Where are the WotC Spell Templates?

Tolen Mar · May 8, 2005

I'm sorry guys, but $15 bucks for a bit of wire? Like they said before, some pliers and a coathanger is all I need. (And it doesnt take as long as you might think.)

However, Kudos to the guys who found a way to make money off of this!

Ogrork the Mighty · May 8, 2005

MerricB said:
Get your DMG and a photocopier. There. Template.

Get your mini starter pack and a photocopier. There. Template.

The templates are already there. What are you complaining about?

Nice try. The DMG's templates aren't to scale (except for two cones) and I have neither the patience nor the desire to sit at Kinkos fiddling around with resizing, cutting, resizing, blah blah blah. What's your problem dude? There's a market for the product and I'm simply requesting the WotC fill it. Kinda a no-brainer if they're pushing their DDM game so hard. That's great that you've got templates, but how about making them readily available for the rest of us.

I've never seen someone so dead set against something that would help the game...

atom crash · May 8, 2005

I've been fiddling with the idea of getting some pipe cleaners and making my own templates.

Zaukrie · May 8, 2005

I've tried coat hangers. They are not ideal. Hard to make nice corners. Electrical wired does not hold it's shape well enough, but I have some heavier gage I might try. My wife bought some cheap pipe hanger (the square like stuff). It holds it's shape well, and I could mostly get it into shape, but the edges are not sharp, but not "soft". Making them requires a lot of work to get them to be really the right size. I'm going to keep trying, but I have not found that ideal thing yet.

There is a guy that sells/trades them. You can find him on maxminis.com very easily.

Lhorgrim · May 9, 2005

After I heard the coathanger suggestion on this thread, I decided to give it a shot. Three coathangers, a pair of linesman's pliers and about an hour later I had a 20ft radius, a 30ft diagonal cone, and a 30ft straight cone.

They are by no means precision templates, but they do designate the spell area with no problems.

By the way, I did not try to weld or soulder the wire together. I left about an inch of overlapping wire and wound duct tape around it to "close the circuit".

My first choice would be the Steelsqwire templates, but I'm trying to save up for my first trip to GenCon this year and I don't have much cash. The coathangers seem to be a viable alternative, if you have the time and inclination.

Tolen Mar · May 9, 2005

Well, Im not saying there arent issues, but its certainly viable.

On the other hand, I cant order any of sqwire's templates. Im using my dad's old battle map, one he made when he was big into the game. Since each square was 5' feet, he made 1 1/4 inch squares. Each one is therefore a little larger, but you can measure out to the single foot if you want or need to. I have to custom build all of my wire templates as a result.

MerricB · May 9, 2005

Ogrork the Mighty said:
Nice try. The DMG's templates aren't to scale (except for two cones) and I have neither the patience nor the desire to sit at Kinkos fiddling around with resizing, cutting, resizing, blah blah blah. What's your problem dude? There's a market for the product and I'm simply requesting the WotC fill it. Kinda a no-brainer if they're pushing their DDM game so hard. That's great that you've got templates, but how about making them readily available for the rest of us.

I've never seen someone so dead set against something that would help the game...

I'm not dead set against it - however, I object very strongly to the notion that Wizards must produce these things.

The DDM game comes with the burst (radius 2 and 4) and cone templates - they're on the back of the battlegrid. A photocopier and some scissors will do the trick. If you want to use that option, then just pick up a Starter of the minis game.

For Wizards to sell plastic templates (and make a profit) there must be a market for them, and the margins need to be high enough for Wizards to bother. As you should know, Wizards find producing adventures difficult because of the low margins and sales. One or two people complaining about the lack of templates isn't a market. I don't really think the profit from templates would be that high, and the potential market isn't that big: you only need one set per group. Wizards, being the size they are, have a greater cost to make these than a 3rd party, and if 3rd parties are already making them, then why do they need to?

Now, it may be that Wizards will produce these plastic templates in the future for general sale, which would be great.

You have said that paper templates would be fine and that you'd pay $20 for them. Why, then, haven't you bought a DDM starter?

Felon · May 9, 2005

MerricB said:
You have said that paper templates would be fine and that you'd pay $20 for them. Why, then, haven't you bought a DDM starter?

You mean those things that you just can't go out buy from a retailer, but rather have to join an organization and fill out paperwork to get a hold of? Because it sounds like a real hassle. Between this and your impractical DMG-photocopy suggestion, you are certainly going to great lengths to be dismissive of a very reasonable complaint.

MerricB · May 9, 2005

Felon said:
You mean those things that you just can't go out buy from a retailer, but rather have to join an organization and fill out paperwork to get a hold of? Because it sounds like a real hassle. Between this and your impractical DMG-photocopy suggestion, you are certainly going to great lengths to be dismissive of a very reasonable complaint.

This thing, Felon. It's available around the world in gaming stores, or available online: