Alea Tools Magnetic Markers - What do you use?

[Obryn]

Bloodied comes up so often, we use red pop bottle rings for that.

For us...

Shades of blue = Marks
Greys = Daze/Immobilize/Stun
Purples = Weaken/Immobilize/sometimes Warlock's Curse
Browns = Defensive Benefits
Greens = Poison/Acid
Red = ON FIRE
Orange/Yellow = Various buffs
White = Invisible
Black = Blind

-O

 

[Ktulu]

Red -> Bloodied
White -> Slowed or weakened
Light Gray -> Mark (specifically fighter, monster, bard, etc..)
Light Green -> Ongoing poison/acid
Orange -> Ongoing fire
Dark Blue -> Negative effects to Defenses or Attacks
Sky Blue -> Ongoing cold/vulnerability cold
Light Brown -> Dazed
Dark brown -> Dominated/grabbed (since both rarely come up at the same time)
Black -> Blind/invisible
Dark Gray -> Ongoing Untyped Damage or vulnerability
Purple -> Necrotic/psychic ongoing or vulnerability
Yellow -> Immobilized
Silver -> Swordmage's Mark
Gold -> Paladin's Mark/Radiant ongoing damage or vulnerability

I have 8 of each, plus 15 red, IIRC. There's no hard and fast to what each color represents, aside from red for bloodied. Other than that, colors can be associated with whatever effect at new campaigns (i.e. the warlock wants purple for his curse, or the paladin of bane wants to use green...etc..)

 

[Zinovia]

We use Alea Tools, combined with some tiny hair clips that are clipped onto the figures for short term effects. I use some removable colored dot stickers to distinguish identical minis from each other. Those action stands look really nice, although they are a bit distracting in a tight-quarters combat. It's worth considering them though.

For Alea Tools:
Red = bloodied
Blue = fighter mark
Green = swordmage mark
Purple = warlock curse
White = elevation change (above the characters on a platform or flying)
Grey = concealment (useful with a feylock in the group)
Brown = slowed or immobilized

The other colors are used for whatever seems to make sense - marking a fiery area on the map would be orange for instance. I do need to get a conversion kit for the magnets I have now, as they do repel and attract each other quite strongly from the sides. The newer magnets don't do that. I picked up some large sized ones (2") at GenCon, and those should work nicely for us.

 

[Holy Bovine]

I use tiny hair elastics I got at a dollar store - about 600 in a package in a variety of colours. We don't have a codified colour system yet beyond red=bloodied, yellow=fighter mark, green=ranger quarry. I think I might make up one though since I am back in the DM saddle again soon.

 

[The Little Raven]

Like Rodney, I was given the Gamemaster's Set as a present from my mother, along with the extra gold & silver, cyan & maroon colors, so I have all of the standard ones.

Our system for using it is simple.

Red = Bloodied
White = NPC differentiation (I write Roman numerals on the side, to determine whether this is Goblin Cutter #1 or #2 and so on)

Each player receives 2 similar colors (light green/dark green) for use with their powers. It's up to the player to remind the DM (if he forgets) what his marker on the target is doing. This spreads some of the bookkeeping around, and helps keep the players focused on what is going on in the battle.

I originally tried to use a "this color = this condition" system, and aside from Bloodied, it didn't really work too well (too much referencing the color cheat sheet).

 

[davethegame]

I have some of all of the colors of Alea tools (though 3 different kinds of magnets in them... the new ones really are the best.) Last time we tried using the Dark Platypus status flags too. We still used the red magnets for bloodied and I gave each PC their own color for marks/curses/etc. Status effects were handled by the flags.

Worked OK. The magnets and magnetic flags interact oddly, so I might have to engineer the PC's minis to compensate. Still working towards an ideal solution, though.

 

[Adso]

I have a ton of these suckers. I've purchased every set they've released and use them in both games I run.

Red gets the most use, of course. I tend to use the blues for mark (with different shades of blue differentiating marks). When I first got my markers, I outlined all of the conditions in 4e and made condition and effect cards. Each card listed the color of the marker being used for the effect.

Mid gray for instance was daze. Dark gray was stun.

The problem I ran into was the one of my players decided to take charge of maker stacking. That within itself is not the problem. She does a great job and it's one less thing I have to deal with. The problem came up when she started questioning my color choices. She thought it was obvious that orange should be the color for daze, because orange reminded her of the movie "Dazed and Confused."

How could I argue with that logic?

Now I let her pick the colors. It's just easier that way.

The moral of the story is let your players have input on how you use new tools, and go with the flow if they use them in ways that you didn’t envision.

It’s just easier that way.

 

[Garboshnik]

I made up some custom flag stands similar to the Dark Platypus action stands. You can see pictures in my old thread here:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/259438-someone-please-sell-me.html#post4868152

I think they work better than any of the products for sale now and I still wish someone would produce a stand like them

 

[darjr]

you know those little star stickers? They come in various colors and I don't mind losing them when we are done.

 

[karlindel]

I picked up the DM Kit awhile back, and also picked up large versions of the colors I use fairly often. I am running one 4E campaign and playing in two others (and previously played in another one for awhile), as well as running a few one shots, so I've got a pretty good idea of which ones come up most often for me.

I use (roughly in order of how often I use them):
Red - bloodied
Yellow - Defender's Mark
Black - Warlock's Curse
Medium Brown - Ranger's Quarry
White - Blinded, also used for unique effects
Orange - Ongoing Fire
Light Blue - Slowed, also Ongoing Cold
Medium Blue - Dazed
Dark Blue - Immobilized
Dark Green - Restrained
Medium Green - Ongoing Acid
Light Green - Ongoing Poison
Dark Grey - Ongoing Necrotic
Dark Purple - Dominate
Light Purple - Ongoing Psychic