Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: "Urban Starter Set" [RPG]

I got the Urban Starter Set to test out with my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign.  It's a sturdy box full of 42 double-sided, 6x6 square gridded tiles (suitable for wet and dry erase markers).  The box also comes with dividers meant to organise the tiles with expansion sets.  I think the *idea* of the set is great, as it's designed to allow endless customisation of city streets to suit whatever the GM needs.  I haven't found them so great to use in practice, however.  First, the cards are slickly coated and slide easily around the table.  Second, the design of the buildings is very limited and exceedingly repetitive.  Third, all the streets are the same (10') width.  Fourth, although I like how each card has a top-down view of a building on one side and then the interior of that building on the other side, the exterior shot doesn't show doors or windows--so PCs can't easily "transition" between them without first flipping and rotating to check where those entrances are.  Fifth, there's very little detail--the streets occasionally have some puddles or a grate, but the interiors never have anything except (oddly enough) a rug here and there).  And finally, the "special" tiles consist only of an outer wall/gate (which is good) and then two of the exact same cards with a fountain on one side and a statue on the other. 

Overall, they are usable--but I'm not sure they're really any faster or more useful than just quickly drawing some squares on a blank flip-mat to represent buildings.

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