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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MNblockhead" data-source="post: 7601642" data-attributes="member: 6796661">Electronics are useless, when you don't have your electronics....Well, I guess I have to concede that. I use a lot of physical stuff...when I run games from home. My physical stuff if worthless when I game away from my physical stuff. I tend to game away from my physical stuff when I run games from from a friends home or a game store, because dragging a small library of books, plus paper battlemaps, and minis, and terrain pieces, and having to prep covers to hide unexplored areas, is more effort than it is worth it for m. I am much more likely to have my electronics with me than physical items. I only have to remember my laptop and display. I don't need a checklist when packing for a game away from home. If I'm going to play somewhere where I may not have good access to outlets, well, I leave my big display home. But I also leave the bulky, expensive, large-format-printed battlemaps at home. I just go back to basics and use the D&D Battle Grid with wet erase markers in a variety of colors. Screen under glass is what I'm talking about. You don't need it built into the table. Actually, this was something I was worried about, that the extra height would make it harder to use/see. But the raised screen in the case has some advantages. For one, you don't have player materials spilling over the screen. Second, it provides more protection against spills. But mostly, I like that any flat surface can become a gaming surface. I can put it on a coffee table, a dining table, a gaming table at my FLGS, on the rug, etc. 11x17 isn't really what I mean by large format. That is still pretty limiting and you'd still need to puzzle a number of these together for larger areas, much less entire levels of a dungeon. I recycled all my old printed battlemaps, but when I printed out all of the Curse of Strahd maps, which I bought from Mike Schley's site, a number of them were larger than the 48" x 36" SUBF-X Gaming Maps by Ceri Design that I would often lay them on top of.  The fact that many of the maps are not that big also make all those different sized paper maps a pain to store and organize. I'm running Rappan Athuk now. With over 100 maps, I'm sure I would have paid more to print them. If I had printed them, I would have spent a lot of money on areas the players may never see. Another problem with spending money on large physical battlemaps is you are going to make sure that the players use them. I just don't see the case for large printed maps, either from a convenience or cost standpoint. I'm happy to be free of them. If you usually use a Chessex mat or a dry-erase battle grid and you just a wan't the rare map for a set piece battle, then perhaps the $10 is worth it to print it.  Otherwise, stick with the Chessex or get a digital display.</blockquote>

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