Misc thoughts on DIY boards and pieces

[Clupper21]

I like "pimping" boardgames. A long-term project is an Axis & Allies game using wargaming pieces and a 15 x 6' board (yes, I have located a source for croupier sticks). Another project I'm doing is Avalon Hill's History of the World, and that project has prompted this post just to kick around ideas for PG and share resources.

The first thing I needed for HOTW was a large board. I mean big. I managed to find a jpeg of the board itself. Used a freeware program to change the DPI from 100 to 600. Sent the file to a website I found called vectormagic.com After a lot of emails and $100, I got a 45 GB EPS and PDF file of a redrawn, un-pixellated map that looks fantastic.

Then I sent the EPS and PDF files to BannersOntheCheap.com. Very helpful people. After 2 days I received my map, beautifully printed on a 4' x 5' sheet of nice 13-oz vinyl. It's fantastic. I can't wait to finish the soldiers (1/72 plastics), make up my cities, and finish the "monuments" (36 plastic parthenon-type buildings I sourced on teh internet from RIsk Godstorm). I'm making the cities from styrene strips connecting little tower-like pieces from LOTR Monopoly games to make fortifications. The cities themselves will be made of tiny jumbles of buildings I found on the web too.

That's for bragging. Anyhow it occurred to me that some of this stuff could be helpful for DIY PG efforts. For example, I really enjoyed reading the magnetic mapboard posts. But I was wondering, why use magnets for the board and the pieces? It seems to me if I could scan the maps to decent PDF or EPS quality, and find the right printer (BannersOntheCheap only prints on heavy vinyl), I could get the maps printed on Tyvek or at leat much-thinner vinyl. If I secured that sheet over a piece of sheet metal, and then just did magnetic counters, wouldn't that work for a magnetic board too?

All this has also left me with some questions about graphics editing. I've tried freeware programs (GIMP) and so forth and it's too much like work. I'd really like to find someone who could scan maps for a reasonable fee -- maybe even someone who could do my dream axis and allies board graphics. Anybody know anyone who'd be willing to do that?

[Shad]

First, for the love of all that is hexagonal and holy, post some freaking photos of your projects dude!!!

But I was wondering, why use magnets for the board and the pieces? It seems to me if I could scan the maps to decent PDF or EPS quality, and find the right printer (BannersOntheCheap only prints on heavy vinyl), I could get the maps printed on Tyvek or at leat much-thinner vinyl. If I secured that sheet over a piece of sheet metal, and then just did magnetic counters, wouldn't that work for a magnetic board too?

I went with magnetic sheets because otherwise you need something holding the map sheets to the backing, and that will inevitably get in the way of gameplay.

I also went with magnetic sheets because the idea itself was really cool and I was skeptical they would work.

Printing and using something else to hold in place would be far cheaper, as the supply costs I listed at the end of my thread demonstrated. (still not as cool though! )

All this has also left me with some questions about graphics editing. I've tried freeware programs (GIMP) and so forth and it's too much like work. I'd really like to find someone who could scan maps for a reasonable fee -- maybe even someone who could do my dream axis and allies board graphics. Anybody know anyone who'd be willing to do that?

I've had good luck sourcing helpers for boardgame graphics design on BoardGameGeek. They have some forums for game dev and DIY. I paid a guy a large sum of geekgold to editing a bunch of Europa maps for me years ago! He did a great job. If you offered a bit of real money you'd get even better results!

[Clupper21]

First, for the love of all that is hexagonal and holy, post some freaking photos of your projects dude!!!

I will. Unfortunately the Axis & Allies project is just a bunch of sample pieces I bought to make final selections from and other bits and odds -- a sort of three-dimensional list. I really need to do the board graphics before I chow down on the pieces. More on that down below. HOTW will be done much more quickly since I'm doing it "game style" -- the map graphics are more like a high-quality comic book and the pieces are single colors (for example, one Epoch is using Roman Legionaries that will be spray-painted in the faction colors like black, orange, blue, green, etc.). Axis & Allies is going to get done in a "situation map" style -- photo-realistic world map, hand-painted soldiers and armor, aircraft on flight stands, ships on wave-textured bases, etc.

I went with magnetic sheets because otherwise you need something holding the map sheets to the backing, and that will inevitably get in the way of gameplay.

I also went with magnetic sheets because the idea itself was really cool and I was skeptical they would work.

Printing and using something else to hold in place would be far cheaper, as the supply costs I listed at the end of my thread demonstrated. (still not as cool though! )

First I hasten to add that I wasn't criticizing or nit-picking, just curious. I got the idea looking at your photos of the large vertically-mounted sheet metal the maps were on. I was thinking that if I took a piece of sheet metal and ground off the sharp edges, I'd have a portable magnetic board. I could "hang" it on a wall, or I could lay it flat or stand it in a corner when it wasn't needed. Tyvek is so light and thin (it's the plastic paper they wrap houses in) that the magnetic counters would hold it down fine unless a) they were all moved at the same time or b) there weren't at least one or two on a large corner part of the map. For that matter, I could make some "holder" counters to use when needed. I'll have to play around with this (after I get decent at PG, though!)

I've had good luck sourcing helpers for boardgame graphics design on BoardGameGeek. They have some forums for game dev and DIY. I paid a guy a large sum of geekgold to editing a bunch of Europa maps for me years ago! He did a great job. If you offered a bit of real money you'd get even better results!

Interesting! Can you recommend anyone? The Axis & Allies map will take some work -- for what I have in mind, you can't just draw space boundaries on a world map. I can't finalize piece selection and design until I have the map in hand. (City size in HOTW couldn't be determined without seeing how big the smallest space is in relation to the other spaces). On the AA map, things need to be resized due to the needs of the game (UK, for example, needs to be much larger in proportion to Europe than in the real world, while South America can be much smaller).

I'll also eventually need sources to scan and print PG counters and maps too. A long relationship would be preferable because my funds are not infinite and I have an iron-clad rule that I won't "pimp" a game unless I own a copy. So I'll need a fairly-long time to get that project rolling.