Bookkeeping powers, actionspoints and hitpoints?

[Switchback]

I have always used only a scrap sheet of paper that I remake before each adventure to track my PC's HP, Initiative, etc. For 4e, the way I do my Encounters, Dailies, AP, etc is simply have each of them listed on a line and at the beginning of a encounter I create a circle next to them. When the power gets used I fill in the circle.

So during an encounter all I have to do is glance down my list of powers and anything that has a open circle is something that is available to me. Including one use powers like my Eladrin's Fey Step and Wizard's Wand Accuracy.

When the next encounter begins, I simply draw new circles next to the old ones. Really no more difficult than flipping a power card over, but takes a lot less space if you are already familiar with what your powers do. I of course, have them written in longer form on my real character sheet.

 

[James McMurray]

Those magnets do look the business, but they arn't cheep, how many do you find you need?

I have invested in the cheepskate version.

22mm counters from ebay or here

That looks promising. Do you use 1" minis, and if so have you had problems with the 22mm counters being smaller than them? They also sell 25mm ones, which is almost an inch, but they only have them in red and blue.

these guys do stackable counters in all sorts of sizes but you have to buy a helluva lot.

Heh. I don't think we'll ever need 1,000 of them at once.

Hate: They're freaking magnets. If they are in adjacent squares, they will either push or pull each other. Both are annoying. Aligning them to make sure they attract each other (the less annoying possibility) is a PITA. Pulling them apart again sucks, too.

I hadn't even thought of that. Thanks for the heads up!

The button idea is a good one, except they won't stack very well. Still, it's creative and I have no doubt you'll find plenty of stuff at Hobby Lobby which could fit the bill. (My wife is a craft person, and I'm amazed at the amount of good gaming stuff I can find at Hobby Lobby, Michael's, JoAnn, and the rest.)

Finally got a chance to go last night, and you're right. Most of the buttons were rounded on one side. The ones that weren't were usually wood or had a fancy design. And wow, buttons are a lot more expensive than I thought they'd be. At 90 cents a pop I might as well be buying a big fancy set!

I think someone on CM found miniature 1" poker chips. Those seem like another less-expensive and less-annoying option.

I looked for the poker chips and all I could find was the standard sized ones. Any idea where they found the smaller ones?

Also, has anyone seen other 1" or 25mm counters for sale in the US?

 

[Obryn]

I hadn't even thought of that. Thanks for the heads up!

Yeah, you know - it's one of those things I didn't ever think about, until the first time it happened. Then I smacked my forehead like, "Man! Why didn't I think of this?!"

Finally got a chance to go last night, and you're right. Most of the buttons were rounded on one side. The ones that weren't were usually wood or had a fancy design. And wow, buttons are a lot more expensive than I thought they'd be. At 90 cents a pop I might as well be buying a big fancy set!

Holy cow! It's been a while since I priced buttons... Yeah, at almost a buck per, you're better with magnets.

I looked for the poker chips and all I could find was the standard sized ones. Any idea where they found the smaller ones?

Sadly, I can't get to CM from work. It's posted in a thread there - also about ways to mark conditions. I said pretty much the same thing about the Alea magnets there.

If you can get to (or care to get to) CM, it's somewhere in the Coliseum...

-O

 

[James McMurray]

They did have big tubes of buttons that were a lot cheaper, but they were too small and weren't flat.

It's been a while since I've been to CM, and Google turns up several forums with that name. Do you happen to know the url, or enough that I can narrow it down?

 

[Obryn]

http://www.circvsmaximvs.com

Happy hunting!

-O

 

[Aluvial]

I put my sheets into a transparent cover and use a dry eraser pen....

Use a wet erase pen. The marks do not smear unless they are wet. A small napkin will clean the mark easily.

Power cards are tedious. I know a lot of people like them, but they really are extraneous to running a character on a sheet. I type up the powers, I have a nice template for word now for each power... I even have the colors and the grey to white bars in place, just like the books.

I precalculate all of the attack and damage rates in the power listing themselves. Then, when you use the power, put a wet erase tick on your transparent sheet, and it's marked. When your rest, erase the marks.

Bingo.

You can get 50 transparent sheets online at office stores for under $5 if you look.

Also, look for Staedtler wet erase pens... expensive, but they really last, and work best. Get the super fine.

http://www.staedtler-usa.com/Lumocolor_non_permanent_universal_pen_us.Staedtler?ActiveID=24225

Aluvial

 

[CarlosDosBrickos]

A handy hint for tracking marks and bloodied status: the tokens from MB's Connect 4 are exactly the right size to clip to the bottom of a medium D&D mini. Red for bloodied, yellow for marked. They fit so well you can pick up the minis without the tokens falling off. £5.99 gets you all the tokens you're likely to need.

I second the wet erase marker idea. I use those already for my battlemat, and it certainly beats the power cards. I loved the card idea to start with, but it's proved a pain in practice. Simple, clear sheets with check boxes, a transparent sleeve and a wet erase marker is the way to go I think.

 

[Switchback]

For conditions, my group uses two things that work really well. One, the rings from plastic 20 oz bottle caps. You just need to drink enough differently colored soda's to get a decent collection. Colored hair ties work great as well. I borrowed some but would imagine they are cheap.

 

[harmfulguy]

Has anybody used any kind of wheel/dial counter to track hit points? Better yet, does anybody know of a template for creating such a counter yourself?

 

[DracoSuave]

Yeah I used to use one of the L5R honour counters, they worked really well, and even went into the negative numbers... tho they don't go high enough for -this- game.