Best marking & conditions out there

[MarauderX]

I'd like to splurge a little and get a marking & conditions set. I have seen something around, but I would like to get one (or two) of the best out there, and I'd like recommendations as well as if you use it in your game.

Perhaps this has been covered, but I'd like to learn about your experiences too.

Thanks in advance -
~MX

 

[invokethehojo]

alea tools has magnets of different colors made just for miniatures. They work pretty good, until you get a couple guys next to each other that each have a magnet or two on them, then invariably you go to move one guy and all the magnets fly together. the way around this is to glue these magnetic bases to your minis, but they only give you like 20 and that aint enough to cover my mini collection by far, but even if they gave me enough I wouldnt want to take the time to do it, especially since the bases are 1 square inch, so they only stick to the bottom rim of the minis, which means they fall off somewhat easily. Unless of course you want to take the time to cut them all to fit inside said rim...

I started using colored paper clips, but when I was at gencon I demo'd pathfinder and they had little squares with different conditions written on them that you put underneath your minis, they looked nice, haven't played 4e in a while though (because of all these little issues) so not sure how well they would crossover.

 

[Asmor]

alea tools has magnets of different colors made just for miniatures. They work pretty good, until you get a couple guys next to each other that each have a magnet or two on them, then invariably you go to move one guy and all the magnets fly together.

I'm guessing you have the older ones... Newer alea tools have smaller rare earth magnets and so only a few millimeters in the center are magnetized, so there is no reaction at all between adjacent markers.

That said, while alea tools are really cool they can also be a bit of a pain.

To be completely honest, as someone who enjoys buying cool toys and accessories to pimp my game, the best thing I've seen have been some ribbons which a fellow player made out of... err... ribbon. Just get a bunch of different colors and make little hoops. Cheap, distinctive, easy to place on minis, and very light.

That said, I don't use them personally because I like my toys too much and I'm willing to put up with a bit of inconvenience for them.

 

[Rel]

We've taken to keeping the little rings that come on the necks of soda bottles and hanging them on the figure in question to remind us of the marks and conditions. The rings are very light and come in a wide variety of colors if you drink (or have friends that drink) enough variety of soda.

Those marked by my Warden have come to fear the cold gray rings that can be found on the necks of Diet Coke!

 

[Holy Bovine]

We've taken to keeping the little rings that come on the necks of soda bottles and hanging them on the figure in question to remind us of the marks and conditions. The rings are very light and come in a wide variety of colors if you drink (or have friends that drink) enough variety of soda.

Those marked by my Warden have come to fear the cold gray rings that can be found on the necks of Diet Coke!

I bought a $1 pack of girls hair elastics (really tiny ones - about 1/4" across) from a local dollar store. My OCD friend divided them all up by colour (there were 100s of them btw) and I got some small plastic bags to keep them in and everyone just grabs a colour and that is their marking colour. So for $2 we have all the marking & bloodying tokens we'll ever need. I am looking into getting some of these for specific conditions and ongoing damage however.

 

[MarauderX]

Thanks for the replies so far.

I am looking for something from a game company that has easy-to-read labels or similar. Perhaps the minis stack on the label or beside the condition instead of hanging.

 

[Alisair Longreach]

I use the plastic markers from Litko Aerosystems. They have a really big selection of condition markers.

The 4E sets are worth getting but do also get the area affect markers shaped as a nuclear hazard sign, biohazard sign and targeting reticle. These are perfect for Combat Challenge, Hunter's Quarry etc.

 

[Rel]

I bought a $1 pack of girls hair elastics (really tiny ones - about 1/4" across) from a local dollar store. My OCD friend divided them all up by colour (there were 100s of them btw) and I got some small plastic bags to keep them in and everyone just grabs a colour and that is their marking colour. So for $2 we have all the marking & bloodying tokens we'll ever need. I am looking into getting some of these for specific conditions and ongoing damage however.

The tiny hair bands is a pretty great idea. I'm sure they take up less real estate on the figures than the bottle rings do.

 

[Herschel]

I love my Alea Tools. But I like toys.

 

[Holy Bovine]

The tiny hair bands is a pretty great idea. I'm sure they take up less real estate on the figures than the bottle rings do.

We love them. It makes it easily and immediately identifiable who is/isn't in trouble and where we should be concentrating our attacks/healing. 99.99% of the minis I have (and I have a lot of 'em) have somewhere a small elastic can hang off of. Most players use the same colour every session so the Ranger always quarries in green, the fighter marks are yellow etc. Simple and cheap - like me!