DMs - How are you set up?

[Joël of the FoS]

We play in my basement. I have a heavy 6x8 sheet of wood on top of a table as game place. So there is plenty of place for my six players.

Behind the 14" screens (6' wide; made with three 14" binders snapped together with large black fold back clips, is where I hide my stuff. I have about 2 1/2' by 6' for me. There is my stuff in three piles 1st = campaign journal log, 2nd = my game plan, 3rd = DM reference books.

There, is my laptop as well, from which I mainly decide which musical piece is going to play. I do not really use it for DMing, as it is ususally badly placed to ergonomically work with (I'm stading up most of the time) and a book is so much more convenient when you have it close by.

Behind me is a complete shelf of D&D stuff from the setting I DM (Ravenloft).

On the players side is two speakers linked to my computer, but I do have the sound control on my side.

Joël

 

[IronWolf]

When I was DM'ing early this year I tended to have a lot of stuff with me! We play in a friend's living room using a variety of chairs, couch, coffee table and TV trays to get situated. I ran a fair amount from my laptop and tended to have DM Genie, WikidPad, an offline copy of the SRD and an occasional random generator tool open. I also had a DM's screen, though the SRD provided what I really needed to know. I also kept index cards near, blank sheet of paper and a whole variety of books. Always more than I ever needed in a single session.

 

[pogre]

We play in one of my player's gaming room. I sit at the end of 4' x 8' table behind a screen. Behind me is my cabinet full of miniatures and 8 drawers full of master maze and Hirst Arts scenery. I clip my map to the screen and have a DM log sheet I track initiative, party watch, Monster stats, and anything else I need for ready reference. I have a large 3 ring binder that has a hard copy of nearly all my campaign information including the current adventure.

 

[Altalazar]

I have two nine foot long tables (three feet wide) put together to make a nice six by nine table for players to sit around - it could probably comfortably seat eight players, though I've never had that many and probably wouldn't want that many. Not including my seat at one end of the tables, of course.

I then have a six by three table sitting next to me to put additional reference books and notebooks on. I have so many DM screens I've lost count (1E, 2E, 3E, and various flavors therein). I usually have two or three screens in front of me to cover a wide swath of table and then maybe one on the side table just in case I need to leave reference books open there.

I pretty much always do homebrew, though I incorporate modules (or pieces thereof) into that homebrew on occasion. I have a campaign notebook with all of the notes on my world. I then add to it in pencil during the game, either to make notes of changes to to record entirely new things - for instance, if the players look for a herb lore expert in the city and have never done so before (and I haven't fleshed one out already) then I'll make it up on the fly, taking notes of it on the appropriate page (for that city) in my notebook, to be typed up and added formally later - usually after that adventure is over. In this way, large swaths of my campaign world have grown organically in ways I didn't initially plan on.

I have 4x6 index cards I use for initiative and also for monsters, which I then also use for initiative. I put common monsters on generic cards and I put special creatures / NPCs on their own cards as well. That way, as I go through the initiative, when I get to the appropriate card, all the information I need on a given creature is right there on the card. One of these days I'm going to try and automate that somewhat and print them as I need them, though I'm not sure how I'll do that. Perhaps with sheets of 4x6 labels. That's probably the easiest way.

I keep a sheet with all player information on it - a party info sheet, though I'll probably in the future just keep all of that on index cards as well. But I do like to have at least basic party information in one place on one page - where I can annotate. I like to keep track of levels / hp / exp and so forth, just for my reference.

 

[jmucchiello]

We play at a row of narrow serving tables so if it were a normal table, I'd be sitting at the corner of the table, not the end. In front of me is the battlemat. I have a yellow ruled 8"x5.5" notepad on a 6"x9" clipboard on which to write notes. There are dice around. That's about it.

Edit: The core three books are in a book bag at my feet should I need them.

 

[Mythtify]

We play at my dinning room table. I am currently running an Arcana Evolved game. I have a Dm screen, as well as a laptop in front of me. On the computer I most of the rulebooks I am going to need, the Sovelior/Sage version of the SRD, and an encounter/exp caculator. If find the laptop to be a great aid. The one I use is actualy a laptop/tablet pc. This lets me bring up a picture of a creature(from the srd), and spin the screen around to show the players what they are up against.

Other material is kept on the floor beside me, to be used as needed.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I game exclusively out of my laptop. Whatever isn't an electronic resource, I make an electronic resource with my scanner.

When I had access to one, I liked to game with the laptop connected to a projector to throw maps up on a screen for the players.

Other than that, I usually have some minis and my tact-tiles. For anything I don't have on my computer, like creature HP for nonD&D combats (where I use DMGenie) I keep a tact-tile and a dry erase marker to use as a personal white-board.

I never bring any books, and the only reason I need dice is for players who lose or forget theirs, and because sometimes I like to roll a few things out in the open to mess with people's minds.

--fje

 

[Funeris]

I've got two fold out tables (see above pics) - one four feet long and the other six feet. They're stacked side-by-side with one of their widths flush against my dining room table (a hexagon). The dining room table then bridges a gap...connecting to my filing cabinet (where character sheets and some info is kept). My computer desk then runs perpendicular to the alignment of the fold out tables.

What you end up with is basically an "L". There's enough room to get to the filing cabinet (if need be...which isn't often). The computer desk obviously holds the laptop and pencil sharpener I use...as well as the scanner/printer/copier, in the event I need to use that (which is often).

I typically have a number of pregenerated maps printed out to scale for them (I work in an engineering firm...so its nothing to pop out a 3' x however long foot plot with the 1" = 5' grid on it). These maps are then labeled and set to the side. As I need 'em, I grab 'em. The players remove the current map and tape down the new one.

I also have mini-maps (8.5" x 11") often in a pdf format as well as paper copy (in the event I misplace the paper copy...this is another common occurence). All handouts are preprinted and kept with the mini-maps.

Half of the dining room table is mine...and is clearly marked off by a large binder. The remaining 5-7 players can use whatever space they need...as long as they can adjust for the incoming maps. And my digital voice recorder rests in the center of my players.

I keep multiple copies of everything. I can be absentminded at times and throw stuff away without realizing its importance.

Oh, and all my DnD books are arrayed around my position as well. There's also a constant link to the SRD (for speed).

~Fune