And the Oscar for best use of Props goes to...

[Hussar]

I love props. I do. I get all squishy when a DM hands out pretty much anything - a plastic ring, a coin, a MAP (OOOOOH YEAHHHH), doesn't matter how trashy, crappy or whatever. If it's tactile, I love it.

Now, since I play online, handing out stuff is a bit more difficult. So, I obviously go with images of stuff. Maybe not as tactile, but, it does get the job done. Maps and letters are some of my favorites. I once took an image of some old ripped piece of parchment and photoshopped a map on top of it along with some notes on the map. The players really liked it.

So, what do you do? What sorts of things do you give to your players?

 

[CharlesRyan]

I love props. I do. I get all squishy when a DM hands out pretty much anything - a plastic ring, a coin, a MAP (OOOOOH YEAHHHH), doesn't matter how trashy, crappy or whatever. If it's tactile, I love it. [. . . ]

So, what do you do? What sorts of things do you give to your players?

Me too.

Mostly I just give out letters, signs, journal pages, and things like that. Printed matter is easier to prepare, and easier for the players to keep and store. I'd love to do more, but the inconvenience threshold is just a bit too high.

That said, I do sometimes (not always) get a bit extravagent. Here's one of the better ones from my current campaign. Latin readers, don't look--I just ran an internet translation for the text. Good enough for my non-latin-reading players (and self).

I printed it at A3 (11x17, roughly) in colour, then distressed it. Players loved it!

 

[CharlesRyan]

Come to think of it, I also like to make components for mechanical subsystems that might come into play temporarily. For example, I ran a battle using the rules out of Heroes of Battle; I put wrote out four outcomes, sealed them in envelopes, and wrote the number of VPs necessary for each outcome in large letters on the outside. I then set those prominently out on the table when the battle started. I think it really added to the tension of the session as the players wondered what the envelopes contained. When it was all over, I handed the appropriate envelope to the players and let them open and read it; I destroyed the other envelopes unopened.

More recently, I had a character involved in a joust. I created some special rules for how it would work, which involved using playing cards for each participant to secretly choose their strategy. Not satisfied with modern cards, I made these:

 

[Rechan]

On the topic of pictures, I would scoure the internet for pictures of cool stuff. Like Mayan pyramids or temples from Cambodia, steal pictures from adventures, etc. Then I'd email them to one of the players who had a laptop, and he'd turn his computer so everyone could see what they were looking at.

I've heard so many stories on "How to make paper look like parchment". I've soaked things in coffee and tea and it never worked, ever. It just made the paper wet.

I've found potpourri bottles that look like great potion bottles.

 

[Mean Eyed Cat]

I hand out little mini skulls for each failed death save and coins for action points. The coins are replicas of pieces of eight I got from a simple game called Morgan's Revenge.

My players love 'em.

 

[Bodhiwolff]

I once spent a Saturday afternoon designing and creating document specifically for a campaign. It basically looked like some mouldering old parchment with some random, crazy poetic prophesy on it.

It was, in actuality, the cornerstone of the entire campaign.

Hidden in the documents were clues for the party to chase down.

1. If you read the 1st letter of each word in the 1st column vertically, it spelled a message telling you to keep looking further for more clues.
2. The 1st word of each sentence spelled out a clue.
3. The 1st letter of each word spelled out a long clue.
4. The words taken in order of the Fibonacci sequence spelled out a clue.
5. There were 5 strange symbols watermarked on the parchment, which when connected formed a pentagram. The lines of the pentagram crossed certain words, which spelled out a clue.
6. Inside the pentagram's inscribed pentagon in the middle, the words in that section rearranged to form a clue.
7. Drawn in lemon juice (invisible ink which you heat to make visible) was a map, and certain words on the parchment now corresponded to things like passwords, or hints of secret entrances, etc.
8. When folded along the North/South line of the map, the map itself formed another picture, which now looked like a glyph necessary to understand the final room inside the map's fortress.

I made the document all stained, dog-eared, and torn. I soaked it in tea, baked it in the oven, and then soaked it in different tea again. I aged it and messed it up.

I then handed it to the players at the appropriate moment (they found it hidden on the corpse of an old hermit/prophet).

I didn't tell them anything, and it took them a week to realize that the 1st column of letters warned them of hidden clues.

Over the following weeks, they'd pour over the document, trying various combinations, until they discovered every secret -- which would then lead them to the next piece of the campaign.

I swear --- that stupid document got just as aged and worn from the players as it did from me! One of them *always* had it on them, so they could whip it out and pour over it during their spare time, looking for any more secrets.

Finding the map hidden in invisible ink really messed with their heads!

 

[Ktulu]

I don't do props very often, but I've had a few that were surprisingly successful.

In one game, the party was attacked by a green dragon (3.x) entered the fight by using its breath weapon. I had slipped my new fog machine under the table and set it up to go off when I needed it. The player closest to the blast of fog screamed when it happened. It was quite funny.

Most of the time, though, if it's not a letter or writ of some sort, I don't bother too much with props.

 

[Umbran]

Best props goes to... my wife.

We were playing a Deadlands mini-campaign of six sessions. For the last she researched and catered a meal appropriate for American West of the 1860s and 1870s, to be eaten in-character. Wonderful stuff.

 

[The Levitator]

Best props goes to... my wife.

We were playing a Deadlands mini-campaign of six sessions. For the last she researched and catered a meal appropriate for American West of the 1860s and 1870s, to be eaten in-character. Wonderful stuff.

I'm also a big fan of genre-appropriate food as a prop of sorts. I get much more immersion eating stew when we game than Doritos. That goes for drinks as well. It's mead, ale or wine at our table when we game. My players even have their favorite steins & mugs too.

I once played in a group where we only ate and/or drank when our characters did, and we did it in character. None of us were accomplished actors or anything, but it did add to the fun.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

Another person here who uses lots of paper props. I actually use newspapers as plothooks, so say half a dozen newspapers are talking about bizarre murders, or there is secret messages in it for the party, etc.

Right now for my current campaign I am building I am gonna be having lots of punch cards. Be it ID for the PCs, information, Rituals (they come in punch cards and use a portable difference engine to be cast), etc.