Combat Pad™

By Open Mind Games

Beatdowns Made Simple

This was one of the products that convinced your humble reviewer that this site had to be created. Why? It’s so deucedly obvious, yet no one has done it. At least, no one that Gamer Bling has seen.

This product sold itself to Gamer Bling on first sight. No joke. Gamer Bling was walking through the dealer’s room at Gen Con Indy 2006, passed the Open Mind Games booth, and stopped in his tracks. His only question was, “How do I obtain a review copy?”

Billed as “The Ultimate Tool for Managing Combat,” the Combat Pad is a simple magnetic board to keep track of initiative order in RPG battles. Across the top is a track that shows how many rounds have passed in the combat. Down the center is the initiative track (numbered 0-25, but all that really matters is everyone’s relative position). To the right are extra slots to mark whether a person is readying something or delaying their action, and to the left is a nice open area for notes. It is apparent that the manufacturers tested their idea in multiple gaming sessions.

The Combat Pad comes with eight PC markers in blue, eight enemy markers in red and black, and four NPC markers in green. It also comes with two arrows to mark the round (one is a spare), two arrows to mark whose turn it is to act (one is a spare), and two “Next Round” markers that serve no particular use, unless you’re the type to consistently forget to advance the turn arrow. And Gamer Bling has a sneaking suspicion the inventors of this wonderful aid might be this very sort… after all, isn’t necessity the mother of invention?

The die-cutting may not necessarily be even across your marker sheet. It wasn’t in Gamer Bling’s case, but at least it was sufficient. At one end the die-cutting was so thorough that while peeling the marker magnet sheet away from the Combat Pad, several of the magnets remained behind.

At the opposite end of the marker sheet, the die-cutting had not gone completely through the material, but bending the sheet backwards caused it to split where desired. Thus there’s not much worry about damaging your product when preparing it for use.

The magnets are wet- or dry-erase, which makes them easy to change in the midst of combat. Just beware smearing the info.

Weak Points

There are a few weak points with this product; fortunately, none of them are very serious.

The labels on the “Turn” and “Round” arrows border on the illegible, but, since it’s pretty clear which arrow is which based on where it’s pointing, this is largely a non-issue. We are fortunate that this lapse in their graphic design did not affect this item’s utility.

As mentioned before, the “Next Round” marker is essentially useless (except as a reminder, which Gamer Bling reminds you of in case you’ve already forgotten). When laying out the label sheet, they could instead have placed three unlabeled arrows (one spare) all in a line and ditched the “Next Round” markers entirely; that would have allowed them two more slots for enemy markers. Gamer Bling loves slaughtering untold numbers of kobolds, stormtroopers, or whatever.

Based on the presentation in the package, Gamer Bling thought the Combat Pad itself would have been a little thicker. This is because they use a thick piece of cardboard (roughly the thickness of 8 standard CCG cards) as a stiffener inside the package. Still, once the disappointment wore off, Gamer Bling realized that the Combat Pad would still likely be tough enough.

If someone carelessly tosses the Combat Pad onto the tabletop, the bits may go flying. Them magnets just aren’t that strong. So don’t do it. For that matter, you’ll want to save the bag the Combat Pad comes in; otherwise you’re likely to damage the pieces during transportation. Thankfully, it’s a pretty solid bag, and reseals easily.

As mentioned previously, the actual initiative numbering serves little purpose beyond helping the initial placement of markers, especially since only three labels fit into a five-point initiative spread.

Finally, a little standee would have been great. While the Combat Pad is strong enough to lean against something, it would have been really keen to have a fold-out stand like they put on the backs of low-cost picture frames. Instead, your Combat Pad will lie on the table or lean against some books. Not a big deal.

The Bottom Line

This is a great accessory, consistently useful and well worth the price. In fact, it’s a must.

It saves a lot of “Whose turn is it?” time in a game, especially if your players are chatterbugs. It makes it much easier to deal with delaying actions and the like. And changing initiative order just requires shifting around a few magnets rather than writing up a whole new list.

Gamer Bling recently joined a new RPG group. The very first session he played in, he pulled this out. The response was immediate. Everyone wanted one. And Gamer Bling ended up refereeing the combats, even though he was seated at the far end of the table from the gamemaster. It turned out to be everything we thought it would be.

Summary

Bling Factor: 7
Quality: 8
Utility: 10
Price: $16.95/set
You Need: 1

Etail

You must buy this.

Now.

And you must use the flagrant graphic to the right.

Because otherwise Gamer Bling Expansion #1 and Gamer Bling Expansion #2 will slowly starve.

The Future

What does the future hold for the Combat Pad itself? Gamer Bling has no idea. But he sure wouldn’t mind seeing variant Combat Pads with a graphic design that fit in with d20 Modern, Star Wars, or superhero action. Or, if the fine folks at Open Mind Games want to go for a higher Bling Factor rating, they should try making one of steel.

That’s a hint, guys. And send Gamer Bling a review copy.

Or a solid gold one. Yeah!