With all the products I list, I will try to provide specific links, but to be quite honest most of them can be ordered by your LGS or from Amazon/Ebay. I have not been paid by any company and my opinions are wholly my own, but I am willing to review your product and give my honest opinionated opinions.
When it comes to roleplaying it can be done "on the grid"(Grid) or "Theatre of the Mind"( TotM). The Grid is pretty obvious in how you use it which I will go into exhausting detail later. TotM is where the GM describes in Tolkienesque detail the land our heroes are adventuring through. It has some issues however.
- Most DMs suck at it
- It requires a great amount of concentration/listening skills from the players which due to disability or advanced age is lacking in some players
- It bogs down as you have more players
- It requires a great deal of trust from the players
- In noisy venues it can be difficult to hear the DM, any player who played with Baldman Games at the past few Gencons know what I am talking about in that horrible hall
- Again, most DMs suck at it.
Back to the Grid.
You can use hex maps, wet erase, Dungeon Tiles, 3d terrain or even make your own. Most of us wish we had terrain like this:
You can use hex maps, wet erase, Dungeon Tiles, 3d terrain or even make your own. Most of us wish we had terrain like this:
In actuality we have the Mat:
To my Knowledge Chessex http://www.chessex.com/mats/Battlemats_&_Megamats.htm made the first and for most of us, that is what most of us use. Paizo http://paizo.com/ also makes their own version. A company called Gaming Paper( http://gamingpaper.com) also makes Rolls you can write on and you can also buy large gridded white paper sheets at Office Max.
CHEAPSKATE OPTION: You can buy wrapping paper with one inch squares on the back and these can be purchased for super low prices after the holidays
Both have their own pros and cons
Pros:
- Cheap (they range from .99 cents to 25.00+)
- They allow for the DM to create a map on the fly
- Easily transportable (with the paper methods you can make your maps ahead of time)
- Boring looking
- Some maps can take a long time to recreate on these mediums
- Some types of markers cannot be used on certain mats (DO NOT USE DRY ERASE ON CHESSEX MAPS
EXPENSIVE OPTION:
Some people use an overhead projector mounted above their table to project their map.
Now that you have your maps you need your minis. There are a ton of options at various prices. In a perfect word we would have the above Dwarven Forge terrain populated with wonderful metal minis from Heroforge painted by Jen Haley (for you non mini people she is to mini painting what Hulk Hogan is to Wrestling). Sadly only those with more money any sense can afford that. You know the type of people who own the Geek Chic Sultan table....
CHEAPSKATE OPTIONS
Paper Minis. Just do a search for "paper miniatures:and you can find a ton of options. Here is what I found in under 30 seconds of searching.
Candy: I kid you not, Starburst make great Monsters. They fit perfectly in the one inch square. you can mark on top of them, and they come in multiple colors. When they die, you can eat them. Single Reese's Cups make perfect larger monsters. Monster candy: Deadly to your players and diabetics.
As for minis which I consider to be the best options for PC you again have a ton of options.
CHEAPSKATE OPTIONS
Reaper Bones http://www.reapermini.com/miniatures/bones
As you can see, they paint up fine, there is an issue with loss of detail and bendy miniatures, but when you are spending 2-4 bucks a figure, don't complain.
If you are really lucky you can find the D&D Prepaints cheap at rummage sales and mini exchanges. I picked up a ton of them a few years back when Wizards made them at 25-50 cents a figure. So worth it. WotC also makes board games that come with unpainted versions of the minis and you get a ton of them for cheap. It also comes with nice dungeon tiles you can use for your game.
The best option for your table is metal miniatures (I suggest metal, but you can also find them in Resin, which I find to be brittle and or HIP Plastic, such as the plastic one finds in Games Workshop Kits)
There are a ton of companies that make metal figures. My top 4 are:
Reaper Miniatures http://www.reapermini.com/ Seriously, these guys make thousands of figures and will cover most of the major race, class combos. If you can't find what you are looking for I think you might be running one of those weird ass race class combos, and I bet Reaper still has you covered.
DarkSword Miniatures.http://www.darkswordminiatures.com/ The figures are based on many of the classic images from original D&D. SJWs be warned, there are a ton of boobs and butts here.
Average Price: 7.99-14.99
Stonehaven Miniatures. http://www.stonehavenmini.com/ While I loath Kickstarter, they have done a ton of SUCCESSFUL Kickstarters and make figures based on classes for ALL the Races. Each set is based on a specific Race and they try to include a class for them. Dwarf Mage, they got you covered. Elf Barbarian....yup, him too. The figures are very sturdy, chunky. and a joy to paint. My only complaint is they have to be ordered from directly, but I have had no issues with their service.
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