Just about to start a 4E game, and I'm wondering if anyone's found a good way of tracking status effects?
Seems to me all of the players are going to want to know what monsters are marked/dazed/etc. and I was wondering if anyone's come up with a way to make this obvious.
Just about to start a 4E game, and I'm wondering if anyone's found a good way of tracking status effects?
Seems to me all of the players are going to want to know what monsters are marked/dazed/etc. and I was wondering if anyone's come up with a way to make this obvious.
Different coloured poker chips are pretty good in this regard. They are usually quite thin but large enough that you can stand a medium sized miniature on.
For larger miniatures you may want to see if the poker chips will wedge or lean somewhere on the larger miniature or just keep the chip stack to one side.
My group uses the rings we pull off of bottles. You know, the part left once you twist off the cap. It works semi-well, and can generally be looped over/around a mini. Poker chips also seem very doable, and the Alea Tools markers seem to be designed exclusively for this very function.
I think it is probably best to have the players remember which affects they are both under and are giving out, to help take some strain off the DM. I've seen some condition tracker printouts that have stuff like "You are Dominated. The effects are this, that, and those.", while on the other side (the one facing the DM) it says "I am Dominated. The effects are this, that, and those." You fold it up like a place marker at a party and sit it in front of you when under the effect, as a reminder to the player and the DM. Seemed nifty. :)
I think it is probably best to have the players remember which affects they are both under and are giving out, to help take some strain off the DM. I've seen some condition tracker printouts that have stuff like "You are Dominated. The effects are this, that, and those.", while on the other side (the one facing the DM) it says "I am Dominated. The effects are this, that, and those." You fold it up like a place marker at a party and sit it in front of you when under the effect, as a reminder to the player and the DM. Seemed nifty. :)
...and the game completely grinds to a halt as the players make fun of each other. Not necessarily a bad use of social time but a consideration nonetheless.
...and the game completely grinds to a halt as the players make fun of each other. Not necessarily a bad use of social time but a consideration nonetheless.
My games grind to a halt due to mockery on a consistent basis anyway, props unneeded. ;)
The effect of the alea tools can be duplicated by running out to a local hobby shop and buying 1-inch diameter wooden disks and spray painting them to the color of your choice. A little gloss sealer and they'll even look good.
If you don't have a local hobby shop, a 1-inch dowel cut into disks would work just as well.
The effect of the alea tools can be duplicated by running out to a local hobby shop and buying 1-inch diameter wooden disks and spray painting them to the color of your choice. A little gloss sealer and they'll even look good.
If you don't have a local hobby shop, a 1-inch dowel cut into disks would work just as well.
Interesting. As a non-hobby shop guy, have any price comparisons handy to throw out?
I bought a bunch of cheap (10 cents ea) game pieces. I believe the intent is to use them as board game pawns, but they are very small, stand upright, have multiple colors, are obvious, and can be moved out of the way easily. I just put one near the guy I have marked/cursed/whatever. Works well so far.
I've seen glass beads used for conditions, especially bloodied. That one is going to come up a lot so you should definitely have a lot of pieces to indicate that.
I saw one guy with small 1/2" square laminated square pieces indicating conditions.
I swear I read one of the designers was using a little bit of putty to attach a pin to the target, and then put various beads on the pin.
Keeping track of conditions is definitely a big challenge in 4E. It's not that there are more of them than 3E, it's just that they come up much more often.
Found a pic of what I use. Kind of like the orange one in the middle here.
Interesting. As a non-hobby shop guy, have any price comparisons handy to throw out?
Looks like Home Depot has 48"x1" dowels for under $4.
Cutting them into ~1/4" pieces with a jigsaw or hacksaw would give you between 100 and 130 disks (you lose some to waste...thinner blades are better). Toss in a couple of dollars for spray paint (or if you're already a modeller you can use your miniature paint) and you're good.
Since the Alea disks are around $90 for a case and 140 colored disks, you're not getting off badly. Granted, these aren't magnetic and don't have a nifty little emblem on top, but they're a heck of a lot more replacable :)
I do recommend between 3/8 and 1/4" in thickness. The disks I bought are 1/8" and are just too thin to stand out well under minis.
(as an aside, you can also use the dowel pieces with the token maker idea that Alea sells. Get a 1" circular hole punch and punch out pictures of whatever you want to make a token of, and voila...you have goblins, or kobolds, or whatever)
I saw one guy with small 1/2" square laminated square pieces indicating conditions.
I was originally going to use plexiglass disks, but the wooden ones are much more economical.
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I have been using Alea Tools but the magnetic nature can be quite frustrating at times. They have a tendency to slide around.
Mind you I just built a new little set-up with a magnetic board so I can use dungeon walls with magnets on the bottom. This prevents the disks from sliding around.
But the painted wooden disks sound like a really good idea. If I hadn't invested so much already that would be perfect I think.
I bought a bag of different colored pipe cleaners from a local craft store. I cut them into thirds, I believe, and twisted them into circles. Red is reserved for Bloodied; other colors can be grabbed as needed.
It works really well for Bloodied, but I'm not as happy about it for other things. So I'm trying out a couple of other options, including:
- "Foamies" sheets (flat sheets of foam in bright colors), but into 1-inch squares, with tiny labels to remind us what they mean.
- Magnets (like magnetic poetry magnets, but homemade) that I can stick next to each PC or NPC's name magnet on the Inititive Tracker (the GameMastery one as sold by Paizo). The idea here is to have magnets with words for all the common effects, and separate magnets I can pair with them that say things like "(save ends)" - but I haven't yet figured out how many I'll need or how best to keep up with them.
- Moving my initiative tracker onto the PC, on an Excel spreadsheet, so I can type the condition next to the affected character. But this means I'd have to have my laptop at the game table every week - not ideal.
- "Foamies" sheets (flat sheets of foam in bright colors), but into 1-inch squares, with tiny labels to remind us what they mean.
Foamcore squares/circles would work easily as well as the dowel method and wouldn't be too expensive.
They'd tend to compress more over time, and would probably get beat up by use (especially squares), but it's definately a great low-cost solution.
For markers I just raided my 4 year old daughter's collection of foam shapes.
Ah. That's what the other poster meant. Sure. That's even better than what I misunderstood.
The effect of the alea tools can be duplicated by running out to a local hobby shop and buying 1-inch diameter wooden disks and spray painting them to the color of your choice. A little gloss sealer and they'll even look good.
If you don't have a local hobby shop, a 1-inch dowel cut into disks would work just as well.
Here its the price of the spray paints that are making me think twice. I can get a lot of different coloured poker ships for pretty cheap.
I too use the wooden dowels cut down and painted.
Rather than spray paint I use the cheap acrylic paint you can find at WalMart for 44 cents a bottle. Cheap and they have a huge assortment of colors. Just lay out your chips and it only takes a few minutes to paint the top and sides. I would recommend spraying them with a clearcoat of some kind; I think a spray can of that would run 4 or 5 dollars.
There is a product at the local Michaels craft store called "Woodsies" (guaranteed to bring the game to a mocking stop should you let the bag be seen). These are various round, unpainted wood shapes. They cost, if I recall, under $5 for 300 or so of them.
They also sell the inexpensive craft paint mentioned above and spray sealer.
There is a product at the local Michaels craft store called "Woodsies" (guaranteed to bring the game to a mocking stop should you let the bag be seen). These are various round, unpainted wood shapes. They cost, if I recall, under $5 for 300 or so of them.
They also sell the inexpensive craft paint mentioned above and spray sealer.
What are the thickness of these pieces? The ones I got from Hobby Lobby were maybe 1/8" thick, and I didn't think that was quite thick enough to really let the color stand out on a crowded game table.
Here its the price of the spray paints that are making me think twice. I can get a lot of different coloured poker ships for pretty cheap.
I only recommended spray paint because I'm chronically lazy (a little stickytack and a shoebox lid and you can paint the whole mess in nothing flat).
As posters below have suggested, you can save a bundle more by getting bottled paint from the craft section of super stores like walmart. It's good quality with lots of colors...more than you can get with spray paint.
What are the thickness of these pieces? The ones I got from Hobby Lobby were maybe 1/8" thick, and I didn't think that was quite thick enough to really let the color stand out on a crowded game table.
Christopher, you may be right. It's been years since I managed there, but if I recall correctly they are pretty thin. They might not work as well as I thought.
Our group uses hair elastics that a player got from a dollar store. They work pretty well. All of the warlock cursed monsters get glittery pink elastics.