GameMastery Flip-Mats are designed to make your game portable and affordable. They're made with durable, laminated card stock and can handle dry erase, wet erase, and even permanent marker!
Flip-Mats are constructed of durable laminated card stock (~70 lb paper—comparable to that of a restaurant menu). They measure 24" by 30", and quickly and conveniently fold down to 8" by 10" (slightly smaller than a sheet of notebook paper).
GameMastery Flip-Mat: Basic features a 1"-square grid on both sides. One side features a stoney-grey patterned background, and the flip side features a sandy-brown texture. The 1” grid extends fully to the edge of the maps for a full 720 square inches of usable area.
Usable by experienced GMs and novices alike, this product fits perfectly into any Game Master's arsenal!
I actually took the comments as fact and purchased four and find that they work as expected.
As a note for some people I have found great use in these in a way that the bigger mats cant do (least im not cutting up a $200 dollar map).
I took two of my 4 maps and cut them across the folds and other spaces to create several size maps.
I enjoy being able to do this mainly because I can draw a room with doors, then draw those rooms that the door opens into onto one for my smaller maps, then the player opens the door just slap down the map and move on.
its basically like those 'card maps' you find out there that are preprinted and expensive, but forever changeable by the DM.
I have one of the $200 rolling maps, as mentioned I use the two in conjunction, one for bigger areas and the main part of a map, and these as fillers, and quick map lay downs.
This map is a fairly good size, especially for the price. It does wjat a battle map is supposed to. Both permanent and non permanent markers work fine.
I do not like the packaging. Folding this map is a nice idea and makes it easy to transport but leaves the creases. If you decide to try and roll the map up you can not as the creases are permanent.
I have used this product at conventions and at home with excellent results, 2 tips for potential buyers:
1) 10 minutes or so before the game, place a heavy hardcover book on top of the mat, right in the middle of it, make sure the book covers the 4 central vertices, I've found the PHB enough for this. This way your map will lay flat for the session.
2) I have tried 3 types of markers, permanent, washable and dry erase. I recommend using the dry erase ones.
map does not fold up correctly, nor does it lay flat (not very flippy)
i could barely see the lines I drew and I had to redraw the scene during the same gaming session.
I had high expectations after reading the other 5 star reviews, and I must say that I am not very pleased with this product, and I'll not be purchasing another Flip-Mat. Buyer beware.
For the price this is by far the best product of it's type. I used the two I just purchased for the first time and am very happy with the quality and diversity. A++++
No complaints with the product. Affordable, works well, folds up neatly, and flattens neatly if you get started on it early enough. (What else are you going to use your Epic Level Handbook and PHBII for?)
If you're the type that wants to have your dungeon pre-drawn, you can use both sides to accomplish that. (Or, at this price you can pick up two.)
This size works perfectly, not sure if I'll ever need the larger one.
4/5, but the price totally brings it up to 5/5. The affordability makes it replaceable in case something ever does go wrong.
Sadly, even though this item wasn't back ordered, it took 40 days to get to me. I emailed after a month to find out what the problem was, they were having difficulty getting 2 items on my 7 item order into into the warehouse to ship. Support was very polite and split my order so that the 5 items they'd had for the last month could be processed right away. (The items they were having trouble with weren't listed as backordered when I purchased them)
This is really a great product, and I have loved it ever since picking it up! The coating makes it surprisingly durable, despite its light weight, and it works like a charm at the game table.
When I first purchased it I was worried it wouldn't lay flat after I opened it, but this hasn't been the case at all. In fact I've found it even easier to use than my traditional mat! And the ease in which it folds down really helps keep the game room clear when it isn't needed anymore.
My only dislike of it is that it is very slick. Minis and Dungeon Tiles alike slide across this mat with the slightest bump. This is easily countered with some preparation on the DM's part (poster putty, non-slide rubber mats, etc...)
Overall, this is a fantastic purchase for any DM, especially one who travels quite a bit.
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.
I could not beleive they are that easy to erase without staining, but they are. I wish I could find some the size of megamats. I may have to get more for my bigger battles.