So I'm in a bit of a pickle; I'm GM'ing a campaign while deployed and we are having a hard time with combat. Where we game we have spotty connection, so Roll20 and the like is out. Paper and such is a hot commodity, so I can't just print stuff off at work. Graph paper is nowhere to be found, and even if I were to get it, it's generally too small to reflect what I need in combat. I own one of the vinyl mats in the rear, but even rolled up, I won't have space for it with my gear when I stash it.
Any ideas for trying to keep it low-cost so I can actually do some more complex combats than 1 or two creatures? Thanks!
I thought about it, but cost is a little steep to be able to get the variety we'd need/like.
Okay, you need to go old school and cheap, like a broke high school gm. Some patience with a ruler and blank paper and you can make your graph paper. Two options from here, laminate it and use erasable marker to draw what you need, or colored pencil and an eraser. Coins, pebbles, cutout pieces of paper or whatnot for minis.
If you have electronics, but no reliable connection, you might like for a map generating app that runs locally.
I just redeployed back from deployment where the DM enjoyed a playmat but I've experienced your situation before as well; and I've had to develop ways to DM effectively in previous tours as well.
My recommendation: Microsoft Office or Flash.
1. Find Map you would like to use, be it in a standalone format or in a PDF.
2. To extract, I usually Screen Shot (PrintScreen) and paste the product onto something like MSPaint. I then crop the exact portion I want.
3. In PowerPoint or Flash I would then set the cropped image as the background and edit the proportion so it fits the way I want it to. This way when you are moving pieces across the board you will not shift the battlefield on accident. Working in Layers on other programs can help too.
4. Draw simple shapes/templates to represent PCs/NPCs like universal shapes that you can just recolor once built. Example my players were circles and opponents were squares; I would color them by line and shade and if necessary have a simple label attached.
5. Using options like Snap-to-Grid you can easily keep track of and move objects throughout the field.
Its not for everyone but this method allowed me to have detailed maps that everyone could see, particularly if you can connect to a bigger monitor/projector. You could draw the maps yourself as well but with corresponding adventures or even your own homebrew you can adapt existing images/maps much more quickly to enable on-the-fly DMing.
I DM out of the barracks these days from an attached TV to my laptop or the Conference Room (with projector) at the MWR/Warrior Zone. The only time I work with playmats or analog formats is when I am the Player and the DM works that way.
For another solution try getting a hold of Paizo or Wizards of the Coast directly; I've heard of groups deployed that got some goodies before from them, and they may be happy to sponsor you a playmat, screen or something as well.
For real bootleg quality boards, see if anyone has some of those old lego boards. The minis are usually 30 mm across, which is about 4 studs wide (3.75 according the lego calculator I found). So a 32x32 board (10'x10') is an 8x8 square room. And if you have multiple boards, you can have a fairly decent field.
I know- feels silly, but legos can be used for rather customizable boards, since you can use a varity of the flatter pieces to define the space (such as using those flat square pieces are entire walls, or those thin, flat, 1 stud wide peices in a pinch to represent walls). So overall, it isn't hard to get a board with definite measurements and scale since that is the very basis of teh lego design.
Depending on the resources at hand, you could possibly have a whole array of rooms prepared ahead of time, and you can easily recycle the boards to make new rooms with a short break.
This mostly comes up as an option if anyone in the group happens to have a large lego collection- obviously.
Avaricious,
From the sounds of it, you would be at the home of the BRO nation then. I'll look into asking Paizo, and start seeing what I can do about some laminate.
Toast of the Army, indeed ArendK. Take it your BRO yourself, shared a table in the past perhaps?
Mobile DMing really is a challenge. My best accessory was a USB drive I'd transfer sheets, PDFs, and other utilities to my players and vice-versa frankly.
It's either that or you and your players get real accustomed to Abstract play. At its heart, its core RP, but it can burn out a lot of us tactical types who work on range brackets and movement versus wondering how Mr. Sword is always in perfect position for FRA.
Avaricious;
Distinctly possible. I gamed a lot when I first arrived at the home of the BRO in 2012, then stopped due to operations involving pleasing the original Household 6, then deployment, returned amidst reflagging a new Household 6 after a relief of cause in 2014, started gaming again since new leadership was down for gaming/nerdyness/not being a psycho hosebeast and instead being awesome.
A rules-lite rpg would be good for my current situation, yes. But I can't find one I really like yet that I can try fairly.