Battle Grids: Chessex vs. roll4initiative?

[KanedaX321]

First off, I apologize in advance: I'm a new member to EN World, and have not become a subscriber yet, so I can't search to see if this topic has been discussed in advance. If it has been, please point me in the right direction.

I'm also relatively new to D&D in general. I've been in my first regular D&D group for about a year now, and am now teaching myself how to DM a campaign. Unfortunately, at this point my equipment consists of 3 4th Ed books, some blank character sheets, a DM Screen, and three sets of dice.

Needless to say, I have a lot of money yet to invest, whether it be on miniatures, expansion books, etc etc etc. So, with that in mind:

Right now I'm comparing erasable battle grids. Chessex seems to be the standard for blank, 1-inch square grids, but eBay also has multiple listings for a grid from a website called roll4initiative.

Has anyone ever made any comparisons between the two styles of mats? Chessex is a vinyl grid, while roll4initiative is laminated. Is one better or worse than the other? I picture a laminated grid as stiff, difficult to roll up for storage and even more difficult to flatten out again later, but I might be off the mark on that. It is more cost-efficient, especially as part of r4i's "gamer's kit", and is also squared on both sides vs. the hexgrid on Chessex. But I also know Chessex is the tried and true model, since it's the mat my DM uses in my current campaign.

Opinions? Thanks!

 

[Imperialus]

First off, welcome to ENworld.

I might have a slightly different suggestion especially if you want to do it on the cheap. I might suggest actually going to staples or office depot and picking up a pad of poster sized graph paper with 1 inch squres. I got one for about 4 bucks and it has lasted well over a year.

The nicest thing about it is that you can draw on it ahead of time and just pull the map out when the time comes to lay out the figures. Being able to fold up the map and bring it with you along with a couple blank sheets is a godsend if you're traveling too. It's not even that much more of a waste of paper. A wet erase mat is going to go through at least a couple paper towels every time you use it, and the paper battlemat can be recycled a lot easier. Also lets you reuse maps for locations the PC's might end up fighting in again, and people can scratch notes on it using whatever is handy without having to worry about damaging the battlemat itself. I picked it up after there was a tactical error on our Chessex mat that involved a dry erase marker being used rather than wet.



Oh, and as far as mini's go, I've been playing for 15 years and I still use bottlecaps in at least 60% of my battles, and I wouldn't worry too much about investing a ton on the supplements. You can run a perfectly fine campaign for any edition of D&D using just the 3 core books.

 

[megamania]

I can only say I use Chessex battlegrids and I have been very happy with them.






...oh... and welcome to En World.

 

[samursus]

Another low-cost alternative is Paizo's foldable flip-mats. They fold up into a handy 8x11-ish square but open up into a roughly 3x4 page battlemat.

 

[Celebrim]

My advice would be to use a combination of the Chessex Megamap and 1" grid paper on a desk planner such as you can buy from Staples.

Imperialus is quite right about the various advantages of the 'disposable map' but on the other hand, using it for every battle would tend to elevate your costs in consumables to an unreasonable level. Each sheet costs about 40 cents, and that will add up quite quickly. On the other hand, if you are absolutely certain that a particular mapped area will be used in a set peice battle, having that drawn out ahead of time on a disposable grid is a lot better than putting the session on hold while you draw it.

 

[Perram]

Another low-cost alternative is Paizo's foldable flip-mats. They fold up into a handy 8x11-ish square but open up into a roughly 3x4 page battlemat.

I have to agree with this post, I actually have quite a few of them because they are so handy and exceptionally portable.

I would recommend starting with the standard blank one, it is double sided, easy to use and clean up, and you can fold it up and stick it in your backpack easily!

http://paizo.com/store/gameAids/gamingMats/steelSqwire/v5748btpy83yx

I've actually started carrying 2 of the blank ones around, that way I can leave the maps I drew on it from week to week and can usually fit a whole dungeon on it.

 

[Troll Slayer]

The grid paper from staples is a good suggestion, I've used it before. A roll of gaming paper makes a great back up supply and takes up much less space than the large staples pads.

 

[KanedaX321]

Thanks for the help, everyone! Right now I think I'm going to do a combination of both: order the laminated mat from the website as part of the starter kit (cuz I'd like to have some other stuff, as well) and pick up a roll of straight grid paper from Staples or my local shop if I want to predraw some (they sell rolls for $4.50 apiece).

And I'm really digging the bottle cap idea from Imperialus, as well. I'm probably not going to put a lot of money into miniatures, so that's definitely an option I can use in the future, along with some of the pog/token making tutorials I've found online.

Thanks again!

 

[Gilladian]

If you're AT ALL crafty, you can get either air-dry clay or oven-bake polymer clay and make "pogs" of all shapes and sizes for yourself.

I've made all sorts of other little props, too, that come in very handy (trees, logs, chests, barrels, a well, an altar, some "corner markers" for spell areas, and even some piles of loot). Here's an older pic or three of stuff I made: DnD Minis - a set on Flickr

Obviously, I sculpt a bit, too, but you don't have to to make some decent little props.

Personally, I've almost entirely switched to sketching maps on grid paper as needed, and reusing - but we've been going back through the same dungeon a LOT lately.

 

[Frost]

If you want to do-it-yourself, you could give my home made dry erase battle map method a shot: link