Cheap DM/Player tips

bardolph · Feb 14, 2002

It's weird, my players actually think miniatures and illustrated counters kinda ruin the experience. They prefer more abstract representations, like beads and chips. That way, they can leave it to their imagination to fill in the rest.

"Certs" would be wonderful, but only if I can spit them quickly out of my printer!

If you like using illustrations or labels for your chips, try printing them out on label stock. That way, you don't have to cut or glue anything. Just peel and stick!

WSmith · Feb 14, 2002

Check out my personal website, in the miniatures section.

http://rpghost.com/3eHall

Hand of Evil · Feb 14, 2002

Index Cards 'nuff said.

All sewers, inns and taverns are basicly the same and I use the same maps over and over again.

Have the Players do some of the work. Tell them if they want to know an NPC or location they can create them and hand them over to me, maybe I will use them. I do put level limits on this, and number is limited too.

DaveStebbins · Feb 14, 2002

Johnn Four has an excellent article about finding and using paper figs at his roleplaying site on about.com

http://roleplaygames.about.com/library/weekly/aa012502.htm

Like an earlier respondent, I also like Cardboard Heroes by Steve Jackson Games. Instead of copying the pages at Kinko's, I have scanned them all. Then I can cut, paste and duplicate them in any paint program and print just the ones I need in whatever quantities I need them. Heck, I can even change the scale and print giant orcs or whatever. It is a great resource and well worth the initial purchase price.

-Dave

Gez · Feb 14, 2002

I took a big, thin, square wood plank (that was actually a separator for a bookshelf), pyrograved it with a 1" squares grid, and covered it with a big plastic sheet.

That was my frustrated reaction at not finding an erasable velleda board with a grid. It works well.

Also, I cutted a D&D 3e cone in strong paper (you know, these cones now always have the same angle) and graduated it. It was handy until we lost it.

I used once the roughly cubic, transparent plastic blister of a miniature as a gelatinous cube. It was very appropriate, since we could put the minis of absorbed creatures inside.

Other than that, yes, we do use the ubiquitous "bob the fighter, you're that d4".

Eye Tyrant · Feb 14, 2002

While I have about 80 or so various minis, I have recently started using the card-stock couters that come with my Dungeon subscription and in the Adventure Game set. Also, I came across an old Othello game that coincedently has a ton of small chip-like plastic game pieces (you remember Othello right?), the best part is that they are exactly the same size as the counters (the small counters at least). I have thought about glueing the counters to the game pieces to give them more stability, but haven't done so yet. The game pieces are black on one side and white on the other, which makes them more versatile then a solid colored chip...

I plan to take the fold up taverns, castle walls etc that are currently on the WotC site, print them out in color, cut them out then glue them to sturdy-board (the card stock with styro foam in the middle) cut out in the same fahion as the fold ups. This will give it more stability I think, and should prove to be pretty cool.

WSmith · Feb 14, 2002

Before this thread is done we need to archive it!

Bardolph, sorry I am a little busy with Necromancer to get Its War going right now. But have you heard from Monte Carlo lately? GREAT TIPS BTW.

I mentioned my site, but a quick summary of the good stuff posted. I use soda bottle caps just like you use poker chips.

I freely used Happy Meal figures. You have to see it to believe it. http://rpghost.com/3eHall in the miniatures section.

Ideas not posted on my site:

Use those little rock/stone things you find at Arts and Crafts stores. Red are worth 3 hp, white are worth one. take 7 hp of damage and the dm gives you two red stones and one white one. Or better yet used them as a HP indicator. If you have 8 hp, use the Green for 3 and white for one. So in front of your character you have 2 Green and 2 white. Damage is red for 3 and black for 1. So when the damage "indicator" equals the HP indicator, you are at 0 HP. PLUS add another color for subdual and when that meats the dam indi, you are knocked unconscious!

If a cleric casts CLW, you are told not how muc you are healed, but instead given white/green stones back.

Get a table cloth with a pattern that has 1" squares on it.
http://www.houseoflucas.com/mike/DnDIndex.htm

Index cards, I have nothing else to say there, already covered.

Go to yard sales and rape the old chess and monopoly board games for tokens.

Someguy · Feb 15, 2002

Crow · Feb 15, 2002

lets see...

my friend didn't buy minis, only the little square bases for them which are like 30 for a dollar. He painted little dots of color on each one, so that you could have groups of differnt things (goblins are blue dotted round ones, orcs are yellow dotted squares, etc)

we ran out of markers for the BattleMat, so we don't write on it anymore, and it still has a map on it from about 4 months ago that we never bothered to wipe off...

My DM takes most of his NPCs from the Goblin A Day Thread in the Rogues gallery... and just changes the names, and "pretends" they are of whatever race they are

We end up using soda cans as scenery. (The Cokes are all giant pillers, the sprite is a lake, the Mountain Dew is the Scary Alter of Bad Bad Things, this Pepsi is a big tree)

Sometimes the DM uses our Character Sheets as scratchpaper, or to map out an area...

He writes most of his adventures/NPCs on notecards which he buys in bulk and catalogs in a big binder...

wsclark · Feb 15, 2002

Eye Tyrant said:
I have thought about glueing the counters to the game pieces to give them more stability, but haven't done so yet.

I take the counters (and the ones I make myself using Character Artist from Profantasy Software) and mount them on magnetic business cards (the ones you can peel and stick business cards to). Once mounted, I cut them out and use 1" fender washers to give them the stability I want. This way I carry around about 100 washers and all the magentic counters I need.