Okay, here it is the custom made battle map that I am using to run my Keep On The Borderlands – more specifically the Caves of Chaos.  It measures 55 inches by 73 inches, which is why my excel version of the Caves of Chaos map is a bit different from the original.

I’ll walk you through how I put it together, and then give a room by room tour (at least for some of the rooms).

Ok, let’s get started.

I started off with some upholstery fabric that I picked up at JoAnn’s Fabric and craft store. They were running a sale and I got it dirt cheap. Usually this stuff sells for $25.00 a yard and I got it for $3.00 a yard. 2 yards = 6 bucks for the base.

The material used for the walls I got a similar deal on, but I only need half as much (actually less than that, but half is a good starting point.

If you should attempt an insane project like this yourself, I recommend very much that you choose a fabric that has a pattern that lends itself to making the 1” grid. If possible, get fabric that already has a 1” grid on it, like a checkerboard or plaid. The lines on this particular fabric are spaced at ¼” so it was pretty simple to make my grid.

Okay, for the next step I started marking my grid and gluing down my walls. If I had it to do over again (which of course I do), I would recommend drawing out the grid in its entirety first. I used a green permanent fabric marker. They are machine washable and really do a very nice job. A word of warning here, though. You have to let the marker dry for a couple of hours before you expose it to steam.

Why is this important? Well mostly because I used a lot of steam.

In order to attach the walls I used fabric glue, which comes in little rolls. The rolls come in a variety of widths from 1/8” up to 2”. I chose the 1” width, but the 7/8” would work just as good, if not better. In order to stick the walls to the base you cut a strip of wall and a strip of glue and then place the wall on the base with the clue in between. Then put a damp cloth over the wall and apply a hot iron (set to wool) for about 20 seconds. The instructions on the glue say to keep it there for 10 seconds, but I found that keeping it there longer really helped, especially with some other types of fabric, like denim, which I used for the pool in area G.

Here we can see what the whole thing looked like with all the walls done but no trees, water, or furniture. At this point I was experimenting a bit with the fabric markers to see how they would look for drawing in furniture and stuff. I decided to go ahead and cut out shapes for most of the furniture like tables and chairs later on because they added more dimension to the dungeon. After finishing the walls I went ahead and glued down the trees, water, and major furniture elements like tables, chairs and altars.

After finishing all of the gluing I went back with a fabric marker and drew in the rest of the elements that I wanted including furniture, fireplaces, the kobold garden, and the magic runes in the temple of chaos.

All told the project took about 50 hours of work, but it is really a wonderful little blanket to have around. My kids just love it. And as for gaming, it really does bring a whole new dimension to the game experience.

Want a close up tour of some of the rooms? Let’s get started.

Area 1: Entrance. I don’t show the pit trap, but will place it down when the PC’s discover it. The red star represents the cave entrance. There are no furnishings in this area, so it is kind of boring visually. The kobolds get to use the narrow hallway to hold back the PC’s if they turn aggressive.

Area 2: Dump. I admit that I had a hard time drawing trash, so it looks a bit like scribbles. When the PC’s go poking around they will find the rats and scorpions waiting.

Area 3: Also visible in this picture is area 3, the Storage area. Crates, barrels and bags are all drawn out. Mixing colors with the fabric markers is a bit difficult, but they are outlined with black and then colored in with yellow and bronze. The yellow doesn’t show up too well in the photos.

Area 5: This is the kobold king’s lair. If you are paying close attention you will have noticed that I switched areas 6 and 5 on my final map. Why? Well because I screwed up and glued in the king’s throne here. Not a big deal I guarantee the players will not know the difference. I tried to get a bit creative with the fireplace, the lantern, and the little playing cards on the table.

Area 6: This is the kobold main living quarters. Notice the large fireplace and exposed rug. The kobolds like to lounge here next to the fire. They also have a couple of oversized sofas.

Area 4: If you’re wondering what happened to area 4 so am I. At the time of this writing I’m just noticing that area 4 got left out. I guess I’ll stick the guards in the hall somewhere.

Obviously this continues on for the rest of the caves.  If you want to see the whole thing then you’ll just have to download the entire module.  I’ll post links for that next week, I’m just putting on the finishing touches.

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Making a battle grid is essentially as simply as making a large piece of graph paper with 1” by 1” squares.  One question that comes up from time to time is choosing the size of battle grid to use.

There are two ways to approach this question, but they all tend to come down to the size of the encounter that will be used.  If you are going to use a magnetic battle grid, then the size will be determined by the size of magnetic surface that you purchase.  I recommend getting the largest that can be most easily moved, usually 18” x 36”.

If you are doing something more fancy, like dwarven forge or some other 3D dungeon then be sure that all of your rooms are large enough for a battle to easily take place.  In general anything smaller than 3”x3” is going to be too small for maneuverability and players with fat fingers will have difficulty.

No this is not realistic.  There are no buildings that I know of where the smallest rooms are 15’ x 15’.  Most bedrooms are 10’ x 10’ and there is plenty of room for more than 4 people in most of them, but this is one aspect of the game where realism really does get in the way of the fun.

If possible, I would really recommend that you keep your rooms in general to at least 4 squares wide or deep, and all passageways should be at least 2 squares wide.  This will make for more tactical choices as well as allow for more terrain options and features.  Also players will appreciate the added room for their hands.

Be sure to have fun with it!

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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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