Building a Table: Gaming Surface?

[Festivus]

I've not had the chance yet to put this idea to the test, but many wood hobby shops (online and off) sell giant bags of thin 1" squares.

Get em, split them into two piles, spraypaint them colors that work for you (light beige/dark beige, perhaps) and glue em down. Slap plexiglass on top.

The glue part would probably break my patience level, but I'm still thinking it may look neat enough to try.

You do realize that would be painting and glueing 4,608 tiles for me on my 8' x 4' table

Neat idea though.

I'll probably try the thread trick since I have some gaming downtime over the next few weekends (mothers day, weddings, etc) and report how it goes.

 

[frankthedm]

You do realize that would be painting and glueing 4,608 tiles for me on my 8' x 4' table

Mosiac floor tile is sold on sheets of 12" x 12" or similar sizes.

 

[Koewn]

You do realize that would be painting and glueing 4,608 tiles for me on my 8' x 4' table

Exactly why I haven't done it myself

Mosiac floor tiles...

True. The first google result shows some colors muted enough to work, as well as hex tiles! Heavier, though. (My original idea is a 4x4 table that breaks apart and folds up into two 2x2 carryable pieces.)

...have them individually painted

That would be completely awesome, but take a brazilian years to set up - I'd go for the digital/projector method at that point.

 

[Erywin]

Another idea for the plexiglass is to do something like I did with my gaming table. Now I was lucky to get an old glass tabletop dining table from my parents that they no longer needed. What I did was flip the glass over and draw on the back 1"x1" squares with permenant markers, flip it back over and lay it down on the table. We then went out to the local stationary store and purchased a pack of Crayola window markers for kids We figured they would work perfect seeing as if they were meant for kids, how could we goof it up And they did, very easy to use and erase, no marks left over and lots of colors! They lasted us a year and a half on one box that cost 5$-10$ so that was a pretty good deal. Now we have just moved to using presentation paper with grids on it, seeing as the other DM in the group likes drawing up his maps ahead of time and my table aint exactly portable...

Cheers,
E

 

[The_Universe]

True. The first google result shows some colors muted enough to work, as well as hex tiles! Heavier, though. (My original idea is a 4x4 table that breaks apart and folds up into two 2x2 carryable pieces.)

You mean 2 4x2 tables, or 4 2x2 tables?

 

[smootrk]

I think a tile covered table would be very cool, but then again, the spaces between tiles might make for an uneven surface (poor die rolling, hard to scoot stuff across, etc). It would really need completely flat tiles and grouting that comes right up to the surface.

 

[frankthedm]

I think a tile covered table would be very cool, but then again, the spaces between tiles might make for an uneven surface (poor die rolling, hard to scoot stuff across, etc). It would really need completely flat tiles and grouting that comes right up to the surface.

Plexiglass or a thick piece of clear vinyl. The real benefit is that the table is stealth. No need to worry that the family over for thanksgiving dinner will realize the dining table is used for a 'board game'.