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Nerdarchy > Game Master Tips  > Map Your Combat with an RPG Battle Game Mat

Map Your Combat with an RPG Battle Game Mat

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Maps.

Many Dungeons & Dragons players begin their journey into fantastic adventures through the allure of maps. Carefully constructing dungeon complexes on trusty graph paper, building them with digital tools like Pyromancer’s Dungeon Painter Studio or drawing them with a Wacom tablet like ENnie Award winner Elven Tower remains a vital part of the hobby for countless players.

But when it comes time to engage in combat, when the Game Master asks you to roll for initiative and things get serious, what do you do? Your miniatures won’t fit on a piece of graph paper or colorfully printed map on an 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheet. When you’re at the gaming table and need a visual representation of the environment where combat takes place, a battle mat is a tried-and-true tool in a GM’s kit.

A battle mat for your RPG kit

 

RPG battle mat map

Fat Zebra’s RPG Battle Game Mat is ready for the next initiative roll.

Fat Zebra Designs, who sponsored this post, has a product on the market to fulfill this need. The RPG Battle Game Mat is available right now through Amazon, ready to deploy in your next gaming session when the time comes to cross swords, draw pistols or whatever method adventuresome characters use to defeat dangerous foes.

 

The dry erase, double-sided RPG Battle Game Mat clocks in with generous 36″ x 24″ dimensions. One side of the one-inch square grid mat is an antique distressed color, with the flip side in white. Made with highest-grade materials, designed and printed in the US, the heavy duty mat has a UV coating for easy erasing and trouble-free use.

Whether your jam is D&D, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Warhammer, X-Wing or any other tabletop roleplaying game or war game utilizing miniatures, the RPG Battle Game Mat is a helpful resource for GMs and players. Even the best theater of the mind gameplay sometimes needs a way to keep combat organized and provide a sense of scale and distance.

As a matter of fact, for the longest time I played exclusively through theater of the mind but recently started using a battle mat myself. The players enjoy moving their minis around and having a better idea of how far away things are. For me, it’s an opportunity to add tension and impact when the map becomes populated by a plethora of pawns showing just how large a force of monsters the party faces.

“I think they are pretty cool. It comes double-sided, so use the side you like best. You can have one thing drawn on one side and another on the other so you can easily just flip it over to move to the next section of the map. They are waterproof, so for gamers that means spills are not going to damage it, because we all know those occasionally happen. They come with markers so no need for extra purchases or research to figure out which markers to use. And hey who does not want more dice.” – Nerdarchist Ted

Need a place to store all your dice? Click the image to learn about Dragon Bagons and recruit a dragon ally to guard your own precious hoard.

As Nerdarchist Ted points out, the RPG Battle Game Mat includes a set of four dry erase markers perfectly suited for use on the mat surface, and also – dice! A seven piece black marble dice set comes with the mat as well, and like he says, who doesn’t want more dice? Okay, maybe you’re one of those players like Travis Willingham from Geek & Sundry’s Critical Role, or the player in my game who sticks with a single set of dice. But for every other gamer out there, you know you want more dice.

Comparable in cost to other battle mats, the RPG Battle Game Mat from Fat Zebra scores points for including markers and a set of dice. Reviews of the product on Amazon are overwhelmingly positive, averaging 4.9 out of 5 stars. Several reviews note the quality of the mat and usefulness of being double-sided. More than one person was happily surprised at the large size, which I can also attest to as a GM relatively new to using a grid mat. It’s nice to have a lot of real estate to work with especially if you’re kind of imprecise like me; there’s plenty of space to utilize!
While you’re at Amazon checking out Fat Zebra’s RPG Battle Game Mat, browse around and check out some of the other awesome accessories you can add to your RPG game kit. If you already have one of these mats, let us know what you think about it in the comments below. And as always, stay nerdy!
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