Even the most creative of us don't have a continual flood of ideas that we turn off and on like a tap. Occasionally we'll use familiar things that we know will work and while they may eventually push us in the difficult direction of appearing stale, we can run with them as easy as breathing in and out.
How many times does a roleplay start in a tavern? How many time is a tutorial against a couple of angry rats? How often do you enter the quiet castle courtyard where everyone seems to be missing? Surprise twists in stories have become the norm it seems. Its now impossible to kill off a bad guy without them coming back later on in the game, and it's even more impossible for that person not to be the most loveliest of people who were hiding a dark secret.
For those looking for something different, for those looking to pick up some flint and kindling from a different box, then Loke Battle Mats are literally bringing some new ideas and settings to your table and hopefully giving you the inspiration to start fires.
So Loke Battle Mats join the party and they've not only brought the sandwiches, but the blanket, the napkins and even the small sets of cutlery so you won't mess up your fingers while you're tucking into your slice of dwarf bread.
What we have is a set of two ring bonder books that measure twelve inches square and so when you fold them out and put them together, you end up with a 2ft square, or 61cm square fully illustrated map. There's castle grounds and crypts, and caverns, all designed and wonderfully illustrated by Matt Henderson. Since all the maps are in a standard 1 inch grid, you'll be able to use them with most standard roll play rule sets, but, in fairness, there's nothing stopping you laying them out when you are playing your favourite dungeon crawler as a bit of an alternative to the standard tile laying fare.
Each of the pages are both dry and wet marker erasable so even if you use the maps for a basis of exploration, it does allow you to add in your own details, create walls and temporary blocks on passages while you play out the story.
With the whole package when packed away isn't huge either and only takes up the size of decent sized board game box or 30 cm squared, so easily fits on some standard board game shelving.
For those looking for something different to plan your adventures on then this is probably going to help you with you overall campaign planning. For others it gives the perfect excuse to simply pick a map page, stick them together, gather your characters and enter a world of pure imagination.
Please visit https://www.lokebattlemats.com/ for more information on their collection.
This review is based on the retail version of the product provided to us by the publisher. We were not paid for this review. We give a general overview of the product.
