I ordered ‘sample’ pack of the Alea Tools, specifically “One-Inch Neo-Markers – Game Master Pack 01″ and “One-Inch Neo-Markers – Red 10 Pack” along with some of “Miniature Conversion Circles – One-Inch”. The order was shipped prompty and correctly. Each set came in a clear plastic tube with a higher quality than average stopper. Odd thing to notice I know but there you go. The tube itself was typical of the type and if you’ve ever bought a tube of dice you’ll be familiar with it. Â Each set of markers also included a few of the conversion circles.
Quality on the markers was decent but it’s hard to be awesome or crappy with what’s essentially a molded two part plastic disk. Each has a ‘rare earth’ magnet inside that allows them to stick together. The magnets are fairly strong and I had no problems with their stickiness.
The conversion disks are essentially the same flexible magnets you’d find in any craft section of a department store but with an adhesive backing that’s pretty good or seems to be. There is an issue, not with the quality but with the purpose. They’re designed to stick to the bases of the miniatures. Well the bases of the miniatures are ANYTHING but standardized and on many (most?) you’ll find the magnet is too big and sticks out a bit. That’s a fault with the lack of a standard base size on Wizards part and not with the idea directly.
Another issue that may come up is that the bases have a lip on the bottom of them. So when you stick one of these magnets to it, you really have a very small surface area that is going to be attached.
But they’re cheap enough I suppose that eventually if you do lose some you can replace them. I will offer the observation that if you filled the bases of your mini’s with something, maybe Mighty Putty (RIP Billy), they’d probably be a lot more secure and probably permanent.
All in all I’d recommend them, they make marks, status effects and all that very easy to keep track of.
Now on to the Magna Maps. These were as well shipped promptly and correctly. I ordered two of the 2′ x 3′ maps because that covers about 75% of my map surface. Â My map level on my gaming table is roughly 35″ by 55″ so I did have to cut one inch from the long way but it cut very easily. And now I have two two foot rows of 1″ squares I could use for something.
The material is very much the same rubberized substance that refrigerator magnets are made of. Except it’s not magnetic per se. It’s also not terribly ‘sticky’ in terms of magnets sticking to it. Â The more powerful rare earth ones have a decent grab to them but the weaker ones like the conversion disks barely stick at all. I think that’s a combination of two factors though, the material is just iron impregenated rubber, not iron and the conversion dicks are also just iron impregnated rubber albeit magnetic iron (or something to that effect). Two weaks don’t make a strong in this case. But if you’re using Alea’s Neo disks or something similar then they’ll stick well enough.
With all that said I think they’re both useful. Are they worth the money? Meh, you can certainly get by without them. They add a bit of geek chic to your table but that’s about it. But sometimes geek chic is worth the cost to me. You’ll have to be the judge of that for yourself.
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