Keeping track of bloodied, marked, etc...

[erik_the_guy]

In practice I find that remembering which monsters are bloodied works for me. This just comes naturally sine I have been playing the game forever. Also I tend to use glass beads to represent the monsters, so you could flip them over to represent bloodied monsters.

For player controlled effects such as Riposte strike or mark, it is up to the player to remember, and to remind you on the monster's turn. If the player forgets to mention the mark effect then they don't get the advantage. The player should remind you when you make the monster's action. If the fighter wants to make an opportunity attack against an opponent who shifts, he needs to remind you of his mark BEFORE you shift.

Twist ties are a great idea if you are using minis. Also remember that using a lot of minions makes for easier book keeping since you don't have to worry about bloodied or HP.

 

[The Little Raven]

I really wish they would've had the new (less powerful magnet) version ready for the inevitable 4e purchases, but I'm digging them thus far.

Are they actually doing a new version? Do you have a source for this? I've been using them for several months now, with different games, and the horizontal effect on eachother is the one of two minor drawbacks (the other being that the adhesive on the conversion circles can be a little weak).

 

[shocklee]

At a convention game the GM used color tiles - they are one inch colored plastic squares that are available at educational supply stores ($20 for 400 in four colors). The crystalline counters from Three Sages Games also seems like they would work well. I also liked a suggestion I read that suggested using poker chips for tracking action points.

Mark

 

[Corey_Austin]

My group uses dice for monsters, so we just use a big dry erase board table, and write the group's status.

As an example, a row might say "Blue Die 1 | Grick Flanker | 12 | Bloodied, Poison 5/rd

 

[MacMathan]

IMC we are using the Alea magnetic markers and they have been great so far.

The big set has enough colors for each characters powers to be different and I still have enough left over for all of the badguy effects.

 

[SSquirrel]

We put a glass bead on the mini for marked, a red one for bloodied. Bleeds and such we have a dry erase board

 

[Crowley42]

we bought little peices of paper made of light flexible foam and cut out squares that fit the grid we use and show under the minis. they also are visible if bloodied and marked and such stack. works well enough for us. 89 cents at AC Moore for one sheet of any color.

 

[DanmarLOK]

I've switched to using little sandwich boards that I made that I plan to flip over to each player as they need them, I also create and print stat cards for the monsters use MSE and I just stick the markers as I need them on the cards.

The obvious problem I ran into trying to use magnets is when you've got several characters with status effects next to each other they're constant sticking or repelling each other. I though about getting some tiny rare earth magnets and then sticking them into disks of appropriate size thinking that that might help with the sideways pulls. I've also heard that by putting sheets of metal under your gaming board you can eliminate the sideways pulls and pushes and as a bonus it helps things from moving accidentally.

But for now the paper markers in front of the players or the monster sheets seems workable. The markers are fairly easy to cut out and create and each one has a paraphrasing of what the effect actually means.

A picture and link tot he pdf if you're interested can be found here: http://www.keyourcars.com/2008/07/19/status-markers/

 

[senorcoo]

Are they actually doing a new version? Do you have a source for this? I've been using them for several months now, with different games, and the horizontal effect on eachother is the one of two minor drawbacks (the other being that the adhesive on the conversion circles can be a little weak).

The power of the magnets is irrelevant if you just purchase a sheet of galvanized metal at a Lowe's/Home Depot, etc. Make sure it isn't ALUMINUM, tho, because the ALEA magnets will not stick to aluminum. The galvanized steel (air conditioning ductwork, essentially) works great and we have had no problems.

 

[Bob4E]

Thought I'd shared something my GF and I put together this weekend. We went to a local craft store and picked up: Tray of Beads (Perler) in 16 different colors, a set of pierced earing backs, and a set of 2 inch head pins. Total cost ~ $10. Put the head pins through the bottom of the earing backs and whala, instant stand to hold the beads. Each bead color represents a different status or condition. The earing bases are small enough to rest next to the minis without causing much problem and the head pins are long enough to hold several different beads and provide a small handle to grab for relocation purposes. Just another idea...

 

[Hawke]

I went to a local hobby store (Micheal's, I think) and picked up a little packet of wooden 1 inch squares with alphabet letters on them. I think they're intended to replace lose scrabble pieces. They were $2.99 for 60 of them. They also have a lot of other shapes - hearts, stars, etc. that are all about 1 inch.

Those + a little paint works wonders. They sit underneath the figure - they're square so you can see the color easily because the bases are round. For a few bucks I've got more than enough bases for any condition I can imagine.

 

[erf_beto]

arght, bad conection ate my post! >_<
Here it goes again, more or less intact...

I went to a local hobby store (Micheal's, I think) and picked up a little packet of wooden 1 inch squares with alphabet letters on them. I think they're intended to replace lose scrabble pieces. They were $2.99 for 60 of them. They also have a lot of other shapes - hearts, stars, etc. that are all about 1 inch.

Those + a little paint works wonders. They sit underneath the figure - they're square so you can see the color easily because the bases are round. For a few bucks I've got more than enough bases for any condition I can imagine.

I think you are playtesting what I was going to suggest: just print colored squares to sit underneath round based miniatures. You could even fold a tab with a note at the front saying "Bloodied", "Marked" or whatever...

Here's a quick example.

 

[Meaxe]

Hi everyone.

Last game I've DM'ed, we used pichnotte token (I think it's called pinnochi in english). Those are 1 inch diameter round and about 1/2 inch in height. They even come in different colors (red, blue, black, wood from what I recall). They worked wonderfully. For those who do not know what pichenotte is here is a link i've found on ebay. And by the way, I've bought mine 2 weeks ago for 5.99$ at Toy's are Us.

http://cgi.ebay.com/30-Rings-Pinnoc...5154174QQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

Philippe the Quebecer

 

[Bunnicula]

Someone in our group bought a box of tiny different color beads which I think came to $1.99 at the local Dollar Store. Every player gets a color, with red left over for bloodied. We thread them on the pointy bits of the minis, or stack them on the base. It's a little inconvenient when moving minis, and we think the cat might have eaten a couple of beads, but they're no real problem.

I like the pipe cleaner idea, but I can't see paying for the Alea things.

 

[Leadfeather]

I am using beer bottle caps, primed and painted red, green, blue etc. as markers. They are just the right size and once primed and painted they are rough enough to stack three of four high without slipping. Also they are cheap and plentiful.

If you use rubber cement to glue a small piece of magnetic strip to the bottom of each mini, the magentic attraction will be strong enough to keep the bottle cap
attached to the bottom of the mini allowing you to move them as normal.

Finally I raided my wife's sewing kit and took a number of pins, each one with a different colored plasic ball at the end. When using identical minis I tag each one a different color by pushing the pin into the base of the mini. It makes it easier for the players to specify which mini they are attacking and makes it easier for me to track damage to identical troops.

 

[Nytmare]

I had been agonizing over what to use in my campaign. We use laminated, cardstock chits, not minis, so I wanted to avoid hiding what the chit was, and we didn't have handy bits of miniature to hang beads and pipe cleaners off of.

Poker chips bothered me because they were both too wide, and not tall enough. A decent vertical profile was what was really important to me, and I had really liked the idea of the Alea Tools, though the magnetic bit was kind of a turn off. I tried mussing around with a dowel rod cut to 1/4 inch lengths, and with a bunch of double thick shrinky dinks, but got bogged down in the process of actually making a couple dozen of the things.

One of the things I had been hoping to find at Gencon this year was a deluge of different 4E inspired toys. I was a little surprised that the only company out there really offering something in the realm of "marks" was Alea Tools.

I think that, in the end, what I had been hoping to find were a bunch of colored acrylic/plexiglass disks. I'm currently looking into having someone laser cut a buttload of them for a couple of cents a piece. We'll see how they work out.

 

[ebertran]

Office Max sells a tub of 1" round plastic with magnets, not unlike Alea Tools, for less than 5 bucks. They come in a pack of 12, 6 colors X2....

They stack under my 1" metal tokens perfectly.

I only found them at office max though... check them out if you were thinking of Alea. I was until I found these magnets.

 

[Jack Colby]

If a PC puts a condition like that on a monster I make the players remember and remind me. If the monster does it to them, I make the players remember and remind me. Sometimes I don't get reminded. Oh well, the game goes on...

 

[essenbee]

In practice, I have found that the only condition I need to keep track of using a marker is Bloodied, for which I use a red gaming stone. All other conditions I remember.

 

[Nytmare]

In practice, I have found that the only condition I need to keep track of using a marker is Bloodied, for which I use a red gaming stone. All other conditions I remember.

It's odd, and I'm not sure if it's only because my group's party makeup, but marks have always been the important bit of information that everyone needs to see, and whether or not something is bloody is a far second. Maybe it's that they're just a mark heavy group, and they need to pay more attention to who is interfering with what?