LOKE BATTLE MATS

◗ lokebattlemats.store ◗ £9.99 - £34.99

The first collection of the‘book gamemats’is from Loke and they have three splendid new products. Firstly there’s a slip case containing a pair of 12 inch square Dungeon Books. Secondly there’s a small add on six incher called (perhaps unsurprisingly) The Little Book of Battle Mats. Finally there’s a selection of clear overlays called Add-on Scenery in at least three varieties. All of these items are £9.99 except the pair of Dungeon Books which is £34.99.

The Dungeon Books are very nice: all of them have laminated, wipe clean surfaces and – like the 6 incher – are geomorphic, lay-flat thin card pages with a wire bound spine and are all 40 pages in length, each with a one-inch grid. They all contain a very wide range of floor plans of typical dungeons plus some dock areas and the clever thinking behind them is that you can open the bigger books as a pair and achieve a contiguous play area of 2ft by 2ft in total. Then you can add the six incher as an extra bit on the side. For example, there’s a boat in the six inch book (folded out being 12 inches long) which will work well placed up against the dock area on the bigger maps. Clever.

Include the Add-on Scenery and you have a splendid system for 2D dungeon crawls with no need for wipe off pens. There are roofs and doors to add plus items like carts and more in one pack. Another contains‘special effects’like lightning bolts and all come as clear, soft plastic that stick to the laminated surfaces via static charge which is just enough to keep them in place and not enough too make removal in any way onerous.

Great ideas and products.