Finally managed to try out the Battlesystems dungeon terrain a couple of weeks ago. Used the setup in the earlier blog update and ran a 5th edition D&D test game to see how the two interacted. A couple of quick take-away points:
1. Even with a streamlines system like 5th ed, RPG’s are a lot slower than standard miniatures games. Big dungeons may necessitate multi-session games so plan to have somewhere to leave the terrain set up between sessions.
2. Longer games mean people need to sit down rather than stand. Depending on the height of your gaming table surface and the comparative height of chairs this may mean that multi-level dungeon setups will block line of sight to some areas of the dungeon for some players. Suggested work-around is to try and have most of the higher walls parallel to players line of sight, rather than perpendicular where they will block visibility. Use of doorways and arches for the necessary perpendicular walls may also assist.
3. Having a gaming setup 2 mats wide may mean that players speed through and miss exploring a big chunk of the content. Having a one mat wide setup means that they can be guided to explore a greater proportion of the content in front of them. Of course this will vary with the style of game different groups enjoy – some may want to ‘clear the map’. Also while the 1 mat wide setup may improve player visibility (see above), sprawling 2 mat wide style setups might still be appropriate for end-of campaign ‘boss level’ dungeon hacks or scenarios where you have to capture the flag, run escort duty or defend the base against invaders coming from all sides.
4. Leave room on your gaming table for the obvious gaming necessities as well, character sheets, rule books, gaming snacks, dead mini pile and somewhere to roll dice.
5. Clarify where roof/ceilings are assumed to be before you start, just to make sure everyone is on the same page from the get go. Otherwise you may have players scaling over walls that you had assumed were topped by ceilings.
6. Monsters have a habit of ducking in and out of player’s line of sight as walls intervene, players retreat or the monsters run away to fetch reinforcements etc. Might be an idea to get some tokens, coins, pebbles or similar to use as ‘blips’ where a monster’s presence can be heard/sensed but not necessarily seen.
7. Ropes worked well, but more visible staircases would have helped out (need to get to assembling the rest of them…). Also, having lots of dungeon clutter (bookshelves, tables etc) around added to the playing experience.
8. Players will automatically assume that all treasure chests are mimics, so have fun with that… J
