So what does everybody use for a battlemat?

[AmoDman]

Assuming you use minis, of course...or markers, or whatever. I've got a couple friends, hopefully might be able to find one or two more than I'm going to be teaching the game to. First time DM and all that...anywho, I have a handful of minis and just ordered 20 more offa ebay to field a full set of characters and monsters and wondering what to do about a battlemat. Everyone else I've ever played with has always had the Chessex squares one side, hexes other, anybody ever use anything else? I'm considering "homebrewing" a combat grid...not sure yet. A grid, however, is essential, with these first time players, who will need some visual stimulation.

[sharrem]

well i use some Bristol paper (about 1.5mx2.5m) and printed some Hex grid on the computer and then pasted the A4s to the Bristol with some glue and then i use it with a clear plastic sheet over it that i can use non permanent markers on to draw terrain and stuff and use minis to represent fixtures and creatures PCs and NPCs that way i can make 3 or 4 types of background on bristol and change them according to need and use difrent colerd markers for different representations

[Grim Greyscale]

I just use the one that's in the back of the DMG. Works fine for me.

[AngelSword]

I have a few. The first (and most often used) is my DDM mat that was included with the first minis run (Harbinger). Of course, I had it laminated. The others are cheap mats I bought when I forgot my other one. They work alright.

[Leadfeathermcc]

I have an old stormwindow, 4 by 5 feet and a table I painted white and drew gridlines across. The stormwindow is placed over the table and I use dry erase markers to draw out the landscape, or print out battlemats and slip them under the glass as needed.

[Ranis]

One of my players has this insurmountable disposable income coming out of....somewhere, I think he still gets like a $60/week allowance even though he's like....24? I think? Anywho, he's like the DM assistant's wondertool, He's bought all three Dungeon Tiles sets and some 3D dungeon tiles from different websites, printed them off on cardstock, and now I can make REAL dungeons with REAL traps for the minis to explore. It's quite handy, and I can actually make staircases for fights now and all sorts of things; and I feel spoiled.

Because he also brings his Minis collection to every session, which is roughly 150 of them and he orders more each week. I'm spoiled.

[Equlan]

Sometimes the board for HeroQuest, but lately (in smaller fights at least) we've used on third of a Blood Bowl board (not cardboard, but some other material, I have no idea what it's called..).

[Closet_Skeleton]

I use a see through plastic art folder with a folded sheet of squared paper inside.

[Fualkner Asiniti]

I have a laminated piece of thick paper (Bristolboard I think...) Which is laminated. Quick, easy to make, and works fantastic-ly if your DM describes the area well enough, especally the NPC's. (Oh, so he had two longswords? Then why would I sunder one?)

[Bryn]

I create all the maps on Inkscape and print them on A4 paper. Since we use counters instead of minis it doesn't have to be very big, so we rarely use a larger piece of paper than A4.

[Lòkki Gallansbayne]

Last term my group just used an A4 piece of gridded paper with a laminated sheet paper-clipped on top and markers to mark terrain/enemies/etc.

This term we've been using a whiteboard with gridlines drawn onto it and little cardboard pieces to reperesent enemies (we have inappropriate minis à la recent OotS strips for the PCs), then draw the layout of the combat area on top of the grid with a marker. It can be a bit tedious setting up, though, especially since the gridlines aren't done in permanent marker so get rubbed off as well while removing last combat's map. :\

Oh well, at least it's nice and big. I think the DM is going to draw permanent gridlines on it for next term, I should imagine it'll be just great if does.

[Saph]

We use laminated battle mats and draw on them with eraseable markers - water takes them off. (Though only the blue ones, for some reason. The blue markers are water soluble, the red ones aren't. Not sure why. A chemist would know.)

The battle mats are grids, and some are quite big - 3' by 2' or more. Nice if you're drawing the entire layout of a dungeon. I've never used a hex map because so many of our battles and scenarios are indoors.

- Saph

[Shiny, Bearer of the Pokystick]

If I'm using miniatures at all (rare occurence) I'll generally use a whiteboard, and draw in hexes when the PCs get into combat (since grids aren't good for most of the areas I work with, and I just like hexes better).

[DaMullet]

I made a 10x7 grid on the computer of 1 inch squares, which I print off and tape together when I need larger maps. It works well.

[Saithis Bladewing]

When I have the time, I use laminated, rollable and thus easily transportable parchment-coloured/patterned battlemaps that you can write on with dry-erase markers.

When I don't have those available, I whip out my handy pad of grid paper and get to drawing.

[Erom]

My group used a large sheet of... some sort of plastic foam stuff. Anyway it sat under the tablecloth when not in use, and had a permanent square grid... and we used the BEST mini's ever... lego characters. Seriously, a 3x3 stud lego block fit perfectly in the squares on the map, and if we had the wrong mini's... no buying more, just take em apart and build the right ones. Everybody in the group had tons of legos as kids, so when all combined we probably have 300 reconfigurable figures, more than we'll ever need.

[Fhaolan]

We have several versions, as we rotate around at who's house we're playing at, and each person has their own version.

I have an actual BattleMap (tm), because I got it on sale at some point ages ago.

One has a big whiteboard she's drawn a 1" grid on with permanent magic marker.

Another has a giant chalkboard she rescued during a renovation to a schoolroom.

The last has a sheet of plexiglass, and has various sheets of paper he puts under it with different grids printed on them out of a large-format plotter. This is actually the most successful of all of them, because of the flexibility.

I've always wanted a sand table, because I started in this hobby way back when, and sand tables at that point were considered to be the absolute apex of gaming surfaces. Now-a-days, wargamers tend towards hex-based dense-foam terrain features. But I can never justify the *space* one of those takes up.

[ocato]

We sprung for the 10 dollar WotC grid package which came with a lot of little and bigger grids, as well as a few interesting designs on them. Granted our first three adventures after that all took place in places that resembled the art on the grids (reversible too so if you don't want to fight in an inn but need a big square, flip it). Then we bought some tracing paper, fold it over the grid so it won't move and draw stuff on it. A cheap answer to the problem.

[Fax Celestis]

I use Excel, actually.

[Viscount Einstrauss]

I have three large maps from the D&D Minis game, plus the several smaller maps therein, Map-Folio 3-D, plus one of those nice official "Dungeon Tiles" packs. I mean to go buy the other four of those packs some day too. They're pretty well-built, look good, can be assembled in a lot of different ways, and are pretty cheap at $10 a pack.

My dungeons look pretty awesome with this stuff.

[adanedhel9]

I use a Chessex Megamat. I got it as a second-run, so it was $10 off. I have no idea whatsoever as to why it was a second-run... I have yet to notice anything odd about it. And I do have friends with first-runs to compare with.

[Vodun]

I also have a second run chessex mat I got at Gencon '06, I cant tell whats wrong with it at all, but its very very useful.

[AmoDman]

I use a Chessex Megamat. I got it as a second-run, so it was $10 off. I have no idea whatsoever as to why it was a second-run... I have yet to notice anything odd about it. And I do have friends with first-runs to compare with.

Yeah, I've found some ebay listings for "flawed" maps but they never say exactly what's wrong with the one their selling...I'm aleays afraid to try buying it, heh.

[adanedhel9]

Yeah, I've found some ebay listings for "flawed" maps but they never say exactly what's wrong with the one their selling...I'm aleays afraid to try buying it, heh.

I probably wouldn't get one off of eBay. You can order second-run mats directly from Chessex, though.

[nows7]

A glass table works wonders - though dice rolling can be noisey. Use a Sharpe to do the lines, and dry or wet erase markers to do other features, and we use each players D12 to represent their charicter. Or place a grid under the glass table and draw away. BE SURE YOU CAN GET THE WHATEVER MARKER YOU USE OFF THE GLASS BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING. If you can find one marker that will wipe of easily for PC's, monsters, or Spell effects, and another that will stay on untill cleaned (windex or rubbing alchol) you'll be set.

[Eldmor]

I use a larger-than-personal size dry-erase board. Although it's frustrating that the lines wipe away so easily.

[the_tick_rules]

my dm also has a dry erase board. though he used an exacto knife or something to carve sqaures and create a grid. though when he isn't around I use the board provided in the dmg.

[Clementx]

I use a sheet of acetate (70 cents a yard at any office supply/craft store) thrown over the table. Generally, I slide the blank grid that comes with the DMG underneath, and use color-coded dry erase markers to fill in the details of the terrain. I either make up the terrain as I go/transcribe it off a smaller map I made on regular graph paper, or slide a full-size, pre-drawn template underneath. I have one of forests, one for hills, etc. that I can rotate around and adjust the location of the minis to create essentially new maps in an instant. Plus I can dry-erase more specific things, as well, like flooding depressions for one encounter near a river, or throwing in a couple simple buildings. Of course, I like inventing interesting terrain in an instant. If you don't, you just pre-make it more than I do. The other benefit is it gives every player a section of acetate to write down buffs, current HP, etc. right in front of their chair, surrounding the map.

I've been meaning to start using legos, but all mine are black and I don't have a lot of figures. I was emo even as an eight year-old.

[Bouldering Jove]

Go board, with sheets of paper to mark off general walls and dice to represent objects.

[its_all_ogre]

i photocopied the plain side of the map that came with DMG and then photocopied it loads. to start with i just drew on the mini-maps(all A4) and then threw them out.
then i got some plastic A4 sheets from work and stapled them onto a load and use dry erase markers.
hardest thing is mapping out huge open areas, have not found a good way to do that yet.