Hello there, this is Kris and this is my second post which I wanted to post separately from my main one where I have been condensing all of my posts since joining R20 in Sep 2019. A massive thank you to all my customers for the warm reception of my product range and continued support - it really is a wonderful feeling to think of all you out there having fun on something I made and that feeling never goes away. Briefly: Meanders are enormous realistic-style 2.5d digital modular battlemaps measuring 27x18" and designed on a 1" scale that I kickstarted five years ago, that took off, since when there are now over 1350 and counting. Available types include Fantasy City (All Four Seasons, Nocturnal) Dwarven, Underdark, Forest, Snow, Ice, Jungle, Desert, Cave, River, Road, Village, Cemetery, Medieval City, Castle, Cthulhu, Victorian Mansion, College of Magic, Wizard Tower, Ruined Tower, Spider Forest, Dead Forest, Farm, Dungeon, Crypt, Tavern, Dragon, Ocean, Wild West, Swamp, Treetop, Mountain, Arcane Library, Mausoleum, Necromancers Lair, Plague Village, Flooded Village, Witches House & Woods, Deep Roads, Temples, Mines, Gemstone Cavern, Alien Mothership, Planet, Moonbase, Galactic Cruiser, Tundra, Savannah, Zombie, Modern City, Post-Apocalyptic, Modern: Tsunami and Shipstarter: a giant assortment of fantasy ships with all the trimmings. This assortment offers literally billions of combinations as they're designed to match up to each other using a unique repeating exit/entrance point system that allows you to mix genres, terrains and build entire worlds in seconds. Meander means winding course and the layout is designed to give a sense of randomness but without me fiddling about with smaller dungeon tiles that moved about or required too much effort to arrange. I also wanted to be able to flood my table with terrain and not have to think about it - and though originally just meant to be terrains between main quests for PC's to wander about in, there are now destinations, cities and a staggering amount of them for all purposes. Some of the existing themed terrains include a huge range of Though only having had 2 customers in all this time ask me how to join them I felt it worthwhile to stop in and demonstrate for future users who might experience difficulty as well as showcase them a bit and what they can do and can't do or shouldn't be asked to do. So, below is the diagram showing where the 10 entrances and exits are in pink and purple. The yellow sections indicate where main roads join to one another when they are present. Note that while the 4 side entrances are symmetrical and match each others position, the top and bottom ones are not - they are slightly moved along. Consider this Meander facing right. This is important: if you flip a Meander to the left, it will no longer match up to another Meander facing right IF you place it above or below - because the pathways will have changed positions and no longer sync up. However - Meanders are a powerful system. Every meander can join to itself, you can place another to the left, right, above or below (without flipping it) and it will line up giving you an immediate and endless table of terrain. Plus you can flip them Vertically (top / bottom) without issues joining them up. You can also flip them if you build a zigzag or L-shape map layout where it doesn't expose the mis-matching join when one is flipped left and the other is not. I have seen DM's use them as I intended and in ways unintended, it does not really matter so long as they do the job you ask and look decent doing it - but it might be of interest to some to know the intention behind the design. Also important: Meanders, are not designed to be joined by rotating some maps end on and trying to join them to the standard orientation which is as shown below. If you try this, some, pathways may line up - but their modularity will be broken and you won't get a neat join. IF - you always use Meanders in their intended orientation you will have over 1350 of these giant maps to play around with (Approx 28-32 in a single set). There are some exceptions to the rule however: To lead into a terrain with a cool or likely entrance, or leave the map with a stylish or dramatic exit - some Meanders do not have all of their pathways joinable. These special meanders are called ' Edgers ' - they act like a full stop on your story and help you to end or start a terrain set and indicate where the action ends so that you don't have to endlessly add a map that looks like it continues into another: also in some cases, such as a crowded alley, it is not possible to achieve the right effect by having all the exits/entrances open - though the vast majority of maps do. Below this Waterfall Edger drops off into a sheer valley which, far below and shown blurred to intensify the illusion of height, cannot join the other entrances/exits system with plausibility. So it becomes an edge where the maps can end. Another special Meander type is the ' Blender ' - which is simply a gradual transitioning tile that allows you to change into different terrains without a sharp line between them, adding immersion, realism and a sense of continuity to proceedings. This one blends forest into desert vertically. Then there is a ' Bridger' which simply acts like a centre crossroads where multiple maps can join. You may on occasion also come across a ' Switcher ' - there aren't many of them but they enable you to join up Meanders that have been flipped to the left, as their top orientation only is flipped left. Note in this sci-fi map the top and bottom entrance/exits are flipped at the top. The idea was that no matter how far along I got with them, regardless of which series I was working on (I am in series 4, 5 was intended this january but is on hold atm for the obvious reason) - that series one would match with series two, three, four and so on, whether sci-fi, fantasy, or modern. Another type of Meanders is the Mega Meander - whereas normal Meanders are 27x18" (though sized here to suit the 140px squares for Roll20) a MM is four times the size. The one below is the Halehold Hall which goes with the Halehold Meanders set (can also double as Dwarven), [called Hale on account of all these maps actually being part of a larger project, my own RPG Dungeon Crawler, and Hale being different from dwarves.] It is also worth mentioning that IF you join a lot of Meanders together like a big carpet - you - can choose where the boundaries are, you can cut the carpet anywhere, so you don't have to use my exits and entrances system as given for the edge of your terrain, just place a border around that carpet and cut it where you want - that way, the players don't get overly familiar or experience an even more random layout. It is difficult to even introduce Meanders anymore given the overwhelming number of maps I have made for the series I have a hard time trying to use one or even a few images to give people an idea of the sheer scope of these things. I will simply say that Meanders are extremely detailed, built at 300dpi, designed on a 1" scale so that PC's are almost never standing on furnishings and have ample room to move between them, a crucial facet of mapping when using VTT and tactically designed to encourage strategy, sustain interesting game-play and offer striking features. Shown here is a zoom in of the Emerald Stone on one of my Meander Halehold Maps. Another useful feature of Meanders that often seems to go unnoticed is how one Map can be multiplied to build enormous structures. Like the one below from my Meanders Spaceport map set. Note that here, if you flip two maps to the left in this quadrant formation they Will line up beautifully. Some are better designed for this than others - but please keep it in mind and experiment as an amazing array of new map formations can be had using this technique - as can colour changing the maps. Though less common I do also supply blank versions of some of my maps - that go well with 1000's of Meanders Tokens that naturally suit my mapping style so you can customize interiors and layouts if required without breaking the immersion. New Concepts are always making their way into my head, like this enormous BattleCruiser (coming soon to R20) which is large enough and designed to hold slotted Meanders in the room bays so DM's can build their own ship layout by selecting from the 100's of Sci-fi maps I have available. As well as branching maps out visually on a flat plane, experiments have included building upward - in this prototype for what would become the fully furnished nine-story Wizards Tower, contained in the Meanders Arcane Augurum set, as the tower rises higher, the background around the tower edge becomes blurrier to indicate altitude, until players are high in the sky among the clouds. Meanders are used in a half dozen live streams by gamers that I know of - and there are no restrictions on using them in this way, on using them in paid games, or personal, I hope you enjoy your experience. I'll leave it here with a small screenshot of some of the available maps with the hope I have peaked your interest in this map range and that you will check them out in the store for yourself to see just how many of these modular battlemaps I have created. As a final note, while there are more than 1350 currently, I intend to begin adding hundreds more to the range, including Meanders Lovecraft and dozens more genres, with the aim of doubling that total by 2022. If you have any questions about Meanders - or ever need help finding a specific map, as no-one knows my catalogue as well as I do - I am never far away and always happy to try and help. Kind Regards, Kris
