Mapping Strigastadt



Last time I ran Strigastadt I had a bit of trouble communicating vertical relationships of buildings to each-other - 99% of movement was done via streets since that's what was obvious on the 2D marker map. This time around I got some slate & travertine tiles which're working really well for me so far. Since there's only 3 shapes of tiles (plus the small towers), they're quick to grab and plop down as the party explores. Slate & travertine are also dark and light enough for colored chalks to show up on them, so we can mark up the map as we go. Plus it's much more fun to plan out a borough by physically placing tiles.

Material details if you're curious:

 

I think I spent around $80 on mosaic tile from home depot on this, but you could do it for less. The travertine for street / base terrain height isn't strictly necessary depending on what you're going for. I also got extra since I wanted a variety of building heights - if everything was one story it'd take less tile. If anybody ends up doing this though, be careful which tile you get. I think most mosaic tile comes with fiberglass grid backing which you should use gloves to strip off (I thought it was plastic so had a sad evening of burning arms). Also some of the tile I got had super foul smelling glue, which I only realized after getting home and opening the package. Sniff the tile first, having your map reek of chemicals sucks. I wound up spending an unfortunate amount of time scraping the glue off... Just get some that doesn't smell bad, or better yet, get mosaic tiles that are loose so you don't have to spend any time stripping backing off or dealing with glue residue.

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