Do people bother with playmats?
Is a standard size playmat big enough?
If cards are sleeved, is a playmat even needed?
Interested in what people generally do/think as I am planning out some spending
playmats?
I brought a playmat from a local gaming store for only $10. It's a playmat made by the store so it's not fancy or anything, but I think having a playmat to place your cards on is better than none at all.
Edited by Star LordI have the one from the fellowship event last year, and I like using it at home... you can fit a 2-player game onto it with a bit of a squeeze. When I go out, I use it about half the time... or less. Mostly because the places I go already have playmats down on the tables.
Personally, I'd love to get one of the playmats for LOTR that you can only get from winning a store tournament, but the ones selling on eBay are so ridiculously-priced that I'd rather use my economical playmat instead of shelling out so much money for one.
This looks great, though as a newbie its daunting and I cant follow it hehe
Love the sleeves, Dan!
I'm holding out for an Arnor-themed playmat, I think. My Gondorphile friend has considered the Heirs of Númenor one, but the price really is a bummer.
I feel a new contest on Hall of Beorn is in place. 
Edit: You know, for a pack of those sleeves, of course. 
I use one most of the time. I find it helpful when playing 2-4 player games in differentiating who is engaged with what, etc. It helps separate the staging area and the player areas. If you engage something, you can either set it on your playmat or at least touching it; sometimes you can have so many allies out and/or so many enemies around that fitting everything on a single playmat can be impossible - see Exhibit A (photo) above. 
I do think that playmats can be helpful, especially in a multiplayer game. But, you do need a table of good size and dimensions to accommodate the playmats and still have room for a staging area.
Edited by divinityofnumberHello,
that's my first post and I apologize my English...
I'm playing LOTR with my girlfriend an so we wanted to have a Playmat for two players. We found a good artwork on boardgamegeek, saved it on a CD and went to a local print office. The playmat's dimensions: ca. 62x72 centimeter.
It's a lot of fun playing on this mat, I don't want to miss it.
http://abload.de/img/img_0423mnqnj.jpg
It's no material like a mousepad, it's printed on a screen, usually used in cinemas.
That's beautiful Sprotte.
Hello,
that's my first post and I apologize my English...
I'm playing LOTR with my girlfriend an so we wanted to have a Playmat for two players. We found a good artwork on boardgamegeek, saved it on a CD and went to a local print office. The playmat's dimensions: ca. 62x72 centimeter.
It's a lot of fun playing on this mat, I don't want to miss it.
http://abload.de/img/img_0423mnqnj.jpg
It's no material like a mousepad, it's printed on a screen, usually used in cinemas.
That's a great playmat! I play with my girlfriend too; we should get something like this. If you're new to the game, hope you enjoy it.
If you're new to the game, hope you enjoy it.
Yes, we play it since November and we love it.
I own every LOTR, many call of cthulhu and a bunch of others playmats and i almost never use them, i don't know why i just feel that it "restricts / limits" me in a way, but this is just me.
I am a fan of playmats because I feel like it gives me my own personal space.
Yeah my worry with any playmat is that it would be too small for my playfield. I usually have many allies and attachments in play mid- and late-game. But I would like to try one, if I can find a printing office that could make it. Most printing offices where I live deal with small businesses exclusively.
I just had my first two games ever and used two world-of-warcraft playmats set one above the other.
One just would not have had enough space without feeling really cramped, but two worked great.
The bottom one had all my hero and player aspects on it. The top was for encounter deck, quests, locations, staging area and enemies engaging. Nicely enough space.
Using the mats was nice. Spongy enough to make it easy to pick up cards. Smooth enough to make rotating cards easy without them sliding off along the table.
A good experience.
In East Europe not much organized play, so almost no way to get to a mat, except overprized ebay. But I would love to have the Black riders one...I was also thinking to print one out some Ted Nasmith picture, but again with shipping, prices are usually doubled...
Hi alexbobspoon and all.
I also love playmats for enhancing theme and helping in the tracking of all the counters. I've accumulated a couple of designs so far for LOTR LCG under a project I call BoardKit. Here is a picture of the latest playmat I posted there.
If you want even more "organized space", you can also find there mats for the Staging, Encounter deck, Questing and Threat/Success tracking.
Cheers,
LoC
I'm just going to leave this here:
https://hallofbeorn.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/contest-unicorn-power/
Hahahahahah Dan!
You're awesome!
When I read the title in my email at first I wondered... And though, well probably a contest for a playmat with Unicorn themed stuff. But, I was wrong, you actually took the idea/joke.
Well, jokes on you, I'm gonna give it a shot!
I'm just going to leave this here:
https://hallofbeorn.wordpress.com/2015/03/27/contest-unicorn-power/
I just saw The Grey company link it on facebook and I thought "God, it's really happening". I need a fun photo idea now.
It was just announced that Netrunner's getting some publicly available playmats so maybe there's hope that LOTR will get some soon! I already have the Legolas, Heirs of Numenor, and Black Riders playmats though, LIKE A BOSS.
That woukd be nice. My warcraft playmats are lovelly but its always nice to match thematically
I would love it if FFG would start selling playmats instead of having you to either win them at tournaments or pay a hefty price on eBay for one.