D&D General Extra DM equipment & tools

[Oofta]

I write up all my monsters in a word document so I can print them out (4 to a sheet) and laminate the paper. You can get laminating sheets on Amazon or any office supply store. I then cut up the paper and use them as initiative cards. I also create blank ones for the PCs, so when it gets to a monster's turn I have all the info I need. If I'm ambitious, when I print I put the picture of the monster on the back of the card. See attached. This works well for me because I keep all the cards sorted in a card holder, I've been doing this for a while so most encounters I just grab one I had previously printed.

I use a spreadsheet to calculate encounters that I found somewhere. Just plug in your PCs and monsters and it gives you a decent feel for difficulty. It calculates both with and without the monster multiplier - I ignore the one with the multiplier.

Since we always play on a grid and I rarely use pre-printed maps I like things that represent terrain and effects down quickly.

I use clay "blocks" sized to represent 5 ft cubes. I also have some that are 1x4, 2x2 up to 4x4 (all 1 "block" tall). I just made those out of air dry clay. I use them for some 3-dimensional aspects and to represent everything from boulders to buildings. Makes set up of most scenes quite quick.

I also have wooden squares that is just a strip of 1x1/4 inch wood cut into 1 inch lengths and painted various colors. I like to use those for various wall spells or more dynamic area effects. So in one encounter I had a spreading fire where I simply threw down more red squares to indicate the area of effect.

I also use colored pop bottle rings for various indicators, although thankfully I don't have to have as many as I did for 4E when I had a chart to keep track of all the options.

So that's about it, along with minis and the usual paraphernalia.

 

[Li Shenron]

For the DMs among us, other than the obvious stuff (books, notebooks, battle mats/maps, screen, a laptop...), what kind of extra equipment and accessories do you use use to help you run the game?

I don't use all the obvious stuff... no books and battlemats for me for example. Either a laptop OR a dm screen but not both, as the laptop also serves me as the screen. Lately I prefer the laptop because then my notes also go into text files, and I can eschew the loose paper (although sometimes I long for the old pen & paper way).

I have designed our own character sheets and spell/action cards, but these are meant to be a player's tools rather than for the DM.

For visualizing battles, we use Lego minis and scenery objects (just a very few of those... it'd be awesome to build dungeon walls and furniture or forest elements all in Lego bricks but it takes an unbelievable amount of time to do so), plus colored elastic hair bands for conditions.

The only additional "accessory" we use is Tabletop Audio for ambient sounds, or even just Spotify for a soundtrack.

I have been recently thinking that I should add some DIY idea for spells/effects templates however...

 

[jasper]

Okay most my extra stuff has been covered except for Different colors dry ease pens. I generally give the players black to mark init on the board, but use different colors for various reasons.

 

[jasper]

Opps. A piece of luggage to carry most of my stuff.

 

[JeffB]

Candlesticks/Candelabrum/Lantern

Big foam D6 for 13th Age escalation die

13th Age soundtrack sometimes

manual sound effects -drop heavy things under the table onto the hardwood floor, or bang the underside of the table with them- scratch the underside of the table, or shoes/socks that make weird shuffling noises-let the kitchen sink faucet drip into a stainless steel bowl or something.

My tools are for ambience- otherwise I use laptop, books, index cards, scrap paper mostly,.

 

[jasper]

One I need but don't know what they are called. The wooden stick with a hook it that the Vegas craps table use to capture dice. Not to capture dice but on some of large tables so I could move the minis around.
Expendable supplies. Windex, paper towels, baby wipes, ,

 

[Swarmkeeper]

One I need but don't know what they are called. The wooden stick with a hook it that the Vegas craps table use to capture dice. Not to capture dice but on some of large tables so I could move the minis around.
Expendable supplies. Windex, paper towels, baby wipes, ,

ooo Yes... yes... I'm thinking more along the lines of one of the sticks the generals use in the war room in old-timey movies to move the little army men and tanks and whatnot around. Where can we get some of those?

 

[jasper]

ooo Yes... yes... I'm thinking more along the lines of one of the sticks the generals use in the war room in old-timey movies to move the little army men and tanks and whatnot around. Where can we get some of those?

This is a little short but.
Amazon.com : YH Poker Deluxe Telescopic Roulette Chip Rake : Sports & Outdoors

 

[generic]

I use 4E-era map tiles, the Map Tiles Reincarnated which were introduced with 5E, Chessex mats, a miscellany of dice, painted and unpainted miniatures (most of them plastic, Reaper or Wizkids), wet-erase markers in six attractive colors, a ruler, a scientific calculator (rarely necessary except when graphing out the scale of attacks or such), a DM screen, and the occasional Android tablet or PC for sound effects and NPC artwork.

 

[Oofta]

ooo Yes... yes... I'm thinking more along the lines of one of the sticks the generals use in the war room in old-timey movies to move the little army men and tanks and whatnot around. Where can we get some of those?

Personally I just use a telescoping back scratcher. May not be long enough for what you want though.