Places to buy cool props for your game that other people may not have thought of yet

[nedjer]

I like props - a lot:

Temporary tattoos

Halloween candy (like exploding jelly skulls and large edible spiders)

Schleich (?) Safari and Papo figures and scenery

Masks (like Dead Presidents in Katherine Bigalow surf/ bank robbery movie with Keanu Reaves). PCs put them on for the raids.

Halloween masks - comfortable is good

Goth/emo/ accessory stores

Jenga - tell everyone who gives you cheap presents you'd like Jenga and get a mountain of instant scenery tiles

Food - yeah, Orc Stew . . . made by Orcs or made from Orcs?

The Celebrity in the Jungle Bushtucker Trial is about looking horrible and tasting great. Mustard and chilli powder aren't that funny - leave it to the celebrities.

The Happy Puzzle Company in the UK. There are some gems among the candy-coated learning stuff.

Mouseguard's graphic novels.

 

[Mistwell]

I've thought that fabric cutting mats that can be found at fabric stores would make good roll-up battle mats:

And I've used flat glass marbles intended as a decorative accent as markers for various effects, and even creatures.

 

[utopia27]

gaming props

play-doh (snakes, blobs, jellies, &c.)

From the cake decorating aisle (at michael's, joann's, &c.)
cake pillars (any kinda column you could want, in a variety of scales)
pagodas, gazebos
chests
carriages
all, all, all sortsa oddball stuff. much of which requires some level or other of recoloring, but just ripe for repurposing.

Birthday/party decorations - frequently among the paper cups and the colored streamers there are mini-scaled repurposables. I recommend particularly halloween and christmas party decorations/favors.

 

[Shadowslayer]

from the cake decorating aisle (at michael's, joann's, &c.)
cake pillars (any kinda column you could want, in a variety of scales)
pagodas, gazebos
chests
carriages
all, all, all sortsa oddball stuff. much of which requires some level or other of recoloring, but just ripe for repurposing.

hee hee. I bet you could make an interesting encounter out of a bride and groom cake topper.

 

[sev]

I've thought that fabric cutting mats that can be found at fabric stores would make good roll-up battle mats:

have you tried this? I've got several cutting mats I use for, well, cutting things, and the only ones I've seen are way too stiff to roll up.

Pretty handy for when I'm cutting things to size for use on a battlemat, though. I painted a small sheet of mat board red & cut them into 1x1 squares we can put underneath miniatures for condition-tracking. And I'm currently having a little obsession with photoshop, mat board, and mod podge, making my own dungeon tiles.

I found these "key identifiers" at a hardware store:

which come in 1-inch diameter size, for marking minis. A bit of wire & beads and I made a couple of sets of markers that look like wine charms, which we also hang off minis. If the party's fighting a single big bad, the thing gets festooned like a christmas tree...

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

My group uses poker chips for conditions, with 4 different colors it's pretty easy to remember which is which.

 

[Stormonu]

Cardboard (Fabric) Pattern Cutting Board - 36" X 60" (3 ft X 5 ft) long, marked in 1" squares, usually double-sided and folds up for easy transporting. It's designed for laying out clothing patterns, but makes one heck of a battlemat. Costs only about $7. You can get them at most hobby or fabric stores.

Empty Computer box packing material - the styrofoam stuff can be made into bunkers, buildings, dungeon walls, hills and other terrain and is fairly easy to paint.

 

[nedjer]

Did a blog post on favourite props last weekend and forgot to mention it. Was reminded when one of the suppliers sent me pics of some dice, which gave me a second post. Worth a look if you like to get a bit theatrical but maybe not try them all in one game

 

[SethDrebitko]

Before it broke, I used an ornate Victorian style red and gold box for only one single reason. Keep it on the table always but the only time it would ever be touched was to drop dice in for a sanity check. Ritualized core concepts become more important than when they just seem like normal run of the mill checks.

 

[firesnakearies]

Before it broke, I used an ornate Victorian style red and gold box for only one single reason. Keep it on the table always but the only time it would ever be touched was to drop dice in for a sanity check. Ritualized core concepts become more important than when they just seem like normal run of the mill checks.

That's a cool idea.