So, for those on this site who game in other systems, say adnd, vampire, shadow run etc. Do you prefer running things in 'theater of the minds eye' (without minis or maps), Dungeon tiles, Terrain pieces, or good ole battle mats (like chessex)?

If you prefer mats, do you draw out things as they come to them, or all of it, and just cover it up (for the fog of war)?

If tiles, do you just use 2d ones, or 3d ones with walls/doors??

For D&D, we used a large mat with wet-erase markers. How much to draw at a time depended on the situation. Visiting a well-known area, or one easily seen at a glance would result in pretty much the entire map being drawn out, while exploring a mysterious dungeon might only reveal rooms and passages as they were discovered.

I usually use the "theatre of the mind", but our group rarely plays games with as strict a combat system as DnD. Recently though, I DMed a Train Heist, and did actually draw out around 30 different train cars, drawing them from a bag to make a kind of 'randomly-generated' dungeon, which was pretty fun. In terms of the individual cars, I drew out everything, top down, with no fog-of-war apart from not being able to see into the next carriage along (until right in front of the entrance).