What are cool, useful accessories to have at the table when GMing? What do you carry around on your GM bag of tricks/utility belt?
starting with the obvious:
- miniatures
- maps
- screen
- dice
Props/accessories/gadgets
Brandon Miller
Sebastian Howard
>GM bag/utility belt
Autism.
Brayden Peterson
Little portable speakers for playing background music. Really adds to the mood.
Eli Myers
See I hate music, I find it distracting.
How about stained paper. When I have to give the players a letter in game I tea stain some paper then write the letter in pencil before going over the letters with a thin paintbrush.
Joseph Evans
This is pretty good, though it' not everyone cup of tea,you can play ambiant sounds but I would keep music to some very specific moment, it Can ne very distractions
When I'm running Atomic Highway I give to each player 5 little Iron beads to represent "fortune points" which allow them to have some bonus during the session. But I'm planning on replacing it with Bottlecaps, beads have a tendance to roll off the table, it just take a little more Time to find them because Im not an alcoholic.I would like to use small skulls but I dont want to buy that big box from GW.
Also depending on the setting of your game you can use some props for your player to interact. In a game I played some years ago the GM uses the following for his game
>A weary notebook
>A compass
>À burnes Map
It really add to the experience
Kevin Mitchell
Seconded. I enjoy letting the players pick battle music for every session.
I like to have a white board with cut-out magnet strips they can draw their names and characters for the initiative
Kayden Gray
Index cards for key items. Write a little blurb on one side, and mechanics (if any) on the other. Makes giving out loot fun.
Glass beads. You know, the kind you can buy in the craft store by the hundred. Make great counters, pinch minis for swarm enemies or mcguffins, etc.
More dice than you need
Phone stand. I have my phone stood behind my screen with the random table app I use (inspiration pad pro) open.
Bigass pencil eraser. Big enough you can't lose it.
Wyatt Collins
Forgot to add, i have a dice tower I have them roll behind my screen so they can't see the results of certain rolls that their characters would otherwise be able to gauge, things like stealth rolls or intuition rolls. They can't know for certain if they're really being sneaky, they just have to rely on their skills. Just the same as if you let them see they rolled poorly on intuition they'll know to think otherwise.
Benjamin Brown
I once made a map of a village for a player whose character gave the innkeeper a gold tooth as payment. It was late and the character was kind of an ass so the innkeeper took the tooth but felt guilty about it so next morning he gave the character the map and told him food and lodging is taken care of for him for as long as he wants to stay.
The map was just printed on half a sheet of regular printer paper but I crumpled it up and flattened it out a few times then burnt the edges and rubbed the whole thing down with ash. I rolled it up and tied it with a stretched out dryer sheet that I also rubbed with ash.
All of my players absolutely loved it. I was kinda proud of myself
Ayden Bell
>the map
Sorry that was supposed to say a map of the village. I know map making is valuable and usually maps are protected as proprietary info but it was a small village. Just something too help the newcomer get around
Xavier Myers
I was thinking of making my own GM screen and I was curious what you guys would suggest doing? Right now I'm thinking of making it about a foot tall (a bit more actually) with ten seven inch wide sections so that I can have my computer and some papers in front of me with a cheat sheet for the system on the screen. Should I attempt to make it so I can change the cheat sheets or have a magnetic initiative tracker?
Lincoln Lopez
I have a small tutorial on how to make one, Ill post it tomorrow in the morning
Angel Scott
I've seen some dm screens made with binders taped together that actually looked pretty sweet. They used the patterned duct tape and with the three rings they had a bunch of useful info on thick paper that could hold itself up. Magnetic would be awesome and you can buy magnetic primer then cover it with whatever you want
Angel Barnes
I wanted a similar thing but was too lazy to create my own, but I saw this and had to have it: amazon.com
Michael Young
That would be awesome.
I'm actually using a cardboard box that I have lying around and duct tape. I've considered trying to build a dice tower for it so that players can make rolls that they shouldn't know the results of (not that I think there are any in fate). If I wanted to be able to replace the sheets I'd have to find some sort of plastic sheet.
I've actually been considering buying that but I really don't want to spend $20 on it especially when I'd need to angle my laptop and the screen to get it to fit.
Alexander Campbell
Jack Clark
>it just take a little more Time to find them because Im not an alcoholic
you could just buy some bottled sodas instead, most supermarkets have a cooler with glass bottled sodas in them
Austin Morgan
Seconded, if people are looking for a good soda with twist off caps and you're in New England I'd suggest polar soda as their glass bottled stuff is very good.
Robert Jenkins
I'm about to run a Degenesis campaign for a few friends, and because I'm really new to GMing (and tabletop in general), I'm overcompensating with props.
So far I've got:
>Maps printed on fabric for the party (super easy to make)
>Coins off the net to represent Dinar and pages of printed strips of paper for Chronicler Drafts for game currency
>Ammo casings to represent ammo counters
I'm still looking for good minis to get for their characters.
I've got a few other things on order but they haven't arrived yet.
Owen Foster
Oh and my notes are in cheap and nasty leather notebooks. The overall shitty look to them make them look a bit more authentic.
Eli Martin
Gonna use for sure, thanks for the post
have a wizard
Jonathan Murphy
been thinking about awarding xp to my PCs for painting a figure of their character that i bought
Jaxson Ortiz
I only ever play online games anymore, because it's impossible to n a IRL game with everyone's schedules clashing.
But when I still used to play in person I always tried to have notes/letters/murals the PCs find as actual prop, so they can draw their own conclusions instead of being influenced by my explanation.
Also I tried having physical representations of difficult puzzles to prevent the old "I do this... No this didn't what I meant!" debacle.
BTW, what happened to the "table top props tutorials" threads that were common like a year or two ago?
I loved those.
Jack Gray
I dont drink soda either, shit juste have to much sugar.
Matthew Watson
imgur.com
There you go, hope it will help
Adam Anderson
that's so sad.
Brody James
Best DM screen I've ever had is my laptop. Somehow this isn't a popular opinion but fuck paper and cardboard. If I had to print and organize all the shit I do on my laptop I'd have a fucking DM nest built around my chair
Jaxson Baker
Did a similar thing but with black canvas panels. They're sturdier and less prone to bending, Same tape, but mine was colored black, so it worked out to make something pretty striking. Made it so it sits like a landscape instead of a portrait, so it doesn't run the chance of interfering with me actually seeing the board.
Then I just used some adhesive to put clear protective covers on both the the side facing me and the side facing my players. That way I can just use the skills I stole from /gd/ to make my own DM information sheets for whatever system we're playing for my side, and artwork/important player rules on the player side.
Overall it ran me... $15? And half an hour of time since I had sleeves, tape and x-acto knives. And now I have a DM screen I can use for different systems without buying one and most of the space they use be fucking garbage: I'M LOOKIN' AT YOU D&D
Landon Allen
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Lincoln Russell
Don't wanna drag you down or anything, buddy, but I think most people could do a bit better than that don't you think?
Aiden Hill
Meanwhile I'm sitting here not even wanting to spend any money on it because I'm going back to school (a semester or two of undergrad before, assuming I do well in the grad classes, I go on to a masters program). If I had the time to work a job, deal with classes, and run the game (the game won't take much time but a job would) then I'd probably be buying one since it would be only like two hours of work.
Daniel Long
I mean, I'm only being crafty because I wanted:
- Sleeves
- Four Panels
- Landscape
And I could only choose two if I bought stuff, and then it'd be for only one system. I've been with my group for almost a decade and a half, and we've gone through a lot of systems together. I don't want to spend $10 - $20 per screen, since I will always want a divider and quick references to rules, so I'm taking this project as an investment on my patience and wallet.
Noah Perry
That's why I'd buy this: amazon.com
I may actually do it anyway and skip lunch two or three days.
Adam Sanders
I'd love to read a regular props thread.
Josiah Peterson
There used to be some like once a week.
I think all the people that did them either migrated to /cgl/ or left for good.
Or they just don't bother anymore, I guess
Charles Bennett
love index cards for key items as well
- arcade tokens for inspiration. people be forgetting to use inspiration all the time
- little sand timer to move indecisive players along
- small to medium size, sturdy, neat looking cardboard box for that evening's minis. positioned so players cant see what comes out. fucking hate how a standard DM screen gets in my way so this doubles as that.
- dice specifically devoted to counting down spell, potion, etc. effects visible on the table
Matthew Harris
>fucking hate how a standard DM screen gets in my way
That seems to be a common complaint from what I've seen.
Are there any good screen designs that wouldn't get in the way much, but still provide adequate cover for your dice and notes?
Maybe just make the middle section lower?
Ethan Roberts
>What are cool, useful accessories to have at the table when GMing?
Players.
Connor Cooper
it's not mine I just found it on internet a while ago thought it would help that user
Austin Phillips
Which is portrait style, which I didn't want, friend.
Jordan Garcia
>no alcohol
>no sodas
you lead a very sad life
Jaxon Nguyen
I need to get a bigass eraser... really silly that I keep using the useless one on top of pencils
Im also thinking about getting a dice tower for my wife. Not because she cheats on her dice, but because she gets too excited and sends her dice careening off the table
I used cardboard from a shipping box and blockposters.com to create my screens front. Then just printed off what I wanted from word.
go to a pub or restaurant and ask them to save a couple for you
(ME)
I've also got a standie of custom character artwork
is it that part of the charm though?
Oliver Gutierrez
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