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RPGs on a Budget - Making your own Battle Grid?
Flay
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
First off: I'm completely new to P&P RPGs. I've played one round of D&D and that left me confused as hell. But I'm determined to keep going, so I've decided to try and set up my own game with a group of friends. Spoilered for non-relevance...
Anyways, I'm in the process of gathering the resources required to set up a game, but I'm trying to limit my spending (being a student isn't cheap, after all). I've got a set of dice, I've borrowed a few of the core D&D books (although I've had a flip through of them and am none the wiser for it). What I'm interested in at the moment are any money-saving tips you guys might have for someone (complete novice or veteran) who is interested in playing a pen and paper RPG.
There are two things that I want to know at the moment...
One: I've seen official battle grids, but as they cost 25 bucks (AUD), I'm leaning towards the homebrew option. How would I go about making my own reusable battle-grid? Would simply laminating a piece of paper with a grid drawn on it work, and would markers draw on such a surface? If so, what kind of markers should I use?
Two: Is the D&D Roleplaying Starter Set worth purchasing? I already have the dice; what I really have my eye on is the monster and character tokens. The quickstart rules would also be a handy introduction without overwhelming us with the full complexity of the game right off the bat.
I'm aware it would probably be better for me to stick to playing rather than DMing for the time being, but none of my friends have role-played before and I really can't relax and play properly unless I'm in a group I know well (i.e. close friends). Hopefully I can come to some arrangement where we take turns as DM, so I'll get a chance to play too.
Anyways, I'm in the process of gathering the resources required to set up a game, but I'm trying to limit my spending (being a student isn't cheap, after all). I've got a set of dice, I've borrowed a few of the core D&D books (although I've had a flip through of them and am none the wiser for it). What I'm interested in at the moment are any money-saving tips you guys might have for someone (complete novice or veteran) who is interested in playing a pen and paper RPG.
There are two things that I want to know at the moment...
One: I've seen official battle grids, but as they cost 25 bucks (AUD), I'm leaning towards the homebrew option. How would I go about making my own reusable battle-grid? Would simply laminating a piece of paper with a grid drawn on it work, and would markers draw on such a surface? If so, what kind of markers should I use?
Two: Is the D&D Roleplaying Starter Set worth purchasing? I already have the dice; what I really have my eye on is the monster and character tokens. The quickstart rules would also be a handy introduction without overwhelming us with the full complexity of the game right off the bat.
Flay on
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It works for me. But if I dont wash it fast enough it leaves stains, especially the red marker. I'm not sure which kind of markers I bought but I guess those for the white boards would work fine.
The real advantage to this is that with a $10 pad of newsprint (Cannon's 100 sheets of 18x24 newsprint runs that price) and some markers, you can also prepare maps ahead of time. Fold/roll them to keep them secret from the players, and when an encounter occurs, unroll it, place it under the plexiglass grid, and you're free to go.
It also makes a nice sound when dice rattle against it. I like the sound of wood better, but it's more muted, and makes an excelent compromise.
Edit: I didn't really explicitly state it; you can use dry erase (or wet erase too I guess) markers on plexiglass as well.
Cheap and you use white board markers on them, you should be able to scrounge up one of those from practically anywhere.
If you want to buy one local check local game stores to save shipping. Often places that are devoted to comics carry D&D stuff as well. If they run games there you might be able to sit in on one and get a better idea of what you're doing.
Now you have poor man's TacTiles. You can use dry-erase marker on these, making clean-up much easier than battlemats (which require wet erase markers).
"Go up, thou bald head." -2 Kings 2:23
I second this. What me and my roommate ended up doing was buying a 4x8 sheet of tileboard. It's about $12, then we used automotive pin striping tape to layout grid lines. I think it came out great, but honestly, being able to transport the flips is great (my old roommate had one, no idea where he got it but I completely forgot about it until you pointed them out. The other big problem is that the tape ended up costing as much as the board. It can be drawn on with dry erase markers and is gigantic, which is kinda nice.
twitch.tv/tehsloth
This was actually what I was referring to when I talked about the 'official battle grids' (my mistake) costing $25. And if it's going to end up just costing the same amount to make my own... I guess I should just buy one.
Any other money-saving tips you guys might have?
It really depends how visual you are. When I needed a bunch of cheap tokens I bought some 1/2" wooden dowel and just cut off some discs. Wrote numbers on them and colored the background (so I had stuff like Blue 1, and Red 6) to distinguish different kinds of bad guys. In all honestly I probably would have been better served by going to a craft store and buying precut (and sanded) ones.
If you want mini's you're going to have to do a fair amount of "This kobold is the orc priest, this warforged is the orc fighter". Even with that, they are slightly nicer visually. Check game stores with web fronts to grab a bunch of commons relatively cheap.
The Insider subscription on the Wizards website allows 5 installs of the full character generator. It's likely worth it. If you time it right you'll actually probably get 10, but only half will be the most updated. It simplifies things so damn much. Nevermind at the same time you'll get a shit load of adventures available to you. Just remember you can save those PDF's for after your month is up.
At my local hardware store, it runs about $20.
Okay, here's another question. The tokens that come with the starter pack are probably sufficient for the moment, but for future reference, which are cheaper, D&D miniatures or Warhammer miniatures?
As for cheaper.....ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha....
The mini's put out by wizards are plastic, mass produced and pre-painted. They are relatively cheap. The mini's for warhammer are sometimes plastic (but much sturdier plastic than the D&D mini's), sometimes metal. They're unpainted and sometimes unassembled. They are relatively expensive.
I'd consider warhammer kind of mini's if it were for a PC I planned on playing for a long time (and I could rebase them). Buying a horde of them is pretty expensive and kinda pointless unless you actually play that game.
The big advantage this offers is that you can take various image making apps(Heromachine is a classic one) and use them to make visual representations of the PCs and any important NPCs. The big disadvantage is they look a little cheap and some people would rather just say 'the blue triangles are all kobolds, the purple square's a dragon' than look at paper minis.
Heromachine seems pretty decent; my only complaint is the lack of variety in body builds/shapes. As far as I can tell, the only options are built, short and built and super-built. What if I want to play a fat character, or a frail elderly character?
Are there any onther good paperdolls out there that you can reccomend (ones that might have more diversity in this respect)? I'm having a hard time finding them on google.