My WIP card game, Airport Insecurity, uses cards to represent passengers that are being 'processed' through security in order to board their flight. This requires players to keep track of some things like which passengers are currently being body scanned or groped and things like that. I had begun with a square prototype board that had markings for spaces to put cards enough for 2 players , then I made a separate mat for a third player. I think the game should be good up to four players. Would a large board that could accomodate 4 players be good or would 4 separate player mats be better? I've not played any games myself that used mats in this manner, but it seems natural in this case to do so. I suppose the board or mats are not strictly necessary at all, but thematically I think the game would benefit and it makes keeping up with the gameplay easier.
game mats?
Are the players representing different airports? Different airlines? Simply different lanes of passenger arrival for the same airline?
The reason I ask is because if they're all supposed to be part of the same group of some kind, it may make more sense to have a single board instead of separate mats for each player.
Do the passengers all come from the same place, like a single entry gate, creating the "draw" pile for your passengers? Perhaps keeping all players together will help make sense of where the passengers arrive.
Do the players need to keep track of the other players for some reason, or is it more likely they'll have to pay more attention to their own situation? If players are more or less independent, that's a case for having separate player mats.
And then there's cost. Depending on how large the board may be, it could become expensive. If cost is an issue, you may want to go with more affordable, smaller player mats.
Go with mats. It allows the players more flexibility.
I'd go with mats if I were you. Cost-wise, it's going to be quite the swing. Furthermore, it develops that image of the queues more - the different lanes in an airport.
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The players do all draw from one deck. The players could be processing passengers for the same flight or different flights, I'm leaning towards the latter right now, but its not really important to the game play. I think I'm liking mats more and more, they could easily be printed on 8.5 x 11 for print and play testing .