Condition rings. Bought some cheap ones on Amazon and use them every session. I’ve tasked one of the players as the designated conditioner. If you can find a pack that has numbered rings for enemies, even better. I had to print my own, though.
I also have templates for spell effect ranges, which is a time saver, and I found some cool metal fantasy coins, which I give out for inspiration.
If you don't want to buy condition rings, you can collect the plastic ring that secures the cap on bottles. You can easily find at least 4-5 colors. The condition isn't written on them, but at least it's basically free.
You can attach labels from a label maker but it kinda sucks too and gets dirty.
You can also use 2 liter caps upside down and elevate the minis but they always fall off when you move them hah.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1539745512/10-numbered-tabletop-miniature-rings-for
These are really good. Fit all bases, many colors, sizes and they are cheap.
I got a little fancier and bought an initiative tracker everyone can see. Like one of those clear plastic ones with individual magnets for each combatant. I like to hang my condition rings on there, a little more visible and less cumbersome on my map.
That sounds like a great idea. I’ve thought about getting a physical initiative tracker, but then I think about having to create individual tiles or cards for every enemy. I even have a ridge built into my dm screen specifically for stuff like that. I just use https://dm.tools/tracker instead, as it lets me keep track of the AC and HP in one spot. I’ll just give players a heads up when their turn is coming up next
You can also make some yourself by just making colored rows in photoshop, writing the condition on them and printing them out. Then just glue the end together to make a loop. (Tougher paper is probably better)
A little bit of terrain makes combat so much more fun. My players started doing a much better job using cover and whatnot once we had physical representation on the board.
A few rocks and some stone walls are easy to put together with modeling clay and acrylic paint for like $20 and a little time.
Not OP, but search "Wyloch's Armory" or "DM's Craft"or "Black Magic Craft" on youtube. Each of them have different styles. Even cardboard and hot glue will go a long way.
I also recommend Atmo LPseeker too he does some nice little builds here and there but his main schtick is fog and smart lighting and he often goes into detail on how he organises or put together something. He has a few vids on enhancing terrain with pocket humidifier or little vape pen, cheapo lights and painting.
For myself, a printer and a computer have most of what I need. I used a free map drawing tool and drew a dungeon and world map, printed it off and cut it up to slowly reveal a dungeon as they explore it. I've used wooden blocks and bottle caps and stuff from kids toys to give the players reference on height off the ground, stuff to hold or where enemies are.
I just bought a cheap 30 dollar fog machine from the hardware store, and shaped a dragon head out of tinfoil, paper mache and a paper towel tube. I'll see if I can slow the smoke and have it just dribble fog onto a table or something
A small skull. I set it next to the DM screen where players can see it. Sometimes I pretend to write something down and then turn the skull to look at a player and when they ask me what that's about I go "oh, nothing" and look thoughtful for a second.
It's actually nothing, but it keeps everyone on their toes.
A dry erase board has proven useful to me. Permanent marker for important things to keep in mind every session and dry erase for anything else that was important in the previous session.
We recently got one and I love it. Since it is magnetic, I can also hang some stuff on it - like images of monsters they are fighting, wanted posters, etc...
I've had several different dry erase boards over the years. As far as I can remember they've all been magnetic to some degree. (Not magnetic like they stick to things, but like magnets stick to them.) a lot of the smaller ones come with little round magnets included.
"Ferrous" is the term you're looking for. Technically "ferromagnetic" is more precise, but a person sounds like a dork if they say that in normal conversation.
Oooo! I don't mind sounding like a dork. So 'ferrous' is the word for things that magnets stick to?
I'm kinda remembering this from highschool chemistry. Like gold and aluminum are not ferrous, correct?
[here you go ](http://Amazon Basics Small Dry Erase Whiteboard, Magnetic White Board with Marker and Magnets - 11 x 14 Inches, Aluminum Frame https://a.co/d/fvwOMki)
Right? I use a whiteboard all the time and it rocks.
I think I would even prefer it to miniatures, as you can not be spontaneous anymore, or when you are, everyone notices "oh, that wasn't planned, so maybe it isn't crucial".
>Permanent marker for important things to keep in mind every session
This sounds utterly demonic to me. What information is so important that it needs to be permanently inscribed on the whiteboard itself and not on, say, a piece of cardboard that you keep next to it?
Secret hack: if you use permanent marker on a dry write board, just use a dry write marker over top of it, then erase. *POOF* it’s gone.
For the most part anyway.
I have a journal that I hand wrote for the campaign I'm currently running. It outlines all the hints, tips and answers to everything the players need to succeed. As long as they can decipher it all. Most of it is cryptic, some are written in code and ciphers. But they also get handwritten, wax sealed letters from time to time to help them along with small hints and clues. I love it, they love it, and it was arduous so I will not be doing anything like that again.
It was a LOT of work. Especially having to try to predict a few things the group would do for the information to make sense. But I'm glad I did it, tho I won't do anything like that again
Multiple Laminated A4 with 1 inch grids printed on them (blank on the back if I want to draw or write) & Dry erase markers.
I can do without alot of things but I know that I can run almost anything with just these 2 items.
Stack of portraits for NPCs. I have a stack of about 100 different portraits I have randomly found on the internet (that are setting-appropriate) and whenever PCs found somebody of real interest, I let them chose the portrait for that NPC. It is wonderful and immediately props discussion about who that person probably is and their character. Best prop I ever did.
I've found a deck of normal playing cards and some coins are very handy, cheap, and flexible when you need to sketch out locations during theature of the mind play. Tarot cards even more so.
Sure.
Coins are pretty self-explanitory I think, they make good markers for enimies and NPCs etc. Other small trinkets also work (paper mini's being the best, but those take more planning to have with you), dice work less well, they can get mixed up if your rolling in the same place, and the temptation is always there to use the numbered faces to track information but they will invariably be bumped or knocked. And, probably giving my age away, but there was a time when you'd just have coins on you anyway.
The playing cards can be used for a bunch of stuff.
Depending on the number of players you can use different face cards to track initative order (red suits on the table to make an init track, players hold dark suit quivalents so they remeber which is them), and you can designate a suit for tracking monsters with number cards (with small coins you can even pair the number to the coin value so you can track specific markers in init order).
Deck of many things is a gimmie.
I've tried cards to encounter tables before, particularly when using a depth crawl, where you draw a card for the detail and encounter at that depth (functionally no different than rolling but it feels good).
A big use for me in in tracking locations as mentioned; both Black Hack and Index Card RPG include rules for approximate distance (close, near, far, very far) and cards face down can serve pretty well as 'buckets' for these distances, i.e. we're not tracking exact positioning within a space beyond what theatre of the mind allows but we are tracking who is at each distance. An example: start with all markers on the back of one card, as a PC moves off to a near location to the east place a card immediately to the right of the first and move the marker there, if another PC moves very far to the west place a card further away from the first to the left and move their marker there, etc. It takes some of the cognitive load off theartre of the mind play without losing the advantages of it (quick, cheap, space efficent (5 or so cards on the ground is more compact than a whiteboard and more flexible than a notebook), you don't need a map prepped). If you have a lil notebook and you turn the cards face up you can even name locations if you want.
Pretty good to have on you at a con. Plus when you're done playing D&D you have a pack of cards for poker etc.
Minis and scatter terrain, environmental battle mats, condition rings, flight stands, inspiration tokens.
We have upcoming underwater content and I bought one of those underwater lighting projectors that I’m excited to try out.
Physical letters always kill. You can by a stack of parchment paper very easily and either hand write or hook it up to your printer. If you want to be fancy go through photoshop and give character custom hand writing styles.
Inexpensive metal washers spray painted in the different coin colors, and common denominations written on them.
Wood discs to represent potions/gems/expendable items. Each is numbered to cross reference against a cheat sheet. Potions are round discs, magic gems are hexagons, "regular" gems are square, inspiration is a star. Potions of healing are hearts.
Spell cards for casters, and certain class-specific skills (Warlock invocations, Artificer infusions) for easier reference.
Information cards for magic items. If a magic item is a mystery, I'll give a prop instead, like a small pouch of beads rather than the full description.
Blank battle maps and wet/dry erase markers.
My first DM also uses LEGO pieces to stand in for spiritual weapons, and an unused d6 for gelatinous cubes.
I also like having character sheets in page protectors so dry erase markers can be used for tracking HP.
In loose order from most important to least:
Blocks. Lots and lots of 1inch wooden blocks, plus a bunch of slightly smaller color foam blocks. I can dump them on the table and set up a battle map in under a minute. And I can make it 3d if I need. Wood blocks indicate walls, color blocks indicate everything else. I have about 300 wooden blocks and about 50 of the color ones.
A handful of small boxes in various sizes. The best ones are cheep and disposable, and would fit in a mailbox. Used as houses or bridges. Also a few soda and beer boxes. Like the 12 pack of soda and 30 pack of beer. Used for bigger houses, temples and mountain faces.
Cheep action figures. Ones you can get at a dollar store. Literally anything can stand in for anything else. They do need to be reasonably stable. As an alternative, small clear place card holders. Print monsters out, glue stick them to a bit of card stock, then put them in the place card holder. Same for the PCs.
Post-it-note tabs, in different colors. Stick them on the bottom of your NPCs to keep them straight during encounters. Number them one to whatever.
Colored rings. Like ones from drink bottles. Different colors mean different things. Don't bother with the fancy ones that have conditions written on them. They will slow your game down as people try to find the right one for the condition.
The biggest battle mat that fits your table. Get 1 inch grid, even if your creature stand-ins don't fit. The only way to go too big is if the parts that hang off touch the floor. But aim for edge to edge of the most common table you use. Don't draw on it, or you will find out how non permanent markers lie.
I love my calligraphy supplies. A few nibs, a few ink colors, and some calligraphy or regular paper make letters really fun. Time investment is small and I really enjoy the feeling of being able to hand them things from the world. (plus they've started writing ME letters and giving me handouts during session, which I love!)
I've amassed a collection of over 50 small bottles and jars that are now potions and elixirs. Their primary purpose is for Halloween decoration but they have turned out to be a wonderful prop to have at the table. A clothespin/dowel/stand initiative tracker is a mainstay at the table.
I bought a pouch of gold coins to use as DM inspiration. Havent had them long enough to get a ton of use yet but my players have loved it when they do get used!
Haven't given it to them yet, but I wrote out a prophetic message in a script I completely made up, (it's called Bullshit (pronounced bool-shee-it) bc of an inside joke with my party) wrapped it in ribbon and a necklace with a pendant that closely resembles an elven god's symbol. It's been sitting in my stack of books, right in front of them, for several sessions but we haven't gotten to the part where I give it to them yet.
Also my party hand writes the letters they want to send to NPCs and stuff, which I never prompted to do and I think it's adorable and helpful, as it gives me insight to their thoughts/motivations.
I tend to run city settings where I need a lot of NPCs, and don't want to spend on minis... so now I have a set of chess pawns and bring a bag of candy, and those are my NPCs on the map.
The visual differentiation is a flag about what characters have been statted (to be clear: you can fight a guy represented by a chess pawn but first you need to wait for me to gin up his stat block real quick). My players get to eat what they defeat, so the way they look at me when I put down higher-value jumbo candy bars to represent boss monsters sparks tremendous joy.
I got a bag of cheap gold-colored metal "fantasy coins" from Amazon and whenever someone gets inspiration, I hand them one of the coins. When they use inspiration, they give me the coin back. Easy way for the players to remember that they have inspiration, and the tactile aspect of "cashing in inspiration" makes it a little more of a *choice* to use.
I have a few stuffed animals I like to throw at my players when I give them inspiration. One of them is a stuffed rat, our first party's familiar and mascot. The other one is a pokemon I just happened to have on hand one day. It's especially good when they get inspiration for something dumb or silly because I can just wing it at them.
Music, ambiance, and SFX. And since I know how hard it is to multitask between DMing and changing music (and impossible if you add SFX), I'm willing to give up playing for a campaign to be the DM's personal sound tech.
Also, for our two-year anniversary we all chipped in about 50 Dollars each and we bought a 3D printer. I’m not sure about the specifics (on of my players was already interested in buying one so that’s all him), but we’ve printed basically everything for combat purposes since: trees, crates, furniture, enemies en Pc’s, etc. It’s definitely not a necessity, but it’s pretty goddamn rad for visualisation.
I don’t know your financial situation, but we’re a bunch of grown men in our 30s and to us it was shockingly cheap. If you’re still in high school or a student, though, I can imagine it’s not that easy to cough up. I think it ran us about 350 Euros or something. And again, I’m not sure what type we got, but the quality is more than high enough for these purposes.
I have two expensive chess sets with pieces that represent actual armies - pawns are simple knights, bishops are herolds, knights are horse-mounted warriors, rooks are castle towers... They are perfect as miniatures.
And they are perfect in case I ever include a Harry Potter-style living chess set.
We're poor students so we dont have much but any sort of battle map makes it a lot more fun. You dont really even need a mat, just a chessboard and d4 for minis. Building maps out of pens and erasers really ups combat, gives something to interact with, ex. your character flips a table so you get to move the "table" on the map. Also tracking effects like faerie fire and guidance with smaller dice or bottle caps(we put dice from a mini set to track guidance and bardic insp.). Sometimes we use candy for enemies so the one who gets the kill gets to eat it.
Something funny to try out is the "hat of disappointment", just a silly hat the dm makes someone wear when they act stupid or speak over the dm. Sometimes it gives disadvantage for the near future depending on how stupid you were.
This is not the exact one I bought, but it's the same idea.
Basically, if I need a stonehenge-like arrangement of cubes, I take a minute to construct a horse-shoe, or several of them rather. I need the remains of a crumbling castle wall, or a stone fence, I make a row of these cubes. I need a massive tree, I make a tall column and use additional blocks sticking out for the minis to stand on, simulating branches. I need an instant tank, I throw some blocks together. Because they're all 1-inch in dimension, they fit perfectly on a D&D or PF2 grid (I use them for PF2 and my G I Joe RPG campaigns).
https://tinyurl.com/22ujdadh
Initiative tracker. 4” piece of a 2x4, drill a 3/8” hole in the center, stick a 2’ long 3/8” dowel rod in the hole, put clothes pins on the rod, write the characters names on the pins, easily track whose turn it is by everyone visually seeing the order and you flip them from side to side after their turn is over.
Our group has been playing 4.5 years straight and out of all the nice fancy upgrades we’ve had, this one is by far our most useful tool.
One metal D20 that sounds ominous AF when you roll it.
No piece of table setting, stage dressing, or prop work gets my players as laser focused as the sound of my cast aluminum die hitting the table, even when it's for the most inconsequential stuff.
The thrift store is your friend. You can find the damndest crazy things there that you can turn into magical items. I found a seashell that acted like a dig spell. I found a taxidermied birdwing on a stick that gave flight. I found a wooden rattle in the shape of a fish that calmed a child. (They used this to great effect on a baby ogre)
Along with that just about anything else you would find in a fantasy setting. Plastic gemstones. Fake coins. Leather bags for said coins and gems. Toss a plastic scorpion in there and then give it to them is what they found on the body of the monster.
There is something incredibly special about giving an actual physical item to your players as loot. One time I gave them a brooch and they asked me, what's it made out of? And I said what you see is what you get. 🤣 This allows you to make interesting and strange magical objects that you can then create a use for later.
I also found a key at a thrift store that weighed almost 2 pounds. "The old lady gives you the key to the house she wants you to investigate." Then I drop that 2 lb key on the table. 🤣🤣🤣
My brother plays a bard, and brings an old trumpet to our live sessions (he doesn’t know how to play it), and makes a very amateur **BWAPppppfff!!!** sound with it whenever someone rolls a natural 1.
Fake plants from IKEA, random rocks, drift wood and lED lights add some cool elements to battle maps. Also I have a big one min hourglass that is fun for quick tension.
I have a deck of many things that’s a set of parrot cards I got at a local book store and a little wooden box I made for it. It now appears in every campaign I run. My players either love it or hate it.
We have a talented musician at our table that plays as, you guessed it, a bard. She brings several old instruments to games and plays them for inspiration.
In the same game I play as a hyper-competitive Goliath who, like myself, has little to no musical talent and plays a kazoo. I bought one at a Dollar Tree and it has been the best prop I’ve ever had.
With the rise of generative art you can now turn every epic moment or player character into a in-universe style painting/portraits.
i work with my players to bring their PCs to life as best I can, tho the triton paladin I currently have is making me wish I could afford a proper artist lol... it gets harder to do with more obscure dnd races but I do love how much they enjoy seeing their characters.
If you have the budget I find nothing is better as miniatures and terrain than lego..
https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/909fsg/my_lego_dd_system_of_modular_dungeon_awesomeness/
You don't have to paint them, and if you want to sell them later far more people will buy Lego then we'll buy D&D specific terrain materials. But I warn you you will probably need a dedicated room for this and several thousand dollars. Bricklink is a black hole. 🤣
I was doing an amazon order and had a few extra bucks on a gift card so I threw in some wooden inspiration tokens, there's a lot of other kinds of options out there (coins, gems, etc.) and most of them are pretty cheap I think but I bought them in a set that ones for inspiration, luck points, and like a generic dragon one.
I've found that being able to physically give a player an object to represent inspiration has helped them remember to use it more often. Once it's used they give it back to me, so it's also easy to know quickly who has/doesn't have it.
i found a huge white board on trash day outside of an office that was clearing out. i used an xacto blade to score a grid on it, traced the lines with marker & erased them so the grid would be visible, and we play on it every session. it’s so great for impromptu encounters, for quickly drawing something for them if theyre like “what exactly does the sewer grate look like?” or extending the area of an existing map if need be.
probably expensive when not found in the garbage, but damn i love this thing
i found a huge white board on trash day outside of an office that was clearing out. i used an xacto blade to score a grid on it, traced the lines with marker & erased them so the grid would be visible, and we play on it every session. it’s so great for impromptu encounters, for quickly drawing something for them if theyre like “what exactly does the sewer grate look like?” or extending the area of an existing map if need be.
probably expensive when not found in the garbage, but damn i love this thing
A steel board with a wooden frame that folds in 3, when laid out on the table it is slightly larger than A3 size and once the session is over I fold it up and it fits straight in the rucksack. And the tokens and scenery have magnetic tape backing, so they stay right there for next weeks session!
I bought some cool triangular “dwarven” metal coins that I pass out for inspiration. They’re pretty heavy and feel good to hold/tinker with, and you feel great cashing them in for that advantage roll
My absolute fav is the bloodied counters I got from Litko, little blood splatters laser cut from dark red transparent plastic. My players loved seeing one get plopped down next to an enemy. Ditto the skulls I used as corpse markers.
The other big table pleaser was whenever I brought out a 3d map. I'd print out my maps then glue them to cardboard and build it in 3d. Didn't even usually dress them up much, just having the extra dimension added so much and really encouraged players to keep height differences in mind.
"If you can survive the next encounter, I will let you be a twilight cleric. Just stop asking me."
"Yay! What is the next encounter?"
*pulls pin. "Catch."
Condition rings. Bought some cheap ones on Amazon and use them every session. I’ve tasked one of the players as the designated conditioner. If you can find a pack that has numbered rings for enemies, even better. I had to print my own, though. I also have templates for spell effect ranges, which is a time saver, and I found some cool metal fantasy coins, which I give out for inspiration.
If you don't want to buy condition rings, you can collect the plastic ring that secures the cap on bottles. You can easily find at least 4-5 colors. The condition isn't written on them, but at least it's basically free.
You can attach labels from a label maker but it kinda sucks too and gets dirty. You can also use 2 liter caps upside down and elevate the minis but they always fall off when you move them hah.
We use pipe cleaners
I found a shop on etsy that had numbered rings for enemies. I'll see if it's still in my history as I don't recall the name.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/754087140/numbered-monster-foe-rings-dungeons-and "FunBoardGames" Monster foe rings if the link doesn't work.
https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/1539745512/10-numbered-tabletop-miniature-rings-for These are really good. Fit all bases, many colors, sizes and they are cheap.
I got a little fancier and bought an initiative tracker everyone can see. Like one of those clear plastic ones with individual magnets for each combatant. I like to hang my condition rings on there, a little more visible and less cumbersome on my map.
That sounds like a great idea. I’ve thought about getting a physical initiative tracker, but then I think about having to create individual tiles or cards for every enemy. I even have a ridge built into my dm screen specifically for stuff like that. I just use https://dm.tools/tracker instead, as it lets me keep track of the AC and HP in one spot. I’ll just give players a heads up when their turn is coming up next
I tend to group enemy initiative by type, but I totally see what you mean. Hey whatever gets the job done!
You can also make some yourself by just making colored rows in photoshop, writing the condition on them and printing them out. Then just glue the end together to make a loop. (Tougher paper is probably better)
A little bit of terrain makes combat so much more fun. My players started doing a much better job using cover and whatnot once we had physical representation on the board. A few rocks and some stone walls are easy to put together with modeling clay and acrylic paint for like $20 and a little time.
YES. The moment I added actual cover and elevation that's represented three dimensionally, my combat became so much more fun.
Could you link?
Not OP, but search "Wyloch's Armory" or "DM's Craft"or "Black Magic Craft" on youtube. Each of them have different styles. Even cardboard and hot glue will go a long way.
I also recommend Atmo LPseeker too he does some nice little builds here and there but his main schtick is fog and smart lighting and he often goes into detail on how he organises or put together something. He has a few vids on enhancing terrain with pocket humidifier or little vape pen, cheapo lights and painting. For myself, a printer and a computer have most of what I need. I used a free map drawing tool and drew a dungeon and world map, printed it off and cut it up to slowly reveal a dungeon as they explore it. I've used wooden blocks and bottle caps and stuff from kids toys to give the players reference on height off the ground, stuff to hold or where enemies are. I just bought a cheap 30 dollar fog machine from the hardware store, and shaped a dragon head out of tinfoil, paper mache and a paper towel tube. I'll see if I can slow the smoke and have it just dribble fog onto a table or something
I’m really cheap, so I like to improvise terrain out of crap I find around my house.
A small skull. I set it next to the DM screen where players can see it. Sometimes I pretend to write something down and then turn the skull to look at a player and when they ask me what that's about I go "oh, nothing" and look thoughtful for a second. It's actually nothing, but it keeps everyone on their toes.
Whose skull is it? Did you get it from a hospital?
Are you the police? Who sent you? NO MORE QUESTIONS \*sound of door slamming ,car driving off in a hurry\*
This is so devious I absolutely love it
That's fucked
A dry erase board has proven useful to me. Permanent marker for important things to keep in mind every session and dry erase for anything else that was important in the previous session.
We recently got one and I love it. Since it is magnetic, I can also hang some stuff on it - like images of monsters they are fighting, wanted posters, etc...
can you please share the link? magnetic seems interesting
I live in small EU country and I do not think that this shop does international shipping :) But I think most of whiteboards are magnetic? 🤔
I've had several different dry erase boards over the years. As far as I can remember they've all been magnetic to some degree. (Not magnetic like they stick to things, but like magnets stick to them.) a lot of the smaller ones come with little round magnets included.
"Ferrous" is the term you're looking for. Technically "ferromagnetic" is more precise, but a person sounds like a dork if they say that in normal conversation.
Oooo! I don't mind sounding like a dork. So 'ferrous' is the word for things that magnets stick to? I'm kinda remembering this from highschool chemistry. Like gold and aluminum are not ferrous, correct?
Ferrous refers to iron (Fe on the periodic table). Iron is magnetic. Stuff made from iron (ferrous) is magnetic.
Aaah, is it only stuff made from iron that our magnets stick to?
Not entirely. No.
Oh. That's just the origin of the word. Neat!
[here you go ](http://Amazon Basics Small Dry Erase Whiteboard, Magnetic White Board with Marker and Magnets - 11 x 14 Inches, Aluminum Frame https://a.co/d/fvwOMki)
Right? I use a whiteboard all the time and it rocks. I think I would even prefer it to miniatures, as you can not be spontaneous anymore, or when you are, everyone notices "oh, that wasn't planned, so maybe it isn't crucial".
>Permanent marker for important things to keep in mind every session This sounds utterly demonic to me. What information is so important that it needs to be permanently inscribed on the whiteboard itself and not on, say, a piece of cardboard that you keep next to it?
Secret hack: if you use permanent marker on a dry write board, just use a dry write marker over top of it, then erase. *POOF* it’s gone. For the most part anyway.
I have a journal that I hand wrote for the campaign I'm currently running. It outlines all the hints, tips and answers to everything the players need to succeed. As long as they can decipher it all. Most of it is cryptic, some are written in code and ciphers. But they also get handwritten, wax sealed letters from time to time to help them along with small hints and clues. I love it, they love it, and it was arduous so I will not be doing anything like that again.
This is so creative!
It was a LOT of work. Especially having to try to predict a few things the group would do for the information to make sense. But I'm glad I did it, tho I won't do anything like that again
Multiple Laminated A4 with 1 inch grids printed on them (blank on the back if I want to draw or write) & Dry erase markers. I can do without alot of things but I know that I can run almost anything with just these 2 items.
Stack of portraits for NPCs. I have a stack of about 100 different portraits I have randomly found on the internet (that are setting-appropriate) and whenever PCs found somebody of real interest, I let them chose the portrait for that NPC. It is wonderful and immediately props discussion about who that person probably is and their character. Best prop I ever did.
I've got to do this, such a good idea
To be fair, I stole it from Unknown Armies 3ed, which suggests using pictures cut from newspaper, magazines, etc. for NPCs and locations.
Stealing is such an ugly word. We're just borrowing it indefinitely
A fully charged taser.
"Your PC is paralyzed" - ZAP "DM, I disagree with.. " - ZAP "DM, your campaign sucks" - ZAP
"Hey, Cliff! You should just stop zapping peop.."**ZAP**
I've found a deck of normal playing cards and some coins are very handy, cheap, and flexible when you need to sketch out locations during theature of the mind play. Tarot cards even more so.
Care to elaborate?
Sure. Coins are pretty self-explanitory I think, they make good markers for enimies and NPCs etc. Other small trinkets also work (paper mini's being the best, but those take more planning to have with you), dice work less well, they can get mixed up if your rolling in the same place, and the temptation is always there to use the numbered faces to track information but they will invariably be bumped or knocked. And, probably giving my age away, but there was a time when you'd just have coins on you anyway. The playing cards can be used for a bunch of stuff. Depending on the number of players you can use different face cards to track initative order (red suits on the table to make an init track, players hold dark suit quivalents so they remeber which is them), and you can designate a suit for tracking monsters with number cards (with small coins you can even pair the number to the coin value so you can track specific markers in init order). Deck of many things is a gimmie. I've tried cards to encounter tables before, particularly when using a depth crawl, where you draw a card for the detail and encounter at that depth (functionally no different than rolling but it feels good). A big use for me in in tracking locations as mentioned; both Black Hack and Index Card RPG include rules for approximate distance (close, near, far, very far) and cards face down can serve pretty well as 'buckets' for these distances, i.e. we're not tracking exact positioning within a space beyond what theatre of the mind allows but we are tracking who is at each distance. An example: start with all markers on the back of one card, as a PC moves off to a near location to the east place a card immediately to the right of the first and move the marker there, if another PC moves very far to the west place a card further away from the first to the left and move their marker there, etc. It takes some of the cognitive load off theartre of the mind play without losing the advantages of it (quick, cheap, space efficent (5 or so cards on the ground is more compact than a whiteboard and more flexible than a notebook), you don't need a map prepped). If you have a lil notebook and you turn the cards face up you can even name locations if you want. Pretty good to have on you at a con. Plus when you're done playing D&D you have a pack of cards for poker etc.
Interesting, thanks! I like the card idea, going to be trying out ICRPG soon.
Minis and scatter terrain, environmental battle mats, condition rings, flight stands, inspiration tokens. We have upcoming underwater content and I bought one of those underwater lighting projectors that I’m excited to try out.
Physical letters always kill. You can by a stack of parchment paper very easily and either hand write or hook it up to your printer. If you want to be fancy go through photoshop and give character custom hand writing styles.
I do this with one of my players. They wanted to be friends with one npc who couldn’t go on adventures. We exchange letters every session
I will probably get giant foam dice to use for whenever my players face giants.
Well, this is hilarious and adorable.
Sand timer. Nothing cranks up the tension quite like being able to physically watch your window of opportunity shrinking in real time
Inexpensive metal washers spray painted in the different coin colors, and common denominations written on them. Wood discs to represent potions/gems/expendable items. Each is numbered to cross reference against a cheat sheet. Potions are round discs, magic gems are hexagons, "regular" gems are square, inspiration is a star. Potions of healing are hearts. Spell cards for casters, and certain class-specific skills (Warlock invocations, Artificer infusions) for easier reference. Information cards for magic items. If a magic item is a mystery, I'll give a prop instead, like a small pouch of beads rather than the full description. Blank battle maps and wet/dry erase markers. My first DM also uses LEGO pieces to stand in for spiritual weapons, and an unused d6 for gelatinous cubes. I also like having character sheets in page protectors so dry erase markers can be used for tracking HP.
Yes character sheets in page protectors with dry ear markers are key
Almost. Try [dry erase pens!](https://www.amazon.com/EEOYU-Magnetic-Markers-Whiteboard-Erasers/dp/B0C9WH1NM3/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=2VUUIFXSDO4WC&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.h_aLANlIsC0yCB1xo5-sBTRWSHZS8HBi1WoLZPRBdL6z4xtER48o42vrn0TJKjOWIHJJ5osmMZKeASp-PAf3kwjTlsiPm6NDfGjQ4bIKktoVhIXk_yrva_lWC8siB5zVlB80ZlLiLny8vSxpauZAyKpFq0ynsl6wYQecYg5MyvB8O5eo9uDL3MIuD4_aT9DVizOtyoXTU6RjP5MlDfUDNA.oenHAjjdQxjVIoff3Q134Ji6FZ3AOtXl6lHk3KFN5zo&dib_tag=se&keywords=dry+erase+pens+fine+tip&qid=1714223762&sprefix=dry+erase+pen%2Caps%2C235&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1)
In loose order from most important to least: Blocks. Lots and lots of 1inch wooden blocks, plus a bunch of slightly smaller color foam blocks. I can dump them on the table and set up a battle map in under a minute. And I can make it 3d if I need. Wood blocks indicate walls, color blocks indicate everything else. I have about 300 wooden blocks and about 50 of the color ones. A handful of small boxes in various sizes. The best ones are cheep and disposable, and would fit in a mailbox. Used as houses or bridges. Also a few soda and beer boxes. Like the 12 pack of soda and 30 pack of beer. Used for bigger houses, temples and mountain faces. Cheep action figures. Ones you can get at a dollar store. Literally anything can stand in for anything else. They do need to be reasonably stable. As an alternative, small clear place card holders. Print monsters out, glue stick them to a bit of card stock, then put them in the place card holder. Same for the PCs. Post-it-note tabs, in different colors. Stick them on the bottom of your NPCs to keep them straight during encounters. Number them one to whatever. Colored rings. Like ones from drink bottles. Different colors mean different things. Don't bother with the fancy ones that have conditions written on them. They will slow your game down as people try to find the right one for the condition. The biggest battle mat that fits your table. Get 1 inch grid, even if your creature stand-ins don't fit. The only way to go too big is if the parts that hang off touch the floor. But aim for edge to edge of the most common table you use. Don't draw on it, or you will find out how non permanent markers lie.
I love my calligraphy supplies. A few nibs, a few ink colors, and some calligraphy or regular paper make letters really fun. Time investment is small and I really enjoy the feeling of being able to hand them things from the world. (plus they've started writing ME letters and giving me handouts during session, which I love!)
I've amassed a collection of over 50 small bottles and jars that are now potions and elixirs. Their primary purpose is for Halloween decoration but they have turned out to be a wonderful prop to have at the table. A clothespin/dowel/stand initiative tracker is a mainstay at the table.
I bought a pouch of gold coins to use as DM inspiration. Havent had them long enough to get a ton of use yet but my players have loved it when they do get used!
Lemon stained edge-burnt letters for in-game clues.
Plastic doll stand for flying minis. They're adjustable and you can affix a platform to them.
I bought a 6 pack of clear champagne flutes from the dollar store. Flip them upside down and a mini fits perfectly on the base as a flying riser.
Haven't given it to them yet, but I wrote out a prophetic message in a script I completely made up, (it's called Bullshit (pronounced bool-shee-it) bc of an inside joke with my party) wrapped it in ribbon and a necklace with a pendant that closely resembles an elven god's symbol. It's been sitting in my stack of books, right in front of them, for several sessions but we haven't gotten to the part where I give it to them yet. Also my party hand writes the letters they want to send to NPCs and stuff, which I never prompted to do and I think it's adorable and helpful, as it gives me insight to their thoughts/motivations.
I have an old wall mounted candelabra and an antique conductors lantern that are a must use in every session for something or other
I have a gavel that I bang at dramatic moments like when describing certain critical hits, traps going off or to recapture the players attention
Bluetooth speaker with the pocket bard app. Always sets the ambience nicely
I tend to run city settings where I need a lot of NPCs, and don't want to spend on minis... so now I have a set of chess pawns and bring a bag of candy, and those are my NPCs on the map. The visual differentiation is a flag about what characters have been statted (to be clear: you can fight a guy represented by a chess pawn but first you need to wait for me to gin up his stat block real quick). My players get to eat what they defeat, so the way they look at me when I put down higher-value jumbo candy bars to represent boss monsters sparks tremendous joy.
I got a bag of cheap gold-colored metal "fantasy coins" from Amazon and whenever someone gets inspiration, I hand them one of the coins. When they use inspiration, they give me the coin back. Easy way for the players to remember that they have inspiration, and the tactile aspect of "cashing in inspiration" makes it a little more of a *choice* to use.
Dice
I have a few stuffed animals I like to throw at my players when I give them inspiration. One of them is a stuffed rat, our first party's familiar and mascot. The other one is a pokemon I just happened to have on hand one day. It's especially good when they get inspiration for something dumb or silly because I can just wing it at them.
Music, ambiance, and SFX. And since I know how hard it is to multitask between DMing and changing music (and impossible if you add SFX), I'm willing to give up playing for a campaign to be the DM's personal sound tech.
My megamat, wet etase crayola washable markers, and home-made tokens for combat.
My fiendish t-rex. Nothing better then pulling sum jurassic park type vibe.. watch them run scared..
Personally I like little fidgeties for my players, particularly gold coins
DM screen, condition rings, a set of “distance measures” (cone, sphere, square, etc.) and of course lots and lots of dice.
Also, for our two-year anniversary we all chipped in about 50 Dollars each and we bought a 3D printer. I’m not sure about the specifics (on of my players was already interested in buying one so that’s all him), but we’ve printed basically everything for combat purposes since: trees, crates, furniture, enemies en Pc’s, etc. It’s definitely not a necessity, but it’s pretty goddamn rad for visualisation.
This is the dream
I don’t know your financial situation, but we’re a bunch of grown men in our 30s and to us it was shockingly cheap. If you’re still in high school or a student, though, I can imagine it’s not that easy to cough up. I think it ran us about 350 Euros or something. And again, I’m not sure what type we got, but the quality is more than high enough for these purposes.
Old school lantern. Sets the mood and helps when it gets darker.
I have two expensive chess sets with pieces that represent actual armies - pawns are simple knights, bishops are herolds, knights are horse-mounted warriors, rooks are castle towers... They are perfect as miniatures. And they are perfect in case I ever include a Harry Potter-style living chess set.
We're poor students so we dont have much but any sort of battle map makes it a lot more fun. You dont really even need a mat, just a chessboard and d4 for minis. Building maps out of pens and erasers really ups combat, gives something to interact with, ex. your character flips a table so you get to move the "table" on the map. Also tracking effects like faerie fire and guidance with smaller dice or bottle caps(we put dice from a mini set to track guidance and bardic insp.). Sometimes we use candy for enemies so the one who gets the kill gets to eat it. Something funny to try out is the "hat of disappointment", just a silly hat the dm makes someone wear when they act stupid or speak over the dm. Sometimes it gives disadvantage for the near future depending on how stupid you were.
I bought magnetic one-inch cubes (I'm having trouble linking them but found them on Amazon). They're amazing for instant terrain features.
Explain
This is not the exact one I bought, but it's the same idea. Basically, if I need a stonehenge-like arrangement of cubes, I take a minute to construct a horse-shoe, or several of them rather. I need the remains of a crumbling castle wall, or a stone fence, I make a row of these cubes. I need a massive tree, I make a tall column and use additional blocks sticking out for the minis to stand on, simulating branches. I need an instant tank, I throw some blocks together. Because they're all 1-inch in dimension, they fit perfectly on a D&D or PF2 grid (I use them for PF2 and my G I Joe RPG campaigns). https://tinyurl.com/22ujdadh
Initiative tracker. 4” piece of a 2x4, drill a 3/8” hole in the center, stick a 2’ long 3/8” dowel rod in the hole, put clothes pins on the rod, write the characters names on the pins, easily track whose turn it is by everyone visually seeing the order and you flip them from side to side after their turn is over. Our group has been playing 4.5 years straight and out of all the nice fancy upgrades we’ve had, this one is by far our most useful tool.
One metal D20 that sounds ominous AF when you roll it. No piece of table setting, stage dressing, or prop work gets my players as laser focused as the sound of my cast aluminum die hitting the table, even when it's for the most inconsequential stuff.
Rocks, pebbles and twigs for scatter terrain. Dirt cheap (literally) and adds a nice realistic touch. Single most cost effective props out there.
The thrift store is your friend. You can find the damndest crazy things there that you can turn into magical items. I found a seashell that acted like a dig spell. I found a taxidermied birdwing on a stick that gave flight. I found a wooden rattle in the shape of a fish that calmed a child. (They used this to great effect on a baby ogre) Along with that just about anything else you would find in a fantasy setting. Plastic gemstones. Fake coins. Leather bags for said coins and gems. Toss a plastic scorpion in there and then give it to them is what they found on the body of the monster. There is something incredibly special about giving an actual physical item to your players as loot. One time I gave them a brooch and they asked me, what's it made out of? And I said what you see is what you get. 🤣 This allows you to make interesting and strange magical objects that you can then create a use for later. I also found a key at a thrift store that weighed almost 2 pounds. "The old lady gives you the key to the house she wants you to investigate." Then I drop that 2 lb key on the table. 🤣🤣🤣
Candles. Something about them just sets that mood.
My brother plays a bard, and brings an old trumpet to our live sessions (he doesn’t know how to play it), and makes a very amateur **BWAPppppfff!!!** sound with it whenever someone rolls a natural 1.
Fake plants from IKEA, random rocks, drift wood and lED lights add some cool elements to battle maps. Also I have a big one min hourglass that is fun for quick tension.
I have a deck of many things that’s a set of parrot cards I got at a local book store and a little wooden box I made for it. It now appears in every campaign I run. My players either love it or hate it.
I prefer pelican cards over parrot cards.
I prefer pelican't cards, personally, but I am not an optimist.
We have a talented musician at our table that plays as, you guessed it, a bard. She brings several old instruments to games and plays them for inspiration. In the same game I play as a hyper-competitive Goliath who, like myself, has little to no musical talent and plays a kazoo. I bought one at a Dollar Tree and it has been the best prop I’ve ever had.
With the rise of generative art you can now turn every epic moment or player character into a in-universe style painting/portraits. i work with my players to bring their PCs to life as best I can, tho the triton paladin I currently have is making me wish I could afford a proper artist lol... it gets harder to do with more obscure dnd races but I do love how much they enjoy seeing their characters.
If you have the budget I find nothing is better as miniatures and terrain than lego.. https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/909fsg/my_lego_dd_system_of_modular_dungeon_awesomeness/ You don't have to paint them, and if you want to sell them later far more people will buy Lego then we'll buy D&D specific terrain materials. But I warn you you will probably need a dedicated room for this and several thousand dollars. Bricklink is a black hole. 🤣
I was doing an amazon order and had a few extra bucks on a gift card so I threw in some wooden inspiration tokens, there's a lot of other kinds of options out there (coins, gems, etc.) and most of them are pretty cheap I think but I bought them in a set that ones for inspiration, luck points, and like a generic dragon one. I've found that being able to physically give a player an object to represent inspiration has helped them remember to use it more often. Once it's used they give it back to me, so it's also easy to know quickly who has/doesn't have it.
r/DnDIY
i found a huge white board on trash day outside of an office that was clearing out. i used an xacto blade to score a grid on it, traced the lines with marker & erased them so the grid would be visible, and we play on it every session. it’s so great for impromptu encounters, for quickly drawing something for them if theyre like “what exactly does the sewer grate look like?” or extending the area of an existing map if need be. probably expensive when not found in the garbage, but damn i love this thing
i found a huge white board on trash day outside of an office that was clearing out. i used an xacto blade to score a grid on it, traced the lines with marker & erased them so the grid would be visible, and we play on it every session. it’s so great for impromptu encounters, for quickly drawing something for them if theyre like “what exactly does the sewer grate look like?” or extending the area of an existing map if need be. probably expensive when not found in the garbage, but damn i love this thing
I made a secret map they had to toast with a lighter prop to read. They loved it
A steel board with a wooden frame that folds in 3, when laid out on the table it is slightly larger than A3 size and once the session is over I fold it up and it fits straight in the rucksack. And the tokens and scenery have magnetic tape backing, so they stay right there for next weeks session!
I bought some cool triangular “dwarven” metal coins that I pass out for inspiration. They’re pretty heavy and feel good to hold/tinker with, and you feel great cashing them in for that advantage roll
My absolute fav is the bloodied counters I got from Litko, little blood splatters laser cut from dark red transparent plastic. My players loved seeing one get plopped down next to an enemy. Ditto the skulls I used as corpse markers. The other big table pleaser was whenever I brought out a 3d map. I'd print out my maps then glue them to cardboard and build it in 3d. Didn't even usually dress them up much, just having the extra dimension added so much and really encouraged players to keep height differences in mind.
Taxidermy rabbit.
A dud hand grenade I have.
"If you can survive the next encounter, I will let you be a twilight cleric. Just stop asking me." "Yay! What is the next encounter?" *pulls pin. "Catch."