Battlemat/Counter advice needed!

[Samnell]

I just found an in-person group for the first time in an age, and they're all eager to die horrible deaths under my supervision. We're all very excited and eager to go, but now I'm in the position for the first time of needing such a thing as a battlemat to play out combats on and some counters for the same.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a good battlemat? I'm looking for something I could mark up with dry erase markers or something similar and a
grid (preferably 1 inch squares) that's also reasonably portable. Of course, I'd like it cheap if I can find it that way.

As for counters, I've looked at Dragonscalecounters.com and they look promising, but I've also seen Counter Collection I and II (I think II is
out) from Fiery Dragon and wonder how they stack up to Dragon Scale. I know they're not printed on plastic like DS does and I imagine I'd have to cut them out, but aside from that how do they stack up?

I'd also like a retailer of these things that could get them to me by next weekend for my next session.

 

[Tsyr]

I believe Talon sells a very good battlemat.

 

[Samnell]

Talon was the first place I checked. He's got a disclaimer that battlemats are in high demand so they could take a few weeks to ship. I'd really like to have this for next weekend's game.

 

[Blackwind]

Here's what I did...

Back when 3E first came out, I bought the D&D Adventure Game (newbie box) alongside my PHB, just for the monster stats. It was only 10 bucks, and I was pretty eager to get my hands on all the 3E material that I could. Turned out to be way more useful than I'd have thought. The Adventure Game comes with a big poster map, with a dungeon on one side and a blank white 1" square grid on the other side. I took the map to Kinko's Copies and laminated it - bingo, battlemap. You can use overhead markers on it. Also, the D&D Adventure Game came with a bunch of handy cardboard punch-out counters. Includes most of the basic monsters a group would encounter at low levels. As for the Counter Collections and FDP's counters, I haven't seen them.

-Blackwind

 

[EOL]

Chessex has a really good battle mat and (though this wouldn't apply to you) they sell factory seconds at GenCon for a really reasonable price.

 

[Carnifex]

I believe the Counter Collections use perforated cardboard so you don't need to cut the counters out, you just press them out. I could be wrong though...

 

[Samnell]

I've found a battlemat on Amazon zshops, Chessex. The seller tells me it should be here wednesday.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[Rackhir]

Battlemat Substitute

My group has found a substitute for the battlemat type of gaming surface, that works much better (IMHO).

If you go to an art supply store you can get books of essentially D&D scale graph paper in large books. We've found that two or three sheets are usually sufficient to map out the entire dungeon.

The great thing is that it gives us a history that we can go back to and we can draw bodies of dead monsters on it. Since they are priced for art students they are relatively cheap. Also if you have any experience with the battle mats they have to be cleaned up, frequently there are "traces" left behind.

 

[Mark]

I prefer Vinyl mats (got one from Talon, in fact) but have to stress that you want to use WET erase markers, not dry erase.

I'll post more here in a bit, and regale you with some stories, if you like, but I have to go grab a pizza from the parlor a few doors down... (I love Chicago! )

 

[Trevalon Moonleirion]

I ordred my battlemat from Chessex and it was at my house in two days--I didn't even order a fast delivery. I was quite amazed and I'm still very happy with my purchase. My only complaint is that I dont' really have a tube or anythign to store the thing in--the one they sent the mat in was really pretty mangled and useless. As for counters, I do like the Counter Collectoin, but they are NOT perforated as someone else thought above (too lazy to go back and find out who said it)