Tabletop Gaming on your TV

[Legato Endless]

Literally.

So the workaholic DM of the group was rather frustrated of late with the lack of detailed maps. She's a big fan of Paizo's artwork, and the inability to show it off normally was a consistent annoyance for her when we doing anything grid based. So when she went out to buy a new television she also picked up a piece of plexiglass. Now for the various APs, the smaller war games, and the various drawings by the more artistically inclined in the group, she's much happier being able to actually depict everything. We haven't reached digital tabletop yet, but this is a nice compromise currently for the more tangible players who still like rolling dice and moving their mini's around on the glass.

The big benefits to the old grid maps for staging anything besides huge battles are fairly straightforward. Way more efficient. Area effects are depicted instantly, meta-gaming from getting a vague idea of the outline of the dungeon isn't even possible for the munchkin of the group. Vision and line of sight (as depicted above), are instantly recognizable, and now everything just moves smoother. (apologies for the relative darkness of the photos, I haven't figured out how to turn on the flash for my new phone yet)

Any other cool streamlining ideas? I'd love to hear them.

[Flickerdart]

If you're drawing labels on the map, use a simple sans-serif typeface with open counters (such as Segoe UI). Using serifs or closed-counter sans serifs (such as Helvetica) will morph your e's into ϴ's, among other problems.