Alea Tools Magnetic Markers - What do you use?

[hailstop]

I'm about to make a purchase of some Alea Tools Magnetic Markers for use in my 4e game.

Before I place the order, I'm just curious what other DM's use and how many they suggest?

Obviously Reds are good for bloodied, and I probably should have 10 or so. But what about other colors? I know some whites would be nice to mark numbers on, so I can identify identical creatures on the board.

 

[wayne62682]

In my group we use:

Red -> Bloodied
White -> Marking (e.g. Fighter)
Light Gray -> Hunter's Quarry
Light Green -> Ongoing poison/acid
Orange -> Ongoing fire/radiant
Dark Blue -> Ongoing necrotic and untyped
Sky Blue -> Ongoing cold/vulnerability cold (my gf's sorcerer abuses Lasting Frost)
Light Brown -> Attack/damage modifiers
Dark brown -> Defense modifiers
Black -> Dying
Dark Gray -> Prone/Slowed
Purple -> Dazed/Stunned/Dominated
Yellow -> Stances/special buffs (e.g. Divine Power)

 

[D'karr]

I'm about to make a purchase of some Alea Tools Magnetic Markers for use in my 4e game.

Before I place the order, I'm just curious what other DM's use and how many they suggest?

Obviously Reds are good for bloodied, and I probably should have 10 or so. But what about other colors? I know some whites would be nice to mark numbers on, so I can identify identical creatures on the board.

If I may make a recommendation take a look at the actions stands and status flags from dark-platypus.

Action Stands figure markers for Role-Playing and War Games

We used them for some games during GenCon and, for us, these work much better than the Alea tools. They do not require that you lift the miniatures to change effects and they don't disrupt the battle. If you get the magnetic battlemat and attach magnets to your miniatures the action stands will attach to your miniatures.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

If I may make a recommendation take a look at the actions stands and status flags from dark-platypus.

Those are too distracting and immersion-breaking for my tastes, but they do look like they'd be useful.

I really like the AleaTools markers. You may want to consider assigning each player a color (and the DM a couple) and tagging by player rather than effect. It requires fewer distinct markers, and I've found 4e flows better when the players keep track of what they've done and remind the DM instead of having to have everyone memorize every effect.

 

[bh2]

I use Alea Tools extensively when I play and highly recommend them. Here are two threads you may want to check out for inspiration:
[URL]http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan-creations-house-rules/260770-my-d-d-4th-edition-dming-setup.html
[/URL]http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...d-markers-sort-advice-contest-free-stuff.html

 

[D'karr]

Those are too distracting and immersion-breaking for my tastes, but they do look like they'd be useful.

I'm sorry but I find having to lift miniatures in the middle of combat much more distracting and immersion breaking. YMMV.

 

[Asmor]

I got the GM kit.

I actually don't use them as much as I thought I would. It's kind of annoying having to affix the magnets to the bottom of minis, and I always find myself questioning whether a mini will be used frequently enough to justify it or not, since I've only got a limited quantity.

I don't really have a standardized color system at all. Generally I pick them out as necessary, with some obvious color choices such as orange = fire and green = poison. I actually almost never use red, since I don't bother marking what's bloodied and what's not.

 

[RodneyThompson]

My brother got me the Gamemaster Kit for Christmas last year (thanks, little bro!) and it's been nice, but like others we don't use a lot of the markers, less than I thought we would. If you are only buying a limited number, I'd recommend making sure to get 10ish bloodied markers (should be enough to cover most PCs and monsters), and then 5 or so of two or three different colors for conditions. If you have a PC that has a "put this on one person" effect (like oath of enmity or hunter's quarry) you might consider buying one or two of some other different colors. If you have two defenders in your party, maybe consider getting 5 or so of two different other colors for marks, but really only if you think it'll be a problem in your game. We have a warden and a swordmage in my Monday night FR game, and we don't even use Alea tools markers for marks anymore.

Also: Pick up at least of a few of their red Large markers, for bloodied Large creatures.

Lastly: If you have the capability of picking up the Gamemaster's Kit, I do recommend it, if only because it's very portable, it lets you adapt to a variety of situations, and it comes with a decent number of magnetic sticky circles for the bottoms of your minis.

Hope that helps!

 

[wedgeski]

I've used them for a year or so, and we tend to only use very specific colours:

red > Bloodied
blue -> fighter mark
yellow -> paladin mark
green -> Hunter's Quarry

Random colours suffice for other effects, but I think you could get by with 10 reds (for those really big fights), and 5 of about 4 other colours.

One other thing, I purchased the conversion kits which allow you to replace the strong original magnets with the weaker ones found in the later versions of the product, and that made a big difference, although it did reduce some of the comedy factor inherent in mini's exploding all over the battle-mat when the wrong pole was set down on the board.

All-in-all, I like using them.

 

[Jack99]

Been using them for a bit as well.

Red->bloodied
Light Green->Quarry
Light Blue->Curse

Otherwise it varies a bit. Never gotten around to making a list, but I really ought to.