Melee Mats DND Map Starter Set - 24” x 36", Wet & Dry Erase Battle Terrain Grid for Dungeons and Dragons - Ultimate Tabletop Gaming Experience with Accessories

It's a very nice and affordable mat. So first, the mat itself - it's a bit different than other maps I have had. The expensive maps tend to be more like a neoprene with a top layer of plastic and cheaper ones are like laminated cardstock. This mat does a great job of splitting the difference. The thickness is a bit like plastic folder material but it is smoother. The top is very much like laminate. It also rolls up very smoothly and the grid print is very nice, clear and all around just what we wanted. It DOES have a tendency to keep the roll on the ends when you lay it out, so if possible, lay it out plat for an hour or so before play. (weight the corners if possible - we use little bags of dice) All around, the mat is exactly what I expected from the description. It wiped clean easily using water and the eraser or a soft cloth. No problems. (We didn't actually test the red, which is notorious for being annoying on dry erase though). Now for the best part of the mat: We had an issue with ours and the customer service was excellent! I bought this mat for my son for his birthday and I purchased it fairly early. With everything that was happening in summer 2020, he didn't really get to use the mat as quickly as possible, so it was several months AFTER my purchase that he laid the map out flat for a couple of weeks (on our gaming table between sessions), when we came back the top layer had wrinkled in several places. It didn't really make the mat entirely unusable, but it would have been annoying to clean, etc. I contacted the company (there is an info sticker on the back of the mat) and they immediately sent a replacement mat and followed up to make sure I received it. The new mat hasn't had the same issue so far and seems fine, but I will update it that changes.

So I already reviewed the "dungeon" colored mat, but since I also got this one, I figured I'd add a similar review here. This mat is awesome. The color is light enough that you can use just about any color dry-erase or wet-erase markers, and they're easily visible. The dungeon mat was a bit too dark for the blue marker, but this one is excellently colored. I DM for a large group (8 people) and at a bigger table not everyone can always reach their minis, so being able to use the compass rose to call out directions is super helpful for moving PCs around. The mat rolls up really nicely, and when it unrolls it doesn't crease or warp. It can curl at the edges a little but that's easily solved with a couple small weights. I've actually used the spray bottle included to weigh down a corner and it works great. The spray bottle works great, and so do the markers. The only thing I don't love about the package is the eraser included, I'd recommend using a rag of some sort instead. But really, you're paying for the mat and the eraser's a bonus, I'm not exactly biasing the review because the eraser was bad. You do certainly need the spray bottle or another source of water to remove marker from the mat, but that's not a disappointment at all, in fact it's a point in favor. I can roll up the mat without erasing, pack it up, and unfurl it again the next week with only minor touch-ups. I really really recommend this mat. It's honestly so nice.

So I haven’t been able put it to use yet, the session is later today, so I set the mat out last night very flat and neatly placed books atop it to flatten it out so no curls from it being rolled up cause any disturbances during play. Well, one time flattening it out and it has already “creased” or something where the material raised up along the edges like lined pockets of air. I haven’t even used a marker on it yet, so I can’t attest to the quality but plenty of reviews say it works well, and it appears high quality and still very usable, just annoying when wanting a great looking map, which this very much is aside from the immediate faults. Not a huge issue, so giving it 4 stars as it is a good product, just not exactly “prefect”. Hope this helps anyone considering this battle map!

I've bought 4 mats total of this size from this company, and all have been great. They have great customer service, and there's no staining with the new plastic coating they have, especially if you wipe off your marks before storage. Prior to that, there was a tiny amount of staining, but some scrubbing with water got that out easily. I would recommend treating this as somewhat of a disposable, but that's not the fault of the mat itself, it's just that things like cat claws or dropped pencils and whatnot leave tiny holes in it that eventually accumulate, but this took me 10 months of usage twice a week with a cat climbing on top of it constantly during games for me to even start thinking about a new one. I definitely recommend buying this to all DMs, and I will be buying more once my current one wears out.