Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

I've been experimenting with creating tiles that allow "traditional" mapping but retain the hex/megahex grid used by TFT, I've yet to figure out how to do rooms but the corridors seem to be fine.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/408pvmdgib...04334.jpg?dl=0

I'd be interested what others think of this idea, particularly if it would help with converting maps from other RPG adventures for TFT.

Edit: some explanations:

* the inspiration for these comes from the Melee Map, where you can see a "straight" line of megahexes, so the idea was to recreate this pattern.
* as with any hexagon tessellation, there is a difference between left-right and up-down, the pattern is designed to minimise this as much as possible, there are still separate tiles for corridors running in each direction, each tile has a little arrow indicating what orientation it should be in, the tiles can all be rotated 180 degrees but not 90 degrees.
* the white borders are there because the half-hexes (those with a visible centre dot) are considered usable, so the border allows the character base to fit.
* the "wide" corridors are about 3 hexes wide (a megahex), which using the TFT scale of 1 hex = 4', means they are 12', but because the hexes are slanted it is more like 11', this is as close as you can get to a 10' corridor as per traditional mapping.
* the "narrow" corridors follow a 2-2-1 hex wide path, these are roughly 5.5' to 6' in width.
* the rooms have yet to be sorted out, shown are two types of tile that can be tessellated, these are very close to a 10'x20' room and a 20'x20' room, and still retain the megahex pattern.

Credits: J Roberts @ fantasticmaps.com for the flagstone textures, and Fat Dragon Games (fatdragongames.com) for the 3D doorways.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

These are amazing! I would love to see more and get copies!

One 'concern' I've had with converting old adventures from OSR sources... in a 10' corridor, in osr games 3 people can march abreast unless one or more is using a two-handed weapon, in which case only two can.

That's hard to do with hexes.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

MegaHexes in general are not the friend of dungeon tiles, because they make alignment much more challenging than just hexes alone do.

You did a fantastic job with the corridors!

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

Those are great!

Now I want a set or three.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

So what did you use to do the MegaHexes? I tried rotating my CC3 MegaHex grids, but that was such a pain, I gave up on it.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

I tend to just draw maps freeform and then overlay hexgrid transparencies. It means the GM needs to interpret which hexes and hexsides count as passable, but it removes all need to try to line up the world with any grid.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

Pretty nifty!

I'll go ahead and post this link again, if anyone is interested in seeing the "Squarehex" concept again...

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

The hex grid was copied, tessellated and rotated by eye (!), I need to do a more professional version 2 later which is mathematically accurate as there is a bit of misalignment in places and the original pattern was zoomed to get it to TFT standard 1.5" hexes, which has caused jagged edges, and this has not been helped by conversion to PNG or PDF images.

At the moment I am trying to secure permission for the textures I used, I might have to switch them, and then I will post a link for the set.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

MegaHexes are a central part of the 'feel' of TFT to me, but they are used for so little in actual play.

I did a quick Campaign Cartographer comparison of a small room with MegaHexes and one with SquareHexes just to see what visible impact it had.

I don't know where my door between the room and corridor went.... but since these were demos, I didn't care to investigate.

While non-traditional, the Square Megahexes seem to work pretty well and are almost un-noticeably different.

One thing I've been playing with is buying HeroicMaps maps from DriveThru, loading them into Campaign Cartographer, and laying a MegaHex grid over them. I haven't tried printing them out because, well, I don't have a campaign going yet, but I may have to set up a SquareHex template for them to see how that looks.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

Hand rotation is fun! I'm trying to remember the rotation percentage I used when I did that for a map I created in Campaign Cartographer, but CC3 doesn't seem to save that in the file. I gave up after that map, even though it meant my Melee maps print on 4 sheets of paper instead of 3.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

I've just about had it with licensing permissions, with all the accreditation, non-commercial, etc, etc, nada, nada ... So I've done my own floor texture, which has turned out fine but obviously not as good as the ENnie winning professional cartographer who did the official GoT maps, but there you go.

Now looks like this:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3l3za37wp1...64932.jpg?dl=0
Credit: 3D objects by Fat Dragon Games fatdragongames.com), cardboard heroes by SJ Games.

To demonstrate the larger room tiles, replicating the megahexes, and how they are compatible with the megahex tiles from Legacy Edition:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4ztj9qos8m...71223.jpg?dl=0

I've yet to use these in a game, so feedback would be appreciated.

I managed to get Dropbox to provide a download link here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/14lidqd4rd...ne%29.zip?dl=1

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

I managed to replicate the Melee Map and trimmed a little off the sides so it fits on three A4 poster style, then I gave it a background texture, this is the Indigo Room from Death Test:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/szm3cpmbdb...90503.jpg?dl=0

The map is just slightly wider than A4/legal size, about 0.5cm, so you don't have to trim off much.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

You do good work!

I posted the Squarehex thing mostly because Craig Barber (I'm not affiliated with him in any way -- other than by being a fellow member of Brainiac...) did some interesting work there years ago, and I thought it might save some time for some folks (including possibly you); not to detract in any way from what you were doing. Sorry if it came across like that -- definitely NOT my intent! ;-)

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

(Post moved to shadekeeps thread)

Sorry ��

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

thanks for sharing, it's another option for the wise GMs out there always looking for new ideas and changes improving their gaming experience.


A question: how do you decide if the partial hexes are playable? I would use common sense (hexes are playable if the wall leaves at least 50% of the space free for the figure, eventually allowing movement-attacks toward only one or two directions).

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

The dot in the center of a hex is a useful guide (if you need a rule and we aren't talking about pathological maps). If the dot is in the open space, the hex is usable.

The other simple rule is just that only full hexes are usable.

Any rule is an approximation of reality (as is a square grid), so you don't really need to sweat the details. If it bugs someone that they can't get all the way into that corner during a fight -- come up with a narrative reason why they can't or didn't. If you have penalties for being cramped and and forced against the wall, it's not because you're in a "half hex", it's because the corridor is narrow or that enemy is so close to you you'd be in HTH if you just shifted the hex overly half a unit. The map is not the terrain.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

The rule is if the centre dot us visible, the hex is usable, the White borders are there to accommodate figures in the half hexes.

The primary intention of these tiles is to retain the hex grid and the megahex grid as well, this puts a lot of restrictions on the mapping, but hopefully it can be used to easily convert a traditional map.

Re: Traditional Mapping with Megahexes
 

That is an amazing and novel layout! It's all so brilliant, how you did that!

I've been dividing megahexes in my maps so that only hexes and half-hexes are used. House rule: In half-hexes, characters have -4 DX.

This one map board is a circular tower only made up of 1.5" hexes and half-hexes.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...eon_D1_450.JPG