Anyone use a white board for their minis ?
I just got a 6'x4' whiteboard for a table top and was thinking about using it for pathfinder. Converting every 5' increment into 1" on the board and using tape measures or rulers for movement and ranges. I would just need to work on spell templates for cones and such.
Just looking for some inspiration.
Thanks,
Clammy
For my experience with war gaming, you are trading ease and speed of play for a more accurate simulation. That being said, I think there are far better things to spend brain cells (and time) pondering during a game to increase realism than eschewing the grid (like facing, for instance).
EDIT: That being said, a magnetized white board with a permanent grid drawn on it could be quite a nice way to go.
Spell templates are easy, just get a compass and start making circles of the right diameter.
With clear contact paper and dry-erase markers, you can turn your one inch grid into a white board.
Should have mentioned that we are all avid minis wargamers, so measurement won't be an issue.
Thanks for the tips guys.
I went to walgreens. In my area they sell posterboard thats dry erase. bought 2 of them. taped them together on their underbelly. I pipped it out with permanent marker by making dots in a hex grid pattern. dry erase battlemat. total cost. like 8 bucks... tops...
only caveat? if you use dry erase markers on a dry erase board and draw over the permanent marker pips, they can become no longer permanent. which is funny but hasnt really been much of a problem.
Walmart sells a roll-on paint that turns any surface into a dry erase surface but it costs like 25 bucks so if you dont care about ruining the surface of your game table that can become one hell of a dry erase battlemat.
Thanks guys. Gonna try it out tonight.
I've used a white board before.
My advice: Make sure your players are okay with you eyeballing distances for opponents with reach. Stopping in the middle of movement to precisely measure one- or two-inch gaps between minis can get rather tedious, especially in large battles.
Also, I've found it's handy to keep a few pieces of string cut to various common lengths on hand. Tape measures and rulers are fine for most things, but sometimes, a creature wants to zigzag around obstacles. In those cases, it's easier to measure movement with a flexible length of string than a rigid tape measure or ruler.
If this is a concern, with a simple warmachine tool pack, you can get little devices for measuring this much more quickly. Also i use an online whiteboard called D20, which is awesome!
Should have mentioned that we are all avid minis wargamers, so measurement won't be an issue.
Thanks for the tips guys.
I've actually done dnd on wargamming tables before, complete with terrain and such. I will say this, it looks awesome. It also simplifies a few things like "is that or isnt it a straight line" or 'does he have cover'. Just look. It also simplifies diagonal or movement not in a straight line (just bend the tape mearure)
BUT, and this is a big but, it slows down gameplay. ALOT. My group that tried this 'free form' combat, found that even expeirence wargammers cant measure inches as fast as someone can count out squares. And while this is only maybe 10 seconds a turn, for a gm (moving a whole mess of baddies) it can be a real drag on thing. It can add half an hour or more to an encounter. That can be alot of you have several encounters in a session. Thats pretty much why my group has whiteboards with inch/inch squares on it now, and we have 3d terrain that also incorporates inch squares. I love the look and feel of terrain on the board, but the grid makes movement so much easier.
Did you draw out the grid on your white board or did you get it that way ?
I would love a simple grid solution for my whiteboard, other than drawing it out by hand. A friend suggested an overhead projector for the grid, but we don't have one.
Did you draw out the grid on your white board or did you get it that way ?
I would love a simple grid solution for my whiteboard, other than drawing it out by hand. A friend suggested an overhead projector for the grid, but we don't have one.
It came that way, got it years ago now. Its actually starting to wear out (doesnt quite erase as well as it ought to), but it had the inch grid printed on it to begin with. There are also as mentioned dry erase matts specifically designed for gaming with inch by inch squares. I have one of those as well, you can find them for sale here or from other retailers/
And actually a quick amazon search turned up something really interesting. This dry erase board folds up to pocket size and is 35x15 with an inch grid on it. 2 or 3 of them might be the perfect thing for travel games...Alot less bulky then even my roll up dry erase matts.
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Just out of curiosity, why are folks who want whiteboards with grids not just using a dry-erase battlemats in the first place? Is it because they're flexible instead of rigid? Tan instead of white?
All the battlemats i've ever met that roll up and are tan are not dry erase but wet erase and its a crapshoot if you left a map drawn on it for a week if when you came back it would even be erasable.... Even dry erase markers tend to be partially permanent on all the battlemats i've ever met that roll up.
Plus I hate rollups... they dont like laying flat at the edges and corners.
Mountain dew cornercasters ruins my immersion
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a magnetized white board with a permanent grid drawn on it could be quite a nice way to go.If only such a thing existed!
Oh, they exist. If only they weren't so spendy....
Just out of curiosity, why are folks who want whiteboards with grids not just using a dry-erase battlemats in the first place? Is it because they're flexible instead of rigid? Tan instead of white?
For me, it would be the fact most whiteboards are magnetized. Makes for easy tokens.
I have used battle mats for years. I have a large custom RPG table. It is 6'x8' with a 4'x6' raised section for the maps and minis. I just recently picked up a 4'x8' marker board from home depot for 14 dollars and chopped off the extra 2'. So this was an easy solution and cheap.
We used it without a grid and we enjoyed it today. I, as gm, did most of the movement for everyone and kept things moving. We enjoy the extra flexibility we get with the more free form nature of this style.
Very enjoyable.
a magnetized white board with a permanent grid drawn on it could be quite a nice way to go.If only such a thing existed!
Not that hard to find, unfortunately they seem to be pricey.
Google is your friend.
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I use a magnetic whiteboard (4'x3') for my games, ofc it had no grid initially so I used a permanent marker and after measuring I placed dots at the cross-sections.
It looks kinda like a whiteboard with smallpox but it allows me to draw any space/dungeon on the spot without having to use different color markers in order to not get confused with the grid lines since some of my players have mild cases of dyschromatopsia.
