|
Title says, what's your setup? Do you lounge with a coffee table and the DM across the room? Do you sit at a lavish solid oak Sultan gaming table or use some fancy projection system? Kitchen mode? Circle or rectangle, notice a difference? Details!
Right now we use a kitchen table, It seats us all but by the time laptops are on the table, maps, minis, and snacks come out, man what clutter! Currently have some plans to build a nice one with tray pullouts and cup-holders but that has yet to be realized.
|
Ah yes. Building one's own table - a gamer's dream.
Here's my set up:
>Large wide oak table with center base for lots of leg room (seats 6 or 7 players closely.
>Swivel chairs (good stuff)
>Finished Basement with 4-5 soft light lamps
>2 clear bright mini lamps on the game table, one shining semi-behind the home made screen for clarity, the other light for drawing attention to the game area
>3-5 tiered long shelf racks displaying minis and drawer organizers for game tiles and bulk miniatures such as 70 orcs or 40 goblins or 30 hobgoblins (these mini drawers are labled for easy access, terrain bits, and other sculpts I made from clay).
>Major Bookshelf with entire 3.5 collection and other essentials such as Tome of Horrors 1-9, Collection of Pathfinder APs, extra Core Rule Books and other PAIZO stuff.
>A side flat table for preliminary game set up
>Wall rack with poster hanging frames for collection of Gamemastery maps, and other maps I created or taped together via printing pages
>I am buying and installing a projector next week - this will add variety of display to our maps for the table (I ensure we do as much roleplay as battle, but I think the projector will add some fun and variety)
>Dedicated refrigerator for beer and diet pop
>Dedicated coffee station with Keurig for 1-shot gourmet coffees, and a regular basic Mr. Coffee for bulk brew
>CD Player, collection of Nox Arcana
>Accross the room - blueray player for streaming Pandora, where I made a soundtrack station for miscellaneous background music
>Two short box-like open racks of templates (SteelSquire metal collection for area effect spells, and some 20 others I created from paper, duct tape, or plastic parts. The racks also use CombatTiers Family Pack for air combat placement, and some line of sight indicators (rarely needed).
>Old PC with Fractal Mapper, wherein the whole world is drawn and scaleable for development of areas traveled in, and set for easy printing if needed.
>Custom PC tags that hang over my screen to easily display initiative count once determined, and display some basic PC stats for hidden rolls.
>Dedicated snack shelf - players often bring some, sometimes I'll load it up.
>Adjacent living room area with comfy old furniture, for those side-bar conversations or times when I need to set up the scene on the main table for a few minutes.
>Various cardboard towers, walls, styrofoam crafts I created for terrain. (Also adjacent to the game room is a storage room, where I have a multipurpose shelf for major crafts such as big castle walls, or towers.
>Secitons of bookshelves dedicated for Castles & Crusades/1e/Osric, and the top shelves of the coffeestation displaying the newest case of Pathfinder minis. (PFRPG always gets top shelf everything, and is my game of choice.)
>A small white drafting table set adjacent to the main table for GM book sprawl, along with two side tables and accessory shelves directly behind me. Side tables house the occasional laptop for quick spell look up. The shelves also house Diamond Clear card cases and all the Pathfinder Card sets, some multiples organized by melee, armor, ranged, scrolls, wands, rods, periapts and neclasses, rare reagents and components, jemstones, etc. etc. you get the idea. I keep small mini-post it tags-for quickly writting the treasure description to stick to the card then the card goes in the diamond slip cover. I keep three tiny boxes on the GM table for a) Treasure b) Condition Summaries c) SpellBuff Cards (I made these).
>I keep 6-7 sets of Zocchi precision cut dice on the GM table and have a carved wooden dice roller set to one side, along with some campaign binders holding all the campaign artifacts, maps, descriptions, etc.
>Extra mirror 1" circles, homemade magnetic picture tokens, extra 2" and 3" magnetic circles (never know when you need to have more of something. A few custom color area effect crafts I made such as cloudkill or wall of fire. I keep a set of "hero points" I crafted on 1" disks. I keep a great golden 1/2 golf ball-bowl of dice atop a small pedistal (probably 25 sets mixed together)
>I keep a few black "protection" candles, incense sticks, and a singing bowl handy near a stack of miniature 3m Page flags for tagging "delay action" "readied actions" or pages in my books.
>Clip pad, dry erase board, bulletin board, game art on the walls, a few sets of Battlefield In A Box just for fun.
>I keep a few european darkwood boxes and other small boxes to hide adventure minis from the players until needed.
>Some 1200 miniatures which are not in drawers are open and exposed on all the shelves, each creature in duplicats of 5-10. These are organized by monster type - so for example I know where to grab an aberation from.
>1 Set of Invisible minis, 1 Set of gamemastery torchbearer motes, and plenty of miniature crates, barrels, etc.
>I keep a few rolls of black rubber shelf-liner for laying out whenever I decide to use dungeon tiles (keeps them secure in place), and black tablecloths handy for occasional use if I do a major setup and need to make several tables look like one big one.
>Finally, I post pictures of the "gods" of my world to a side bulletin board, along with other small pictures posted as needed.
**** The thing to remember about this crazy post, and my unreal set-up, is that I've played the world's oldest rpg for about 25 years without any of this stuff. I've even played it without any books. None of this stuff is needed, nor is it necessary to play Pathfinder RPG. After all these years of playing on floors, couches, cardtables, I just focused the past 4-6 years on acquiring anything/everything step by step. However, I enjoy the game just fine without any of it.
|
My current host has a small dinner table, roughly 3 1/2 by 3 1/2 feet I'd guess. We add a narrow folding table for the players to lay out their sheets and roll dice on, and a couple TV trays for overflow. Chairs are a premium, we have to move the coffee table and set everything up by the couch for enough space.
|
|
Pax that sounds incredible! I understand your statement regarding none of this stuff is needed but what you have done is created a beautiful space to enhance the experience of everyone involved. Thats what I'm hoping to do far in the future. Fantastic! Love the idea of displaying minis, give the PCs the sense of "oooh I wonder what we'll fight today!". You are so organized, way to streamline the process :). Soundtrack station, fantastic!
Chairs are huge, nice that you play on premiums TriOmegaZero. Especially for the longer sessions. When we're at my place, we use a rectangular dinner table approx 5' x 3', slap a desk on the end for the DM and I bring all the office chairs around the house. 2 people end up on our crappy IKEA chairs, usually myself and my wife.
Ah yes. Building one's own table - a gamer's dream.
Here's my set up:
>Large wide oak table with center base for lots of leg room (seats 6 or 7 players closely.
>Swivel chairs (good stuff)
>Finished Basement with 4-5 soft light lamps
>2 clear bright mini lamps on the game table, one shining semi-behind the home made screen for clarity, the other light for drawing attention to the game area
>3-5 tiered long shelf racks displaying minis and drawer organizers for game tiles and bulk miniatures such as 70 orcs or 40 goblins or 30 hobgoblins (these mini drawers are labled for easy access, terrain bits, and other sculpts I made from clay).
>Major Bookshelf with entire 3.5 collection and other essentials such as Tome of Horrors 1-9, Collection of Pathfinder APs, extra Core Rule Books and other PAIZO stuff.
>A side flat table for preliminary game set up
>Wall rack with poster hanging frames for collection of Gamemastery maps, and other maps I created or taped together via printing pages
>I am buying and installing a projector next week - this will add variety of display to our maps for the table (I ensure we do as much roleplay as battle, but I think the projector will add some fun and variety)
>Dedicated refrigerator for beer and diet pop
>Dedicated coffee station with Keurig for 1-shot gourmet coffees, and a regular basic Mr. Coffee for bulk brew
>CD Player, collection of Nox Arcana
>Accross the room - blueray player for streaming Pandora, where I made a soundtrack station for miscellaneous background music
>Two short box-like open racks of templates (SteelSquire metal collection for area effect spells, and some 20 others I created from paper, duct tape, or plastic parts. The racks also use CombatTiers Family Pack for air combat placement, and some line of sight indicators (rarely needed).
>Old PC with Fractal Mapper, wherein the whole world is drawn and scaleable for development of areas traveled in, and set for easy printing if needed.
>Custom PC tags that hang over my screen to easily display...
Wow! That is awesome!
For home games I use the kitchen table for small groups and the living room and a biggish folding table for larger groups or big battles.
Away at the Serpent Skull game the GM has a couple of folding tables in the basement. It's a nice set up!
Too cheap to buy a new dining room table and chairs that aren't made in the 70's (afraid of the more active of my players breaking them), so my dining room/kitchen is not used for gaming. A bit of a blessing, most of us would be too busy cooking to play. So my living room has the gaming set up.
-Five comfortable and padded chairs, three of them were made before I was born.
-Coffee table that comes up to my knees when sitting down. Used for keeping food, drinks, and other items off the main table.
-Folding table over the coffee table, just coming up to my chest. The main gaming surface. Easy access to the play surface in the Pathfinder Beginner box, Init Tracker, character sheets, and dice.
-Three TV trays. One for my laptop, one for all my books, one for whichever player remembers to bring their own laptop for easy SRD access or Old Republic (always a pleasure watching the rest of the group toss dice or use laser pointers at that player).
-Wooden black stool made by my great grand father that towers over the table behind my favorite chair. On top of it, a flat screen monitor that's connected to my laptop. Typically used for a quick virtual map, image, SRD check, or YouTube video of a particular Bee Gees song after a session when I've sicced multiple combats on my players.
-Off to the side and against a wall, both of my TVs and attached consoles if any in my group brings anyone over that doesn't want to play the night's game.
-Not counting everything else I keep in my living room. Like several book cases, with several shelves set aside for all the RPG materials I have.
Quick and easy to set up and put away, taking me five to ten minutes to get everything ready.
Um coffee table. I do have a handmade dungeon to go along with mini's and such though.
Cool. We've had decent luck with coffee tables, but our groups and battles vary wildly in size, and some battles just need a lot of real estate.
|
I run games on my 6 foot by 30" table. Surface is 2"x4" lumber laminated together (much like a cutting board) with 4x4 legs, so you can bump the table and nothing falls. In fact it barely shakes. It also serves as the base for a wargaming terrain overlay (usually styrofoam panels with terrain on one side).
Six chairs, one of which is the GM chair (still working on making a Palpatine throne), with a stereo system for ambient music.
Usually a side table and/or the nearby miniatures painting table for books, references, etc.
The whole thing is surrounded by my library, which is shelving for books, magazines, action figures, miniatures cabinets (wargaming and others) and other assorted items.
Lighting is a base of fluorescent for the room (it's a basement, so some basic light is a necessity), with a hanging lamp centred on the table providing a warm light for the game. I usually take a painting lamp from the table if I need some extra light on my side of the screen.
Nothing high tech or overly fancy, but all the furniture is solid, comfortable and you can game for long periods. Had the setup for years, and if this table could tell stories...
I run games on my 6 foot by 30" table. Surface is 2"x4" lumber laminated together (much like a cutting board) with 4x4 legs, so you can bump the table and nothing falls. In fact it barely shakes. It also serves as the base for a wargaming terrain overlay (usually styrofoam panels with terrain on one side).
Six chairs, one of which is the GM chair (still working on making a Palpatine throne), with a stereo system for ambient music.
Usually a side table and/or the nearby miniatures painting table for books, references, etc.
The whole thing is surrounded by my library, which is shelving for books, magazines, action figures, miniatures cabinets (wargaming and others) and other assorted items.
Lighting is a base of fluorescent for the room (it's a basement, so some basic light is a necessity), with a hanging lamp centred on the table providing a warm light for the game. I usually take a painting lamp from the table if I need some extra light on my side of the screen.
Nothing high tech or overly fancy, but all the furniture is solid, comfortable and you can game for long periods. Had the setup for years, and if this table could tell stories...
Cool
I'd love to see some pics of these set ups!
Our group is slowly building a gaming dungeon in on of our basements, and it's beginning to come together.
When we started, we had two 3'x6' plastic folding tables put together (which were slightly different heights, and we had a sheet of cardboard to "level" the two). My wife and I recently got a new dining room table, so our old wooden table is now in the basement (roughly 3.5' by 6'). We then have one of the folding tables making an L with the gaming table, giving the GM a nice corner on which to spread out materials. The other folding table is set up lengthwise behind a few of the players, for overflow laptops and snacks (which helps keep the gaming table clear of clutter).
My friend also recently got a large set of shelves (about 6'x6') on which we have many books, a good number of mini's (including our new case of Heroes & Monsters!), and the bones of soda consumed in prior sessions.
Next step, RUGS!
We also envision couches, music, and small shelves placed under the table for each player to use for book storage. Little steps, however.
Ah, the memories...
Looks like they are gaming at a pentagon. ;)
|
|
It was a fine table, big enough to play, small enough to fit in the CHU. I miss the whiteboard we used for party stats.
It was a fine table, big enough to play, small enough to fit in the CHU. I miss the whiteboard we used for party stats.
7 PC's !?
Wow! You are a DM among DM's! :)
EDIT: Interesting alignment spread!
Eh, by the end I only had three players, and one of those PCs was my Healer NPC.
And it's not like I had much else to focus on after work over there. :)
I feel your pain. I've had groups from 2 to 9 players. (from week to week)
At the moment we are playing on what can only be called a banquet table 15ft long 4 feet wide.
On top of that table is a raised map table that I built. It is just tall enough to have a 2 liter of mt dew put underneath it. As the Dm I love the map table it allows everyone to keep their books on the table, eat food, and use their computers with out sitting on my map and interfering with the game.
At the moment we are playing on what can only be called a banquet table 15ft long 4 feet wide.
On top of that table is a raised map table that I built. It is just tall enough to have a 2 liter of mt dew put underneath it. As the Dm I love the map table it allows everyone to keep their books on the table, eat food, and use their computers with out sitting on my map and interfering with the game.
cool :)
|
|
We go to the pub and play on three decent-sized tables at the back.
Love this!
At the moment we are playing on what can only be called a banquet table 15ft long 4 feet wide
Dang that's a big table! I've seen a similar raised map table before - is your set up so you have to stand to see the map table or is the original table low enough?
We sit on old newspapers and cardboard in a swamp.....lights dice and figures are all made of mud.
I have a basement with a couch, two six foot long folding tables and a bunch of chairs. On top of that I have all of my books within arms reach and I have a ping-pong table I use for minature table top gaming.
|
Currently we are using a large custom built table big enough to hold three full sized battle mats. For seating we have two couches that hold three people each, a love seat that holds two and a plush overstuffed arm chair for the DM. We have two bookshelves which hold every reference book we could conceive of, and a small chest of drawers to hold the minis. In case we need to show a picture or a player handout, we have a 52" (I think) flat screen that is connected to the internet and has wireless networking. Finally we have my laptop which functions as a DM screen with Combat Manager and the PFSRD open at all times, as well as character notes and the adventure on it as well.
I'd love to see some pics of these set ups!Soon as I'm off course and back home I'll post something.
Thanks!
Currently we are using a large custom built table big enough to hold three full sized battle mats. For seating we have two couches that hold three people each, a love seat that holds two and a plush overstuffed arm chair for the DM. We have two bookshelves which hold every reference book we could conceive of, and a small chest of drawers to hold the minis. In case we need to show a picture or a player handout, we have a 52" (I think) flat screen that is connected to the internet and has wireless networking. Finally we have my laptop which functions as a DM screen with Combat Manager and the PFSRD open at all times, as well as character notes and the adventure on it as well.
Cool!
|
|
When I have a house again, I plan on having my two matching folding tables set up in my office until I can get a GeekChic table. They're about six feet long each, and make a pretty good playing surface.
And now, I have a tablecloth for it.
|
|
When I lived in Nottingham, I used to run games here
To find the room, click on 'we've had a makeover: picture 2 is the room, picture 6 is the entrance to the room.
And that, my friends, is arguably the oldest pub in the UK. In the caves under Nottingham Castle...
Our gaming group has just expanded to 3 possible locations. Where we play depends on any parental obligations of two of the players (WHEN we play depends on the parental obligations of four of the players ;-) - the third location gives us an extra possible week day when planning, however).
At all three locations we play at a dining room table (mine is the shortest at 200 cm/ 6'7" long, all are about 3' wide) with the GM at one end and either a laptop with an HD webcam on top or a separate screen with the same webcam at the other end.
That's for our long distance player who joins us via Skype (for HD video) and TeamSpeak for separate audio (Skype mutes our end when he speaks otherwise). We also have a conference microphone/speaker which we've experimented with a bit (although the microphone in the webcam is quite good too - it's a Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920).
I have the "worst" chairs at my place (a variant of this, with cusions for those who want them), while at the other locations there are either padded swivel chairs or solid, padded "normal" chairs.
On the table we normally use a large Chessex wet-erase battle mat (Megamat = 34½” x 48” (88cm x 122cm)), although I would love to start using the projector I have. The problem being the changing locations, so a semi-permanent set-up isn't feasible at the moment.
All of the painted minis we use (we only have 5 pre-painted minis (well, and a dragon too), the rest are hand painted) are stored in a display cabinet at one of the locations and a wide selection is then put in a figure case and taken to the other two locations when we play there.
We would all love a dedicated game room (with a custom built table, of course), but at this point none of us have a spare room to use for that. The parental obligations also plays a role here, as we would then be limited to when we could play at that one location.
my game room / self-build gaming table
How did you make the scale map of Sandpoint?
Back when I did live games, we lounged about the living room of my apartment (or, before I moved in, one of the GMs' apartments; he ended up becoming my roommate after a string of two or three, all players in our group, moved in and then out for one reason or another). Sometimes we'd drag out a folding table to put stuff on, otherwise we just rolled on the floor, on books, or in box lids.
Now we all sit at our desks and play over MapTool so it's somewhat moot. =) Though I'd love to have a live game again some day, my current group is spread all over the continent - one in CA, two in AZ, one in TX, one in KS, me in TN, one soon to be in NY, and one in Alberta.
We bring my large rectangular kitchen table into the living room and set it up against my computer station, creating a "T", with my computer monitors along the horizontal upper part. I can fit 5 along the trunk of the "T" this way, but only have 2 player in the group currently, so we're plenty comfortable space-wise.
Still using the "T" as a reference, I'm on the left side of the trunk, in my recliner with a laptop and a smaller GM screen. From the laptop, I run the GM side of a Roll20 session and I have the player version running on the large monitor.
That frees up the center of the table for foods, papers, books, dice, etc and helps us not feel cramped, which is nice, because my apartment is rather small.
I would love to someday have a dedicated gaming room with a projector overlay down onto the tabletop that I could control from a laptop or tablet. That'd be a dream!
|
My gaming club rents one of the office buildings belonging to my employer.
There's an upstairs and downstairs area, each with eight good size tables which for our wargamers can fit three 2' x 4' boards for a large game and the roleplayers can sit 6-8 people around two tables comfortably.
(picture of the type of tables we use
Rent is cheap as we get an employee rate, we also have full access to the coffee/tea supplies and microwave at no extra cost. Always a bonus when you don't have to worry about supplying refreshments for the group.
They've also allowed us to store a steel cabinet in one of our small offices there, so we can stock our roleplay books and other materials in there and also have a small storage space for gaming boards and scenery.
In the upstairs open area, we have a 46" television which we can hook a laptop to if we want to add a visual element to a game though most of the time we stick to books and papers.
Back when I used to live around the London Gatwick area, me and my group of roleplayers used to rent out a whole unused warehouse for a mixture of live action and pen & paper roleplay.
The LARP was mostly modern World of Darkness campaigns or Cthulhu as we could set stuff up for investigations all around the building.
Everyone lounging in chairs in the living room. Trays (like fast food plastic trays) to roll dice on. No Table. Our "map" is a 4' x 3' whiteboard* with dry erase, it goes on the floor. We don't pull it out every session.
* It's actually a smooth white waterproof paneling from Home Depot. Same effect as whiteboard. An 8'x4' runs about 15 bucks.
|
|
A big livingroom table at least 7 feet long (can be expanded with 3x3 foot boards to be even longer (i have 5 boards, one which is in the table at all times).
Lots of chairs, for sitting and holding side stuff on them.
A music system on which i play fantasy soundtracks.
Pretty much that.
@ Pax Veritas
That is something i want to one day have. And i will.
We have a 14' conference table that we picked up almost 10 years ago for about $150. The table edges have seen better days, but it is still very sturdy (it's also quite heavy).
I kind of want to collect a little money from the group and repaint it with whiteboard paint (the higher end stuff would cost around $150-200 to do the table right).
Our host used to competitively play D&D Mini's (I played as well), so we have a shelf with stacks of plano boxes full of mini's right behind people who sit on one side.
Currently, I'm co-DM'ing our main game, so the other DM and I sit on opposite ends of the table. We've got cheap swivel chairs for everyone to sit at.
My other friend has a counter with a small extension on it, and a table that's the same height next to it. He has a painted whiteboard mounted on a box frame that we can put over this for a 3'x5' whiteboard playing area, though we don't use it much. All in an unfinished basement.
We have always played at my DM's house for some reason. Even as he moved around or when other people ran the game. When we started he still lived at home and everyone sat around his gigantic bed that filled his entire room. We didn't use maps until we switched to 3rd edition. I made a combat mat by drawing one inch squares on poster board and laminating them. After he moved out we bought a cheap card table from a dollar store and he bought an actual battle mat. Later he got into map tools and bought a projector. That was really neat having the map covering the entire wall! When he bought his house, he custom built a table with his Dad that has a cut out center, covered with plexi-glass. He rigged up his projector to show on the glass in the center. We have switched from map tools to roll20 and run it on two computers. He has one set up for him as a DM and a second for the players. The funny thing is, with all the effort we put into it, we rarely get into combat!
Our middle room is a dedicated home ed/gaming room. We've got a bookself for the roleplaying stuff, a specially made table I built (pretty much just a slab of wood with raised edges - the dice stay put) with a battlemat onit and a bunch of comy chairs and sofa, although one sofa need to go the journey and be replaced as it's worn out. We have a bunch of those rails with small clip on boxes full of miniatures.
We can fit about 7 people at a pinch, so it works for us. If and when we move I do intend to do some upgrades, but we're intending to remain here a bit longer and save the cash for a mortgage.
Im building my "nerd" cave as the wife and kids call it when its done ill post more
my game room / self-build gaming tableHow did you make the scale map of Sandpoint?
I calculated how much I needed to scale to get the grid to 1 inch than scaled it up in powerpoint, then printed it *cough*at work *cough*
I have a 10 foot long, 6 chair dining room table set up with 6 book shelves in a C shape around it. The table has 4 x 6 foot section of plexiglass on it for using dry erase markers and putting maps under it. All my gaming books are on the book shelves, along with about a thousand mini's. I have a corkboard and white board, but they're not mounted (still waiting on office dividers to find their way in).
All this is in a dedicated gaming room.
Ah, the memories...
Now that's a gaming table.