AUGUST CHALLENGE: Neon's Dungeon Tiles

[Gamerprinter]

OH!! I just got an idea! If you printed this out and covered them with dry erase acetate or if they could be printed onto that type of material you could draw walls right on the tiles themselves.

Gamerprinter, is that possible? Can you print onto a dry erasable surface and still have the "dry erasability"? (I don't think that is a real word...)

Yes, its possible. In order to permanently print to dry erase media you must use silk-screen printing or dye-sublimation. (Never of which I do.)

However, I have a thermal transfer printer (used in sign work) they may do it as well, but I don't know if I can get punched rolls of dry erase film to work with my printer.

But, yes, its possible.

GP

[RPMiller]

Cool, if you try it out let me know.

[RobA]

Could it be laminated? I thought heat lamination was dry erase compatible...

-Rob A>

[Gamerprinter]

Yes, of course, standard heat lamination works like dry erase. The question was whether I could print onto the lamination film, not the dungeon tile - for some reason... ask RP.

If you printed your grid on the tile, or the border of the map area with entries exposed, it could be a normal laminaton job. To print on the lamination film prepared to work on my sprocket-driven thermal printer - kind of specialized media, so unless a given media is available, it may not be possible.

GP

[RPMiller]

I shied away from the lamination as it leaves a "border" of lamination around the tile which I predict will cause the tiles to be continually knocked around. With the only the tile there they can be butted up against each other and a quick strip of masking tape on the back will keep them cleanly together. Sure you could do the same thing with laminated pieces, but it takes longer and is harder to get solidly butted up. How do I know this you may ask? I tried both methods many years ago. Now if the current lamination process doesn't need the border anymore, than that is probably a much better way to go.

[Gamerprinter]

When I laminate, unless someone is looking for complete encapsulation - water tight in other words, I usually cut of the lamination material to the edge of the sheet. So there is nothing left over.

GP

[RPMiller]

And it won't peel away over time? I tried that method back then, but I found it started to peel after only a couple uses. Of course I'm sure material and machines have improved by now so that may no longer be a problem. If you draw a line past the edge of the tile will the ink then slip passed the laminate and soak in to the printed tile?

[GlennZilla]

My group has started using minis instead of scribbling X's and O's on a white board. I took a map I got with my 3.5e DMG I think that was a poster map with a tile-grid on the back and a darker pre-mapped set of rooms on the front.

One of the players took it to Kinko's and had them laminate it. They trimmed to about 1/4 inch from the edge of the poster and it's holding up just fine. I can still scribble on terrain, features track iniative and NPC hit points off to the side. It's worked like a charm for us.

We have discussed a sheet of acrylic plastic with some 1pt size vinyl tape marking off a grid also. This would have a hinged metal backing and allow us to slide in custom battle maps and use magnetic tokens for things.

[Redrobes]

Because I was a cheapskate back in the days of dry erase, I had some white melomane chip board, drew some squares on it and then covered with clear sticky backed plastic. This was in use several years. It needs a bit of spirits after a while to clear it and then it would be good for a while again.

So you could get some board, lay out the printed tiles and cover with that sticky plastic. What would be cool would be lots of blocks of wood with a tile each covered and then place on a tray to stop them moving then you could reuse and reshape the dungeon.

[ravells]

Very, very nice, Neon! This month's voting is going to be tough, there are some really good entries.