RPGaDay 2025 #10 Origin

The origin story of a favorite accessory.

The Great Salt Flats. Steve Jackson Games had a series of maps of various locales, such as floorplans of a haunted house and similar, but the only one I bought was the set called The Great Salt Flats. Partly because I enjoyed the joke (it was a set of blank maps sheets with square grid on one side and hex grid on the other) and partly because buying the haunted house would obligate me to run a haunted house adventure at some point, but blank maps were useful for anything.

Though there wouldn't be much of a story if it was just a matter of buying a cleverly named product. In order to make sure that I was fully confident marking them up, I took them to Kinko's to have the sheets laminated. This is, of course, back when it was still called Kinko's, so I know I'm dating myself.

I don't remember how much it cost, but I don't think I had a lot of money and had to do the lamination in stages, one or two at a time as I could afford it, until all 6 sheets were laminated and from there on infinitely reusable.

But those 6 blank map sheets were what got me through a lot of gaming. It was definitely part of my megadungeon campaign, with sheets sliding in as the party's exploration took them off the edge of the old sheet. They were also a good size for placing on a coffee table to aid in visualizing a set piece battle from campaigns even before that time.

I still have them around somewhere, though it has been a while since I've taken them out for a game.