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best battlemat?
- Thread starter alsih2o
- Start date
Painfully
First Post
You can also go to your local Office Depot and get one of those big easle pads. Most of the time they have a 1" square grid on the back side. If you need to make maps that you can save, this is a great way to do it. They sell bleed-proof markers with lots of colors for it too. It's especially useful for generic buildings like taverns, stables, farms, or other frequently visited places.
I bought 8"x10" sheets of plexiglass from Lowes, drew 1" square on one side, put some felt tabs on the corners, turn it over and use wet-erase markers on them.
Advantages over traditional matte:
1) Scaleable, when you want a larger grid just buy some more 8"x10" squares. No need to go and buy a whole new matte.
2) Very good for running a battle which moves along because you can 'scroll' by taking an 'old' sheet and moving to a new area.
3) No bulky roll of vinyl. Just stack them in your box with your books.
Disadvantages:
It will cost about the same amount as a Chessex matte and you still need to draw the lines yourself.
Advantages over traditional matte:
1) Scaleable, when you want a larger grid just buy some more 8"x10" squares. No need to go and buy a whole new matte.
2) Very good for running a battle which moves along because you can 'scroll' by taking an 'old' sheet and moving to a new area.
3) No bulky roll of vinyl. Just stack them in your box with your books.
Disadvantages:
It will cost about the same amount as a Chessex matte and you still need to draw the lines yourself.
Henry
Autoexreginated
Aluvial, I tried to edit down your GIGANTO-Battlemat picture, but only succeeded in deleting it from your post. It looks like the forum software is not obliging the change of your picture with a smaller one - it keeps renaming your old pic to the name of the new one I upload.
I reposted an 800 x 600 version of the picture here, to get the thread's frame back down to a little better proportion for its readers. Sorry about that.
I reposted an 800 x 600 version of the picture here, to get the thread's frame back down to a little better proportion for its readers. Sorry about that.
Attachments
CarlZog
Explorer
I just got a Chessex megamat -- the double-sided one with hexes -- at GenCon. Price was a selling point; It was a discounted "factory irregular" (Some of the ink from the squares side of one mat got onto the hexes side of the next mat in the production pile. It's so slight, you have to really examine it to notice.)
I also looked at the Crystal Caste ones: They're pretty, but I found the background pattern distracting.
Decades ago, I used to buy paper hex posters from TSR and coat them with contact paper, as someone else suggested.
CZ
I also looked at the Crystal Caste ones: They're pretty, but I found the background pattern distracting.
Decades ago, I used to buy paper hex posters from TSR and coat them with contact paper, as someone else suggested.
CZ
King_Stannis
Explorer
Zander said:Crystal Caste all the way. Why? Because the guy who runs CC is a nice person, while the people who run Chessex stole $5000 from me.
Eh? Do tell, Zander...exactly what happened?
Zander
Explorer
To cut a long story short...King_Stannis said:
Years ago I co-designed an RPG product for a company that was bought out by Chessex. Chessex were legally bound to honour the contract and at first said they would. Then they started to impose all sorts of conditions including limiting my movements (FYI the Supreme Court has ruled that limiting someone's movements, except in certain specific cases, is unconstitutional).
I talked to a lawyer who was pretty certain I'd win if I sued. The only trouble was that it would have cost me $5000 to bring the case, so at most I would have gained a moral victory.
Still, I can repeat the story as vocally as I like because Chessex know that if they sued me for libel, they'd lose and I'd take them to the cleaners. So I can say, quite rightly, that Chessex are thieves and there's nothing in the world they can do about it.
(Sorry about this OT post).
Barendd Nobeard
Explorer
Measure carefully.alsih2o said:
Some have squares that are a little smaller than one inch. I bought a d20 ranger (a plastic ruler with D&D info on it; information at d20ranger.com) for a friend, and his mat had squares about 7/8" on a side. Which made the d20 Ranger useless.
I have three Chessex battle mats, and they all have very precise square--exactly 1" on each.
Henry
Autoexreginated
For all my time and attention on Aluvial's post, I forgot to mention that I am the proud owner of THREE chessex battlemats - one 24 x 24 inch, and two 36' x 48" mats - one for hexes and one for squares.
I love 'em to death, and as long as I use my VIS-A-VIS brand wet erase markers on them (NO REDS!) then they wipe clean every time, and play beautifully.
I love 'em to death, and as long as I use my VIS-A-VIS brand wet erase markers on them (NO REDS!) then they wipe clean every time, and play beautifully.
