D&D General Extra DM equipment & tools

[RoiC.]

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? Anything that helps you concentrate better, be more precise and clear to your players, act faster and any other function that comes to your mind. The more unusual and out-of-the-box the item is, the better. If you can also provide explanations and pictures, that would be really great.

For example, instead of regular minis I use several sets of custom made tokens, with very specific colors and numbers/symbols, otherwise I have a really hard time stayi g focused during battles.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

• Whiteboard. Mainly for writing out the initiative for all to see. Occasionally to draw a rune/symbol for players to ponder. A small magnet helps us keep the place of who's up so we/I don't get distracted and confused by reactions and legendary actions... which has certainly happened before... Ack.
• Chess pieces. Ease-of-use medium enemy tokens. Enough variation so that multiple enemy types can be differentiated without having to sift through a bag for the perfect token/mini.
• Rainbow Loom elastics. To indicate a condition or spell on a mini or chess piece in combat. The poor adult blue dragon had three such elastics on it in our last combat: one for Slow, one for Hex, and one for twisting it's ankle on a roll of a 1. Ugh.

Now... tell us more about those custom tokens. They look amazing! And amazingly useful!

 

[RoiC.]

These sound like very good ideas. I'm thinking about getting a few erasable index cards instead of whiteboard to draw stuff for the party.

Now... tell us more about those custom tokens. They look amazing! And amazingly useful!

I got those from a store on Etsy. The prices are very reasonable, and the owner is really nice and is very flexible and cooperative when it comes to custom orders. I've ordered 5 sets at this point, and I do see myself coming back for more in the future.

 

[LordEntrails]

• Discord
• Fantasy Grounds
  • Numerous FG modules such as Dungeon Room Description Generators, 1d6 Monster Compendium, etc
• Campaign Cartographer 3+
  • Add-ons such as Dungeon Designer, City Designer, CSUAC symbols, etc
• TokenTool & Token Stamp

 

[Laurefindel]

A gallery of images for NPCs, printed to fit 4-6 images on a 8x11 sheet, then cut in cue-card format, in colour if you can afford it.

Write their name in big letters at the top, and who they are/where the PC met them at the bottom.

Print your main NPCs and villains, and keep a bank of untitled images handy for when you need a NPC on the fly.

keeping pics in a ready folder on laptop or tablet works too (and is cheaper and more environmentally friendly), but having a physical medium allow players to shuffle through, or show several at the time (and avoid electronics at the table, if that is a concern)

 

[The Green Hermit]

I have fancy d20s that I pass out for initiative. Not only is it easy to remember who has it and who doesn't, but that is what they roll for their extra advantage.

 

[CleverNickName]

A deck of tarot cards (makes Divination spells more interesting, and makes for memorable NPC encounters, a nice change of pace for initiative sometimes, handy as a deck of many things or a deck of illusions...)

An hourglass. Good for building tension (but don't over-use it)

Scraps of mat board from the local photography and framing store, that I have cut into 1" and 2" squares. They are pretty handy for monster tokens.

 

[aco175]

We use different color rings from soda bottle tops. Red rings from Coke bottles for bloodied or near death and other colors can be most anything else.

We have a bunch of old 3e tiles and 4e maps that we use for battles. One of the players likes to make paper minis which we use a lot of, but he gets hints when I ask him to bring in a giant dragon or such.

 

[Ampolitor]

large printed banner size maps, custom scenery, a lightning box when we play ravenloft with a light and a CD of thunderstorms for effect. I have used fog machines, sound fx, hand out props, got to keep them on their toes. lol

 

[Baldurs_Underdark]

A table-sized whiteboard with a 1-inch grid scratched into it. (That grid took me a couople of boring hours to make, but it was worth it).

And a personal wiki with my homebrew world, so that I can navigate quickly when my players do something unexpected again. It's great to have a search function on all your notes. (I use Tiddlywiki).