Your favourite RPG accessories?

[Morrus]

I just bought myself some of Dapper Devils various coloured miniature bases, which will be great for distinguishing identical monsters. I'm looking to treat myself with some more accessories. I've had great success with Paizo's Item Cards in the past, along with fantasy money.

Aside from actual rules, miniatures, battlemaps, and dice, what are your favourite or most-used accessories? Gimme a link so that I might buy 'em!

 

[Almacov]

Those ubiquitous coloured glass counters. They could mean anything!
Small decorative containers for keeping track of or sorting these counters can also be great when they're being used to represent game resources.

Pocket change wrapped in paper can be pretty sweet too. In a pinch, I've drawn on these to represent things on the map. It's low tech, but when you're caught with some un-prepared-for gaming, they're pretty fast tokens to whip up!

I also use giant pads of graph paper from office supply stores, but I suppose that falls under battlemats.

Almost forgot one of my favourites: UV ink pens and blacklights.
The ink is invisible until it's lit up by the blacklight.
You can find them in dollar stores over here sometimes, and they're great for adding hidden features to maps and revealing them dramatically. (The pens I've had typically have a small blacklight mounted on the back, which is great for illuminating small, specific notes on a larger surface.)

 

[Oryan77]

I really like all of the WotC tiles. My players enjoy them also.

We use the Steel Squire wire spell templates. They are really handy for measuring area effects. Steel Sqwire - Area of Effect Templates

I use a magnetic dry erase board with magnets to keep track of initiative.

And I have condition cards (shows what the affects are for being Stunned, Dazed, etc etc) that I made (might be in my sig, not sure). But there are lots of those around the web.

I also got into the hobby of making terrain. Mostly rocks out of foam. But I did invest in lots of really cool plastic trees that I had to glue and paint. And I bought about 40 fish tank palm trees on ebay that really add to our forrest/jungle encounters.

I have a bunch of crates and barrels that I found on Ebay. Pretty much like this: Miniature Terrain: Egyptian Temple IWSEGY010 - eBay (item 110603876632 end time Dec-25-10 14:14:58 PST) but I think you can find bigger bulk auctions for cheaper than that.

 

[kitsune9]

I like this kind of terrain:

Hirst Arts Fantasy Architecture Inc. Build your own castles easily.

However, I'm a fan of software since I run my game electronically so I like Dundjinni and Campaign Cartographer 3.

 

[Khairn]

I've used specialty dice, colored bases, special terrain, map folio's, mini's, music, props and everything in between . But the best, and most remembered accessory was the Tarot deck from the oMage game. Beautifully illustrated, with guidelines for its use that fit our game perfectly, almost every session included at least 1 reading or random drawing to provide some guidance to the players. They loved it, and the Euthanatoi mage who held the deck milked the "hand of fate" to the max.

I still have the deck, along with the nMage deck, and the Harrowing cards from Rise of the Runelords. Gotta love the cards!

 

[Almacov]

But the best, and most remembered accessory was the Tarot deck from the oMage game.

Tarot decks in general can have many purposes in enhancing a gaming session.
The traditional D&D repurposing is of course using it as a Deck of Many Things, but the symbolism is pretty adaptable. You could even just use a simplified tarot reading to generate plot ideas for characters.
Draw a card for past, a card for present, and a card for the future, then cooperate to make them relevant to the PC in question. (Perhaps making the future card a DM secret, perhaps not.) If your group is into that kind of story generation, of course.

Last time I used one it was spread carefully face-down over a map of a cave system as a sort of fog-of war. As the party explored, the appropriate cards were lifted, and were thematically associated with what was beneath them. It added an interesting atmosphere!

If a character were playing a clairvoyant or diviner wizard, I'd be somewhat tempted as a DM to allow them to try to "get a feeling" about a situation once a day or something, then slipping them a card I felt was appropriate and letting them interpret the omen on their own.

They're fun things!

 

[Krensky]

My Viking helmet and +1 Mace.

Er, wait...

I think I misunderstood.

Seriously, things I've used recently.

Paizo's Harrow Deck. A decent divination system, well suited to the needs of a RPG. Lays are quicks and interpretations are loose and very easy for the GM to present in a manner facilitation foreshadowing or to lay plot hooks. The art's pretty evocative too. Somewhat D&D/PF centric as some of the symbolism is based on D&D and it uses the attribute and two axis alignment systems.

Paizo's Critical Hit and Fumble deck are good for some variety beyond double (or whatever) damage and some interesting (but not lethal or cruel) fumbles. Pretty much D&D 3.X/PF only though.

Paizo's (Geeze... them again?) Plot Twist Cards. Awesome if you're into player narrative control or liked TORG's Drama deck. Each card has a theme, an explicit mechanical effect, and sever suggestions for a more free form effect.

An example or two:
http://paizo.com/image/content/GameMastery/PZO3014-7.jpeg
http://paizo.com/image/content/GameMastery/PZO3014-34.jpeg

Designed for Pathfinder, but easy to convert to (in my case) Fantasy Craft or probably to 4e.