The fabric is ‘nearly’ identical to the original fabric. The ‘hand’ is soft and fuzzy much like the original. The backing is different: the original mats had a white matting, the current line has a woven backing. In our opinion, we really like the woven backing as it’s a little heavier and seems to grip tabletops a little more firmly. Also noteworthy, in 2013 we changed the fabric again. The new fabric is a little thicker, more consisent pattern wise, and a slight improvement over what we'd been using. We call the 2013 fabric V3. Sometimes we offer the fabric that we had just prior to V3, and we call that V2.

The V2 fabric was our primary fabric from 2011 until 2013. We followed that up with a V3 fabric, which we now offer with MOST of our mats. Occasionally we can offer a V2 product. The V2 is most like the old 1994 fabric, soft to the touch with a bit of textured mottling. The V3 fabric is thicker, and more consistently patterned... without so much 'mottling.' Is one better than the other? In the end, it's a matter of preference. Some people prefer the classic styling of the V2, while others find the thick softness of V3 more to their liking.

Not at all. The Elemental line of play mats, which we no longer produce, were created on a faux leather made out of vinyl. It’s a smooth, mottled feel, but is not soft and fuzzy.

The short answer here is: no. Most of our original mats were either in tan or grey, and while our new SpellGround Classic in Tan is meant to come close to the original tan mats, it is NOT exactly the same color. The mills that create our fabric are constantly shifting production of different colors. Before we do a production run, we see what colors are available and choose the color that we believe most of our customers will want.

The system automatically sends a receipt after you place an order. Because we're a gaming company, junk filters sometimes throw us into the Junk folder because they think we're a gambling establishment. CHECK YOUR JUNK FOLDER for an email titled something like: "Order number XXXXX from Bob Smith for kbgames"

For U.S. Domestic orders, we ship using United States Postal Service Priority Mail. Delivery time is usually 2-3 days in the continental U.S. We try to process all orders the day we get them but that’s not always possible. In short, you should receive it within 7 business days of placing your order.

Our system does NOT automatically send tracking info, though it seems to do so if you pay with PayPal. Please do not contact us with a request for tracking info if it has been less than a week since you ordered. (For international orders, it should be 2 weeks) We're happy to help you track your item if you haven't received it within those time frames. Use our ONLINE FORM to contact us - include your order number and other pertinent information.

For International orders, we ship using United States Postal Service International Priority Mail. Most often, your order will arrive within ten days of placing the order. However, there are things that can DELAY your order. We have no control over customs leaving the U.S. and likewise, entering your country. You are always welcome to contact us at any time, but unless it has been 3 weeks since your order was placed we’ll not be able to begin to resolve an issue with undelivered product. Note that another delay may happen if you don’t choose the CORRECT SHIPPING method, i.e., International. Choosing - and paying for - the wrong shipping will delay your order as we request additional funds for shipping.

Sorry, we don’t offer a discount on our mats for bulk purchases. Our production runs are so small that we don’t carry enough product to offer discounts. This is true whether you’re a club, store or wholesale distributor.

We’d rather not. We love making high quality mats, and we have no interest in producing these overseas where we could have them done in higher quantities at a lower price - and a lower quality. When you purchase one of our mats, you’re getting a piece of art, handmade in San Francisco.

As a ‘boutique’ business, my wife and I handle all of the order fulfillment. Our ‘day jobs’ often have one or both of us traveling for a week or two at a time and unable to ship orders. We do our best to warn our customers when there are such delays.

Actually, as far as we know, there are NO good fake SpellGrounds. And by this we mean people attempting to replicate our art onto fabric that’s the same as ours. Of course, there have been many people that have made - or claimed to make - ‘play mats better than SpellGrounds’ - but as noted these are just different mats with different art on different fabric.
There’s a FALSE RUMOR that mats with the dash in between “Khalsa” and “Brain” (i.e. Khalsa-Brain) are indicators of fake mats. The truth of it is that our original business name was a partnership between Mr. Khalsa and Mr. Brain and we used a dash between the names. After Mr. Brain left the company, the name was changed to “Khalsa Brain Games” without the dash. Likewise, square corners are not a clear indicator of a fake mat, as our earliest production mats were done with square corners.

In an effort to give all of our fans a chance to purchase our latest releases, we typically allow a maximum order of 2 mats for the first week that a mat is on sale. While, as a business, it makes sense to sell as many of our products as quickly as we can to any potential buyer, our fans are important to us. While 'constraining' mat orders means it takes longer for a run of our boutique mats to sell out, we do this so that YOU have a chance to buy our mats before the only other option is eBay.

Let's see who goes first!? Secretly cover ODD or EVEN on your side of the mat, and have your opponent do the same. At the same time reveal what you've covered... add the UNCOVERED numbers together witht the total either odd or even. This determines which player goes first.

Yes! We typically have a few extra bags and would be happy to send a couple your way. BUT, you'll need to send us a pre-paid (stamped) envelope addressed to yourself. Once we get it, we'll pop a couple bags in it and put it in the mail. Tell us what size you need, and send your PRE-PAID envelope to us at: KB Games, 1032 Irving St #1001, San Francisco, CA 94122.

This isn't so much an issue with 'how' the fabric is cut, it's more the nature of the new V4 fabric to shed some threads after going through the printing process. When printing, the mats go through a large heater/dryer to set the ink, and because there's some slight shrinkage, small threads can appear at the edges. The degree of this 'shedding/fraying' seems to vary, from color to color. We've stepped up our diligence in finding/correcting the biggest offenders before we package them. If you do find some longer, dangly threads, the best option is to use a scissors to trim it, rather than pulling on it. As best we can tell, they don't keep fraying and the mat should hold up well.