Federation Commander

These days prefer wet erase markers to dry erase on the ship cards. I keep a bottle of water and napkins on the table to make changes to the cards. I bring this up because I am going to teach someone FC today and I have found that with players, not just newbies but others, many have a first instinct to make a change by sticking their finger in their mouth, putting the slobber on my cards, and wiping off with their fingers.

Does anyone else find this gross? Does this happen to anyone else?

It happened the first two times I handed out the wet erase instead of dry erase, even with water/towels there. Now, when I am explaining the basics of the game, I lay down the "no slobber" rule (nicely though).

I started keeping a pack of anti-bacterial wipes in my FedCom travel crate after some similar experiences during demos. I wipe 'em all down before storing them.

I'm a microbiologist, and a little knowledge is too much. Definitely gross, and the agonizer booth is an appropriate response for such people

I remember using that for Battletech a while back, with the record sheets in clear plastic sleeves. I too find this gross. Especially since you start to run out of fingers eventually, unless you want to taste those wonderful chemicals over and over again.

Now, I stick to try erase markers, but try keep some wipes handy so that after the game I can wipe everything off the card since dry erase markers (and the erasers I bought for them) tend to leave some junk behind. If not, there's always the trip to the bathroom for a wet paper towel.

I have an even half dozen, fine tipped dry erase markers in each Fed Comm counter box (one for alliance, one for coalition, and one for generic units.)

Each marker also has an eraser on the cap. This facilitate erasing of individual boxes during repair, etc.

And best of all... no slobber!

I am also a strict dry-erase man, and those markers with the little eraser type pad on the end are just perfect, as mentioned before.

I actually use china markers. Not much good at writing, but can easily fill in a square with them.

I always have a bottle of hand sanitizer and some cotton balls at the ready for these occasions.

I use the eraser cap dry erase as well. My only complaint is that they can be subject to easy smearing and old damage that's been on your sheet for many turns sometimes needs to be remarked to make sure it's clear.

Grease pens are the only other thing I have tried. They are nice but they are so much harder to wipe clean and you have to replace them more often.