So I've got a large piece of black cloth that I'm going to be turning into a playmat, but I'm not sure if I should make it a 3x3 or a 4x4. What do you think? What are most games played, and what are tournament games played on?

The tournament standard is 3'x3'. That is also assuming 100 pt games. If you and your play group enjoy higher pt games, you might find 3'x3' to be restricting and might want to expand to 4'x4'. I have a 4'x4' board that can be set up on a table. It has a 3'x3' box in the center for standard games, but if we ever want to, we could expand it to 4'x4'. I plan to post pictures when I am done. I still need to paint it, which is waiting for the weather to warm up since I'm using spray paint.

i would go as big as possible. you can always play smaller. but it is harder to add more space later if you want it. i have a 6x8 felt.

Daeglan said:

I second this. I fold my edges under the sides of the board. I use a 4x5 travel blanket from a thrift shop. $3!

As they say in the tattoo business, go big or go home.

With as thin as the fabric is, I could easily fold the edges under. Right now I'm working on decoration. I'm torn between using a empty spacefield or making it look like a shipboard battle display like I did for my BFG playmat.

I used 3x6 black felt on my pool table. We play with around twenty ships. It plays great.

What I would do is make it 4' x 4' but mark a 3' x 3' area in the middle so you can also use it in official tournament games. You get the best of both worlds that way.