It's time for another roundup of interesting/useful/odd products or apps that we've come across in our hunt for the perfect toys.
View attachment 57853
1. NoteBoard
I came across a link to NoteBoard in a blog post on Gnome Stew -- about another product, All Rolled Up. Noteboards are fold-up whiteboards -- they fold up to about the size of a package of index cards, but fold out to 35" x 15" -- a bit less wide that a typical megamatt, but certainly a lot easier to transport.
I ordered one to see what they're like, and while I don't think I'll be using it for my home game anytime soon, I know for sure it's going into my Gencon bag.
The construction is not incredibly heavy-duty -- essentially it's a sheet of card stock, die cut to make it foldable, and then laminated. Any heavier, though, and you'd be making it much thicker and less easily portable.
One side of the board is blank (providing a simple whiteboard surface). The other is printed in multiple grids -- a 1" square grid, 1" hexes, and 1 cm grid. The variety of grids make a little noise on the surface, but your eyes very quickly pick out the lines you're paying attention to and ignore the others. What takes a little more effort to ignore are the die cuts that allow the sheet to fold -- large gaps in the white background. But, again, they're necessary cuts to allow the sheet to fold up into such a small package. Since the holes are transparent, the surface you end up playing on can make a big difference -- a white tabletop will blend in quite well with the white card stock, while a black surface will stand out.
The NoteBoard comes packaged with a dry erase pen, and is packaged in a cloth bag designed/intended to work as a dry eraser as well, which it also does well.
As I said, it's never going to replace your home game setup, but for portable gaming, it could be pretty useful.
2. Scrivener
And now for something completely different. Scrivener is software for writers - all kinds of writers.
Much more than just a simple text editor, it has a variety of templates that help format your finished product, for one thing. But it can also help you organize research, reference material, and sections of your work, depending upon the format that you're working in.
There are templates that facilitate formatting for novels, short stories, screenplays, stage plays, comic book scripts, and a lot more. There's even a fan-made RPG Campaign template that you can download and install. (Also, there's a much more in-depth discussion of what Scrivener can do for game masters here.
For my recent Necessary Evil game (Savage Worlds supers), I used the comic book format to create a script for a cut scene sequence -- I can't draw to save my life, but I can at least do that for my players.
3. Magna-tiles
In playing 4e, I was a fan of Dark Platypus's status flags -- they were my favorite way to track conditions, give numbers to a half dozen different orc warriors, and so on. But that's far from their only product.
For mapping -- and creating simple but effective 3d terrain, a package of Magna Tiles can go a long way. The tiles come in a variety of sizes from 2"x1" up to 9"x5". Their primary strength is that they can be use -- with something to set them on -- to create different elevations and other terrain on an otherwise 2D playing surface (as they are in the picture). They're dry-erase safe and magnetically active (so magnets will stick to them).
The primary advantage these have to some of the dungeon tiles 3D sets is that they don't try to be anything specific. That 2x1 chunk could be a balcony one minute and a rowboat the next.
What's your current favorite tool or gadget for your games?
View attachment 57853
1. NoteBoard
I came across a link to NoteBoard in a blog post on Gnome Stew -- about another product, All Rolled Up. Noteboards are fold-up whiteboards -- they fold up to about the size of a package of index cards, but fold out to 35" x 15" -- a bit less wide that a typical megamatt, but certainly a lot easier to transport.
I ordered one to see what they're like, and while I don't think I'll be using it for my home game anytime soon, I know for sure it's going into my Gencon bag.
The construction is not incredibly heavy-duty -- essentially it's a sheet of card stock, die cut to make it foldable, and then laminated. Any heavier, though, and you'd be making it much thicker and less easily portable.
One side of the board is blank (providing a simple whiteboard surface). The other is printed in multiple grids -- a 1" square grid, 1" hexes, and 1 cm grid. The variety of grids make a little noise on the surface, but your eyes very quickly pick out the lines you're paying attention to and ignore the others. What takes a little more effort to ignore are the die cuts that allow the sheet to fold -- large gaps in the white background. But, again, they're necessary cuts to allow the sheet to fold up into such a small package. Since the holes are transparent, the surface you end up playing on can make a big difference -- a white tabletop will blend in quite well with the white card stock, while a black surface will stand out.
The NoteBoard comes packaged with a dry erase pen, and is packaged in a cloth bag designed/intended to work as a dry eraser as well, which it also does well.
As I said, it's never going to replace your home game setup, but for portable gaming, it could be pretty useful.
2. Scrivener
And now for something completely different. Scrivener is software for writers - all kinds of writers.
Much more than just a simple text editor, it has a variety of templates that help format your finished product, for one thing. But it can also help you organize research, reference material, and sections of your work, depending upon the format that you're working in.
There are templates that facilitate formatting for novels, short stories, screenplays, stage plays, comic book scripts, and a lot more. There's even a fan-made RPG Campaign template that you can download and install. (Also, there's a much more in-depth discussion of what Scrivener can do for game masters here.
For my recent Necessary Evil game (Savage Worlds supers), I used the comic book format to create a script for a cut scene sequence -- I can't draw to save my life, but I can at least do that for my players.
3. Magna-tiles
In playing 4e, I was a fan of Dark Platypus's status flags -- they were my favorite way to track conditions, give numbers to a half dozen different orc warriors, and so on. But that's far from their only product.
For mapping -- and creating simple but effective 3d terrain, a package of Magna Tiles can go a long way. The tiles come in a variety of sizes from 2"x1" up to 9"x5". Their primary strength is that they can be use -- with something to set them on -- to create different elevations and other terrain on an otherwise 2D playing surface (as they are in the picture). They're dry-erase safe and magnetically active (so magnets will stick to them).
The primary advantage these have to some of the dungeon tiles 3D sets is that they don't try to be anything specific. That 2x1 chunk could be a balcony one minute and a rowboat the next.
What's your current favorite tool or gadget for your games?
