Our First Game -- What some non-RPG fans Learned that they want to share!

Bodhiwolff · Aug 22, 2008

And a shot showing the skills-side of the side-sheet, normally hidden under the game-mat. You only slide it out when you're trying to do something with an active skill use, and need to look up the rules.

Mistwell · Aug 22, 2008

Wow Bodhiwolff. Now that I see your player's mat, it's even more awesome than you described.

I'd buy that kit!

Bodhiwolff · Aug 22, 2008

Heck, it is yours for free! (I put it on as an attachment, in a pdf form, along with the side-mat/skills-sheet that slides underneath).

I'm just hoping that somebody with more skill than I have makes one that is prettier!

The real hero is Grandpa and his wonderful Power Card set, all here from EnWorld. Bless Grandpa's Power Cards. They made my game!

jeffh · Aug 22, 2008

(Makes Thievery check)

Shabe · Aug 22, 2008

Prestidigitalis said:
Those are all great ideas, but there is one thing that concerns me.

The markers that you put under the miniatures, whether they be poker chips or cardboard, or whatever: isn't it a pain to keep having to pick up the miniature, put down a new marker, remove an old one, etc.?

I have a mental image of the miniatures falling like dominos because of trying to add/remove markers from under a miniature in the middle of a crowd.

I can't help thinking that it would be easier to put something on TOP of the miniature.

Obviously, I haven't played with this method yet -- am I inventing a problem that doesn't exist?

Well we use bright red squares under the monster for bloodied conditions and upturned beer bottle cap for cloud of daggers , its a little fussy but not really a problem for me as a dm as when i say the blow connects with the creature taking a chunk of flesh off it / causing it to bleed from its fresh wound / making it start to ooze presumingly vital fluids my players are jumping at the counters to put them under the monster, especially the tieflings.
For the curses and marks and stuff we use coloured paperclips alas there are only so many colours so we use the aforementioned things to track other things on the field.
I think pipe cleaners cut and bent into hoops would be better as they don't mark minatures, are easier to bend and adjust and come in more colours.

amysrevenge · Aug 22, 2008

grickherder said:
The funny thing is that the people who do this are the ones who are not inclined towards math and arithmetic. The ones that do find doing arithmetic in their heads quickly have all the final bonuses for everything they can do pre-calculated, but those who struggle with adding up all the modifiers quickly in their head make themselves do it every single time they roll.

This.

Seen it sooo many times. I only play at clubs and conventions, so I see a great many gamers, and it is almost universally true. Folks who could handle doing the arithmetic from scratch every time are the ones who have it pre-calculated, and folks who can't don't.

Goblyns Hoard · Aug 22, 2008

EDIT - NEW VERSION ON PAGE 2

Bodhiwolff - I love your idea. And in exchange for allowing all of us to steal it from you I thought I'd have a go at doing it up a bit. I rearranged the components a bit hope you like it.

If anyone has any suggestions for improvements let me know. Not going to promise anything but will certainly consider doing variations. Fonts and background image should be easy to change.

Bodhiwolff · Aug 22, 2008

Goblyn's Hoard, that is beautiful stuff!

Making it look like a rolled-up parchment was inspired! Very slick!

I'm loathe to make suggestions after you made such a beautiful product -- but refinement makes for a better end-product, and if I throw in some ideas, maybe other people will throw in theirs too.

I'm assuming that where there are two boxes, the one box is for a +/- sign, and the other box is for a number? (I realized that my prototype wound up with some oddballs where you would have an inked-in minus sign next to a pre-typed plus sign, which was very strange indeed!

I wonder if it is possible to make the sign boxes smaller than the numeral boxes? It doesn't seem like they'd need as much room as a number would? But then again, maybe I'm wrong.

I also found that it was important to have a (faded/watermarked/light-coloured) box inside the hitpoint boxes (and other boxes), to put the actual value in, as a reference point. Once people got going with throwing tokens in and out, they'd forget what their max was, so they'd have to refer back to the sheet to grab their max number of tokens.

Is the healing-surge token space and Action Point token space large enough? The action point one only has to hold a few tokens, but the Healing Surge one has to hold quite a few. On the other and, the healing value is written on the power cards for the Second Wind, so you could consider saving some space there.

But again, these are just refinement suggestions, because I really, really appreciate what you did.

Just beautiful stuff!

Parchment!

Bodhiwolff · Aug 22, 2008

One more thing ... while advanced players know how to exchange one action for another, in the beginning the little arrows did actually help the newbies figure out which type of action could be exchanged for which.

Would it be possible to put in some arrows between your own "Standard Action" / "Move Action" / "Minor Action" boxes? I mean, unobtrusive, and still in keeping with your own style, of course!

Bodhiwolff · Aug 23, 2008

Here is a copy of the Primer I'd e-mailed my friends.

It relies heavily on the "Shadowfell" module quickstart rules -- and by "relies heavily" I mean "I re-typed it and added about 5 percent new material". I added those bits which I figured the players would need, but weren't included in the quickstart rules.

So the writing style is almost pure WOTC, and not my own.

Some people might find such a thing useful for new players. Much easier than asking them to read the entire rulebook.

It is titled "Learn to play D&D in 8 pages of 12 pont font" (really it is 8 1/2 pages) ... so you know exactly what you're getting into!