Fogs, Clouds and Confusion: A Battlemap technique
Another filler post, I’m afraid – the next part of the New Beginnings series is turning out larger than I expected! I intended to get an early start on it yesterday, but thought of an article for later this week and started putting thoughts down on electronic “paper”, and totally lost track of time.
Have you ever thought about the best way to depict mists and fogs on a battlemap? For next to no-cost?
It’s not all that easy, but I have a solution to offer. What you will need:
- Your battlemap tiles
- A box of tissues or tracing paper, the thinner the better
- A little Blu-tack or equivalent
- At least two matching decks of playing cards that you don’t mind destroying (can be re-used in the future)
- A pair of scissors, sharp if possible
- Two small containers for storage – you can use the packs that the cards came from, in a pinch
- (Optional) a bag of cotton-wool balls (can be re-used if stored afterwards)
Step One: Select your tiles
Since there is a little prep involved, start by selecting the tiles that you are going to need. That prep will be relatively quick – a matter of half a minute or less per tile, once you get into the swing of things – but it does take time.
Step Two: Organize by size
The process is slightly different for different sizes of tile, so organize them accordingly.
Step Three: Wrap tiles
Wrap tiles tightly in the paper, using the blu-tack in SMALL quantities to join sheets together and trimming the tissue paper as needed. The idea is that you want to be able to see the tile through the base “fog” just enough for the tiles to function and hint at what’s underneath, while showing that vision is impeded.
Note that the amount of blu-tack is very important – you don’t want any of it to come into direct contact with the tile, because the volatiles (oils?) that make the blu-tack malleable can discolor the tiles. If you’re especially paranoid about that, you can use sticky tape (sticky face out) to provide a line of insulation along the tissue paper where the blu-tack is to be placed (not shown on the diagram, this is an afterthought).
It’s important to secure the paper so that it doesn’t shift during the course of play; if this weren’t a factor, I’d just lay sheets of the stuff over the top of the finished battlemap.
In a pinch, you can skip this step, but it adds so much to the verisimilitude of the scene that it is worthing doing if you possibly can. You may need to use a pencil to lightly draw the outlines of the tile squares on the tissue very quickly (press lightly to avoid damaging the tile). In particular, when representing fogs and mists generated by spellcasters, you will have to live without this step.
Step Four (only needs doing once): Halve One Deck
Take one deck of the cards, and if you haven’t done so already, cut them in half horizontally across the card, as close to mid-way as you can manage. This gives you large tokens for use in areas of 4 squares x 4 squares. Store these in a suitable container, ready for use.
Step Five (only needs doing once): Tokenize the other deck
Take the other deck of cards. Cut off the corner icons that show suite and card number from each corner. Then cut out each pip showing on the rest of the cards into roughly square tokens. Store these in a suitable container, ready for use.
Step Six: lay out your battlemap
This step excludes placing “decorations” like barrels, chairs, light sources, stairs, and any elevated features. What you want here is the basic ground-level terrain.
Some outdoor-setting tiles may cause you some head-scratching. A building’s roof is an “elevated feature” isn’t it? Or is it? What about forest tiles with trees?
Make the choice for yourself based on two criteria – the thickness of the paper wrapping (if it’s thin enough, you can get away with considering these ground-level), and whether or not you have some other tiles that you can use to represent just the roofs or trees. Green glass beads for trees can be an excellent choice – in which case the beads are the “elevated features” and the tile is ground-level.
Note that every tile laid should feature the paper “mist”, except when you have had to skip the “wrapping” step.
Step Six-A: Decorate your battlemap excluding light sources and elevated features
Next, place every decorative tile (each wrapped in it’s own temporary covering of tissue paper) that isn’t going to show through the fog onto the battlemap. Tables, chairs, barrels, pits, wells, carts, whatever.
If you need to save a little time, by not sealing the ends of the tissue wrap, you can simply slide these between the tissue paper covering the larger tile and the tile it covers instead of wrapping these decorative tiles.
Step Seven: Define Fringe
Using the individual pips cut from the cards, define the outer fringe of the fog, one pip to every 2 squares is better. Note that fog and mist will expand into lower ground, so this might not be a smooth edge, and that if the entire area is covered in mist, there might BE no fringe showing on the map.
Step Eight: Define Heart
Separate out the tokens for the picture cards (Jack, Queen, King, and Ace). Place these on the battlemap to represent the thickest areas of fog, generally the terrain of lowest elevation or the center of an open area (especially one with a lot of water, like a lake), or possibly even one entire side of the battlemap. Use the half-cards for large tile areas (4 squares by 4 squares or 5×5) and the corners cut from the second deck for smaller areas (2×2 or 1×1). As a general rule of thumb, I will try to use black suits (spades and clubs) to indicate the presence of a “Dark Shape” visible though the fog, i.e. there’s something there, and red suits (hearts and diamonds) to indicate the absence of anything but white – which includes any lightly-colored objects that may be present. Every try to see a white car in fog? It’s twice as hard as seeing a dark car or moderately-toned car! But this may not be possible, depending on how many you need.
When you’ve finished, set aside the picture cards; you’re more or less done with them (save for occasionally changing your mind and extending the heart).
Step Nine: Separate Tokens & Half-Cards into “thick” and “thin” counters
Taking the tokens and half-cards that remain, separate them into three groups: single pips, low value counters (2-5), and high-value counters (6-10).
Step Ten: Draw & Place “Thick” counters
After randomly mixing the 6-10 group of counters, draw and place them one at a time in those areas where the fog will be at its thickest. This is anywhere that’s sheltered from wind, in a fringe surrounding the heart, and anywhere that’s under cover or shaded. Again, use the half-cards for large areas and the cut corners for details, and – if you’re going the extra step – the difference between dark suits and red suits.
“Thick” counters should not normally come into direct contact with the fringe, there should always be a gap of at least two squares, but use your own judgment according to the terrain.
As a rule of thumb, natural fogs should not be more than about 1/3 “thick” (excluding the heart), but that’s also something that you will have to judge according to the circumstances.
Note that this is a lot easier if you place the half-cards first and follow them with the tokens.
Step Eleven: Draw & Place “Thin” counters
Roughly count up the number of “thin” counters that you are going to need – one for every 2×2 space, not counting any areas large enough to use a half-card.
Divide the result by three, and add one for each large area where you intend to use a half-card.
Count out that many single pips and randomly scatter them between the fringe and “thick” areas.
Then randomly mix the 2-5 group of counters, drawing and placing them to complete filling up the fog-enshrouded area.
Step Six-B: Place light sources and elevated features onto battlemap
Over the top of the counters now placed over the battlemap, add your remaining tiles – light sources and elevated features. This includes glass beads being used for trees, etc. These (beads excepted) will need to have been individually tissue “coated”l, I’m afraid. Over each light source, lay about 1/4 of a cotton-wool ball that you have fluffed out and then pressed more-or-less flat, to represent the diffusion that occurs; quite often, you can tell there’s a light source but not what it is until you get closer, and it automatically makes the fog seem thicker.
Despite this, most governments recommend using headlights on low-beam in foggy conditions, not because it makes it any easier for you to see things (it doesn’t), but because it makes you more visible to others. What is lost in safety on the one hand is more than gained on the other.
In-play interpretation
All this may seem like quite a lot of trouble to go to. There is a method to this madness, however.
The numbers showing can be used to represent the relative thickness of the fog and mist, and hence the modifiers to the rolls for achieving various activities, given the conditions.
Perception
Assuming that you’re using a d20 system or something similar (works for 3d6-based systems as well), the DC or difficulty can be assessed as 5+variable for mist, 10+variable for light fog, and 15+variable for thick fog.
Actually, there are a couple of additional conditions that this system can be used for, noted below.
Mist/Rain
Mist is the thinnest of the three conditions that this is system can be used to simulate.
- Determine the direction the character is looking, or the direction to whatever he is looking for.
- Count out a range of 8 hexes/spaces in that direction, or until you reach an obstruction that can’t be seen through, like a wall.
- Total the values of the 3 lowest counters within that range and divide by 2, rounding down. Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13, Ace=15. Isolated pips are “1”.
- This is the “variable”; add a further 5 to get the modifier to any perception or concealment checks. For drizzle or light rain, divide by 3 instead of 2.
Thin Fog/Light Snow/Sleet/Heavy Rain/Thin Smoke
Next up the extremity scale is the above quintuple threat. Note that if you have two of these – fog and smoke, say – determine each separately and add the effects together. However, this would be quite an unnatural combination of conditions; I’m not saying that it couldn’t be made to happen, but the circumstances would be quite unusual.
- Determine the direction the character is looking, or the direction to whatever he is looking for.
- Count out a range of 4 hexes/spaces in that direction, or until you reach an obstruction that can’t be seen through, like a wall.
- Total the values of the highest and lowest single counters within that range and divide by 2, rounding down. Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13, Ace=15. Isolated pips are “1”.
- This is the “variable”; add a further 10 to get the modifier to any perception or concealment checks. For Smoke, add 5 instead of 10.
In the case of smoke, I would also use this modifier as the target to avoid coughing.
Thick Fog/Heavy Snow/Dense Smoke
At the most extreme, it can be very hard to see anything at all. Once again, if you can contrive circumstances by which two or more of these conditions are in effect at the same time, calculate the effects separately and then total them.
- Determine the direction the character is looking, or the direction to whatever he is looking for.
- Count out a range of 4 hexes/spaces in that direction, or until you reach an obstruction that can’t be seen through, like a wall.
- Total the values of the two highest counters within that range and divide by 2, rounding down. Jack=11, Queen=12, King=13, Ace=15. Isolated pips are “1”.
- This is the “variable”; add a further 15 to get the modifier to any perception or concealment checks.
In the case of smoke, I would also use this modifier as the target to avoid choking/asphyxia.
Combat Modifier
It’s harder to predict where an opponent is going to be and what he’s going to do when you can’t see him clearly. This should be reflected with an increase in their AC or DCV or equivalent – this applies to all combatants.
For ranged combat, use the adjustments given for “Perception”. Note that the target’s location qualifies as “an obstruction that can’t be seen through” in this context.
I would use the same calculation method given above, but reduce the modifier by 5.
Random changes
After a chit has been used in a calculation, there is a chance that it will change value. Simply draw a new one from the appropriate stack and replace the old, returning the discarded chit to the appropriate stack.
How great that chance is should be determined by the GM based on conditions. I would suggest 25% or 50% or 1-2 on a d6 or something along those lines, but a lot depends on what’s going on in this particular battle scene.
Cleanup
Store the counters, chits, and cotton balls, and remove the tissue paper from the tiles immediately after play, to minimize the chances of damage to the tiles from the blu-tack.
Wrap-up
This proposal adds a lot of verisimilitude to a scene. It also does an excellent job of taking what would otherwise be a “universal” adjustment that applied to the whole battlefield and all combatants and making it a dynamic, changing environment. This also permits a new mode of interaction between characters and environment – a Fireball might cause fog to thin or lift temporarily, for example; simply adjust the non-variable amount accordingly.
Although I didn’t go into specifics above, you could also employ this system for underwater explorations – the clarity of the water, the presence of a light-source, and the density of the fish population being the factors that would be the modifier determinants. You could, perhaps, make your “tissue paper” from two or more panels of transparent blue contact plastic back-to-back.
I’m sure that there are applications for this system that simply haven’t occurred to me; as you could probably tell, I have been thinking of more throughout the writing of the article. Use it as you see fit!
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May 10th, 2015 at 11:47 am
[…] Fogs, Clouds and Confusion: A Battlemap technique […]
March 18th, 2016 at 2:56 pm
Uufff…
… This is Overkill.
If it’s going to be that complicated to dwell in a dungeon or a encounter map, then it’s not going to be easy to move and flow with the game and will just be interfering constantly on the game and with the players.
Making it anoying at some point, probably first to the players and later for the DM.
It’s easier to reveal each tile one by one.
And carefully store them in a more easy and accessible way So it doesn’t interfere with the playability and flow of the game.
… Good try though.
Thanks for sharing it.
… May be next time you upload more useful images of what you where explaining, than photos from random foggy landscapes.
?
March 18th, 2016 at 9:21 pm
Overkill? Perhaps. As I explained at the start of the post, it was a “filler article” – as in, something written quickly, offering a theoretical technique and food for thought, nothing more, and written because the article that I intended to publish was not going to be ready in time.
Not having any form of digital camera, it was completely impossible to take photographs of the technique. Nor did I have anything like the time required to digitally compose any images beyond the one illustration provided. It seemed, and still seems, sufficient to get the idea across.