Description:
One of the main reasons that Bezier Games does Kickstarter campaigns is because it allows us to offer unique items that complement our games that would be cost prohibitive to offer outside of a Kickstarter campaign. One of the add-ons we're particularly enamored with (which is also included at most of the higher reward levels) is an oversized round playmat (shown above with the Lyin' Werewolf resting on it). Here's a bit of a deeper look into that playmat, and why we're really excited to offer it to Werewords backers.
The Specs
The playmat is 24" in diameter, so it's the same width as industry standard playmats (like ou
One of the main reasons that Bezier Games does Kickstarter campaigns is because it allows us to offer unique items that complement our games that would be cost prohibitive to offer outside of a Kickstarter campaign. One of the add-ons we're particularly enamored with (which is also included at most of the higher reward levels) is an oversized round playmat (shown above with the Lyin' Werewolf resting on it). Here's a bit of a deeper look into that playmat, and why we're really excited to offer it to Werewords backers.
The Specs
The playmat is 24" in diameter, so it's the same width as industry standard playmats (like our One Night series of playmats), but it ends up having over 50% more surface area (math!), with about 450 square inches of space (vs. 288 square inches for the rectangular mat).
The playmat is thick mousepad material which is soft to the touch and about 1/8” thick, with a nice grippy backing that won’t slide around on a smooth table.
Why Round?
Because both Werewords, One Night, and Werebeasts can all be played with a lot of people around a round table (all support at least 10, with Werewords Deluxe Edition now supporting 20), it made sense to go with a round playmat instead of a traditional rectangular one.
This works great for all the games, allowing plenty of space for each players’ card(s), with room left over in the center for what each game needs (One Night needs 3 center cards, Werebeasts needs a bidding area, and Werewords needs a mobile device).
Why 24”?
We spent a lot of time figuring out the best size for this playmat. We took into account a number of things: space required for games, common table sizes, and manufacturing cost. The playmat had to be big enough to support the high end of the player counts for all three of these games. Since Werewords Deluxe Edition now supports 20 players, that means there had to be room for 20 player’s cards plus enough room for the Mayor to have the box bottom with the tokens in front of him.
We also needed enough room for a large 13” device (like an iPad Pro) and space for the tokens to be distributed. Werebeasts can take up a bit of space for 10 players as well, but since you can organize captured Werebeasts in any way you’d like based on the amount of space available, it wasn’t as important. One Night takes up the least amount of space, with a player cap of 10; when playing with Marks from Vampire and roles from Alien, there needed to be space for the center cards, marks board, and the device.
The size had to be limited for a few reasons, however. First, tables are only so large. In the US, standard round tables are usually at least 36” in diameter, while in Europe they’re a bit smaller. Because our were-games tend to also be played at a lot of conventions, we had to make sure the playmat fit on standard “banquet” style convention tables, which have a width of 30”. Finally, there was the consideration of cost. Rectangular playmats are relatively inexpensive to produce, because there’s very little waste when cutting them. Round playmats, however, cost a lot more material because of how they are printed and cut, and that extra material, even though it isn’t in the final product, costs money. About 28% of the material needed for a round playmat is not used, so a 24” diameter playmat costs just as much as a 24”x24” playmat in terms of material (and actually more because of the round cutting process.
The Design
Because we wanted this playmat to be useable with all of our were-games, we decided early on that it had to have elements recognizable to all the games, yet not specifically for one. We chose to focus on Werewolves and Seers, a common thread in most were-games. Instead of using art from one of the games in particular, we looked to other mystical symbols for inspiration, which is how we ended up with the mandala design. Mandalas are associated with spiritual aspects of various cultures, from Hindu to Celtic to Native Americans. It seemed only appropriate that we create a were-mandala for use in this line of games.
We got in touch with artist Alfredo Torres, and worked with him to create a Mandala design that incorporated werewolves, seers, and other elements from the games. Initially we went with a fully colored palette, with various shades of blue and gray, and “floating” images. that evolved into a more geometrical repeating pattern, and eventually the filled areas were removed and the entire images was made of lines of an even thickness on a rich dark blue background.
If you look close, you’ll see all sorts of great detail, from the Seer’s eyelashes to the intricate fur of the werewolves. The lines are actually a tinted silver/blue color, so they don’t contrast too strongly with the colored background, allowing the objects on the playmat to stand out and not get lost in the illustration.
The playmat is available at the Ultimate, Shout Out, and Collector's reward levels, and also available as an add-on for any reward level while the Kickstarter is running. We’re incredibly excited to be offering this unique playmat for our Werewords Deluxe Edition backers, and hope that you get as much enjoyment from having it on your table as we did in creating it!
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Release date: 1 January 2018
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