Bookkeeping powers, actionspoints and hitpoints?

[NeoNick]

I'm not pleased with my current system of keeping track of which encounter I've used in a fight. Curently it usually means making a erasable mark on my charachter sheet in the fight - and when the fight is over I erase the marks. As I haven't got hold of a good and clear character record sheet that is supposed to support the marking/reasing procedure, it gets messy after a few fights.

The same goes for action points and hit points. Those get marked and erased continously also.

How do you handle this? Any ideas how to make this without marking/erasing?

Anybody tried using some kind of cards for your powers? Like sitting with one black card representing your Daily, a couple of diamond cards representing encounter powers, and even five hearts showing your remaining healing surges. How do you think it works?

Or having magic markers for hit points. Whenever you loose hp you drop them in a bowl in the middle?

I saw this post http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?t=230777 talking about conditions and it gave me some ideas on that. But I'm really interested in making the bookkeeping of powers, action points and hp:s quicker and more clear.

 

[Shabe]

A seperate index card/post it note for hit points may help, and we are finding coloured paperclips a god send, just have one colour for healing surges and another for action points. As i think i commented in the conditions thread, bent paper clips in circular shapes are good for conditions.

Perhaps an action points card which you attach your action point paper clips to, then put the action point card in your discard pile while removing a paper clip.

 

[NeoNick]

Ooh, coloured paper clips (plastic I guess) is a great idea! They can sit on the charachter sheet until they are used. Never even thought about that. Thanks Shabe!

I will immediately suggest this to my two groups.

This should work well for powers, actions and perhaps even surges, but hitpoints are too plentiful for them to be convenient. Perhaps we need a complimentary system for that.

 

[MadMaligor]

..... but hitpoints are too plentiful for them to be convenient. Perhaps we need a complimentary system for that.

Use your d10's for percent and just place them in the HP box. Go out and buy a small case of chessex d10s for your group if you want to keep your percental dice available for rolls. Its a cheap fix and works awesome.

 

[Runestar]

Cards work quite well. You can photocopy the power entries, cut them up and paste them onto cardboard rectangles (old magic cards work quite well). When you use a power, turn it sideways to show that it has been expended. I tried turning them face down, but found that it was troublesome remembering which power was which (if you could refresh powers, more relevant for ToB than 4e).

Action points are easy. Use coloured beads or something. You can only use 1/encounter, so little bookkeeping is required. Consider keeping them in a small plastic container aptly labeled action points or healing surges or whatever, and remove/add counters as and when appropriate, so you remember what each bead represents.

For hp, I write them on spare scraps on paper and cancel/erase them to my heart's content. I adjust the hp score on my actual character sheet only after the encounter to reflect the final value.

 

[Mrin_prophet]

What I'm trying...

I'm going to make printouts of Anders Power Cards and then have them laminated. Those power cards are already color coded and the attack/damage areas are blank so we can fill those in with wet erase markers. Since I use the Chessex MegaMat I'll have the markers out anyway. For action points, I intend to use poker chips. I can then hand those out as I think they are earned and the players can cash those in when they want. I was going to have one color poker chip for action points, then another color for temporary hit points. Haven't thought through normal hit points though.

I have have six players in my campaign. I haven't done this yet, but to keep track of conditions in combat I'm going to take six different colors of construction paper, laminate them, and then cut them into 1" squares. Each player will be assigned a color. Then, if the Paladin marks a guy, he slides a marker under the enemy. If the wizard uses a power that has an ongoing effect, then he slides his colored marker under the enemy. Each player will have to remember what each mark means, which is much easier than the DM having to remember everything. I've only played in one demo, but I think this would help.

Thoughts?

 

[Tervin]

Thoughts?

We are using those power cards, and loving them. I added cards for Second Wind and Action Point - making it easier to keep track of what has already been used in an encounter. Clerics and Warlords get two cards each for Healing Word and Inspiring Word respectively, just to make it easy for senile people like me. Other kind of bookkeeping is done on the character sheet or a notepad, whichever people prefer.

Just with those cards and decent character sheets we managed to never open our PHs during combat encounters - on our second session of 4E. I think that is part of why that session was such a huge success for us.

I think there is more reason than ever in 4E to try and find decent tools for bookkeeping and memory support. Suddenly the immersion in a dynamic battle was possible, like I had never had it before.

 

[Foxen]

For my pally, I made an "action sheet" which uses tokens and beads to track everything. I don't suggest this for all players, but this is what I did for my particular character.

Action Sheet
This sheet includes all her powers including at-wills, encounters, and dailies. It also includes a section on Healing Surges, Hip Points, Second Wind, Action Point, and her blade "Lerissa" which gets a free re-roll once per day (GM's boon for us turning in background). I also penciled in a section for her Javelin attacks.

I went nuts at the local craft store and bought a variety of glass beads. Under Healing Surges and Hit Points I use different sized beads to represent units of Five and Single numbers...I also use "blue" beads to represent temporary hitpoints. So when she is struck in combat, I move a number of beads from the "active" side of the box to the inactive...etc.

I have these long rectangular beads I "tap" for the dailies and encounter powers.

For "Lay on Hands", Javelins (5 she carries), Action Points, Second Wind, and Lerissa, I use these beads that when flipped over, have a more silvery look. My Lay on Hands are these red star shaped beads, the Javelins are leaves, etc. etc. but when flipped over, are sliver, so once used, they are marked inactive when flipped.

On the same sheet, I also penciled in my attacks to hit bonuses, damages per attack, and by weapon type etc. This way, I save a hell of a lot of time each turn. I "rarely" look to my character sheets for combat references.

Works for me, but I don't think most people will be into beads or other forms of tokens and markers.

Fox

 

[NeoNick]

Thanks for sharing your ideas!

There are many ways to solve this and I appreciate your input. /bow/

 

[Beastman]

As I haven't got hold of a good and clear character record sheet that is supposed to support the marking/reasing procedure, it gets messy after a few fights. The same goes for action points and hit points. Those get marked and erased continously also.

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