Grid Tables

So my friends and I, who play Pen-and-Paper Role Playing Games (P&P RPGs, as opposed to MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) RPGs like World of Warcraft, PBEM (Play by Email) RPGs, or CRPGs (Computer RPGs like Final Fantasy)), were having a rousing round of D&D last night. My group normally prefers more social-heavy gaming like World of Darkness (WoD), but we were trying out some of the stuff we’d picked up about the upcoming 4th Edition of D&D.

D&D relies heavily upon ‘grid-based’ combat, where squares are used to denote the battlefield, each block representing a 5 foot by 5 foot area. I had been pondering means of representing this easily and cost-effectively recently, and was eventually inspired to create a Grid Table.

The Grid Table is basically a layer of Contact (I don’t know if it’s a brand or generic name, but it’s normally clear adhesive plastic which you stick to book covers to keep them from damage). It was pointed out to me that the reverse side of Contact when you purchase it (a piece of paper with a ’shiny’ side so the adhesive comes off) has a grid printed on it, which can be seen through the clear plastic. While we tried this, the grid wasn’t drawn strongly enough to be visible. I decided to try drawing with permanent markers on this grid to darken it. Photos below are the (almost) completed Contact.

This is a photo of the reverse side of the contact. Note the large pictures which were also a source of annoyance, because the squares were unclear on occasion.

The reverse side of the contact – you can see the squares pretty clearly now, but they’re not so graphic that you can’t ignore them – perfect!

Our bold adventurers (represented by buttons, the right scale for what we’re doing), facing off in a 25″x25″ dungeon room against four dastardly hobgoblins! Note the clarity of the lines drawn on the topside compared the lines drawn underneath.

In last night’s gaming session, it was discovered that Koki could be drawn on and removed with a simple wipe, while permanent ink would stay. Initially, I was planning on tossing the Contact and not using permanent ink again, but when I was rubbing out some white-board marker that I’d used on top of the permanent ink, the permanent ink came off. Curious, we investigated the white-board marker – which used alcohol as part of it’s mixture. So this morning, I set off to the pharmacy to pick up some Surgical Spirits (medical alcohol), cheap at R5.60, which let me wipe the drawn ‘terrain’ of the grid clean, while leaving the grid (drawn on the reverse side) intact.

The final result is very satisfying – a large grid that I can draw on, and the ink doesn’t rub off until I wipe it with alcohol. The grid itself stays, and everything was put together for next to nothing – a full roll of contact is about R20, thin permanent marker for about R15, and medical alcohol for about R5. Throw in a bit of prestick, and you have a grid attached to a table that can be used for hours of gaming.