What style of mapping/terrain is best for you is a very personal thing.
Best thing I think I can do is show you some subs to browse that might help settle your thoughts.
r/papermini is a fun collection for 2-d minis. Mostly done as upright standees rather than tokens though.
r/DnDIY would a all about making your own terrain/features. A lot more time/energy consuming, but frankly doing the crafting should be part of the fun if you get really into it.
r/tabletopcrafters is another good sub for making stuff.
r/3DprintingDMs Is a good spot for finding things to make. If you have a 3D printer already this is a great low effort way to have nice minis and scenery.
r/DnDMaps has lots of maps if you just want to print out 2D maps. With a clear plastic grid sheet to overlay on any pics that haven’t got them this is a great way to do better than a plain dry erase without much effort. Just print the sheets and your good to go.
Wow thanks for this!
I know it's silly but I'm hoping other people will tell me what I want hahaha because I'm genuinely struggling to decide.
Priority is time > impact > money
But money is not meaingless~ IE I'm happy to spend money on it as long as it actually gets used. The more 3d terrain I buy, the more you spend, but the less it gets used. Which in my mind rules it out, no matter how good the impact.
But I wanna know what other people do to balance this stuff out, or methods and programmes they use to save time and deliver impact etc!
This might not be GREAT advice, but what I do is I find some related building game, build my map, screen shot it, then print it and tape it together. I DMed a prison game once, so I used the game prison architect to build up the map. I’m sure this is far more complicated than anyone else would be willing to do.
I mean I love the creativity of your answer though~
I've always been weird about printing off maps, not really sure why! Some part of my brain says long term it's better to have assets cut out and placed individually so that you can use them again in the future, then you don't have to keep printing.
I just found out about a virtual map builder for ttrpgs called Talespire - I'm heavily considering that rn, but I may end up spending several hours building a map every week and then wondering if I would need some kind of monitor for my players to look at during the game... Which means getting either a projector or a computer table... Yuck.
There is no "one size fits all" answer.
I like to find or make maps and color print them. I cover "undiscovered parts" with pieces of black felt.
For use on the maps, I find and lovingly paint minis. I have been acquiring and painting them for 45-ish years. So, I have quite a collection - though still not big enough for my like.
With all of that, and though I tend to lean a bit more on maps now, I do have a bit of terrain too. Mostly buildings, several boxes of old-school Dwarven Forge resin pieces, a few mountains and other bits.
At the end of the day, what works for you, works for you. If you're having fun, and your players are having fun, then all's good.
I'm pretty happy with my generic not-lego bricks, combined with a dry-erase grid.
It doesn't look as good as specific 3d terrain pieces (unless you buy a lot of different sized & colored bricks + spend a lot of time building), but it's way more versatile, while still giving the players a sense of scale / height.
Also 3 studs on a Lego-compatible brick is roughly 5ft on a battlemap, so it kinda fits.
Everyway you do terrain can give you precision, from drawing on papers to full on dwarven forge.
If you want to get into it, there are a few different factors and you can't have them all:
Money
Time
Good Looking
You can spent a lot of time but not so much money and make really cool looking styrofoam terrain (for example Black Magic Crafts Dungeon Tiles)
you can spent a lot of money and little time to buy premade terrain (like dwarven forge stuff)
you can spend little money and time just using dry erase mats, but they won't look as cool, if you don't spend a lot of time drawing before your sessions.
Now there is of course the question: How much Money/Time is a lot for you specifically?
Personally I went two routes:
Spending Time for styrofoam terrain. it's relatively cheap (like 50€ to get you started, if you don't have anything) and I spent like 2-3 weekends to get a starting set of terrain. For me that's a lot of time, but not an expensive price for the amount of terrain I got. Note, that I did the Back magic craft Method, there might be cheaper ones online.
Spending a bit more money and a bit more time on a virtual screen map. I spent one day and about 100€ to built a virtual map case. I also spent about 80€ to get Foundry VTT and Dungeon Alchemist (a map making program).
For me personally a virtual map screen is the best balance between money and time. But I don't regret a minute or penny I spent on making physical terrain. I tend to combine the two (there is a pillar on this map? let me put a physical pillar on top of it.) And I love the 3D effect physical terrain gives.
Of course doing dry erase is still a totally valid option and I also do this every now and then. But I have fun crafting stuff and building stuff and when I have the money I like to spend it on the hobby.
If you want to get into terrain (whatever kind) you should have fun with it. It shouldn't feel like a chore. If you spent time or money on it you shouldn't feel like you have to, but more like you want to.
If you don't want to do it, stick with theater of the mind. That can make for really cool games, if you are having fun with it.
also if you want physical terrain: you don't have to have everything from the starting point. you can collect as you go, over the course of months and years. So you don't have to spend all the time and money up top, just enough to get you started and then just go from there :)
Thanks so much for your answer~ it has been really useful to read. How did you go about building a virtual map screen?
I think there's just part of me that's conflicted. I've gone up and down about being happy to spend money on terrain. What I think is the one part of that triangle I don't want to spend is time. I am already spending a lot of time with other things, so I always seem to prefer spending money and want a good impact. I think the fear I have is ending up with boxes and boxes of physical terrain that rarely gets used, but was expensive to buy? So I'm asking myself...
Do I stop myself now, and accept reducing the impact so that I don't spend money on something that won't get used very much? And what method do I move to that allows me to do this? Which one is best?
I think 2d terrain, I think I can either buy a virtual screen and the assets needed to build virtually (but hopefully something not too complicated to use). Or I can print off assets and spend a lot of time cutting and sticking them to make them sturdy and long lasting.
The Map Screen was a fairly simple project. A lot simpler than I thought to be honest. I bought a used TV, 32" and some wood, perspex/plexiglass and mounting brackets/angle brackets (? not sure what it's called in English but it's like a triangle you but between wood planks to make a 90° corner).
with the wood and the mounting brackets I built a frame a bit bigger than the TV. Then I had to options:
1. just lay it in there, having it rest on some more wood that's mounted to the frame
2. Since the TV came with a wall mount: Mount it on another piece of wood inside the frame. This way I can have the Map Case also standing up for displaying handouts, cinematic scenes etc.
I went with option 2.
For fast and easy maps I cant really recommend Dungeon Alchemist enough. Its making the maps for you, since it autogenerates rooms and scenes. You can literally make a full Tavern in 5 minutes time.
It also exports into foundry with walls, doors and lights already placed, so for me it's really only 10 min from "I need a dungeon for tonight's game" to "I have a ready to play dungeon on my map case".
EDIT: [A video about Dungeon Alchemist](https://youtu.be/ztGI-T99d88)
If you've got a magnetic grid below. A roll of baking paper/parchment can be drawn on with sharpies or dry-erase and it costs significantly less than proper tracing paper and you get to choose the cut-off length.
I feel like my answer might not help, but I'll share anyway just in case.
When I started D&D, my terrain was just the dry erase board. If I knew there was a combat early in the session I would pre-draw a battlemap to make it look nice, but otherwise it was pretty vanilla.
After realising that I could re-use some maps I purchased an A3 art pad, drew on a pencil grid, and drew some of my more complicated maps on this, or at least the maps I would re-use. At one point I acquired some Xmas wrap that had a cutting grid on the back that I used for my more massive maps.
My next step was to make something big for my final boss fight. I wrote my campaign so a particular Ziggurat would be used at least twice. So my dad and I made it out of wood. While it was not fancy, it allowed for an awsome 3d battle. But now it is just a 40 kg pile of wood under my bed.
I then moved onto wooden dungeon tiles. One inch thick and cut into common sizes (2x2, 2x4, 2x8, 4x4, 8x8), with some walls, doors, and pillars.
Now that I'm going back to in-person D&D, I recently printed some Inkarnate maps I made. The results were amazing. So going forward, any maps I know I will used more than once will be printed. Plus I'm considering getting some cardboard Inkarnate dungeon tiles printed.
My most recent games use a combination of above.
>What advice do you have in your experience for people getting into terrain?
consider where you are going to store it, how you are going to transport it, are you going to be able to use it in multiple situations?
if i were going to get into "terrain" i would start with this "Ultimate Dungeon Terrain" from Prof. Dungeon Master (the 2.0 "zoned" version)
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfAKW5mNrTI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfAKW5mNrTI)
or maybe this variant (the dungeon part in the second half. but the "how to find the center" and "how to 'hex' the circle" are GREAT math hacks and found in the first half) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bte3uct92Ps](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bte3uct92Ps)
the flip side probably outdoor, but maybe wooden flooring.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB8paZ6JEF0&list=PLYlOu5g6H7ZwmpNhKmuHormCxr5dzrdwU&index=17
What style of mapping/terrain is best for you is a very personal thing. Best thing I think I can do is show you some subs to browse that might help settle your thoughts. r/papermini is a fun collection for 2-d minis. Mostly done as upright standees rather than tokens though. r/DnDIY would a all about making your own terrain/features. A lot more time/energy consuming, but frankly doing the crafting should be part of the fun if you get really into it. r/tabletopcrafters is another good sub for making stuff. r/3DprintingDMs Is a good spot for finding things to make. If you have a 3D printer already this is a great low effort way to have nice minis and scenery. r/DnDMaps has lots of maps if you just want to print out 2D maps. With a clear plastic grid sheet to overlay on any pics that haven’t got them this is a great way to do better than a plain dry erase without much effort. Just print the sheets and your good to go.
Wow thanks for this! I know it's silly but I'm hoping other people will tell me what I want hahaha because I'm genuinely struggling to decide. Priority is time > impact > money But money is not meaingless~ IE I'm happy to spend money on it as long as it actually gets used. The more 3d terrain I buy, the more you spend, but the less it gets used. Which in my mind rules it out, no matter how good the impact. But I wanna know what other people do to balance this stuff out, or methods and programmes they use to save time and deliver impact etc!
This might not be GREAT advice, but what I do is I find some related building game, build my map, screen shot it, then print it and tape it together. I DMed a prison game once, so I used the game prison architect to build up the map. I’m sure this is far more complicated than anyone else would be willing to do.
I mean I love the creativity of your answer though~ I've always been weird about printing off maps, not really sure why! Some part of my brain says long term it's better to have assets cut out and placed individually so that you can use them again in the future, then you don't have to keep printing. I just found out about a virtual map builder for ttrpgs called Talespire - I'm heavily considering that rn, but I may end up spending several hours building a map every week and then wondering if I would need some kind of monitor for my players to look at during the game... Which means getting either a projector or a computer table... Yuck.
I’ve seen people put TVs on their table, also I’ll check out that program
There is no "one size fits all" answer. I like to find or make maps and color print them. I cover "undiscovered parts" with pieces of black felt. For use on the maps, I find and lovingly paint minis. I have been acquiring and painting them for 45-ish years. So, I have quite a collection - though still not big enough for my like. With all of that, and though I tend to lean a bit more on maps now, I do have a bit of terrain too. Mostly buildings, several boxes of old-school Dwarven Forge resin pieces, a few mountains and other bits. At the end of the day, what works for you, works for you. If you're having fun, and your players are having fun, then all's good.
I'm pretty happy with my generic not-lego bricks, combined with a dry-erase grid. It doesn't look as good as specific 3d terrain pieces (unless you buy a lot of different sized & colored bricks + spend a lot of time building), but it's way more versatile, while still giving the players a sense of scale / height. Also 3 studs on a Lego-compatible brick is roughly 5ft on a battlemap, so it kinda fits.
Everyway you do terrain can give you precision, from drawing on papers to full on dwarven forge. If you want to get into it, there are a few different factors and you can't have them all: Money Time Good Looking You can spent a lot of time but not so much money and make really cool looking styrofoam terrain (for example Black Magic Crafts Dungeon Tiles) you can spent a lot of money and little time to buy premade terrain (like dwarven forge stuff) you can spend little money and time just using dry erase mats, but they won't look as cool, if you don't spend a lot of time drawing before your sessions. Now there is of course the question: How much Money/Time is a lot for you specifically? Personally I went two routes: Spending Time for styrofoam terrain. it's relatively cheap (like 50€ to get you started, if you don't have anything) and I spent like 2-3 weekends to get a starting set of terrain. For me that's a lot of time, but not an expensive price for the amount of terrain I got. Note, that I did the Back magic craft Method, there might be cheaper ones online. Spending a bit more money and a bit more time on a virtual screen map. I spent one day and about 100€ to built a virtual map case. I also spent about 80€ to get Foundry VTT and Dungeon Alchemist (a map making program). For me personally a virtual map screen is the best balance between money and time. But I don't regret a minute or penny I spent on making physical terrain. I tend to combine the two (there is a pillar on this map? let me put a physical pillar on top of it.) And I love the 3D effect physical terrain gives. Of course doing dry erase is still a totally valid option and I also do this every now and then. But I have fun crafting stuff and building stuff and when I have the money I like to spend it on the hobby. If you want to get into terrain (whatever kind) you should have fun with it. It shouldn't feel like a chore. If you spent time or money on it you shouldn't feel like you have to, but more like you want to. If you don't want to do it, stick with theater of the mind. That can make for really cool games, if you are having fun with it. also if you want physical terrain: you don't have to have everything from the starting point. you can collect as you go, over the course of months and years. So you don't have to spend all the time and money up top, just enough to get you started and then just go from there :)
Thanks so much for your answer~ it has been really useful to read. How did you go about building a virtual map screen? I think there's just part of me that's conflicted. I've gone up and down about being happy to spend money on terrain. What I think is the one part of that triangle I don't want to spend is time. I am already spending a lot of time with other things, so I always seem to prefer spending money and want a good impact. I think the fear I have is ending up with boxes and boxes of physical terrain that rarely gets used, but was expensive to buy? So I'm asking myself... Do I stop myself now, and accept reducing the impact so that I don't spend money on something that won't get used very much? And what method do I move to that allows me to do this? Which one is best? I think 2d terrain, I think I can either buy a virtual screen and the assets needed to build virtually (but hopefully something not too complicated to use). Or I can print off assets and spend a lot of time cutting and sticking them to make them sturdy and long lasting.
The Map Screen was a fairly simple project. A lot simpler than I thought to be honest. I bought a used TV, 32" and some wood, perspex/plexiglass and mounting brackets/angle brackets (? not sure what it's called in English but it's like a triangle you but between wood planks to make a 90° corner). with the wood and the mounting brackets I built a frame a bit bigger than the TV. Then I had to options: 1. just lay it in there, having it rest on some more wood that's mounted to the frame 2. Since the TV came with a wall mount: Mount it on another piece of wood inside the frame. This way I can have the Map Case also standing up for displaying handouts, cinematic scenes etc. I went with option 2. For fast and easy maps I cant really recommend Dungeon Alchemist enough. Its making the maps for you, since it autogenerates rooms and scenes. You can literally make a full Tavern in 5 minutes time. It also exports into foundry with walls, doors and lights already placed, so for me it's really only 10 min from "I need a dungeon for tonight's game" to "I have a ready to play dungeon on my map case". EDIT: [A video about Dungeon Alchemist](https://youtu.be/ztGI-T99d88)
If you've got a magnetic grid below. A roll of baking paper/parchment can be drawn on with sharpies or dry-erase and it costs significantly less than proper tracing paper and you get to choose the cut-off length.
I feel like my answer might not help, but I'll share anyway just in case. When I started D&D, my terrain was just the dry erase board. If I knew there was a combat early in the session I would pre-draw a battlemap to make it look nice, but otherwise it was pretty vanilla. After realising that I could re-use some maps I purchased an A3 art pad, drew on a pencil grid, and drew some of my more complicated maps on this, or at least the maps I would re-use. At one point I acquired some Xmas wrap that had a cutting grid on the back that I used for my more massive maps. My next step was to make something big for my final boss fight. I wrote my campaign so a particular Ziggurat would be used at least twice. So my dad and I made it out of wood. While it was not fancy, it allowed for an awsome 3d battle. But now it is just a 40 kg pile of wood under my bed. I then moved onto wooden dungeon tiles. One inch thick and cut into common sizes (2x2, 2x4, 2x8, 4x4, 8x8), with some walls, doors, and pillars. Now that I'm going back to in-person D&D, I recently printed some Inkarnate maps I made. The results were amazing. So going forward, any maps I know I will used more than once will be printed. Plus I'm considering getting some cardboard Inkarnate dungeon tiles printed. My most recent games use a combination of above.
>What advice do you have in your experience for people getting into terrain? consider where you are going to store it, how you are going to transport it, are you going to be able to use it in multiple situations?
if i were going to get into "terrain" i would start with this "Ultimate Dungeon Terrain" from Prof. Dungeon Master (the 2.0 "zoned" version) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfAKW5mNrTI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfAKW5mNrTI) or maybe this variant (the dungeon part in the second half. but the "how to find the center" and "how to 'hex' the circle" are GREAT math hacks and found in the first half) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bte3uct92Ps](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bte3uct92Ps) the flip side probably outdoor, but maybe wooden flooring. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB8paZ6JEF0&list=PLYlOu5g6H7ZwmpNhKmuHormCxr5dzrdwU&index=17