# Cheap DM/Player tips



## DnDChick

Hi guys!

Im starting this thread to get a discussion going about cheap shortcuts you take for things like miniatures, terrain, etc.

What tricks to you have, other than saying, "OK, Fred...umm...this 4-sider is your fighter, and this one is the orc..."

Ill start it off by saying that I went to a toy store and bought bags of those little plastic soldiers, farm animals, dinosaurs--whatever!  I even got lucky and scored a set of armored knights at about the same scale--perfect for the player characters since I have so few of them as compared to the others.

These little plastic soldiers or what have you are perfect for cheapy miniatures.  The ubiquitous green plastic soldiers are my orcs, goblins, or whatever monsters I might need a lot of in a given game.

You can get things like horses and wagons from "cowboys and indians" sets...but snatch these up quickly becuase I think they are being phased out due to a conflict with political correctness.

Anyone got any other tips-n-tricks they care to share?


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## jasper

On the back of computer paper I drew out two different inn plans.
So all by inns are type a or b. 
Castle walls were from castle toy of my brother.
Catpults and ballista came from another floor war game. 
Had about 20 orc firgures which I use for any man size group of enemy.

Reuse maps from modules for new adventurers.


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## Holy Bovine

DnDChick said:
			
		

> *Hi guys!
> 
> Im starting this thread to get a discussion going about cheap shortcuts you take for things like miniatures, terrain, etc.
> 
> What tricks to you have, other than saying, "OK, Fred...umm...this 4-sider is your fighter, and this one is the orc..."
> 
> *




"Aww, I don't wanna be the 4-sided!  I wanna be the d30!  My guys bigger than the orc.  And howcome Charlies always gets to be the bag of Doritos?  He's playin' a freakin gnome!"  


Sorry, just couldn't resist.

I have a game called Jenga which is basically a pile of wood blocks.  I plan on using them to represent trees, walls, buildings etc.  

I have about 3000 miniatures so I don't have any good subs for those 

Of course Counter Collection is pretty cheap when you consider how much stuff you get.


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## Crothian

I pull out my lego collection from when I was 10.  I have a bunch of the castle series and it works well.


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## Paka

I am a big fan of Jackson Games' Cardboard Heroes.  I go to Kinko's and color photocopy them and there we go...bing bam boom.

Other cheap tricks?

There are very few castle scenes one cannot make a 3-D scene for with two 2 liter bottles of soda and two empty bags of Doritos.  If you've got dip...heck, then you have a well.  Go to town.

In Deadlands I was a fan of the plastic cowboys and injuns but then I had to put dinosaurs in my campaign, must so I could have an excuse to go out and buy a dollar bag of plastic dinosaurs.

Got a really keen horse drawn carriage out of Toys R Us.

Legos anyone?

Play-do (anyone remember the old Play-Do wars thing in the old Dragon Magazine?) is cool and easy and non-toxic for those extra hungry gamers.

In the old days I'd throw white paper in tubs of tea-water to approximate scroll paper, then burn the edges to make it look ancient.

Have fun.


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## Sodalis

Cheap tips?  

I would say let the artistic guy paint his fav miniatures,a nd when game time starts, borrow a couple...

i happen to be the guy alwyas paintin mini's so thegame is held at my place- and all the minis are mine- including the dragon mini which represents everythign from a ankheg, to a scorpion, to a horse...

I also built a couple small houses and use legos for walls.


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## bardolph

*Bardolph's handy-dandy DM tricks*

I bought several packs of "toy" poker chips.  These chips are exactly one inch in diameter, and come in packs of six different colors.

I went to STAPLES, and bought a sheet of tiny sticky-labels and a thin permanent marker.

For PC's, I use the WHITE poker chips, with a little sticky-label, on which is written the PC's name.

For friendly NPC's (henchmen, hirelings, etc), I use BLUE poker chips, also with little sticky-labels, if necessary.

I use the other colored chips for everything else.  DM: "Orange chips are zombies, yellow chips are skeletons, and that red one is a tall robed elf."

Alternatively, you can also use 1-inch diameter miniature bases, and cut up mailing labels and write on each one what it is.  Again, for large numbers of similar creatures, don't bother labelling them.  Just pile them on the map and say "these are all orcs."

The _Dungeons and Dragons: the Adventure Begins_ boxed set comes with plenty of cardboard counters to represent many of the basic monsters, and _Dungeon_ and _Dragon_ magazine regularly publish sheets of counters.

Personally, I prefer the colored poker chips method the most.

Sometimes I used dice to represent light sources (yellow chips would do well, too).  This made it really easy to tell who could see what.

For maps, I have a giant plastic map with one-inch squares (bought from my local hobby store), and a pack of colored wet-erase markers.  Seems to do the trick, but the mat set me back thirty bucks.

Alternatively, you can use a small whiteboard to draw maps on.  I use a whiteboard to track initiative and spell durations (VERY nice).

Before I used either of these methods, I just used blank printer paper and a black permanent marker, and drew all map areas to the 1-inch=5-feet scale.  Of course, my drawings were _approximate_ instead of exact, but it worked out really well.  This was cool, since I could re-use the same sheet of paper any time the PC's went back to the same area.  To be honest, this method is the favorite among my players.  The only drawback is that an 8.5 X 11 sheet of paper can't represent any outdoor area very well.  For this, I bought one of those GIANT sketch pads, and made the scale 1"=15 feet.  Seemed to work pretty well.

INDEX CARDS.

The 3x5 index card is my FRIEND.  My players and I use them to pass secret notes to each other.  Every time a player picks up some loot, I write the loot down on an index card and hand it to the player.  I also write the room number or original owner on the card, too, so when the player casts _identify_ or uses Appraise or some such, I can remember where they found it.  At that time, I simply write any additional information they learn on the same index card.

If I'm feeling particularly creative, I will bundle a group of "loot" index cards, and stick them in an envelope, then label the envelope "OAKEN TREASURE CHEST," or "ORC's BACKPACK," or some such.  The player can then have that warm, fuzzy feeling of opening up the envelope and finding a stack of treasure inside!!

Another boon with the 3x5 index card: if the player loses the card, then the character lost the item.  If the players are arguing over which character actually picked up the item first, I simply ask them who has the card.  Ownership is nine-tenths of the law.  If the player sells an item, I require the player to give me the card back, at which time I rip it up and throw it away, and give them a card with "250 gp" written on it, or some such.

When characters see strange symbols, glyphs, tapestries, or whatever, I can grab a card and draw a crude illustration with a black permanent marker, and the PC's can pass it around.  Almost as good as those "ImageQuest" modules published for Kalamar.

A couple of times, I even took a card, folded it up in a little impromptu origami, and created a 3D model of an overturned cart!  These are small touches, but players REALLY appreciate this kind of stuff.

I use 4x6 index cards as NPC character sheets, and keep them in a little index-card file.

Hope this stuff helps!


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## Someguy

*My Craptastic list...*





*Legos are your freind...They are even customizable, sand down  longs swords and you gots yourself a shortsword/dagger. 

*Counters are your freind...They come in differing sizes for those big enanies, and you can color code them for battles

*Hand held lights are your friend...You can use them to help visualize your sight radius by holding them over your character and having it extend the 20-60ft or so for a torch, or lay it down if you have an adjustable light (like the little maglites...) for a cone effect (also good with area effect spells)

*I am your friend...Give my money

*Hero quest is your somtimes freind, who will lieave on the the side of a road for some hot girl...They have good accesories like skeletonbs and book shelves and alchemist tables...

*Dice are always your freind... make wondeful counters, and to simulate flying, just put creatures on d6's with the hieght in feet on the top, like 1=10,2=20...when you get to seventy, you use two, or a d 12(but harder to balance)

*spills are NOT your freind...they make an icky mess

*String just Wants to be friends...  ... also good for measuring radii and also good for cones and the like...


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## Sodalis

index cards are a DMs best friends.

I have used them once or twice. Now i just wing NPCs.  He dies when i feel necessary, and if he is an integral part of the story, don't matter if you unlad  on him- he will just smile and keep on comin

I have like 10 sets of dice (varios colors) and use them to denote trees, animals, and campfire (based on color)

And a white boards is cool too... I plan on buying think black tape and makin the lines. I used to use use permanant markere, but found it wasnt so permanent...


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## Oracular Vision

If you have played in any of the Living campaigns, you are familiar with item certificates, little slips of paper with items and abilities on them. You can make these in powerpoint pretty quickly, and do a pretty good job. The players love them and all they cost is time. The players like to look at the certs and trade them or argue over them in ways they never do over a simple list.


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## Tsyr

Craft styrofoam is your friend. It makes houses, trees, mountains, hills, walls, deformed blobs, etc... all with just a hunk of foam and a parring knife.


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## WanderingMonster

At Gen Con (and presumably your FLGS), I got these little 1/2" glass gemstones (flat bottoms, round tops).  They come in a wide variety of colors and are pretty cheap.  Plus, they're a little classier than carboard counters and such.

Index cards are also very cool (and I got some ideas from bardolph...thanks!).  I try and make rumors for each session and pass them out.  Sometimes I write info that a given character is likely to know, but the player isn't.  When the info becomes important, the player has it at hand, and I don't have to remind him.

Certain kid's toys make good monsters of huge size and larger.  It get's silly if you have a big stuffed Blue's Clues doll representing the Great Wyrm they're currently fighting, but it's CHEAP!


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## Tsyr

Those little glass gemstones are _EVERYWHERE_, and very cheep.

I get 'em at Wal-Mart in plastic bags back in the crafts section, like 2 dollars for a bag of 50-ish, I think.

Other places I have seen sell them - 

Craft stores, Pet Stores (Often sold as aquarium decoration), Mom&Pop toy stores, and drug stores (though don't ask me what the latter was doing with them... probably a fluke, don't bet on that one)

I've got a gallon ice cream pail full of the suckers in all different colours.


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## The Kender

Counters:
Poker Chips.  You can either A) trace the poker chip and draw the character on it or B) Print a picture off the computer, cut it out, and glue it.  This also works well for a character riding a mount or something.

Maps:
I got my mom to make this 3.5 x 3.5 foot piece of cardboard covered with some kind of strange paper.  Anyway, you can draw with crayons on it.  It rubs right off with a towel and not on your hand or minis.  I keep track of Initiative right on the board.


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## Asmo

*Not so Cheap trix..*

Somebody remembers Talisman, the boadgame?
We are a couple of guys that still gets together two  times a year to play this game. During a trip to London -92 I managed to get hold of most of the miniatures from the original game + all the expansions. A good friend of mine painted most of them, and we use them in our D&D games. We have good looking Druids, Rouges, Trolls..heck we even have a Hobgoblin 
Great stuff to play with.


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## Holy Bovine

*Re: Bardolph's handy-dandy DM tricks*



			
				bardolph said:
			
		

> *If I'm feeling particularly creative, I will bundle a group of "loot" index cards, and stick them in an envelope, then label the envelope "OAKEN TREASURE CHEST," or "ORC's BACKPACK," or some such.  The player can then have that warm, fuzzy feeling of opening up the envelope and finding a stack of treasure inside!!
> 
> Another boon with the 3x5 index card: if the player loses the card, then the character lost the item.  If the players are arguing over which character actually picked up the item first, I simply ask them who has the card.  Ownership is nine-tenths of the law.  If the player sells an item, I require the player to give me the card back, at which time I rip it up and throw it away, and give them a card with "250 gp" written on it, or some such.
> 
> ! *




I love this idea!  Yet another use for my growing collection of index cards!  Thanks bardolph - I'm offically 'yoinking' this idea.

**YOINK**


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## omedon

I am of the same mind as Holy Bovine. Thank you for the great idea bardolph!

I can't wait to use this one


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## Drayan

We've resorted to using Mageknight minis.  Only one of use has the patience to sit and paint, so it's a big plus that Mageknight figures come pre-painted.  However, their bases are a little bigger than 1 inch wide, but most of the figures will fit on a 1 inch base if you hack 'em off their base, which is no prob for us, we got out about 3 weeks after we got in.


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## android

*Re: Not so Cheap trix..*



			
				Asmo said:
			
		

> *Somebody remembers Talisman, the boadgame?
> We are a couple of guys that still gets together two  times a year to play this game. During a trip to London -92 I managed to get hold of most of the miniatures from the original game + all the expansions. A good friend of mine painted most of them, and we use them in our D&D games. We have good looking Druids, Rouges, Trolls..heck we even have a Hobgoblin
> Great stuff to play with. *




Let me start by saying that I love Talisman.  It is an awesome game that I got to play thanks to the game checkout booth at Origins last year.  So awesome in fact that I came home and tried to find a copy of it on ebay so i could play it at home... well.. seeing your comment prompted me to find a link for you to look at.

http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1701989072

I have seen dozens of auctions at this value for Talisman.  Maybe this will change your mind about using those pieces for D&D?


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## Voneth

I'll second the vote on Mage Knight figs, one can get the "weak" versions for $1 each or less. If your lucky, you may already have a player who has a MK collection, just have him bring it over. Recenlty the game just had dungeon crawl expansion with plastic versions of Ral Partha figs.  This expansion also offers some personality figs that would work for some player minis.

While the bases are big, there are several fixes, the cheapest being to use a tape measure and common sense (for AoO) instead of a battlemat. 

If one has a battle mat, then one can denote that the front of the fig repesents which square the fig is in (for small fights). Or one can mark up the board to make 2 in X 2 in squares. And then there is the "hack the fig off and put it on a real base" answer too.


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## bardolph

It's weird, my players actually think miniatures and illustrated counters kinda ruin the experience.  They prefer more abstract representations, like beads and chips.  That way, they can leave it to their imagination to fill in the rest.

"Certs" would be wonderful, but only if I can spit them quickly out of my printer!

If you like using illustrations or labels for your chips, try printing them out on _label stock_.  That way, you don't have to cut or glue anything.  Just peel and stick!


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## WSmith

Check out my personal website, in the miniatures section. 

http://rpghost.com/3eHall


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## Hand of Evil

Index Cards 'nuff said.

All sewers, inns and taverns are basicly the same and I use the same maps over and over again. 

Have the Players do some of the work.  Tell them if they want to know an NPC or location they can create them and hand them over to me, maybe I will use them.  I do put level limits on this, and number is limited too.


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## DaveStebbins

Johnn Four has an excellent article about finding and using paper figs at his roleplaying site on about.com

http://roleplaygames.about.com/library/weekly/aa012502.htm

Like an earlier respondent, I also like Cardboard Heroes by Steve Jackson Games. Instead of copying the pages at Kinko's, I have scanned them all. Then I can cut, paste and duplicate them in any paint program and print just the ones I need in whatever quantities I need them. Heck, I can even change the scale and print giant orcs or whatever. It is a great resource and well worth the initial purchase price.

-Dave


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## Gez

I took a big, thin, square wood plank (that was actually a separator for a bookshelf), pyrograved it with a 1" squares grid, and covered it with a big plastic sheet.

That was my frustrated reaction at not finding an erasable velleda board with a grid. It works well.

Also, I cutted a D&D 3e cone in strong paper (you know, these cones now always have the same angle) and graduated it. It was handy until we lost it.

I used once the roughly cubic, transparent plastic blister of a miniature as a gelatinous cube. It was very appropriate, since we could put the minis of absorbed creatures inside.

Other than that, yes, we do use the ubiquitous "bob the fighter, you're that d4".


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## Eye Tyrant

While I have about 80 or so various minis, I have recently started using the card-stock couters that come with my Dungeon subscription and in the Adventure Game set. Also, I came across an old Othello game that coincedently has a ton of small chip-like plastic game pieces (you remember Othello right?), the best part is that they are exactly the same size as the counters (the small counters at least). I have thought about glueing the counters to the game pieces to give them more stability, but haven't done so yet. The game pieces are black on one side and white on the other, which makes them more versatile then a solid colored chip...

I plan to take the fold up taverns, castle walls etc that are currently on the WotC site, print them out in color, cut them out then glue them to sturdy-board (the card stock with styro foam in the middle) cut out in the same fahion as the fold ups. This will give it more stability I think, and should prove to be pretty cool.


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## WSmith

Before this thread is done we need to archive it! 

Bardolph, sorry I am a little busy with Necromancer to get Its War going right now. But have you heard from Monte Carlo lately? GREAT TIPS BTW. 

I mentioned my site, but a quick summary of the good stuff posted. I use soda bottle caps just like you use poker chips. 

I freely used Happy Meal figures. You have to see it to believe it. http://rpghost.com/3eHall in the miniatures section. 

Ideas not posted on my site:

Use those little rock/stone things you find at Arts and Crafts stores. Red are worth 3 hp, white are worth one. take 7 hp of damage and the dm gives you two red stones and one white one. Or better yet used them as a HP indicator. If you have 8 hp, use the Green for 3 and white for one. So in front of your character you have 2 Green and 2 white. Damage is red for 3 and black for 1. So when the damage "indicator" equals the HP indicator, you are at 0 HP. PLUS add another color for subdual and when that meats the dam indi, you are knocked unconscious!  

If a cleric casts CLW, you are told not how muc you are healed, but instead given white/green stones back. 

Get a table cloth with a pattern that has 1" squares on it. 
http://www.houseoflucas.com/mike/DnDIndex.htm

Index cards, I have nothing else to say there, already covered. 

Go to yard sales and rape the old chess and monopoly board games for tokens.


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## Someguy

Bump


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## Crow

lets see... 

my friend didn't buy minis, only the little square bases for them which are like 30 for a dollar. He painted little dots of color on each one, so that you could have groups of differnt things (goblins are blue dotted round ones, orcs are yellow dotted squares, etc)

we ran out of markers for the BattleMat, so we don't write on it anymore, and it still has a map on it from about 4 months ago that we never bothered to wipe off...

My DM takes most of his NPCs from the Goblin A Day Thread in the Rogues gallery... and just changes the names, and "pretends" they are of whatever race they are

We end up using soda cans as scenery. (The Cokes are all giant pillers, the sprite is a lake, the Mountain Dew is the Scary Alter of Bad Bad Things, this Pepsi is a big tree)

Sometimes the DM uses our Character Sheets as scratchpaper, or to map out an area...

He writes most of his adventures/NPCs on notecards which he buys in bulk and catalogs in a big binder...


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## wsclark

Eye Tyrant said:
			
		

> *I have thought about glueing the counters to the game pieces to give them more stability, but haven't done so yet.*



I take the counters (and the ones I make myself using Character Artist from Profantasy Software) and mount them on magnetic business cards (the ones you can peel and stick business cards to). Once mounted, I cut them out and use 1" fender washers to give them the stability I want. This way I carry around about 100 washers and all the magentic counters I need.


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## wsclark

WSmith said:
			
		

> *Before this thread is done we need to archive it! *



Most definitely! 



			
				WSmith said:
			
		

> *Ideas not posted on my site:
> 
> Use those little rock/stone things you find at Arts and Crafts stores. Red are worth 3 hp, white are worth one. take 7 hp of damage and the dm gives you two red stones and one white one. Or better yet used them as a HP indicator. If you have 8 hp, use the Green for 3 and white for one. So in front of your character you have 2 Green and 2 white. Damage is red for 3 and black for 1. So when the damage "indicator" equals the HP indicator, you are at 0 HP. PLUS add another color for subdual and when that meats the dam indi, you are knocked unconscious!
> 
> If a cleric casts CLW, you are told not how muc you are healed, but instead given white/green stones back. *




I use a similar system that I have developed over the last year. Each player is given a small glass (for two reasons, 1) the clinking of the glass stones in the bowl has a nice sound to it and 2) I can see the hits points a players has easily) that contains stones representing their current hit points. As they take damage, stones are removed from the bowl and placed next to it. As damage is healed, stones are placed back into the bowl. I generally use red stones to represent 1 hit point, green stones to represent 10. If a character goes negative, I add black stones to the bowl.

If people are interested, I'll post the whole system.


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## drnuncheon

Eye Tyrant said:
			
		

> *I have thought about glueing the counters to the game pieces to give them more stability, but haven't done so yet. The game pieces are black on one side and white on the other, which makes them more versatile then a solid colored chip*




Rather than using glue, why not use some of that bluetack stuff you can use to hang posters and the like?  That way it's not permanent.

J


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## Bill Muench

bardolph said:
			
		

> *"Certs" would be wonderful, but only if I can spit them quickly out of my printer!*




That's easy - just divide up the page into a few different certs and print them out, then slice them up. Living Greyhawk certs are generally 3 certs to a page, so each cert is 8.5" tall by 3.66" wide. Print them out on some decent paper/stock and they look really nice. I plan on doing this for my game when I get it going again, for a few reasons:
a) If you've got the cert, you've got the item. Very simple.
b) You can put all the information pertinent to the item on the cert so that players don't have to go digging through the DMG to make sure it does what they think it does.
c) Most players like certs. It is something tangible. And they're pretty when done right.


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## WSmith

wsclark said:
			
		

> *
> 
> I use a similar system that I have developed over the last year. Each player is given a small glass (for two reasons, 1) the clinking of the glass stones in the bowl has a nice sound to it and 2) I can see the hits points a players has easily) that contains stones representing their current hit points. As they take damage, stones are removed from the bowl and placed next to it. As damage is healed, stones are placed back into the bowl. I generally use red stones to represent 1 hit point, green stones to represent 10. If a character goes negative, I add black stones to the bowl.
> 
> If people are interested, I'll post the whole system. *




Wow, much better than my idea. One questions is how do you handle subdual damage?

Also, you could have it so the stones in the glass are the wounds and the ones on the table are their current, that way give them an off color to place against their table top non-glassed total for subdual damage. 

This sounds like a great use for shot glasses.


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## Greatwyrm

*recycling and counters*

Caps from soda bottles work really well for 1 square counters.  You can also write on them with wet-erase markers (numbers, names, whatever) and then wipe them off when the battle is over.  White bottle tops work the best.  Green are okay.  I haven't tried red or black tops yet.

It's rare I've been to a gaming session that did not produce an excess of soda bottle tops.


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## WSmith

*Re: recycling and counters*



			
				Greatwyrm said:
			
		

> *Caps from soda bottles work really well for 1 square counters.  You can also write on them with wet-erase markers (numbers, names, whatever) and then wipe them off when the battle is over.  White bottle tops work the best.  Green are okay.  I haven't tried red or black tops yet.
> 
> It's rare I've been to a gaming session that did not produce an excess of soda bottle tops. *




Exactly! See what I put together: http://www.rpghost.com/3eHall/cbcmini01.htm


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## I'm A Banana

> This sounds like a great use for shot glasses.




And what's wrong with their original, intended use as alcoholic containers, Hmm?!

As for the minis/counters thing:
For me, counters like this are not a realistic option. The fact is, I play with 6-7 people crammed in a 10' by 10' dorm room, and I'm relegated to a little corner...floor space is very, very precious. I can't lay out a mat or anything. Half the time, I sketch out the setting, show it around, and have them look at it. Usually, they take my word for where things are, but I'd like to change that.

Any advice out there on representing battles when you can't lay anything out?

This is also why I'm interested in a computer-thing to help me out. Something simple is the key, since I can use my laptop at a game session. Something I could, say, download a map from Jamis Buck, slap it in the program, and show everybody where they are with various icons and things, simply by showing them the screen. Maybe even give it a bit of video-game feel by having "life bars" that deplete as you get hit, "subdual bars" that fill up with subdual damage, etc....though dice may be used for that, too...

One thing that's more dificult to represent is the creautres that are larger-than-normal...especially without any sort of counters.

That's why I'm tempted to try a Final Fantasy style Fade-Out, at least for a quest or two.

Hurm...whatever. I'd just really like to find a system that's easy, takes up little to no space, and can be useful for passing around.

The Index Cards are genious...I'd do that if I had the time.


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## Anakin

limited floorspace? not a problem.

Magnets are your friend.  Get a big ol' magnetic board, and mount tokens on refrigerator magnets.  There's even a company that sells magnetic dungeon pieces (link, anyone?), although they're a little pricey for my tastes.  Anyway, a big ol' magnetic board lets you show everything on the wall.  WAY better than a laptop screen, imho.


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## Fayredeth

The link for the magnetic tiles is http://www.skeletonkeygames.com/. They are pretty nice, but they are weak magnets, so I don't know how much they would hold.

Keep this going... I like absorbing these ideas....


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## bret

Index cards: Use them to track combats

The best way to track rounds. Make up an index card for each player with their main statistics. Mark in pencil which items are in hand. Write two when multi-round spells are cast, and make a tick mark for each round to track combat spells.

Now make up another set for the various opponents. Put all the stuff you really need to know on them.

Roll initiative, sort the cards by initiative, and just start going through the cards. Can really clean up the GM bookkeeping.


Whiteboards are your friend!

Set up a whiteboard behind the GM. Use this for quick maps and other visual items. This would also be a solution for those who don't have enough room to lay out a map.


Handouts

Write up and print out a city gazette or public notice once, pass it around to the players. Lots of players really like props they can hold and look at.


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## Jack Haggerty

Instead of counters or beads to keep track of hit points, I just use a pair of d10s...  One for the tens place, and one for the ones place, just like when you roll for a d%.  The number showing is my current hit point total.  If I take subdual, I pull out a second, different colored pair, and start counting up on those.

I'll echo the "note cards are good" suggestions.

In conjuction with the note cards, small post-it notes are also quite useful...  Especially for tagging note cards, minis or counters with modifers or conditions.  "The orcs with the pink tags are asleep," or writing "+1 Atk & vs. Fear" on a post-it to tag someone who's been blessed.


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