4th edition DM battle sheet idea

[Evenglare]

I just had this idea that I have yet to see somewhere. We all know 4th edition battles can become fairly complex due to the abilities having things such as mark, slowed, immobilized etc etc. So my idea is to make a sheet that simply had 4 (or 5 or whatever) character spaces and beside them little circles or something that corresponds to each status condition. All a DM would then need to do is provide some sort of markers (pennies , or whatever) and place it on the ailment and remove it as needed. This way you can track several different status effects with a quick glance.

Now, come to think of it, I figure each character could have their own sheet, and the DM's sheet could be for monsters in battle.

Thoughts?

 

[Ferghis]

While this idea has some merit, and I hate to poop on it, it has three shortcomings (according to me).

1) it has no easy way to track duration of the effects - at paragon and epic, characters (and monsters) inflict a LOT of conditions, and there has to be a way to easily figure out when they end. My personal tracking method is to note (s) for save ends (including any penalties after the "s," an initiative count in parenthesis to indicate that the effect ends at the end of that count/turn (the beginning of one count's turn being the end of another count's turn) or nothing, indicating that the effect lasts for the encounter.

2) it won't be able to track identical conditions from different sources - if a monster is slowed by a ranger power that lasts until the end of the next turn AND slowed (save ends) by the controller, both these conditions need to be noted, since it's hard to tell which one will end first.

3) it will only list conditions, and not effects - effects need as much, if not more, tracking as conditions. If the cleric Astral Seals one enemy, there will be no easy way for your idea to note it.

 

[Nichwee]

Actually most of these could be solved under a combined system.

Use a big sheet of paper with a table on it.
The table has the conditions listed on it per row (Slowed, Prone, etc)
The table has durations listed on it in columns (SONT,EONT,Save, etc)
Then have a different colour token for each player, that on one side has numbers like -1,-2,-3 ect and on the other has a small image/symbol/letter - these show who has the conditon indicated (colour) and if they have a penalty to the save (number) and can link multiple conditions together (same symbol shown).
Have a couple of rows called "Misc Effect" to remind PCs of an odd special condition (and you can use the numbers on the tokens to indicate some extra info to aid memory: "-2 token for a -2 to Atk" for eaxample).

This would mean a simple sheet of paper beside the combat map could indicate most PCs state at a glance - woudl take a few sessions to get used to but would probably work pretty well.

 

[the Jester]

At many (perhaps most) tables, a sheet covered in tokens is a non-starter, because between drinks, snacks, minis, books, elbows and so on, there's not enough room to ensure things are stable and not constantly getting knocked about.

That's my experience, anyhow.

 

[Nichwee]

At many (perhaps most) tables, a sheet covered in tokens is a non-starter, because between drinks, snacks, minis, books, elbows and so on, there's not enough room to ensure things are stable and not constantly getting knocked about.

That's my experience, anyhow.

Fair point.

I guess I just need tablet PCs to get cheaper, so this sort of thing can be done with a digital "sheet" instead, as that would make it easier not to get this sort of thing messed up and lost.

 

[the Jester]

Fair point.

I guess I just need tablet PCs to get cheaper, so this sort of thing can be done with a digital "sheet" instead, as that would make it easier not to get this sort of thing messed up and lost.

The best system I've seen is a mix of white board and colored rings on/under the minis.

 

[Ryujin]

I thought about making UN style name plates with conditions and durations, around the edge, that could be marked with paper clips. The idea was that when you looked at a player, you would immediately be reminded of all the outstanding conditions at the beginning of the turn. Never followed through on it though, because I couldn't find a layout that I liked.

 

[Ferghis]

The best system I've seen is a mix of white board and colored rings on/under the minis.

This is what I use. Rings for frequent straightforward conditions (marked, cold vulnerability in frostcheese parties, psychic lock if that's a common effect), and a whiteboard for anything more complicated.

 

[Evenglare]

See I wanted to do this because I hate putting extraneous tokens on a board. I'm thinking that the whole color token for each character could work. See I have a crap load of these counters from fantasy flight games. They have 20 for every color of red, green, blue, silver and gold. So say the fighter is red, the ranger is green, the cleric is gold and the wizard is blue. There are so many of them, that I could stack them and have one for each turn. Next turn? Remove a token.

 

[Evenglare]

Fantasy Flight Games [Fantasy Flight Supply - Products] - Leading publisher of board, card, and roleplaying games.

That's what I have if anyone was wondering. Currently I use them as minions, I have ten of them marked 1-10. They are very useful in that regard. Thinking more about it, I probably wouldn't have to even have individual effects, it might be easier to just drop the tokens on a monster name to show that a monster has however many abilities that are on it. Example, I see goblin caster has 2 red tokens and a green one? That's 2 fighter abilities and a ranger one. Hopefully It would be easy to remember what they are, but I just like to not forget stuff.