"Ungridded" game mat?

[Lord Dynel]

I was wondering if any of you guys out there knew if such a thing exists. Basically, what I'm looking for is a wet-erase mat but with no grid of any type. Chessex, GF9, and Crystal Caste don't do mats without grids.

I want to have something for my table so I can draw out scenarios (if need be) but I don't want grids. Coming from a dozen years of d20, I know my players will keep up bad habits if there's a grid in front of them. I ran them through some Edge of the Empire RPG and they had a few issues with the range bands.

My second option is to go with a dry erase board but the dang markers make me a little light-headed! I bought some "low odor" dry erase markers, so we'll see how those go.

Any suggestions?

[alcyone]

Yeah, whether you use large sheets of presentation paper or a whiteboard or whatever, you'll end up using a marker. Alternatives would be chalk or grease pencil, I suppose.

Maybe just your regular card table or whatever and then dominoes or some other relatively heavy free-standing blocks, plus maybe something like bell wire which is stiff enough to hold its shape but easy to bend, that way you can quickly do rectangular rooms as well as sort of fractal lines like cave walls. Playing card backs can work to rough out rooms also.

Something I bought the other day at Home Depot was a sheet of 1" stone tiles. I was going to use them for miniature basing, but they could serve as floors or walls (of course, if you use them as floors you have a grid again )

[dunbruha]

The cheapest thing would be to get a pad of easel paper and use a fresh sheet for each session. Or get a piece of poster board and laminate it.

[ArgoForg]

Or get a piece of poster board and laminate it.

This. I don't know what the cost savings would be, but I'm pretty sure you can at least dry-erase on this.

Now, if you wanted the roll up vinyl-type mats like Chessex puts out, I really don't know what to tell you. But I'll have a looksee around; I thought they USED to do ones with just the central hex dots, which wouldn't be hideous, I would think.

[Lord Dynel]

Yeah, Argo, that's what I'm looking for - a Chessex-style map without grids. I used to have a Chessex with really tiny squares but I have no idea where that mat went. If I could find it, I might try different chemicals to try to remove the grid from that.

I saw some GF9 mats that have various designs on one side, with no grid, and plain white on the back. The one in particular I was looking at was the space scene (a newer offering from GF9) with a white back. The white side appears to be the same as the front, at least from a tactile investigation. I don't know if there are any treatment differences between sides though.

[Go0gleplex]

You could make your own wet/OV pen board. Just take a sheet of plexi-glas/clear plastic, use some shelf paper to give it a backing and go to town. Framing it would give it a little more durability, but not really needed unless people are leaning on it often. We did something like that for our group of 24 back in HS.

[alcyone]

Look up oilcloth and chalk markers. You can buy oilcloth in any size and with plain colors, and the chalk won't make you dizzy.

[redwullf]

Head to your nearest fabric store and buy a sheet of vinyl-coved material (Naugahyde) in a size and color of your liking. Take away the grid and a battlemat is nothing more than that.

[Rigon]

Head to your nearest fabric store and buy a sheet of vinyl-coved material (Naugahyde) in a size and color of your liking. Take away the grid and a battlemat is nothing more than that.

That's a fantastic idea. I was going to suggest going to Home Depot or Lowes and getting vinyl flooring, but I like your idea better.

R-

[Lord Dynel]

That's an excellent idea, redwullf. I hadn't thought of that. Thanks!

[Relaxo]

REDWULF, FTW!!!!