Review: The Big Book of Battle Mats and The Giant Book of Battle Mats: Wilds, Wrecks & Ruins
Loke Battle Mats continues to innovate with their latest releases in the world of tabletop gaming mats. Their newest offerings, “The Giant Book of Battle Mats” and “The Big Book of Battle Mats: Wilds, Wrecks & Ruins,” are a fantastic addition to any game master’s arsenal, providing a wealth of beautifully detailed maps to enhance the gaming experience. Let’s dive into what makes these books essential for RPG enthusiasts.
The Giant Book of Battle Mats is a formidable tome, a full 17 x 24 inches when fully opened. It contains 60 brand new maps, each one a gateway to a fantasy setting, from dense forests to mystical ruins. The variety is impressive, providing a fitting backdrop for nearly any encounter you can imagine.
One of the standout features of this book is its user-friendly design. The lay-flat format is perfect for using miniatures and 3D scenery, transforming your gaming table into a vibrant, living world. The pages are also wipe-clean, making it easy to customize each map with wet or dry markers, adding or altering features to match the evolving story of your campaign.
The 360° spine deserves special mention. This feature allows the book to fold in half, so each map can be used individually without the awkwardness of a traditional binding getting in the way. This flexibility is excellent for spontaneous encounters or smaller play areas. Furthermore, when you lay two Giant Books next to each other, the complementary maps create even larger, more epic encounter areas, proving that sometimes, bigger really is better.
Not to be overshadowed, The Big Book of Battle Mats: Wrecks & Ruins offers its own unique charms. This book measures 12×9 inches, expanding to 12×18 inches when opened, making it a more compact companion to the Giant Book. It features maps with a focus on ancient ruins and the aftermath of battles, each rendered with the same high level of detail and quality as its larger counterpart.
Like the Giant Book, the Big Book is designed to lay flat and features a laminated surface compatible with dry and wet erase markers. This allows for dynamic changes during gameplay, such as marking the locations of hidden traps or the boundaries of a magical firestorm. The smaller size of the Big Book makes it incredibly versatile for game masters who travel to their gaming sessions or those who play in more intimate settings. It also fits onto your standard RPG shelf a lot easier.
Both books are designed to be used together seamlessly. By combining maps from the Giant Book and the Big Book, you can create varied and intricate landscapes that are only limited by your imagination. Whether it’s a sprawling battlefield that stretches across both books or a dense forest that suddenly opens into a clearing filled with ruins, the possibilities are endless.
Loke Battle Mats has outdone themselves with these two releases. The Giant Book of Battle Mats and The Big Book of Battle Mats are not just tools; they are treasures that enhance the visual and tactical components of your gaming sessions. They allow game masters to quickly and effectively respond to their players’ actions with beautiful, functional settings that spur the imagination.
Both books are compatible with any RPG, ensuring they can be integrated into most gaming groups with ease. Whether you’re staging a deadly ambush in a shadowy forest or negotiating a tense meeting in the ruins of an ancient castle, these books offer the perfect setting.
You can pick up both of these books at the Loke Battle Mats store, or check with your favorite local game store. For those looking to expand their collection or dive into a new aspect of gaming, these battle mats are a worthwhile investment. The only limit is your imagination, and with these mats, even that boundary might start to blur.
-Loke Battle Mats sent copies of both books to Dice Monkey for review.
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