Tabletop Aids

[Lord Zardoz]

Aside, from Dice, Pencils, Paper, Mini's, Laptops, and Battlemats, what things do you use to help run your game?

For myself, I use the following:

- A deck of playing cards to track initiative. I use the Spade suite for the players, and the other suits for monsters. We sort out initiative, and each combatant gets a card. Once the cards are sorted out, You do the following.

-- Cannon Fodder gets Ace through 10. Ace is assigned to highest initiative mook, 2 to the next. This makes it easier when doing the initial sort.
-- Topmost card gets to go first, then cycle it to the bottom of the deck.
-- If you delay or ready an action, you pull the card from the deck, and re-insert it when that character acts.

- Some thick string (say, half a mm) to determine distances that aren't diagonals or straight lines. I have lengths equal to 30, 60, and 100 (human movement rate, shortbow, longbow).
- Dry erase markers for drawing out rooms
- A panel of plexiglass that I keep over top of my battlemat. The plexiglass is much easier to clean then the battlemat.
- My Sorcerer player users poker chips as counters for how many spells of level X he has remaining.

What do you use?

END COMMUNICATION

 

[GeorgeFields]

I measure distances with a tape measure.

 

[MarauderX]

Since I use Tact-tiles I've kept track of initiative on one of the tiles in the past. Now that we have a vertical white board available, it's easy to use the same markers to keep initiative, effects, and other round-counting on the large white board behind me for all to see. Everyone knows when their turn is and delaying is much easier.
I use it to also sketch out 3D views that may be hard to express, or to give a general idea of a map and distances while in-game.
As we have both a high and low level campaigns, the amount used varies.
I think that if we didn't have it I'd get one of my own to use.

 

[Agamon]

I used to keep track of Intiative on a tact-tile, but now I have a devoted portable magnetic whiteboard with name tags. That's in the game I play, in the game I run, I use a laptop with DM's familiar, SRD and online DM screen.

My ninja player uses poker chips to track ki points spent.

Spell templates from Steel Squire get regular use.

I've also got a large white board hanging behind me that I've used to detail NPC names, info the PCs would know, maps, and currently the brackets for The Champion's Games from the AoW adventure, The Champion's Belt.

The game I DM also sees use of the Game Mastery magic item cards, which players keep in card sheets in their PC binders. Character sheets are kept in sheet protectors so buffs, charges, spells used, hp lost, etc can be marked with wet erase markers.

I find I'd rather spend money on game aids rather than game books these days.

 

[Sigurd]

I have heard people swear by the dog food bowls with two depressions.

One side stores your dice and you roll in the other.

S

 

[Shadowslayer]

I have heard people swear by the dog food bowls with two depressions.

One side stores your dice and you roll in the other.

S

Never heard that one before. It's actually not a bad idea.

I'd do it, but my cat would come a-running everytime I rolled something.

Only two things I'll add are:

A: I use a clipboard with a pad of homemade initiative charts. One chart for each combat. (My brother in law once unloaded gave me a huge ream of canary yellow legal sized paper...I can get 4 charts on one sheet using that sized paper.) The whiteboard idea is great, but once its wiped its gone. Doing it my way, I can go back and reference them when I'm tallying up the XP and writing up the game summary.

B: I cut and paste stat blocks onto 1/4 page reference cards...sort of like initiative cards. If I'm feeling frisky I'll put the monster's artwork on the back. I print them on cover stock (wimpy cardstock) and save them in a recipe box.

 

[Archade]

- I use a printout of an initiative chart with Alea magnets for initiative
- Alea magnets for conditions
- bins of D&D minis sorted by type (aberrations, undead, etc)
- Tact-tiles
- my laptop with D20srd.org and DM Genie.
- laptop plays background MP3 music
- bar fridge
- vinyl DM screen with inserts

Lastly, I got a suggestion from a gamer friend in Chicago which has worked marvellously. I have a hinged piece of hardboard that's about 3 by 5 tactiles big (our gaming table is a little bigger than that. It stands on 4 blocks of wood about 8" high, allowing storage space under the playing surface for books, snacks and other junk. Also, it makes it easier to see the battle over the edge of the DM Screen.

 

[Lord Zardoz]

Interesting so far.

It seems that everyone uses has at least one game aid dedicated to initiative tracking.

I have also never heard of Tactiles before. I think I will google them.

END COMMUNICATION

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

Combat Pad from Open Mind Games and my laptop (not to mention a complete set of E-Z DUNGEONS!)

 

[delericho]

I have a small (3' by 2') whiteboard which I write on in a combination of dry-erase markers and some teachers 'chalk pens' (which are essentially wet-erase, but specially formulated for white boards... allegedly). I use this to track PC vital stats (AC, HP, Listen/Spot, save DCs for spellcasters, SR, initiative), XP gained, and any notes I think I need.

There are a handy set of combat option cards in the Fiery Dragon Battle Box, plus some spell templates. I also use some very small dice for tracking spiritual weapons, dodge feat effects, and the like.

I haven't used, but am very interested in, condition cards, spell cards (but only if I can get a set including all PHB and Spell Compendium spells... which you currently can't legally), psionic power cards, Bo9S manoeuvre cards, and suitable laptop software (should I ever get a laptop, of course).