There’re two kinds of people who run roleplay games. The first are those who spend hours creating meticulous maps of all the places their players could possibly visit, spending literally millions of moneys on paper and ink and wasting their own precious, precious time. Stop doing that. Buy this book.
The second are those who rely on squared paper and felt tips to draw their maps on the fly, usually ending up with ink-stained fingers, a child’s interpretation of a t-junction and a deep sense of personal disappointment. You deserve better than that. Your players deserve better than that (well, except Tim). Buy this book.
The Big Book of Battlemaps is a collection of dozens of hard-wearing, wipe-clean, beautifully designed pages of fantasy locations, perfect for the GM looking to up their game. No longer will an impromptu trip to the sewers be an embarrassing dash across four parallel lines with some wiggly bits in the middle for water, accompanied by a chorus of “What’s this supposed to be?”. It’s a barrel, Tim. It’s a flippin’ barrel.
Produced by Loke Battlemaps and designed by Matt Henderson, this book is a lifesaver. About the same dimensions as your average rule-book, it fits perfectly in my gaming tub (along with dead character sheets from three years ago and not one single pencil) and can be whipped out faster that you can say “Roll initiative”.
What’s so good about it?
Let’s nutshell this:
- It totally won the 2018 UK Games Expo People’s Choice Award for Best Accessory. I bet you didn’t even place.
- Fifty-eight incredible full-colour maps featuring dozens of different fantasy environments
- The same size as most roleplay books so it fits easily in your GM kit backpack/box/Tesco bag.
- Features both single- and double-page maps for greater play area so you can choose to play on an A4 or A3 sized area
- Classic 1” grid design for your fantasy roleplay miniatures.
- Wipe-clean pages! Add bloodstains, acid pools, grasping vines and more! Just remember to use dry-wipe markers…
- Wire-bound pages so all the maps lie flat on the table
- Be inspired by all the evocative locations
So let’s talk about why this is such a good tool for any GM. First of all, no matter how long you spend preparing for a game you will never be able to predict all the places that your players will pick a fight. Before I got this book, if my players decided to run down to the seaside to go rock-pooling, I had to break out my blue pen and ask a lot of their imaginations. Now I can just pull out this book and BAM! shoreline. BAM! tavern.
People who don’t need this book:
GMs who will never use miniatures in combat for religious reasons
Gifted artists with infinite time on their hands for prep
For the rest of us, The Big Book of Battlemaps is an indispensable tool for producing awesome environments at the drop of a hat with zero preparation. Even better, if you prefer your battlemaps supersized, Loke have produced an even bigger Giant Book of Battlemaps, to be released in late 2018! And if fantasy isn’t your bag, have a look at their recently-ended Kickstarter for details on their Big Book of Sci-Fi Battlemaps.
The Big Book of Battlemaps is available now from your friendly local gaming shop or online at gamingbooks.co.uk for around £19.99. Learn more about Loke Battlemaps other products at www.battlemats.co.uk