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Creating a Mat - Help Required

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reid_testers2
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Joined: 04/12/2011

My brother and I recently created a game called "Pirate's Life". We don't believe that creating a solid board for the game for the purposes of prototyping and submission would be ideal, nor something we could achieve easily on our own.

To that end, we are trying to create a roll-up mat for a game board. We believe this will make the entire game more compact and more accessible to playtesters, as well as being somewhat more professional than the *sigh* index cards and counters we have at the moment. Ideally this mat would be similar to those used in many popular CCGs.

If anybody has an idea for a cheap method of creating such a "board" or an effective way to repurpose other game mats, we would greatly appreciate the advice.

EdWedig
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Joined: 09/15/2009
I can see a couple of

I can see a couple of options. You could print out the playmat and have it laminated. Most office supply stores (Office Max, Staples, Kinkos) should be able to do this.

Alternately, you could print out the mat onto vinyl or cloth. Most sign/banner stores should be able to help you with this.

And finally, depending on how complex the board it, you could have it screen printed into cloth. Any place that prints tshirts should be able to do that.

-Ed
Graphic design and layout for small publishers
www.edwedig.com

gluckhaus
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Joined: 04/24/2011
http://www.spoonflower.com/

http://www.spoonflower.com/ ?

http://www.spoonflower.com/spoonflower_fabrics

Upholstery Weight Cotton Twill: $32/yard [...] Sturdy 100% cotton twill with an optic white finish. [...] Appropriate for [...] tote bags, banners, coats and jackets, tablecloths, place mats [...]

baudot
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Joined: 05/20/2011
EdWedig wrote:And finally,

EdWedig wrote:
And finally, depending on how complex the board it, you could have it screen printed into cloth. Any place that prints tshirts should be able to do that.

Not actually. Most screen printing shops are set up with screens just big enough to print shirts and nothing larger. It's not just the screens either: the boards that hold the cloth being printed, the wash out area for cleaning the screens, the dryers, and everything else is sized on the assumption that 99% of customers won't want to print anything bigger than a shirt or a tote bag. For one of these shops to print an oversized fabric swatch like a game board they'd have to get a bigger everything. That is, they'd pretty much have to build a whole new print shop.

I spent a chunk of time looking for a print shop that could silkscreen a 2' square game mat, and even after tracking down recommendations and leads, the only one that panned out was Zoo-Ink, who screen print curtains and whole bolts of fabric. They weren't cheap at the scale I was looking at, though: It was around $200 setup fees for each colour of the print to prep the screens. (I was looking at 5' screens, to fit 2x2 boards per print. The smaller screens would have been more labor, but likely a bit cheaper still.) After that it was something like 10$/yd for the paint and labor.

Silk screening can produce some excellent results, but it's not as cheap or easy as you might think.

questccg
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Joined: 04/16/2011
Commercial printer

reid_testers2 wrote:
Ideally this mat would be similar to those used in many popular CCGs.

Most commercial printers can print a paper mat on 80 lbs. (pound) paper. Plus you can use a glossy paper which can make it look like those miniature posters. It's easy to get it printed on 8.5x11 (letter) paper or on 11x17 (A3 - I believe). If you go to a commercial printer (not Staples), they can also ensure that your print outs are properly "bleeded" (no white border).

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