Stuck at Home; Keeping myself sane

Loke Battlemats

In a previous issue of Irregular we reviewed the Big Book of Battle Mats for RPG encounters, no we have on our desk the Giant Book, and if you thought the Big Book was great then you’ll be impressed with the Giant book.

Its A3 size book with 62 pages of full colour glossy maps that have been beautifully designed. As usual there is a plethora of different locations within the book that can be used for numerous encounters. It’s 1-inch grid based, that makes it very easy to use for a number of games, not just RPG. We have used it in my house for several games of A Song of Blades and Heroes, which for those who don’t know is a great little skirmish game.

There are wilderness locations, caverns, building interiors, town layouts dungeon layouts in the book, which means there’s plenty of scope for a wide variety of uses in your game. The book is wire bound which means it’ll lie flat , it’s also laminated which means its wipe clean and can be used with any non-permanent felt tip pen so you can draw all over them. The great feature is it’s light and easy to carrywhich makes it a very portable product. We take the big book which is A4 in size on holiday with us so we can play out some encounters if the weather isn’t great.

I really like these products, and the Giant Book is exceptional. It’s great when you don’t have time to set up a gaming table, you can place this down open up to any page and you’ve got a great location to skirmish over. You could also run a quick and dirty RPG game using this product, by selecting various mats and playing through them creating an adventure as you go.

To go alongside this, we have the Dungeon Decorations.

Dungeon Decorations

Loke Battlemats

This is a pack of 100+ reusable static clings for use on any laminated surface, which makes them ideal for use in the battle mat books. These decals can add some scenic elements to your mat and game. It allows you to quickly furnish a location or add some interesting elements for you adventurers to deal with.

There are five sheets of decals that includes additional walls, stairs, furniture, doors, traps and treasure. This is another great product for travelling with, it allows you to add terrain without the bulk of MDF or plastic pieces. It’s an easily transportable product with a plethora of options to furnish a dungeon or add some great elements to a room or building interior.

I would like to see another set produced that focuses of exterior locations, such battlefields, camp sites and market stalls. This is an easy to use set, the decals peel off both the page and laminated surface. They very well illustrated with plenty of bright colour. There is plenty of variety of items for use in the pack and will be a useful addition for any GM or player.

I don’t think they’re exclusively an RPG accessory as we’ve used them in conjunction with the Book of Battle Mats for skirmish games, as well as RPGs. My niece used both products to create a simple dungeon for myself and a friend to play through, whilst she DMed the game. Which was her first game as a DM, she said she wouldn’t have tried to DM a game before because she didn’t think she could, but this gave her the confidence to create an adventure by herself.

She has since used both the book and the Dungeon Decorations several times to set and create some skirmish scenarios. She really likes the fun of sticking down all the decals and creating a narrative to game around.

Myself I liked the fact that I can quickly set up a game with these two products with much effort when time is of the essence. I can take this to the club or pub and grab a quick skirmish game with friends, and we can easily change locations without any effort. Both are great products that any hobbyist should consider picking up, especially GM/DM’s.