I just got back from I-Con in Stonybrook, NY with a whole bunch of shiny new dice and funky DM toys! I finally picked up a pair of hourglasses for use in game(a 60 second one and a three minute one- no more metagaming when I'm timing my players), and the dice are fun for DMing purposes because they randomize NPC attitude, race, class, and alignment on both the law-chaos and good-evil axises, and hit location! On a roll, I went on to amazon.com and picked up the first of the old Sword and Sorcery Dungeon Counters- I'm officially ready for my next session! Does anyone else have any fun DM-only toys out there?
RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 16
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I like the Initiative Cards from the Game Mechanics esp. the blank ones. Just fill out the forms print and play. I tend not to use cards for initiative anymore but as a convenient way to keep the statblocks at my fingertips. For Initiative I have switched over to the GameMastery Combat Pad.
Gamemastery Combat Pad, eh? That wouldn't be a dry-erase board, would it? ::hopes::
Even better - It's actually a wet-erase board. I use the combat pad too, and I think it's a great product. Very handy for keeping track of initiative and tracking rounds for spell effects and such.
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Even better - It's actually a wet-erase board. I use the combat pad too, and I think it's a great product. Very handy for keeping track of initiative and tracking rounds for spell effects and such.
I think it is wet and dry erase. I just got it and used it for the first time last week......NICE!! It was awesome in usage and smoothed out combat nicely. Definately a strong recommendation from me.
FH
It'll be there for this thursday's game, dag nabbit!
During the next game I run, I'll be resurrecting a very old component of the games...Dungeon TAC Cards! Yessiree, boys and girls, I still have a complete set of those old suckers knocking around and will drag them out of retirement (kicking and screaming, no doubt) to try out on a fairly seasoned group who's never seen them. It might not last long, but I'm gonna give it a try.
During the next game I run, I'll be resurrecting a very old component of the games...Dungeon TAC Cards! Yessiree, boys and girls, I still have a complete set of those old suckers knocking around and will drag them out of retirement (kicking and screaming, no doubt) to try out on a fairly seasoned group who's never seen them. It might not last long, but I'm gonna give it a try.
TAC cards? Why do those sound familiar?
I never found them useful.
The main problem with the TAC cards is that they require one use the optional rules out of Greyhawk where the designers introduced the concept of different weapon to-hit numbers vs. different types of armor. For example: Blunt weapons have small adjusted to-hit rolls against chainmail (flexible) than they do agianst plate (rigid). Certain weapons were designed to be used agianst certain armor types, thus a pike or glaive-guissarme (both designed for use against heavy armor types, particularly those worn by cavalry) get better to-hit numbers against those armor types, take some solid minuses agianst leather or chain.
The TAC cards were designed to use this system for quick calculations and to let the players show, by adjusting the card itself, what basic action they were taking. Think of it as an original Magic the Gathering type of thing where the card facing has a meaning.
Here's a basic layout of a TAC card that I grabbed at random from the stack.
________________________________________________________________
A/C 9 ---- 8 ---- 7 ---- 6 ----- 5 ---- 4 ----- 3 ----- 2
None Shield Leath Le+Sh Chain Ch+Sh Plate Pl+Sh
-----------------------------------------------------------
HP +1--- +1 --- +1 --- +1 --- +2 --- +1--- +2 --- +2
+
FLAIL (insert picture of footman's flail here)
DAMAGE
vs. Man-sized: 1-8-------------- Weapon
vs. Larger------------------------ Length:
Oponent: 1-8--------------------- Lg/7
A/C 9 ---- 8 ---- 7 ---- 6 ----- 5 ---- 4 ----- 3 ----- 2
None Shield Leath Le+Sh Chain Ch+Sh Plate Pl+Sh
----------------------------------------------------------
HP# 7 --- 7 ---- 7 ---- 7 ----- 6 ---- 7 ----- 6 ----- 7
________________________________________________________________
On the opposite face are bits of useful info like:
CHANGE WEAPON
From Flail
Cost: 8gp
Encumberance: 100
Two Handed Weapon
Requires 6' each side
This gives rapid information to the player without the use of the books and all those charts. It gives to-hit adjustments (if any) at a glance for each armor type/class and shows that the basic to-hit (eventually known as THAC0) number was versus any specific armor class/type. Very handy for those who know how to use them. Eliminates a whole lot of, "I need the PHB to look at chart xxx."
Okay, a lot of my stuff arrived today. I got the gamemastery initiative/combat pad and a mess of dry-erase markers, but I totally got robbed when I picked up a copy of the sword and sorcery counter collection from amazon.com- it was a copy of the adventure with NO counters included! I sent the seller an angry e-mail, but what really takes the cake is chessex' DICE BOOT! Beerfest is a not-so-guilty pleasure around the gaming table, so I can't wait to start the chant...DICE BOOT! DICE BOOT! DICE BOOT! But seriously, we all hate it when dice go flying off the table, it really slows down gaming. Our game day has been postponed on thursday in favor of an all saturday-nighter, so I'll post as soon as the game is over. DICE BOOT!
Based partly on this thread and partly on good sense, I have ordered the combat pad, and it arrived just in time for my game tonight. I'm looking forward to giving it a shot - I will definitely be giving a report after this evening's game.
My dad really loves the combat pad but i'm not a big fan. I like writing down the initiatives myself, especially when there's an ivisible/hiding/whatever baddie lurking around to eat players.
I will say, though, that if you do like the pad it does smooth out combat.
Well, after one night's use the combat pad gets my thumbs up seal of approval. It wasn't a major combat night, but we did have a couple of combat encounters.
I need to smooth a few things out. I'd suggest one of those clipboards with the flip top storage built in to keep markers/erasers/etc. I'm also thinking about making permanent PC magnets with a P-Touch or some such. The one problem I ran into was names getting accidentally erased by brushing against it with my hand.
All in all, though, it did seem to speed the flow of combat. All in all I think I will get lots of enjoyment out of it.
My Dm toys include one large battlemat, washable crayons, miniatures (mostly the durable plastic kind), and my own npc stat cards. I like making my own cards, it helps me learn what the npcs can do.
Oh and my favorite toys are the imagination of my players. Oh how I love to toy with the imaginations of others.