Cleaning Your Shower Board Battle Map

Okay, I think I’ve done the “cheap dry erase gaming surface” thing to death, but here is one last post about it.  Before using my shower board/tile board/Melamine battle map much, I was concerned that the surface wouldn’t clean as well as real whiteboard.  Various sources on the ‘net (such as here) warned of problems of ink not coming off.  I would erase maps between sessions to avoid such problems.  Suffice it to say, this was a bit time consuming.  Well, after forgetting to clean the map once, I discovered there really isn’t a problem. Sure, the longer the ink is on the board, the harder it is to get off, but it has always wiped clean with whiteboard cleaner or water (or at least clean enough; I’m not sure even real whiteboards ever get completely clean after repeated use).  When in doubt, bust out the shower cleaner. It is shower board after all. Hell, with all the beer, chips, and gamer sweat, its a good idea to disinfect that surface after a while anyhow.

Cloudy with a Chance of Orcus – Whiteboard Uses for RPG Gaming

In my post about the showdown in the Upper Temple of Orcus, Omote noticed a strange “map/poster” sitting on an easel in one of the pictures:

That is a piece of extra shower board/tile board/Melamine. Before I started using my massive battle map, I used two pieces of “whiteboard” purchased on the cheap from Craig’s List. The lady selling them didn’t know they weren’t real whiteboards (neither did I). Anyhow, they were cheap and these extra pieces are damn handy. Oh, the easel is my wife’s, but I long ago commandeered it for my own twisted purposes.

Various uses:

• Mapping - I stand in front of the whiteboard and draw an overview dungeon map as the party explores. This makes me feel like some strange, Gygaxian weatherman, but it works very well. It makes the mapper’s job easier and gives all the players a sense of where their characters are. It may sound like extra work, but it actually speeds up play because the players don’t need to question me as much about dungeon details.

• Initiative Tracking – I often write the initiative order on the board so that everyone in the group has a clear idea of when their turn is coming up.

  

• Extra Battle Room – I bust out these pieces when the battle spills over the area on the large battle map. It happens more than you’d think in a dungeon the scale of Rappan Athuk [especially if the DM (uhm, me) doesn’t start drawing at a good point on the large map].

• Artwork – My girls love to draw on these surfaces.