(TFT) Hex map

["David Michael Grouchy II" <david_michael_grouchy_ii@hotmail.com>]

    First it is photocopies of the mega hex hallway sections in ITL.  Lay 
them down to describe rooms and halls just like the book said.  But this is 
flawed.  The edges can curl up.  Sometimes when a player moves their 
character the whole hallway moves with them and needs to be re spaced, or 
room sections pushed back together.  And closing a book can generate enough 
wind to blow a section of floor across the table.  Annoying in the least.
    Second are photocopies onto card stock.  A little better.  Making a 
large room, by pushing together mega hex sections still has gaps.  Mega hex 
sections can still move around when you don't want them too.  One GM goes so 
far as to glue red felt to the back of his card stock mega hexes.  These 
stay put and don't move, but the card stock showed ripples and slight waves 
from the glue.
    Both these methods are unacceptable.  What about large outdoor spaces?  
A long running pursuit through a city?  With the methods above the rooms in 
labyrinths wind up being designed small.  So there are enough tiles to 
describe the room for combat.  At this point we are playing other games too, 
and seeing alternatives.  Carwars has these huge sheets of grid paper.  
Gaming shops are selling different types of large hex mats.  Some dry 
erasable, some not.  These large hex mats gain some popularity, but they 
never have the classic mega hex patterns on them.
    So I hit on the zen method of mega hexes (this is where the reader 
should start making fun of the author for being self important.  "Zen 
method?  what's this guy been smokin?")  I make photocopies of the large 
connected mega hex sheet in AW.  The first prototype about twelve sheets 
like this are cut on one side, and taped together on the back.  Flipped over 
and laid down I have a 1 x 1.5 meter sheet to lay on the table.  With real 
mega hexes on it.  I color all the old Mega hex sections dark and use them 
for walls.  So instead of laying out mega hexes to describe the hallways and 
rooms, I lay out mega hexes to describe the walls and columns.  The opposite 
of the way ITL suggested it.
    Large rooms are very easy to describe, and the floor has no gaps where 
mega hex sections don't quite fit.  Never really liking the felt and glue 
backing method, I smear a type of clay to the back of the wall sections.  
They lay down on the large map with a nice slap, and they don't move for 
anything except being picked up.
    In conclusion, all the other GM's went with dry erasable battle mats.  
Setting up a combat scene they take a minute to draw out the room on the 
mat.  Many of them start to favor city adventures and straight walls.
    The whole time my campaign maintains a distinctly unique character.  
Slapping out sections of walls on a large sheet.  At a gaming convention, 
people would walk by the other games without blinking.  But they always 
stopped for second at mine, to try and figure out what they were looking at.
    I have a deck of single mega hexes.  Different types of secret doors to 
lay on wall sections when they are found.  Types of pits to lay in the 
middle of large rooms.  Spiral stairs, stone ringed water wells, fireplaces, 
suddenly discovered traps in floors, even mega hex sized thrones and 
statues.  The labyrinth itself became one of the more interesting pieces of 
"puppet theater" in my dungeon crawls.

    David Michael Grouchy II

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