Battlemats

[Oompa]

Me and my group play D&D 4th edition, we love to use miniatures and the use of an battlemap.. We have an big battlemap now, made it ourselves with laminating 2 big flip-over sheets..

The thing is really worn out now and i would like to get an new one, but i was also checking online an bit..

Is there any good website to get battlemats from? (squared)

Most sites i find dont have pictures of the mats..

And any other things i should look in to?

 

[Webby140]

I can recommend the Chessex battlemat.

If you're in the UK SquashGoblin.com is a good site for them - they're irregular (meaning their cut so you don't get about 2 squares you should do) but that's still 26x26inches and you can use OHP pens to draw out the dungeon.

 

[Kristian Serrano]

Gamemastery flipmats from paizo.com

 

[Festivus]

Another vote for flip mat over the chessex here. You can write on it with wet erase, dry erase, permanent marker and it all comes off. It's weaknesses are two: Don't spill water on the edges (as I found out), and it doesn't come in as large of sizes as the chessex (this isn't a huge problem for me, the flip mat is large enough).

 

[Mark]

I agree that the utility of Chessex vinyl battlemats is without parallel but if you are looking to do things on the cheap go to a teachers' supply store and you can get large laminated poster-sized sturdy sheets with squares for a couple of bucks.


Here's something similar to what I found locally -

http://www.teacherstorehouse.com/pr..._key=&season_key=&grade_key=&term=grid&brand=

 

[frankthedm]

DO you have / can you get pegboard with holes 1 inch apart? DO you have / can you get a sheet of vinyl from a craft store?

Lay the pegboard across a sheet of vinyl. Dot the vinyl with a permanent marker through those holes. When gaming, mark on the mat with Children's Washable Markers.

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http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?t=213563

Fast & Cheap - Pegboard or other 1" grid with clear vinyl on top of it.
Cheap - long sheet of fabric store marine vinyl, lay peg board over the vinyl, doting each hole with a permanent marker for a battle grid.
Fancy - Tabletop with 1" or 2" mosaic tile as a surface. Plexiglas sheet on top or clear vinyl tablecloth.

upholstery / Marine vinyl

Pegboard should be available at a hardware store.

 

[Ktulu]

I use a large chessex battlemat with a plexiglass sheet over it. You can put maps underneath the plexiglass and write over with dry-erase, and it keeps the mat much, much cleaner.

 

[Glyfair]

I agree with the two most common suggestions here.

The Chessex megamats are great. You need wet erase (over head projector) markers. However, they will give you the room for just about any battle you want. As an early review said, you can even use them as an impromptu picnic cloth. You need to roll them up for portability.

The Flip Mats are great because they can take almost anything. They can be folded up and made very portable. However, they are bad for big battles (only about 16" x 22") and the folds can really get in the way.

 

[Betote]

For convenience, I recommend GameMastery Flip-Mats. When folded, the take up more or less the same space as a DM screen, so you can carry your whole game (flip-mat, DM screen, PC sheets and some module) in a simple folder.

 

[HelloChristian]

I'm still a big fan of the easel tablets from Staples. You can draw on them without fear of ruining the vinyl.

Staples 27" x 34", White with 1" Grid, Easel Pad at Staples®

They cost $32, but you get 100 sheets, so that's 32 cents for each sheet of paper. We use about 2 per session, so I think it's a very good deal.