Friday, March 8, 2019

Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: "Swamp" [RPG]

I've had occasion to use the Swamp flip-mat on a few occasions now.  The two sides of this mat have a lot in common, with identical color schemes, basic terrain features (winding paths of dry land with boggy water on either side, with darker patches that could be maybe quicksand or deep water?), and the same sort of drag-and-drop trees that don't really look like they fit naturally into the scene.  The difference between the two sides comes in some additional features.  The flip-mat's "front" (according to the packaging) has crumbling stone walls from some sort of an ancient ruin (complete with broken columns, a throne, and a staircase leading downward) near some sort of hut or dugout surrounded by sphere-topped stakes of some kind (I can't quite tell).  It's okay, but I tend to like my terrain flip-mats more "pure", and find the addition of extraneous structures to be distracting limitations on my ability to re-use them for various scenes.  The "back" of the flip-mat is better, and contains some believably-common features such as tree-trunks blocking the path, a small island that could *maybe* be reached by balancing across a branch, etc.  Overall though, the design and art on the flip-mat just aren't very impressive, and I wouldn't mind seeing an updated take on the idea--or even a "Bigger Swamp" flip-mat.

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