What props or other immersive things have GMs used that were cool?

[Bonnell8K]

It's perfectly fine if each player wants different things out their game tellpopeyes

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I used to try to add in music and whatnot but I found I was spending too much time fiddling with that and mostly dropped it.

 

[Imaculata]

For my pirate campaign I've crafted a treasure map, that when folded in a particular way, revealed the location of the treasure. The players could match the lyrics of a pirate shanty to symbols on the map, to know in what order to fold it.

 

[Scott Christian]

• Player Guides - I have created player guides for the realm my players are visiting. The guides range from the philandering bard that really just talks about his romantic trysts to government documents that are outlining the area for a court meeting. The player guides always give details regarding culture and quests within the area, sometimes they talk about the primary story.
• Minis... love my minis
• Maps - I use pre-bought as I am terrible at drawing
• Music - I have found all the Elder Scroll soundtracks very good if in the background; Witcher 3 is decent but can be overpowering, same is true for Conan the Barbarian and Pirates.
• Puzzles - Have handed players a real puzzle, chains that need to be separated, blocks put together, etc. and that was their task as undead continually attacked the party until the portal (puzzle) was closed. Jenga was also used to simulate the destruction of the land as they were helping a Titan fight another Titan.
• Props - Drinking mugs, hats, etc just for the fun of it
• Pub - I have played in a pub quite a few times and it has always been kind of fun (played in movie lines and concert lines too). The change in scenery is sometimes significant to the game.
• Not me but a friend GM uses the same song to start out each adventure. It's Pavlovian and an awesome idea!
• Food and Drinks - Have definitely created a menu based on where the players are at: bread with sage and rosemary, skewers, and pickled cactus for a desert area.

Looking at this I feel like I'm bragging. So please know that many of these are one time things; basically tools in the back pocket to use during a climax, important RP session, etc. Except minis of course... must have more minis...

 

[Legatus Legionis]

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[zztong]

Years ago, WOTC was selling a really big Dragon miniature. The advertisement featured a battle mat with a bunch of player miniatures attack a real-life pineapple. The idea being that it was a bummer not to have an epic dragon on the board for your epic dragon fight.

I, on the other hand, took it as a goal to write an adventure where the climax would be a battle with some monster that was best represented by a real-life pineapple. (The fight featured a very large Avolakia.)

 

[aramis erak]

My players have expressed a preference for my putting things on table-tents, not unlike the name tags.
Time to make the ship cards nice and big...
And, as this reminded me, since the Ship's Counselor got promoted, I have to print a new one for her.

 

[S'mon]

Mostly just minis & battlemats, I did use some 3D terrain recently - 20/M6 1491 DR session 7 Lvl 5 RL6 Scarlet Moon Hall 2 XP 37+7=44

Been getting lots of figures together for massed battles in my Thule game - Session #34 Assault on the Fortress of Woe (lv 9-12)

For Red Hand of Doom I did a colour A4 printout of the hobgoblin battle plan/map to give the players and trimmed it to make it feel more 'authentic', that worked very well -