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

[Oryan77]

The characters once visited a brothel in a large city. So I had hired some working girls on Craigslist and had them walk around the gaming room while we roleplayed the tavern scenario.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

I've done the parchment documents routine any number of times. As I was into caligraphy at the time (pre computers) I made them look as old-timey as I could. Even wrote one in the alphabet I came up with for one of the game world languages. Being a bright bunch of guys, my group at the time figured it out almost as fast as I'd writen it! I've also done old coins and other props.

They always go over well.

 

[maddman75]

I did a lot of props in my CoC game. Newspaper articles and snippets from books and journals were the norm. Correspondence, telegrams, hand-addressed envelopes also saw an appearance.

Probably the best was the little 3x5 faux-leather bound journal I got and filled with notes from the evil wizard. There was no table of contents or reason to it, just a few pages of this, a few of that. There were descriptions of his visions of Cthulhu and R'lyeh, elder signs and other magical symbols drawn, spells including chants to be performed, and clues to the campaign arc.

Also, I made them take SAN damage to read it.

 

[Hussar]

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!

Wow. Just wow. That's some groovy stuff.

Keep it coming ladies and gents. THere's some fantastic ideas in here.

Oh, btw, where did you get those little skulls, Mean Eyed Cat? Those are great.

 

[mach1.9pants]

the characters once visited a brothel in a large city. So i had hired some working girls on craigslist and had them walk around the gaming room while we roleplayed the tavern scenario.

roflmao!

 

[Rechan]

Here's an old stage hand/movie prop trick: if you want to make something look old (like say, a sign), you rub powdered cocoa into it. Makes it look dirty, dingy, aged.

I've been wanting to try this with paper, to see if I can get a real parchment/old map look.

 

[Rechan]

I did a lot of props in my CoC game. Newspaper articles and snippets from books and journals were the norm. Correspondence, telegrams, hand-addressed envelopes also saw an appearance.

Nobody can beat CoC GMs for props. It helps because you can find 1920s-era looking stuff in pawn shops or antique stores. Fantasy just can't compete.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Most recently? I had three players in a foreign film (China, using D&D rules) that found a flute. The flute (a $1.00 wooden prop) in game could summon the spirits to them. They would still have to convince the spirits to do their bidding. I passed out the flute on Friday. It was the first night of a 36-hour gaming weekend. It was the most valued prop still on Saturday.

"Can I have the flute now?" Player One

"NO!" Players Two and Three

Other memorable props? At least one per game. I had the great privilege of being able to borrow PirateCat's ship model on the same night that I put the PCs up against a djinn and a genie in a Crumbling Desert Fortress. P-cat and his wife and the rest of the crew really carried the day in that fight. You can see some pre-game images here.

http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f185/varianor/1001114_114_439-1.jpg

Props. Ah yes, lovely props! I think we need a convention for the same.

 

[frandallfarmer]

McGuffin Clamshell Box Prop

I made this for the Misdirected Mark Podcast, since I got name-checked into to doing it.



You can make it too!



More details over at cardboard warriors: http://cardboard-warriors.proboards.com/thread/7020/mcguffin-clamshell-box

 

[dougmander]

When you're gaming with kids, especially, props help the players keep track of money and other resources. I use pirate coins, gems, treasure chests, teeny potion bottles, food packs, and arrows when I'm running a Dungeonteller game for young players. The food packs even have grease stains!



More photos here.