If you’ve taken the time to get yourself a magnetic gaming field, the next step is getting things to stick to it.  This really isn’t as hard as it sounds and can save you tons of frustration, especially if you play with a more energetic crowd.

You’ll need:

1. Magnetic Tape
2. Minis
3. Hot Glue (maybe)
4. Scissors (Heavy duty, not the little blunt paper cutting scissors you had in kindergarten).

 You can get Magnetic Tape at nearly any department store (Wal-Mart, etc.) in the craft section.  Just ask for it.  It comes in a couple of sizes.  I prefer the 1″ size.  Bigger is better, you can always cut it down if it doesn’t work.

Now take the scissors and cut the tape to match the size of your base.  If you are using the DnD minis, the bases will actually hid the magnets for you.  For Reaper minis and the like, the magnet will show, but nobody will notice, and for those minis with the narrow bases this is a real frustration saver.

A few words on making “permanent” changes to collectible minis.  First of all, for most of the minis this will not be a permanent change.  The magnetic tape comes off.  For those that you decide to make permanent via hot-glue, well, I recommend not doing this to your rarest minis unless you really don’t care.  The magnetic tape sticks pretty good to most plastic, metal, and ceramic surfaces.  It doesn’t do as good with wood, but by and large it should stick to your base without damaging it.

If you are going to be playing with a mini on a regular with a magnetic playing field it is worth the trouble to magnetize them.

A note to DM’s out there.  While I love this and I have used it many times in my games I don’t require my players to put magnets on their minis.  After all, some people collect things and collectors can be very particular.

Cheers, and have a great game!

Welcome back to Dungeons and Dragons Corner.

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Like many people I don’t have an inexhaustible gaming budget. So, I look for deals where I can get them. As a DM I like to provide as entertaining a Dungeons and Dragons session as possible, including handouts, a magnetic game grid, and minis, but I don’t have the hundreds of minis it would require to have a unique mini for each monster my players will find.

Here are some solutions I have tried.

• Buy in bulk and re-use. Find a site offering bulk minis, or a collection on ebay, and pick them up inexpensively. Use the orc minis to represent not only orcs, but also goblins, hobgoblins, humans, gnolls, etc.
• Visit your local second-hand stores. Many times these minis get stuck in the toy section of your local goodwill or other second hand store, where you can pick them up for a dime (or less).
• Use tokens instead of minis. Gameboard tokens, chess pawns, etc. can fill the role of kobold minions nicely. Save your nicer looking minis for the bosses. Sure this allows for some meta-gaming (since the players always know who the boss is), but that may not always be a bad thing.

The key to remember is that most of the monsters will be long forgotten by the time the players reach the next encounter. If you are careful about how you reuse the minis you do own it can draw attention to the NPC’s you want them to remember.

On the flip side there is nothing wrong with painting fabulous minis or investing in some nice pre-sculpted and pre-painted minis as well. If you have the luxury of access to dozens or even hundreds of minis then by all means, use them.

Thanks, and enjoy the game!

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Ok, this is the single most versatile gaming tool I have ever used.  It is not necessarily the prettiest, but it is a time saver and you can use it session after session.

The idea is very simple.

Buy a magnetic white board (recommend 24″ x 36″) and write a 1″x1″ game grid on it with a permanent marker.  That’s it. 

The advantages are tremendous.

• All you need is a dry erase marker (comes with most boards) and you can quickly draw out dungeon maps.
• Magnetic so if you apply magnets to your minis you don’t have to worry about anyone bumping the board.
• It is metal so it doesn’t break.
• The sturdy surface allows for dice rolling (and the magnets mean you don’t have to worry about the dice knocking things around).
• If you use clear plastic maps (see information here) you can simply lay them over the field, tucking one edge of the map under a corner and get the advantages of the durable magnetic surface and a pretty map.

 So, how to you get your hands on one of these things without forking out a ton of cash?

Go to your local department store or office supply store and buy:

• A magnetic white board (get a size that will fit on your gaming table)
• A couple of permanent markers (Black Sharpies)
• A couple of dry-erase markers (make sure they are dry erase, not wet erase).
• Felt backing, if desired.

 Take it home and draw your grid.

There are two basic methods.

1. Get a broom handle.  Have someone hold it flush to one edge and run your sharpie down the other side.  Move the broom handle over until the edge is flush with the line you just drew.  Now draw a line down the other side.  When you have lines all across your board, rotate it 90 degrees and do the lines the other direction.
2. Get a ruler.  Using a dry-erase marker, mark off lines 1″ apart down one edge of the board. Go to the other edge and measure/mark the same lines.  Now take a long straight edge (like broom handle) and use a permanent marker to connect the lines.  Rotate the board and repeat for the lines going the other way.

 You’ll have a product you can use for years.

Have fun gaming!

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Last time I talked about how to make a large dungeon map on standard 8 ½” x 11″ paper.  You can see that article here.  And personally I think it works pretty good.  Sometimes, however, you know that you’ll be re-using a map a lot, or you just want something sturdier.  Here are a few ideas.

• Print it on Card Stock.  You can get card stock in various off-white colors at pretty much any office supply store.  There are several specialty paper stores as well, but the office supply stores usually sell for less, though the quality of paper won’t be as nice.
• Print it on paper and then glue it to cardboard.  This is particularly useful if you are going to build a 3D dungeon.  Tape or glue (I recommend glue in this case) the map to the cardboard.  Now you have a perfect template for building your 3D dungeon, or you can use it as-is.
• Print it on clear plastic sheets.  Depending on your printer and or copy machine resources you can print (black and white generally) to clear overhead projector sheets.  Again these are available in office supply stores, though they can get expensive fast if you are using large maps.  Why would you do this?  Well, if you happen to have an overhead projector it works nicely for overland maps.  However, a more common use would be to apply them to a magnetic game grid..  Slip the map onto the grid and you get the benefit of the magnets as well as a more interesting map.
• You could also glue the paper onto even more sturdy backing, such as plywood or even sheet metal, however that is probably going to the extreme.

If you have access to a laminator then by all means laminate to your heart’s content.  Alternatively you could apply clear contact paper to the map.  

As always, have fun with your game.

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Making fun, interesting dungeons from scratch can be difficult.  Bringing them to life at the game table can be really tough unless you are spend a lot of money buying pre-printed dungeon tiles on a 1″ grid.  So how do you get your newly created dungeon onto a 1″ battle grid?

Enter Microsoft Excel.

Ok, Microsoft has a lot of bad press, but this is a trick that will save you time.

Convert your map to an electronic image.  If you don’t have a scanner, visit a friend who does.  If you are downloading free maps from Wizards of the Coast or another site then you will already have an image to use.  The sweet thing here is that it doesn’t matter the format or size of the image, though I recommend using jpg because the file size is smallest, which works well if you plan to email the finished product around.

Now open a blank workbook in Excel. 

• Change your print margins to .5″ all around (1/2″ border all around).  You can go smaller if you like.
• Click Insert | Picture | From File. 
• Browse to the image that you saved on your computer.  Select it an click insert.
• The picture should appear in your workbook.
• Move the picture to the top leftmost area of your workbook, so that the top left corner of the map is covering cell A1.
• Click on your zoom, and change it to approximately 40%.  This will show you how many pages the map will cover when printed.
• If you don’t get the dotted lines for the pages click print preview and then go back.
• However, you’ll want to go into print preview anyway, so open it now and count the number of squares of your dungeon that appear on the page.  Assuming that you are using standard 8 ½” x 11″ paper and printed portrait then you will want 7 squares to appear on the page so that you get nice 1″ squares when you print.
• If there are more than 7 then cancel print preview and adjust your image size by dragging the bottom right corner diagonally down and to the right.
• Go back to print preview and count the squares.  If the squares are too big, then go back and make the image smaller.
• When you have the right size of squares, print the pages.
• Generally speaking you will end up with several pages.  After they print, lay them all out on the table, or the floor if you have a very large map.
• Cut the bottom ½” border off the top row of pages.  This will allow you to tape or glue (I prefer clear tape applied to both sides) the second row to the top row.
• Cut the right ½” border off the left most pages.  This will allow you to glue or tape the next row of pages together.
• The idea here is to end up with a ½” border all around your nice map but still have plenty of room for assembly.

 You can do up an entire dungeon level in one evening and save yourself a ton of time explaining and drawing maps for players.  Personally I like to let my players keep the maps of the areas they have cleared.

Hope this helps and have fun!

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