On one of the rare occasions that I watch commercials, I caught an ad for Post-it Easel Pads last night and immediately thought, “You could totally use those for GMing.”
Along the lines of Post-it sortable cards for GMs (and a host of other office supply fetish material on TT, most of which can be found in the archives under GMing tools), these pads are non-tacky and should stick to most smooth surfaces.
They come in two varieties: easel pads and wall pads. The latter are slightly smaller (20″x23″ vs. 25″x30″), but the whole pad sticks to the wall — draw on the top sheet, tear it off and start over on the next one; the easel pads require an easel, and the individual sheets stick to the wall (they also come gridded, which would be great for maps).
I can see these being very handy if (like me) you don’t have space for a wall-mounted whiteboard, but want some permanency for your in-session scribblings (if you don’t need the permanency, give hand-held dry-erase boards a try), and for conventions or other offsite GMing (student lounge, friend’s house, etc.).
I love these things. Post it makes a kids version which is infinitely cheaper and serves just as well. My walls are plastered with these giant post it notes with game info, NPC names, planning sessions for origins. Some of these are a little expensive, but there are multiple sheets. I also see these being highly valuable for convention gaming where you don’t have a lot of space to set up displays and stuff.
I would recommend saving your money for a portable folding easel and a small whiteboard instead. That is what I use and I think it works much better than the Easel Pads and is cheaper in the long run too.
Better yet, they have a graph paper version with one-inch squares. With these, you can draw up a map for a set piece battle or a permanent map for a starship or other frequent location and then fold it up with the rest of your gaming material.