What's in your DM Kit?

[dragonwarriorfan]

I run my sandbox Chaos Scar campaign on a laptop so that always goes, but have yet to really settle on a kit I can keep together to run to games. Some of the things that generally make it in my bag, besides die and the rules compendium, is a dry erase board and markers, my monster vault and most tokens (stored in a Plano divider box) and random tiles/printed maps. I also included some random number monster tokens. The tiles are about to be replaced by a set of battle graphs.

Anyway, I feel like kit just keeps getting larger. I can't find a lot of advice on this - so, do any of you have a "standard" grab and go kit you run to sessions with? What's in it?

 

[jimmifett]

Current contents of my Magic Murder Bag:

Blue plastic pencil box (my PC cards, PC minis, and wet/dry/perm markers)

Pink plastic pencil box (dice, selection of monsters, monster tokens, small glass beads, blue poker chips (action points))

Rules Compendium

DM Screen

Most recent LFR adventure I've run or intend to run

Magnetic initiative tracker (from paizo)

Dry Erase Init tracker (wotc give away)

Unassembled plastic dice tower

Character sheets

Small box of 1" circular foam sheet cutout condition markers



Contents of my expandable art tube w/ sling:

Chessex map (rolled around cardboard tube from xmas wrapping paper)

Roll of Gaming Paper (roll up and inside cardboard tube from above)

Large metal ruler (inside rolled up gaming paper)

2 wet erase pen (also inside rolled up gaming paper)

 

[GameDoc]

How Nerdy Am I?

We just moved to a new house and for Christmas, my wife got me a really nice aluminum framed, canvas tool caddy. Her intention was for me to use it to organize the tools I have for fixit jobs around the house and my immediate thought was "That will make a sweet DM's toolbox!"


Anyway, it now contains:

1. Essentials Books (HotFL, HotFK, DMG, MV, & RC)
2. Yoda pencil box with sharpened pencils
3. Dice Bag
4. Bag of generic plastic tabletop RPG counters
5. Box of colored pencils
6. 8-colored set of sharpies
7. 1 extra wide sharpie (black)
8. DM's screen
9. Folder containing my DM notes, blank character sheets, and printed Dragon Articles
10. Yellow writing tablet
11. Plastic storage container with all my "PC" minis, suitable to represent player's characters (I use counters and tokens for monsters).

All the markers and dice bags in their own little pocket or sleeve. Very nice.

Sperately, I carry a 27x34 presentaion graph pad that has 1" squares. I just lay it falt on the game table and sketch out the encoutner area with a marker. When it's done we rip off the sheet and ether throw it away or save it if it's likely the party will retrun through the area agin. Now there's a fresh, blank grid underneath.

 

[Cyronax]

Things I use to annoy my players:

Pizza Cutter
Green Candle
Huge Yuanti Abomination mini
Trick Dice
Endless Loop of Rush's "The Trees"
Large Hammer

Inside jokes to be sure, but they have their uses in my group.

 

[Geffor]

Jelly Babies !!

Or other sweeties according to preference, used to represent monsters.

Nothing inspires as much satisfaction in defeating an opponent as being able to eat it afterwards

If you use soft sweets such as the aforementioned jelly babies then status effects can be represented by small flags attached to cocktail sticks and stuck into the affected creatures. When you place a fairy cake or walnut whip on the map then the players know they're in for a real fight

 

[C_M2008]

-Books for system I'm running
-Appropriate GM screen
-Dice
-Extra Character sheets
-Extra Mechanical Pencils
-Chessex Battlemat
-Wet erase markers
-Poker chips (in 3 colors - very cheap) for tracking PC HP & surges if 4e
-PC minis
-Small selection of NPC minis -usually generic enough for most purposes
-Tokens to use for other NPCs
-Status effect cards if playing 4e (made with magic set editor)
-Note Pad
-DM notes

 

[blalien]

Let's see, I'm on vacation right now so I'm doing this from memory...

*Spiral notebook that's like six years old
*PHB, PHB2, Rules Compendium, and whatever module I'm currently running (Thunderspire Labyrinth at the moment)
*A dice bag hand-sewn by the wife of my FLGS owner. It comes with little storage compartments and opens up into a dice tray. It's pretty sweet.
*About eight sets of dice, a block of d6s, little green and red gemstones I use for friendly NPCs and minions, and 48 Alea Tools magnet markers
*Miniatures for each of my players and spirit companion
*Tokens I bought from Fiery Dragon and printed on Alea Tools magnet circles. I keep them in a Really Useful Box. (That's a brand name, by the way. They're sold at Staples and they're pretty awesome.)
*Folding battle mat and dry erase markers
*Open Mind Games combat pad
*A pizza if I'm feeling generous, a brand of candy only I like if I'm not

I specifically do not bring a laptop or DM screen, as they are slow and create an aura of mistrust, respectively. One player always brings her laptop anyway in case we need to look something up. I also intend to get a set of Battlegraphs as soon as they finally get around to releasing a box set.

 

[Stumblewyk]

What goes to every game (in a backpack I paid way too much for, but has certainly earned it's keep):

-Pencil box containing mechanical pencils and dry and wet erase markers
-My once-a-first aid kit-now-a-mini case, full of all my D&D minis
-My gray foam-lined case, full of all my painted Reaper minis
-Rules Compendium
-DM's shield
-Dice bag
-Campaign binder
-Published adventure if I'm running one (probably not), otherwise all my homebrew notes will go in the Campaign binder
-And now, thanks to my wonderful in-laws this past Christmas, I'll be adding the Monster Vault to my "kit"

I also take a laptop to each game, and a Chessex wet-erase battle mat. Additionally, I also transport my wife's character binder, and her dice.

 

[Firebeetle]

I carry quite a kit when I go to cons:

I have a Plano 737 tacklebox:

Top pocket, the essentials tile box
Top rack, counters, risers (1" wood blocks and spools painted blue for flying, grey for dungeons, and brown for woods), bendy dungeon walls,
side pockets, D&D miniatures of various sorts and sizes (I load them with minis for whatever adventure I'm running.

In the drawers:
supply of pencils and sharpener
dry-erase pens
more counters
colored disks for conditions, marks, etc (1" wood discs)
LED candles (colored to look like braziers)
fire wall markers (from GF9, want to add more wall markers)
miniatures for spell effects
NPC miniatures
painted terrian pieces (barrels, crates, doors, etc)

I carry my books in a seperate backpack along with my dice bag.

 

[TarionzCousin]

Things I use to annoy my players:

Endless Loop of Rush's "The Trees"

I actually like this song. If you really want to annoy your players with a Rush song, try "Rivendell."