Making a quick game mat for Frostgrave

[dbsubashi]

With the release of Into the Breeding Pit, my regular play group is looking to get back into Frostgrave. And since several of us are already looking to do The Men Who Would be Kings as a colonial war on Barsoom, the length of the campaign will be short. But I wanted a mat to define the 3' play area. We play at our FLGS, which has at least 7 tables for miniatures. But they are 4x6', and a few mats would help a lot. But they need to be cheap, and quick, so I borrowed ideas from Paul Davies' book Battlefields in Miniature and looked to fleece. A trip to JoAnn's Fabrics netted 3 yards of dark grey fleece ( on sale right now, 40% off!) and 3 pots of cheap craft acrylics.

I choose Royal Gold, the fortuitously named Snowflake and some plain black, and started dry brushing patches in.

[dbsubashi]

After laying in the first layers, I let it dry. Then I went back in and did a second layer on the white patches, to back them, well, whiter. At this point it was starting to look like some strange camo pattern. So I blended the white patches together, making them bigger and dominating the bits of golden tan and black.

[dbsubashi]

Then I cut it to 3x3' with scissors. Total time, including drying (the fleece will soak up paint, making for extended drying times. Be sure to dry brush or the paint will flop up!) was 2 hours, and total cost was under $10! Here is the money shot with some scenery:

[Elbows]

The only downside to this I can see is the black.  Much as it's been abandoned in most modern camouflage patterns --- black doesn't really exist in nature, so it throws off the whole thing.  I think it would have looked better sans black.  Just the ochre/white would have worked quite well.

PS: I think a sponge technique would have also worked quite well with your material.

[fred]

Its certainly a good disruptive pattern! It will be interesting to see how it plays, rather than how it photographs. It does make some interesting effects against the ruins in the photos, but this is probably an artefact of the static viewpoint of the photo.

Perhaps a dark grey might have been less stark than the pure black?

But it is a good cheap method of getting a bespoke gaming mat.

[dbsubashi]

I have 2 more to make, I will try a dark brown on them. It looks less "camo cloth" in person. One could certainly tart it up a bit. The brown could be dry brushed with a lighter color. I used the "nappy" side of the fleece; the other side is less nappy and one could use a Sharpy to draw in stone work. Another hour or 2 would make for a nicer mat, again with little cost out of pocket and a small time investiture. If my play group, the League of Retired Teachers Making Gentlemanly Tabletop War, was less "flighty", I would take the time. But they jump rules sets and periods so often it is hard to invest - at least 2 dozen in the last 18 months, .

[fred]

The idea of adding the outlines of stone work would be good, you probably only need a few areas.

I know what you mean about too many rules and periods, and not enough to time to do them all  

[Sunjester]

It looks a good start, as said, replace the black with grey or brown. Drawing in stonework sounds a nice touch.

I know what you mean about too many rules, I've bought 5 in the last 6 months (and that's with me ignoring 2 other sets guys have started playing at the club in the same time period).

[pacarat]

How about stamping a brick or cobblestone pattern in shades of grey over the black areas?