I'll be visiting some family overseas and would like to know the best way to bring Pathfinder RPG with me to play there. My luggage space is limited.
While my relatives have wi-fi, they do not have game stores near them. For the books, I have a tablet and I can put dice in my pocket.
The Chessex battle mat I usually use will not fit. Anybody have a suggestion for a portable alternative?
I have a huge collection of miniatures at home, but they also will not fit in my luggage. Any suggestion for alternatives?
Collapsable chess boards are also useful. Only 8x8, but works for when you don't want to DIY.
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theatre of the mind.
You don't have to use the board at all.
:D
theatre of the mind.
You don't have to use the board at all.
:D
That works too, but can be a little confusing for newbies.
Do you want to play with your family, or is it something else you're looking to do?
theatre of the mind.
You don't have to use the board at all.
:D
That works too, but can be a little confusing for newbies.
Do you want to play with your family, or is it something else you're looking to do?
Family and they are newbies.
The flip mats provide a nice map base in a pretty compact package.
This. The generic flip mats and a pack of dry erase markers and you can create any darn thing you need in a pinch. Highly portable, but also very effective.
This. The generic flip mats and a pack of dry erase markers and you can create any darn thing you need in a pinch. Highly portable, but also very effective.
Wet erase are much less of a hassle. Dry erase just smudges away too easily for my taste.
That works too, but can be a little confusing for newbies.theatre of the mind.
You don't have to use the board at all.
:D
I feel the opposite. If playing with newbies, you don't need to throw the whole rulebook at them. Just fudge the details like movement and placement and focus more on being descriptive and having fun.
Make an excel file with 1" x 1" cells, outline and print. Use a new one for each new encounter area. Use several for large encounter areas. Draw on them with pencil if you feel like you'll need to change a lot.
However, I think a blank flipmat, as Gino and Mended Wall suggest, is your best solution. Just abuse it, fold it and unfold it over and over again till the darn thing lays somewhat flat.
As for miniatures, use pogs if you can find them. On the other hand, miniatures don't take up much space if you just toss them in your luggage. Use the ones in your huge collection that are already damaged.
If the hardware supports it, you could hook your tablet up to their TV with an HDMI cable and show maps that way.
If you have them, raid every board game you have in the house for those little plastic miniatures for moving about the board. It could be Monopoly, it could be anything.
I don't know how real you want those minis to be. We just used dice. But if you the people you are playing with don't have their own bags of dice, you might have make your own.
How about cutting up a pizza box. you make stand ups with bases that have slots in them. Then glue them together. With some colored pens, people could decide what their character looks like.
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A lot of christmas wrapping paper has a grid on the back so that you can make straight cuts and they are about 1 inch (or close enough that when I've used them for a map I didn't notice) As far as minis, I'd buy a pawn box .pdf and throw a handful of empty bases in your dice bag, then you can print out what you need and tape it to a base. The Paizo flip mats fold up to not take much space and work just fine with dry or wet erase markers.
I prefer Crayola's dry erase crayons myself.This. The generic flip mats and a pack of dry erase markers and you can create any darn thing you need in a pinch. Highly portable, but also very effective.Wet erase are much less of a hassle. Dry erase just smudges away too easily for my taste.
Had never heard of those until just this very moment. Thanks for the info. I'll be looking to acquire some of these at the earliest possible occasion. Selling point? Don't dry out!!!! I've gone through so many packs of dry erase markers over the years just because of dry out.
Wow, dry erase crayons, do they work with a Chessex battlemat?
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I've been using these as pseudo-miniatures lately. You can carry all the minis you'll need in a large pocket.
The flip mats provide a nice map base in a pretty compact package.
Get some Warmachine tokens instead of bingo chips. You can use wet- or dry-erase markers on them as well as on your flip mats, and they come in different colours. Also get a small dry-erase whiteboard, to keep track of stuff in a way such that everyone at the table can always see it (and you can use your tablet at the same time).
Altogether, you're looking at a play kit that would be able to fit in something half the vertical size of the Beginner Box. Like a compartment of your handbag / suitcase / laptop bag.
What if I were just to have a Beginner Box shipped to them. Would that have everything needed?
For example, I see that it has a fold out map. Can you draw on it? How big is it? Is there a 2nd side to it?
The map is standard flip mat size, which I believe is 24 x 30 inches. You can use wet- or dry-erase markers on it. One side has a dungeon; the other side is blank for drawing your own maps. You can see it in the unboxing video here.
I just wanted to pop back in here, and let everyone know that I bought a set of those dry erase crayons, and MAN! are they awesome. Having used them now for a bit, I can't believe I ever used dry erase markers. The best part about them? They won't dry out, because they're crayons! Clearly this is the best hobby in the world, because it allows a grown adult male to draw with crayons and still be considered in complete control of all his mental faculties. :)
For a map option, try using the back of some gift wrapping papers. Many of them are printed with a 1" grid on the back. Saved my but more than once.
PDF's work great. If they have a TV or something that you can hook your Tablet up to, and a HD connector...works wonders. You can even use the PDF maps that way, though you might have to turn the TV on it's side of something if you want to use it as a table for miniatures. Just about anything will work for miniatures in a pinch on that side.
When I travel, all I need is my laptop...and...well...that's it. Everything I need is online...and if I d/l the PDF from Paizo...well...that's all I need.
Very portable.
Gaming paper comes on a roll. Tear off what you need and fold it flat into your suitcase. Or order a roll and have it shipped to them.