Does anybody draw their maps over glass?

[Ozreth]

What I mean is, I've been considering taking my gridded dry erase mat and placing it under the glass tabletop of a table and then drawing over it with wet erase marker.

For several reasons:

A) The table would look really good in my game room
B) The map would never move and be perfectly flat
C) It may or not be easier to erase, eliaviting the slight stains that sometimes appear on these dry erase maps.

The only downside I see so far is that I would have to be moving around the table quite a bit since we wouldn't be able to easily move the map.

[Snake-Aes]

We have the grid that way, as actual maps are not handled enough to justify it. Adjusting the grid is just covering the wall areas and such

[Raiki]

We actually use a really nice chessex megamat, and to keep it nice we draw on a sheet of plexiglass over the top of it. It only cost us like $30 to get a sheet large enough to cover our whole table, and it works great.

~R~

[bartman]

One of our group, one of the rotating GMs, has on his to-do list, a square table, i think 10X10, or maybe 8X8 total. 1-2 foot border in this, that is slightly sunken, to accomodate rolling, sheets, etc, etc. the centre 8X8 or 6X6 is going to be a sheet of frosted glass. under this table will be a projector, connected to a computer on the GM station. There is no shadows, and the GM can control what we see and what we cannot by using layers in photoshop. I cannot wait to help him build it, simply because it is such a cool idea and it will be soo much better than what are are doing now.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

One of our group, one of the rotating GMs, has on his to-do list, a square table, i think 10X10, or maybe 8X8 total. 1-2 foot border in this, that is slightly sunken, to accomodate rolling, sheets, etc, etc. the centre 8X8 or 6X6 is going to be a sheet of frosted glass. under this table will be a projector, connected to a computer on the GM station. There is no shadows, and the GM can control what we see and what we cannot by using layers in photoshop. I cannot wait to help him build it, simply because it is such a cool idea and it will be soo much better than what are are doing now.

If this idea works, please give us specs and details. I would be interested in building a setup like this...

[Balain]

If this idea works, please give us specs and details. I would be interested in building a setup like this...

I'd love to see pictures of this working.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

The best I've seen done, in a game I played once, was a GM who had a huge 'scroll' of maps. He would use cardboard to simulate 'fog of war', and would roll/unroll the map to wherever the party went to. The map itself was simply the terrain features, it would not have any other information on it, and on this map rested plexiglass which was marked on and had minifigures moved around on.

[bartman]

I don't see it happening for a while, but when it does get built, there will definitely be pictures and specs, and prices posted.

[Os1ris09]

My DM use's plexiglass over our grid and use's dry erase markers to draw the battle grid and maps on the glass for our group.

[Ozreth]

awesome guys, glad to hear that others are doing it and that it works well. Thanks : )

As far as electronic tables go, this one is pretty awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8fTkXQ1tY0

[Hendel]

awesome guys, glad to hear that others are doing it and that it works well. Thanks : )

As far as electronic tables go, this one is pretty awesome: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8fTkXQ1tY0

Okay, my geekness is so worked up after watching that. I want one!!

[Yora]

I laminated the grid with a type of soft plastic film. Don't know how it's called in english.

[panaikhan]

We've been playing this way for 5 years.
It's actually an A1 perspex 'picture frame', with a grid drawn on the backing.
We probably need a new one... some of the previous scribblings have seeped into the various fine cracks in the plastic.

[valadil]

We did that when we played at a gaming store. It was kinda nice. These days we rarely play at the same place twice in a row, so it doesn't make sense to have a large, inflexible sheet of glass. We're all content with chessex for the time being. Maybe when someone buys a house with a basement for gaming we'll make that the permanent game spot, but until then a rollable battlemat is ideal.