Magnetic Markers

By Alea Tools

Animal Monstrous Magentism

Had Gamer Bling never gone to a trade show, Gamer Bling would never have seen these. Chances are, you haven’t gone to a trade show either, which is why you’re reading this. Do not despair, for Gamer Bling has braved the bathing-challenged crowds on your behalf, and scouted out these items for you. And they’re cool, and this review will show you why.

Alea Tools’ magnetic markers are just that: magnets covered with a durable coating of plastic to create an easy way to mark certain game states. The markers are 1″ across and 0.2″ thick, which makes them fit quite neatly under any miniature with 1″ round bases. Like, say, most of the collectible miniatures we see on the market.

Especially when dealing with larger combats, we all know that from time to time we can get bogged down remembering what’s what: Which orc is the poisoned one? And that one in the back, is he injured, or is he planning something devious? With magnetic markers, such details are easier to track.

Use yellow markers for those who are injured, red for those who are critically injured, and black for those who are dying or dead. Green can represent poison, and blue can represent flying. Place the markers next to or underneath the character in question, and suddenly tracking the situation just got a whole lot easier. That orc in the rear with the green and red markers? Now you know he’s poisoned and low on hit points. (Unfortunately for players, the markers are just as useful for the game master when she’s trying to figure out the enemy’s tactics. This in turn will increase PC mortality. C’est la guerre.)

Given the variety of game states, you’ll be happy to know that the markers come in 20 different colors. Initially, Alea produced only the standard male-named colors of, say, green and blue. However, as of August 2007 they are officially branching out into your female-named colors, beginning with burgundy and teal. Gamer Bling supposes that burgundy could be used for inebriated foes, and teal for, um, fops and bards.

Thankfully, Alea Tools has yet to branch out into designer-paint colors like “watermelon sunrise” and “sonova beige.”

They also have an additional 9 non-standard colors: silver (ooh!) and gold (ooh! ooh!) plus an assortment of “marble” colors that swirl two standard colors together like an overzealous two-tone soft-serve ice cream cone. Yes, that’s 29 colors total, and still no watermelon sunrise. They call these “limited edition” markers (Gamer Bling calls them “swirlies”), available for a limited time while supplies last. So get them while they’re hot.

Additionally, the markers can take wet-erase pens. This is useful for identifying the enemies, or tracking damage taken, or noting how long the charm person spell is going to last. Or even drawing little smiley faces and rolling the markers back and forth across the table when someone’s taking too much time to decide their next move.

Finally, remember all those 1″ cut-out NPC circles we got in the early 3e issues of Dungeon magazine… while it was still being published? Magnetic markers can help you convert those from cardstock chips that blow across the map with a medium-sized sneeze to weighty ersatz miniatures. Glue them onto a 1” washer, or even directly to a magnetic marker. Alea Tools has a lot of great suggestions on this sort of stuff, but rather than reiterate it, Gamer Bling will just point you to their wonderful photo-illustrated guide.

So there you have it. Nicely made, colorful, useful. And if you mount your map to a steel sheet, you could even have your minis up against the wall!

And, darn it, they’re just fun to fiddle with. Gamer Bling’s fingers are happy.

Weak Points

The first weakness Gamer Bling immediately come up with is that Gamer Bling wants all the colors. And Gamer Bling doesn’t have them. This is called “pouting”.

Second, but actually more important, for maximum ease, you really should spend the time to convert your miniatures to rest on a metal washer or magnetic board so the markers will stick to them securely. Nothing ruins a good battle worse than having miniatures topple off their markers in a cascade of clumsiness. Why is this a weakness? Because in the modern America of instant gratification and chop-chop film editing, some people may be frustrated by having to make such a long-term commitment to a project, and instead they’ll continue to cope with collapsing miniatures. (Gamer Bling bulletin: ConflictChips don’t need to be converted.)

The third weakness is that these are magnets, and therefore pose a threat to your computer, TV, and other electronic devices.

The fourth is that they are fairly dense and circular, so if you drop them (as Gamer Bling did just now) they can roll like a bugger and get way back behind your computer desk, threatening to destroy your review document with their nefarious magnetic radiation beams. And then you have to get down on your hand and knees and use a ruler to knock around the dust bunnies until you get them out again.

Finally, a warning! Dry-erase pens will permanently stain your pieces, darn it, and Gamer Bling has the defaced marker to prove it!

The Bottom Line

Useful, colorful, and fun to twiddle with. Gamer Bling says they’re cool. Or he would, if only he could stop pouting about not having all the colors. Hrmph.

Summary

Bling Factor: [qty.colors(owned)/2]
Quality: 9
Utility: 8
Price: $6.99 for 10
You need: 10-30

E-tail

Gamer Bling has not yet set up any actual e-tail discounts or spcials with Alea Tools yet (mainly because he is too busy), but they have been kind to him nonetheless. If your FLGS is hopelessly underblinged and you must order direct, or if you just want to pop over to the Alea Tools site and check things out, please use this link. It will track GB referrals, which will increase Gamer Bling’s cosmic schmoozing power. After all, Gamer Bling can only review a specific color of magnetic marker once, but there is no limit to the number of magnetic markers he can own…

The Future

What will Alea do next? Beats Gamer Bling with a stick. Adding more colors will grow increasingly pointless; players need to be able to distinguish between the colors at a glance. Maybe they’ll do 2″ wide magnetic markers for large minis or ConflictChips™.