Looking for Combat Mat advice

[Mark Hope]

Flipmats are imho the best option for portability, ease of use and price. Dry-erase, wet-erase, permanent - you can use all of these markers. They come in a bunch of shades and designs and have a premade scene on the flipside (sample dungeon, market, cathedral, forest etc). Use them all the time.

I also have Chessex battlemats (and the ludicrously sized mondomat) but have found them a complete hassle to keep clean - they seem to want to absorb pigments. Really annoying. That said, I'll second the recommendation for children's washable markers - nice, cheap option for wet-erase mats.

You can also make your own easily and cheaply. Paper grids are easy to come by, either from office stores or in any number of RPG products (the 3e DMG had one in the back, as did the yellow basic box, as well as D&D minis starter kits, Fiery Dragon's Battle Boxes etc). Take one of these, cover it with transparent, sticky plastic film (the kind of stuff used to cover textbooks in school) and presto: one battlemat. Just as useful as a store-bought mat and a fraction of the price. I've made about 6 or 7 of these and they get as much use as my flipmats.

 

[Tequila Sunrise]

OK, so 4e is around the corner and I'm sort of getting the idea that I need to get myself that combat mat I never got around getting for 3e. I mean, it seems like it's more of a necessity than a supplement this time around, don't you think?

No, I don't think so. Where have you gotten that idea?

Anyway I have decided to treat myself to my first store bought mat ever. With 4e's 1-1-1 move system, I'm planning to get a GameMastery flipmap from Paizo.com because it's sinfully cheap and has a hex grid. It has a square grid on the other side, which is kind of annoying because I'd rather have two hex grids, but I haven't been able to find any mat that is just hex.

TS

 

[Buttercup]

You can buy huge tablets with a 1 inch grid for about $20 at office supply stores. They're nice because you can draw scenes ahead of time and just unroll them as needed.

If you want something permanent though, I recommend Tact Tiles. They are hard plastic tiles that hook together like jigsaw puzzle pieces. Each one is a 1 foot square, and they last forever. We've got 36 of them, which is more than any sane person would ever need (but we're talking about Buttercup and d20dwarf, so sanity might not come into the equation). You can use dry or wet markers on them, but I prefer dry erase.

 

[Berandor]

the Flipmap is awesome in more or less any regard. I'm completely happy with it.

 

[knitnerd]

Be sure to look at the flip-chart tablets with 1" grids at any major office supply store. It costs about $12-18 for a tablet of 50 sheets, and you'll want to be particular about whether you are buying the post-it type or just regular paper type. They are perfect for making maps that you will use more than once.

Use bleed-proof chart makers for best results.

I get these at a local discount store for $3 and give them to all my DMs. One covered his entire room with a map of the city we were in and picked up the map of whatever section we were in.
We also get wax strings in the childrens art supply section and use those to mark the map. They pull right off.

 

[PeelSeel2]

I printed off a 36x48 piece of 1/2 graph paper on our plotter at work, brought it down to the college where they laminated it. Cost me $10.00 total. I use dry erase markers on it with a MR.Clean Magic Eraser (works great for stained Chessex battlemats; made my old one look mostly new after a lot of scrubbing).

Where do you get these Flipmats everyone is talking about?

 

[Mark Hope]

Where do you get these Flipmats everyone is talking about?

From Paizo:
http://paizo.com/store/gameAids/gamingMats/steelSqwire

 

[Rel]

You can buy huge tablets with a 1 inch grid for about $20 at office supply stores. They're nice because you can draw scenes ahead of time and just unroll them as needed.

This has become my favorite too. You can draw maps ahead of time and save them for when the party visits the same (or a similar) location. I especially love them for running games at GenCon or Game Days when I want to keep the game moving and spend zero time erasing and re-drawing stuff in mid-game.

 

[Serensius]

Anyone have any experience with Pilot pens (they're the only ones I can find at my local book store).

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Add in another vote for Flip Mats. I have 2 of the "squares on one side, hexes on the other side". Since I got them my vinyl battlemat has not been used once. The only advantage I think vinyl battlemats have over the Flip Mats is size. If you like to do lots of huge dungeons then the vinyl battlemat may be of more use to you. Apart from that the Flip Mats are simply better in every way.

Olaf the Stout