It’s not fancy, but it is simple, portable and expandable.

I just use the plastic folding tables you get at WalMart or other retailers. They are lighter and more portable than the old fashioned and heavy wood or particle board tables. You can get them in a variety of sizes from four feet long and two feet wide, to lengths of five, six, or eight feet with  a width of two and a half feet.

This makes them easy to fit nearly any gaming space, and able to be modified for different uses. Need an L-shape or U-shape to maximize table space for a large number of players?

Playing at another location? Pack them in your trunk or back seat and go to the game location.

You can put a table cloth, sheet, blanket, or tarp over the tables if a cloth surface is desired to minimize the sound of rolling dice on the plastic surface. If you have a large sheet of plexiglass/plastic, you can lay it on the table over a section of Gaming Paper, if you want to make a map.

For my table, I have a six foot and a five foot folding table. I have a black table cloth I can’t seem to find, so I used a greenish sheet for these pictures. I got a section of Gaming Paper that I tore off the roll for a review in a prior post, and laid my sheet of plastic over it. You can then write on the glass or plastic with a dry erase marker, so that it can be wiped clean for re-used. I don’t often draw maps in live play, but I may use it more for illustration purposes, next time I run a game. Some people like to use permanent marker to put a pre-measured grid on the glass or plastic on their tables. For full versatility, you can buy Gaming Paper with either squares or hexes, and avoid the headache of making sure all the lines are straight.

This sheet of plastic is from one of those big projection style flat screen TVs. My son found one online for free. He wanted it for the Fresnel lens to heat up, melt, and burn things. I asked for the plastic “screen”. It wasn’t until my son and his family moved out a couple weeks ago that I had room to set this up. I have been planning this in my mind for a few months. I finally bought the second table on sale Saturday, so I could set this up.

The only part of this gaming table I have to be careful about is this three foot by four foot sheet of plastic. It gathers dust quite readily, so I used special electronic cleaning wipes to avoid scratching it. Since it is so thin, it easily slides behind other things so it is out of the way.

Both tables take up most of the living room, but I have room around it for chairs, and people can still move around.

Since I live alone, except for the dog, I can leave this up if I want.

I also like this table combination, since I can arrange it so I can spread out my game prep materials to have different pieces of notes, manuals, dice, maps, and more readily available.  Since I started working at home at the end of February, I lost the work space I had been using for game prep. I have to pack up my work computer If I want that space back. That space isn’t that big, and I couldn’t get at everything, as something always ended up on top of something else.

I look forward to having Monday off and a full day of game prep! I really need to get my online AD&D campaign ready to roll.  I also have desires to run Metamorphosis Alpha and White Star. Now, I have a good setup to run live in-person games too!