!

The main responsibility of the DM is to prepare and "run" a single, or series of adventures, either written by themselves or someone else. Most pre-written adventures have some background on exactly what to do when running it (information to pass along to the players, boxed text to read, etc.), and writing your own adventure is a bit daunting, so I'd recommend starting with a pre-written one.

That might be what you mean when you say "Adventurer's League Campaign Book," but I'm not sure: is this a published hardcover? What is it's title?

If you DON'T have a pre-published adventure and are looking to select one:

Lost Mines of Phandelver is the adventure that comes with the starter set, and is widely regarded as a good starting point for both new players and DMs. It also has the advantage of having all monster stat blocks included. I personally like any of the Places by the Way series by Douglas Sun (particularly Treasure on the Rocks and Secret of Oyster Cove, which form something of a pair), which are smaller and can transition into other adventures with relative ease, though these require the monster manual (though they are almost certainly workable with basic rules monsters with a bit of adjustment)

The official hardcovers are sort of a mixed bag. Waterdeep Dragon Heist and Ghosts of Saltmarsh are both geared towards being "starter set" type adventures, whereas Out of The Abyss or Storm King's Thunder are quite advanced. I believe also that at least some of these require the Monster Manual.

You can obtain any or all of these by going on dmsguild.com. This is Wizards DrivethruRPG storefront, where every DnD module is available for purchase as a PDF. You can also browse around for other introductory modules for characters level 1-5, though make sure you are buying 5th edition products (as previous editions don't work with newer rules without a great deal of adjustment). Some homebrewed modules are even Pay What You Want, if money is an issue, though I cannot speak to the quality of these

Either way, you should read through your chosen adventure. If you don't feel like reading it through cover to cover, don't. But in either case, read through the first few "encounters": these are usually indicated by numbers in prewritten adventures. Try to read through about 8 or so, though this will almost certainly be far more than you will get through your first session. Familiarize yourself with the monsters and NPCs contained therein and devote a little time to thinking how exactly the encounter will go, what moves the enemies have, etc. This is more for mental preparation than anything else.

After that, it's up to how you personally organize your thoughts. I personally am not a note-taker: when I prep a prewritten adventure, I usually don't take notes beyond post its to help me find pages or references, or occasionaly redrawing maps for use on a battle map. Some people like to copy almost the whole book onto a separate sheet. Find what works for you. Just do whatever it takes to feel like you "know" the adventure, so that when your players inevitably do something the adventure doesn't predict, you can roll with it.

If you are dead set on writing your own adventure, I recommend starting with the formula detailed in Matt Colville's Running the Game series: a low level monster gang, headed by a slightly higher level monster, has stolen something precious from town, and it is up to your players' characters to retrieve it. That will be enough for a first session.

Beyond prepping the adventure, make sure to come prepared just for the game. Bring pencils, a notebook (and graph paper), index cards, and post its. A DM screen is a very popular accessory, used to hide notes and secret dice rolls from the players, though it is by no means mandatory. You can make one yourself out of binders or folders if you don't want to purchase an additional product. Despite our protestations, the DM often has a secondary duty to "manage" the table. That means you should bring extra pencils, extra dice, a copy of the rules (ensuring there's at least one copy at the table), because someone will forget them.

If you want to do gridded combat, you'll need some kind of battle-mat, with 1" squares or hexes. This can be a printed sheet of paper or a product like this. You will also need miniatures or tokens to represent your characters and NPCs. These can be as simple or as elaborate as you want. I use disks of foamcore posterboard, a handful of molded plastic minis, and M&Ms for NPCs. Gridded combat is by no means mandatory, so if you're not comfortable with it, feel free to leave these for a different day.

Familiarize yourself with the rules. All players should know the rules, but you act as the "referee" in cases where the rules are unclear or no one can be bothered to look them up. So it behooves you to know the rules at least as well as the player who knows them best.

Check your player's character sheets to ensure they created them correctly. If your players rolled for ability scores out of your sight, consider either making them use the point buy system, or making them reroll the characters together at the table (for some reason, rolling ability scores ahead of time tempts even the purest hearts, and they come with a character with two 17s and nothing below 10 on their sheet). This will be your first "ruling" as a DM: if a player complains, gently remind them that it is your responsibility to ensure the rules are enforced consistently and fairly, and to that end character creation is your choice to make, and that they gave you this power when they asked you to be DM.

Finally, have fun.

If you have the money, get a battle mat and some dry erase markers. Also, grab some of these eraser sponges to make cleaning the mat off at the end of the night super easy.

If for some reason you can't get one of those, you can also get a dry erase whiteboard and use a ruler and a knife to score a grid into it, and then just rub black dry erase marker over the grid. The black powdered ink will get stuck in the grooves and turn into a grid. You can then use it like any other battle mat (just won't be able to roll it up when you're done). Takes some time and work, but if you already have a big whiteboard you're not using you can save yourself $30.

Just started DMing myself, here’s my set-up:

— I use this Battle Mat. The pre-made campaigns do come with maps of both the dungeons and the surrounding areas (or at least the starter set does.) For the simpler ones you can copy them onto the mat room by room as the party explores. That can be surprisingly complicated, though, so for the more intricate dungeons I’ve taken to screen-capping them (I work with a PDF), blowing them up to 1” scale, printing them out, and then cutting out the individual rooms so I can lay them down one by one.

— I make my own tokens. They’re not quite as cool as the minis but they’re cheap, have a GREAT feel to them, and I love how perfectly I can customize them.

— Dice are dice. You can buy a big ole bag from Amazon, or if you like nice things you can go somewhere like Die Hard Dice. I bought these, which I like because all the players can claim their color but the whole set feels coordinated.

— In preparation for combat encounters, I screen cap and print the stat blocks of the monsters so I have them as handy reference and don’t have to keep flipping back to them in the book.

Are your players new to the game? If so, I STRONGLY recommend making reference cards for your players to hold on to. I think of myself as someone who knows the rules inside and out, but I was SHOCKED how much time I was spending looking up abilities in our first game. Now I screen-cap each character’s abilities, spells, and potions/magic items. I print them out as individual little cards that I cut out, but you could also put them together as a reference sheet. Saves them having to flip through a PHB every time they need to remember how their spells work.

It's annoying, but it is perfect for what a DM is looking to do. Really makes me happy to draw these out with my crayons.

If you want something a bit more useful in the long run, try looking into dry erase ones. This one is great

That's really surprising considering the name of the establishment is a riff on D&D.

For most tabletop games, as long as you supply a decently sized table, you can expect the players to bring everything they need. If you want to go the extra mile, nab a few generic play mats for miniatures, and maybe a few sets of cheap RPG dice and have them available as well.

If you want to encourage people to try playing tabletop games when they never have before, you can have some of the core books on hand and reach out to GMs in the area who might be willing to run one-shots for randos and newbies. Maybe make it a semi-regular event like Tabletop nights every Tuesday/Wednesday/Whatever.

The BEST thing to get him is a good battlemap - this greatly aids in more complex combat and will last you your entire RP career. This one is fantastic as you can draw/erase lines on it using special markers and has both hexes and squares

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https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-36/dp/B01MQHECUR/ref=pd_lpo_vtph_21_bs_img_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=G0X27JBHHCX8YGCN8X2F

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQHECUR?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Buy minis at your local swapmeet or garage sales.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQHECUR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_L7j7CbQ9RS4K0

This is what I use, comes with a nice scroll case too

Here's a pro-tip. Have any and all maps you think you could possibly need drawn out on graph paper. If a fight breaks out, you can quickly and easily redraw it on a larger blank battle map. Each square of graph paper is a square of battle map.

You can even pass out map keys to players so they know what your simplified icon is for a door or a chest. Get different color markers for water or fire. Maybe diagonal brown lines represent elevated terrain, stuff like that.

You can have pages of interesting, pre-designed maps, ready to go in an instant (or at least really quickly). If you dont use one today, you might use one next time. And because you already designed the dungeon / battlefield, you can describe it as needed, then quickly draw it up when combat ensues, without having to design on the spot or guess distances.

Easypeazy.

1: if you haven't already, invest in a biggish (at least 2ft by 2ft) washable battlemap, like [this one](
https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-36/dp/B01MQHECUR/ref=asc_df_B01MQHECUR/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312149930626&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11363641352118596268&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9027793&hvtargid=aud-801381245258:pla-457337712203&psc=1)


2: get some graph paper, like this

And this will probably last you years and years. Just be sure to test any and all markers on small corners to be sure they really clean off before committing to the whole map (do this before the game, of course).

I recommend buying [this](Battle Grid Game Mat 36 X 24 -... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MQHECUR?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) as well as looking up a couple very basic dungeon drawing tutorials online.

You could also do theatre of mind (basically where the DM has an idea of where things are in his head and just gives rough descriptions of it to players). If you do do theatre of mind, then you could also draw a super crappy map and use it to keep track of where everything is, only showing it to yourself.

Hope this helps!

We use a battle mat similar to this one and the DM prints out paper mineratures for NPCs. Very cheap and the dry erase gives a ton of flexibility.

https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-36/dp/B01MQHECUR

I have a few flip mats and I am not a big fan. They fold instead of rolling up so they crease really bad. Because they are a laminated they don't ever seem to lay flat and the creases make lumps across the mat. My Favorite are the Battle Mats. They don't always like to lay flat either, but all it takes is something on each corner and they flatten out nice, and there are no creases. I also really like the tan color as its easy on the eyes and everything is easy to see.

What do you think of these? https://www.amazon.com/Battle-Grid-Game-Mat-Distressed/dp/B01MQHECUR/ref=sr_1_18?ie=UTF8&qid=1518459901&sr=8-18&keywords=dnd

And https://www.amazon.com/Fantasy-Creatures-Action-Figure-Playset/dp/B0746TKNSL/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1518460046&sr=8-3&keywords=dnd+minis

(Didn't look on Amazon before)