TheMetal1's page

SO WHY DID YOU GET THIS:

Normally I use a 2 x 2 vinyl map, but after a brief stint overseas, all my gaming stuff is spread across the world or in storage waiting to get back to me. I had looked at the Game Mastery maps for some time, and figured as I didn’t know when I’d see my stuff again, and I had a Mutants & Masterminds game going on where the DM was using graph paper and we had minis, I took the plunge.

PROS: Wet & Dry Erase capable, along with in theory just about every other writing ink type thing you could possibly use means I don't have to worry about what I use to write on it with. (Although I have no intention of finding out whether Permanent marker does erase) It folds up rather nicely, which is makes it a tad bit easier to cart around than the bo-staff that is my vinyl mat. Two sided is nice with a decent color contrast. After it has been marked up with all the stuff from our M&M games, clean up is easy and I was presently surprised to see no echoes of old combat haunting the mat in the form of inerasable lines.

CONS: Really the only thing so far is that it takes a bit to lay flat, but I’ve got same problem with my vinyl mat. I do want to point out for you hex based fans, this is strictly squares, so forget about drawing that awesome battlefield in dry erase marker for your Classic BattleTech game. (Yeah, I know they’re going back to just ‘BattleTech’ but I like the sound of Classic BattleTech)

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I highly recommend it - so get it, as it will help out your game. If you're a DM and you already have a map – get it anyway. You can always have that surprise encounter pre-‘mapped out for when the players throw you for a loop. If you’re a player get it anyway, and surprise your GM with how awesome it is, you never know, the GM might throw an action point/hero point/EXP bonus your way.

You've played the mystery detective game by Hasbro called Clue, since you were a kid. This time instead of discovering the killer, Paizo presents the opportunity to be the killer. You can read about them mechanics of the game elsewhere. All that being said, the game is big improvement in quality over Cheapass Games version. The varient options offered, like the spite tokens are pretty cool as well. The only thing, I would have liked to have seen would have been actually minis for the rest of the players verses pawns. We tend to use Hero clicks miniatures instead of pawns anyway with Mr. Fisk, aka 'The Kingpin' as Doctor Lucky as taking out that guy with the tight hat, seems more reasonable than poor old Dr. Lucky...

SO WHY DID YOU GET THIS:

I wanted something to track initiative and keep it straight instead of using a piece of paper or writing it on the game mat, which tends to get messy

PROS: Wet & Dry Erase capable means I don't have to worry about what I use to write on it with and there are plenty of Magnets for NPCs, Monsters, and PCs. The product is sturdy (IMHO) and has space to write durations of spell effects, feats, etc.

CONS: I play both d20 & Palladium stuff. In my d20 games there is a lot less change of initiative, whereas in the Palladium games we roll every round. The magnets make it easy to change the order, but they are a bit small to grasp and the writing tends to get wiped off when I move them, which gets a little frustrating. I've run into the same issue as others mentioned below with size as more space to denote each round would be good.

SO WHAT DO YOU THINK?
I highly recommend it, the CONS are minor, and the PROs are huge, so yeah if I were you I'd get this, it will be a big help to your game.