Player props and play aids

[Halivar]

As a DM, I love making old maps. Dunk folded paper into highly concentrated tea, then bake sandwiched between two cookie sheets. A good calligriphic pen, and viola!

One of my PC's in another's campaign is highly superstitious. He consults the stars a lot, and tarot cards. Now, I don't have a deck of tarot cards, so I bring regular cards to the table. I would just make up stuff and generally use the deck of cards as an RP aide. I'd "consult" the cards anytime I didn't know what to do.

Of course, the DM couldn't resist. It's the perfect opportunity for him to "steer" me along his storyline without the need for deus ex machina. Now, everythime I "consult" the cards, he reserves the right to rig the deck, andhe tells me what my PC would see in the cards.

Very cool, now my prop is now essentially an oracular character ability. Yay props!

 

[Maitre Du Donjon]

As a DM, I love making old maps. Dunk folded paper into highly concentrated tea, then bake sandwiched between two cookie sheets. A good calligriphic pen, and viola!

I use cheap coffee myself (btw is voilà, not viola, which is basically the past tense of "to rape")

Like I said, i make hand-drawn, aged maps and other paper hand-outs, I try to use fold-out maps from Dragon magazine, I make my own, elaborate Character Sheets, which I change every month or so.

I threw a big, blank book in the pool once and let it dry. Now this big, "aged" book is used by all my characters (basically) to record their adventuring notes.

Maitre D

 

[Alchemist]

I use cheap coffee myself (btw is voilà, not viola, which is basically the past tense of "to rape")

Hrm. I thought a Viola is a violin-type instrument.

On topic: I've made up the interesting entries from the personal journal of a bbeg for the characters once they had managed to run him off. My Fiancee made up a scroll, appropriately aged and sealed as background material for her character, to be passed around during character introductions.

 

[doctorjeff98]

I'm a big fan of index cards in the game. I use them as a player for my spells (made some for my wife as well). As a GM, I love them for initiative/character tracking. I also have a big box of index cards with monster stats on them.

I also like to use magic item cards. Using the business cards that you print yourself on an inkjet printer, I've made up a bunch of potions, rings, items, etc. Adds something to it when they player has to give back a card when they use a potion or scroll. Also makes finding / buying magic items a little more tangible.

I use lots of index cards. It makes it easy to organize just about everything---especially spells and random magic items. I haven't tried printing them on business cards---great idea!

 

[Arc]

Hmmm... when running a Spycraft mission, I drew up an entire floorplan for a hotel suite the characters were infiltrating. In AutoCAD. Then I made sure it was up to code, had the proper symbols and scale, and got it plotted out on a D size sheet of paper. It went over fairly well, when the party Snoop said 'Ok, I go to City Hall and pull up the blueprints,' and I reached back and handed him a full size floorplan.

 

[Nareau]

I've done a number of handouts for my RttToEE campaign (Caution! Spoilers!!!):
http://www.cs.unca.edu/~withrola/toee/dm/handouts.htm

I also allow my players to create character materials in order to improve their point-buy pool:
http://www.cs.unca.edu/~withrola/toee/chargen.htm

Spider

 

[haiiro]

I love doing props as a DM, but as a player I'm a lot more low key about it. I'll generally color-code my dice after a while -- if my sorcerer is 6th level, I'll set aside 6d6 in a particular color so that when he casts a fireball I don't have to sift through my other dice, etc.

Other than the occasional obsessively detailed custom character sheet, that's about it.

 

[Buttercup]

The most elaborate prop I've ever used was a custom embroidered suede bag I bought from The Gamer's Bag into which I put a stone sphere and a map. One of the players was called to her uncle's deathbed, when he told her to look under the floorboards for her "birthright" and then promptly kicked the bucket. You can see the map in this thread.

 

[Sam]

I use lots of index cards. It makes it easy to organize just about everything---especially spells and random magic items. I haven't tried printing them on business cards---great idea!

Throw a little clip art on there (I have no artisitic talent whatsover) and you've got some real play aids. I've got cards with 50 sets of "[ ]" for use on wands, and have weapon/armor/misc. item cards that have descriptions of the items on the front (working on getting them to print right on the back).

 

[Delemental]

Great ideas here. I'm also glad to know I'm not the only player out there that can deforest an acre or two making props for my characters (kind of ironic that my current character's a druid...)

I've contemplated doing a "spellbook" for a wizard character, and may do it if I ever get the chance. Besides my current index card system, I once did a set of spell cards that were sized as standard CCG cards. Then I bought a few of those clear plastic storage pages (the 9-pocket pages) and kept the spells in those. I also kept a few pages separate, and would organize my currently memorized spells in them, taking the cards out and putting them back in my "spellbook" when I cast them. The thing I like about using cards like this is that I can just hand the card to the DM when I cast the spell so he knows what it does.

I've also had the idea of using those inkjet transparancy sheets (I have a box left over from grad school) and making templates (cones, circles of various radius, etc) to use in play, so that you can lay out your fireball on the battlemap and still see what's going on underneath. I may do this once I get the 3.5 DMG and can reference the templates in there.

Uder, I like the cardboard mini idea. Our group has a serious mini shortage (I used to paint miniatures for the group, but I rarely have time anymore, so we've been recycling old PCs - and my monster selection is pretty pathetic). I may have to look into that art gallery.