A personal tip in regards to the HP/erasing on paper over and over: we use postit notes for the HP area (those little 1.5x2 inch ones) and a normal (3x3) for the inventory. Just put your max HP on the sheet, and then use the post it for combat damage adjustments, next day/session/full heal? just pull the paper off and start over. Same with the inventory. For games where you are constantly picking up/looting stuff, and selling it, or giving it away, a disposable paper layer is great. The only downside of those plastic insert page methods as a temp dry erase surface is losing that info between sessions.
I write any resource that can come and go often in the game in a separate page. HP, Hit dice, spell slots, traits that are restored in a short rest/long rest. It makes it very visually clear how many resources you have left when you see these little circles crossed (or not) all together in a single page.
I keep a note in my phone where I write down anything in erasable marker on my sheet. This is usually things like spells that I have active, spell slots used, hp, or super temporary inventory like explosives that I expect to use very soon. My inventory is made up of cards for the important stuff like weapons and tools, and a list of trinkets that have boxes next to them so I can put an 'x' in the box when I get rid of it. I like the dry-erase markers because they're super easy to use during session, and I don't mind spending 5 minutes jotting stuff down in my notes app or the back of my journal/notebook. The other one that I rather enjoy is my magnetic hp/ spell slot tracker. It has a similar issue of possibly getting jumbled when session is over, but it's so much fun to use.
I am the one who brings snacks. It might be hard candy one week and chips the next. Nobody asked me, I just brought it. And we go to the sibling’s house so we get fed half way through and they bring drinks. So might as well bring something because they’re nice enough let us to play there.
Something I have done since as GM I host the game is make a night of it. We all start playing and order pizza, or get take out, and rotate through who is buying dinner for the night. Nights that are my turn if my players get really lucky my wife will cook for them.
I got a cheap little laminator, and laminated character sheets. Then you can use a fine permanent felt tip marker, and then used a bit of rubbing alcohol to remove it when it needs to be cleaned.
Since me and my player use binders for notes/character sheets etc., I got binder card sleeves for trading card binders to use with spell cards. It's like the players ACTUALLY have a spellbook and it's pretty neat.
As DM, I have a spare copy of everyone's character sheet, both so I can see their stats easier without having to ask them constantly, or in case someone forgets or loses theirs. Realistically, if someone forgets one of their character sheets, they're probably going to forget both.
My 4E game, I used folded index cards for this ... one side with a character's name and initiative count on the side facing the players ... the other side facing me having name, initiative (top right corner), attack bonus for main & secondary (bottom left), AC, Fort, Ref, Will and MaxHP (bottom right) ... sped combat up something fierce, as I could add up the base attack + buffs + circumstance bonus/penalty rapidly and get plenty of time for descriptive flair.
Oh, providing the guys with food is absolutely the best feeling, ever since my college game when I was a lot freer to bake or cook, either to bring something to the table, or just pitch in in a friend's kitchen once we gathered... I love being the guy who has extra dice/pencils/minis, especially when someone new joins the table, but all that pales in comparison to showing up with homemade cookies. And in my recent in-person game, I'm one of two bakers, so I got to experience the other side as well.
Personally, I have never been able to identify with a character until I find a mini for them. Even for online characters I will make a model on Heroforge just to look at and not even buy. It just helps so much
My players consistently spill drinks I keep 4 extra character sheets for a reason monster and Dr pepper have the most tpks of any game I've ran or played
I really enjoyed that last part, very wholesome. It has inspired me to encourage and boost my fellow players and DMs moods, instead of nonchalantly going through the motions (sometimes it's like that), it can instead change the whole mood to excitement and a very good one, making everything and everyone enjoyable.
Yeah, I'd say the same thing, except I played Adventurer's League playing through a long module called Call of the Deep at a game store, which has closed its gaming rooms for the next few weeks at least, probably. Wish I'd gotten contact info from my fellow players and our DM last week.
One of the people in our party got us all Kindle Fire tablets with D and D Beyond and a mass charger unit so we are all set and ready when we get together. Best and most extravagant gift ever! I have digital AND real dice (hundreds of 'em) too. And our group are serious terrain makers and my DM has countless minis. I am mightily blessed.
My number one suggestion is Frixion erasable pens!! I hate the look of pencil on a character sheet, so these give me the finished look of a pen but the impermanence I need!
If you got access to one: dollar tree is best place for basic gaming supplies: mech pencil, erasers, paper, index cards, clip boards, pens..your all covered
22:40 rolling tray idea: a bowl (with a towel in the bottom to lessen clatter, if prone to headaches). We used a retro hand carved wood salad serving bowl for dice games when I was a kid, and I have some felt lined dice cups for Yahtzee or rolling a handful of TTRPG dice at once.
Considering the dice tray, I kind of have a table rule about it to prevent issues. If you can afford metal dice, you can afford a tray for them. That's been my rule for a while when I'm running the game. I don't care if they have a set of plastic dice, but metal dice tend to destroy tables and damage things. I spent about $10 on making a custom, wooden dice tray using an unfinished cigar box that I'd picked up at Walmart with replacement fittings from Hobby Lobby, engraved it at the library with the laser etcher/cutter their makerspace has, painted the etched part, stained the box, sealed the box, and lined the interior with adhesive backed felt. Mine took almost a week to get everything done with (largely waiting for layers of stain and seal to dry), and learned a lot doing it. It fits my dice bag for the metal dice and the "spellbook" I'd been given a while back for my spellcards...and it's starting to get a bit beat up due to use and transport for a while now
When I made the switch to all metal, I got a button up dice tray first. And use a dice tower to break the fall. The GM didn't even have to say anything but to ask his wife if he could buy a set.
Dude, number one totally makes sense.Refreshments such as snacks or drinks is very expensive, especially if you were running a game on the weekly basis, that stuff adds up. Especially if you are the one hosting and paying for everything.
#3 (additional): Lacking a Dice Try or box lid (or there is no room for their use at a small table), use a Dice Cup. While there are fancy felt-lined leather dice cups for games such as Yahtzee, Backgammon or Craps, you can use a simple plastic or paper cup to roll your dice (avoid glass cups and mugs as they can slip and brake, and the rattling is horrible). For quick results, roll damage dice along with attack die/dice. If the attack roll failed, ignore damage result.
re: snacks/drinks at the table and making memorable events. My college group was over at my house for New Years, and we decided we were gonna party hardy and play some D&D. Well, long story short we got absolutely hammered and we were playing the Tomb of Horrors and WE WON! 6 completely drunk fools played and beat the Tomb of Horrors and it's a night i will never forget
I am returning to the game after 3 decades away. Because 30 yrs ago copiers/printers weren't everywhere, your character sheet had to survive. For any areas that got erased frequently, we took regular Scotch tape & covered that area with it. It had to be the kind that was translucent, not the transparent. You can write with pencil on the tape, and then erase as much as is needed. No tearing and no ghosting..
I got so sick of other players forgetting their character sheets in my group that I bought the master subscription on D&D beyond and made them copy their sheets onto the D&DB campaign so we'd always have a backup, even if they forgot their devices too. I personally run entirely digitally except for my mini, dice and tray. Notes are on the cloud so I can access them on any device.
To not pollute the in game inspiration balance system with out of game actions, you could grant them meta-inspiration points for doing IRL things (like on time or snacks or being prepared), that let them “get away with” some slight meta gaming, like knowing game mechanics things their character wouldn’t (like ways to defeat spells) or monster weaknesses listed in the MM.
You don't really need a sub to DnD beyond unless 1. You wanna create more than 6 character or 2. You wanna share your book collection with the campaign (grant only 1 person in the campaign need a master Tier to enable content Share).
Great list. In regards to writing utensils I would highly recommend Pilot Frixion pens, they're like gel pens but they erase very cleanly and are not harsh on paper and don't smear. They only erase with the built in eraser on the pen. They're very popular in Japan but can be found easily online.
My group uses dice trays that one of our players made for us, but we still get off track because of dice going off the table... mostly because we don't believe in dice jails, we believe in punishing them by yeeting them across the room
As DM, I help all my players create their characters (house rules) and keep a digital copy of their sheet on my PC (which I also send them by email) that I can print again if need be. My game, action points have four varieties: Small aka learning action point grants an extra action with +1D6 to all rolls, and a chosen power used this turn is permanently improved. Big aka spotlight action point grants an extra action with +1D6 to D20 rolls & +2D10 to damage until the end of your next turn (use it at the start of your turn for the biggest benefit). Interrupting aka "breaking news" action point grants you an action that interrupts whatever another player or enemy is doing (great for screwing lurker monsters and spellcasters). Renewing aka favorite power aka "my precious" action point recharges one of your used encounter powers and gives you an action to use that encounter power immediately again. I hand out action points like candy whenever my players roleplay well, or make me laugh, or do anything else at the table that brings out their A-game. Good times, I miss it so much. The point of mentioning this is that one of my players lost their character sheet, which I hadn't updated from the week before (no level up), which their player gained an improvement, but both of us forgot what that improvement was, so I just gave them their old character sheet with one extra action point. Everyone at the table agreed that's fair and game continued.
I bought the spell cards because even though I make my players' character sheets on dndbeyond, I print them out and like to keep things pencil and paper during seasons when possible. Using dndbeyond to fill that stuff in at character creation and level up is absolutely great though.
Often times, your character is smarter and/or wiser than you are ... sometimes much much more so than you are due to high starting stats, level ups and magic gear. In a 4E campaign, I've played super-genius wizards with magical enhancements that pushed their INT out to 30 and their WIS to 26 ... good times, I miss it so much. When I DM'd games, history skill checks are a character's memory ... if you as a player forgot something, history DC 15 to remember ... and then I'd fill them in properly. PS, I often used knowledge skill checks with low DCs to let the players know something about a location they're in, an NPC they encounter, or a monster they see.
@@AvangionQ I rarely play characters smarter than myself as I have a near genius level IQ (near MENSA level -- on a good day I might pass their membership exam), but I had a stroke six years ago, so my short-term memory is horrible and getting information into long-term memory is hard -- I can learn, but it is a constant struggle. Anyway, most characters I play are likely to have better memories than me. 🤕
A question that has bothered me for far too long. What is that translucent orange thing in the background? On a more serious note, I love your videos. Thank you for taking the time and energy to put them together. It is one of my weekly rituals, and much appreciated.
Another tip/accessory I rarely see in videos like this: matte scotch tape (the green one, not the purple) is fantastic at preventing erasing and/or writing through character sheets. You can write on them with pencil extremely well, and you'll never erase through it. For any character I play with for more than a couple of sessions, I tape over HP, currency, ammunition/spell slots, and XP (if applicable).
Totally relate to escaping dice slowing things down. My group always shouted “DIRTY DICE!” Whenever a dice fell on the ground and we would reroll. For my group in the future, having a rolling tray of some kind is top priority and inexpensive for the trouble it saves. Also, totally agree on miniatures! I love miniatures because I’m a visual, tactile person and my character doesn’t exist until I have a mini. I think having minis for NPCs that are quirky or really flavourful helps separate DND from “realistic fantasy” TV shows and stuff people watch. I always keep in mind that DND is campy, sword-and-sorcery at its heart.
If you have a phone... use digital for all tracking information resources. It's just more efficient and faster. As for the rest... well we all become dice goblins at some point in our d&d journey... By all means if you want to have everything physical, GO FOR IT. D&D is all about you and what you prefer. TTRPG is made to be played and used the way you (and the ones you play with ofc) feel comfortable and find enjoyable.
HP counter, I use a tiny D6 dice for both players and monsters placed next to their minis: 6 = maxHP with temp HP ... 5 = maxHP or near it, no temp HP ... 4 = above half HP (not bloodied) 3 = below half HP (bloodied) ... 2 = below surge value (bloodied) ... 1 = below 10 HP (about to die) Take away the dice and lay the mini down when they're dying or dead. Really helps the healer sort out their priorities.
When you started discussing snacks I feel like you missed a few. When I have my players come over I like to grill up some brats, ive gotta microbrew chilling in my wetbar, and I warm up some ziti. Ask the players to bring some tripple fried pizza dough or some frozen meatballs you can warm it up in my microwave or warm it up at home and bring it over piping hot. Figure out how much lunch meat you can spare, maybe 1lb and a half of honey baked ham. Maybe a german chocolate cake. I'll tell you what will make you a big hit with the guys some key lime pie, im talking ala mode some icecream on the side. And you have got to have a bite of my home made ziti im just gonna warm her up shes been in the freeze. You know what I love are some of those hot mozzarella sticks cube em up put em in the marinara sauce have those on the side but you can't go wrong with some sour cream and onion so long as you bring ridged chips. -Tim Heidecker, King of the Sack
Currently making my own TTRPG system, one of my priorities was to make Spellcasters a lot more approachable as a player. While my first priority was to get rid of Spell Slots in favor of a Mana Point system, my second priority was to make Spell Cards as a base component of the game, so I fully support them being included on this list.
A good way to prevent a lot of confusion is to make as much of the session electronic as possible. A co-worker of mine actually bought a lot of HP laptops from eBay and put all the d&d things on each laptop including character sheets, player's handbooks, game lore, website links, spell charts, etc. As a DM, I'm seriously considering doing something similar. As far as snacks, I personally think that everyone should be encouraged but not forced to bring anything. It's always been my general rule that whoever is hosting should provide food. I'm the one who ALWAYS provides pizza. I don't know if I can focus on the game without pizza. Lol.
I too, love coffee. I love coffee so much that I just had to comment. I am a little snobbish though. But if anyone got me coffee, I'd still love them for it. I actually subscribed because of the Wildemount videos; I've watched your stuff before, but binge watching them better convinced me to subscribe.
Hey Ted! You made me laugh and nearly lose my coffee when you said "A pencil, mechanical" etc. I too love my P207 Pentel 0.7 in gold with a container full of spare graphite. Awesome!
As a warhammer player, the idea of needing a dice roll app to play DnD is pretty funny! We're over here resolving 40 attacks from a horde of orks, WITH A MASSIVE HANDFUL OF DICE. Because that's just the way we roll 😎 ... I'll see myself out.
A portrait of your character that you can stand up in front of you so that everyone else can see a constant reminder of what your character looks like.
10. Unique minis - great tip. Love it. While you were talking I thought of my favorite paperweight! 18:55 LOL, "If you can't remember, your character can't remember" isn't how my group usually plays, especially since two of us have ADHD, another OCD, and another works early shift so can get sleepy. But even when playing with neurotypical groups, we have players recount last time's key events and loot at the start of each session - which is super fun and usually hilarious. Everyone takes notes, not just the DM.
RE: #4 - Notebook (paraphrasing here) "If you can't remember then your character can't remember..." Keen Mind remembers...?!? RE: #3 - Dice Rolling Tray Go old school, find a Yahtzee dice rolling cup; load dice, hold with one hand, cover with the other, shake dice, slam dice rolling cup upside-down on table, lift to reveal results...? ;^p
Tons of ways to get cheap dice trays. If you're not proud, the top of a box of chocolates (or similar box top) works just fine. I personally use mini dice in an Altoids tin. If you want something a little less hobo tier, go to a dollar store and buy a thick picture frame. Take the glass out of it, boom, dice tray.
I completely agree with the snack/drinks/etc.! When we used to play all day long, there is nothing better than taking a break where people can take a smoke break and/or have something to munch on to keep everyone engaged and happy. We never really drank except during Ravenloft campaigns on Halloween when we figured we were all screwed lol
I love collecting dice. My GM generally just suggests we give one of our spare dice to represent ourselves on the map and a few games after I made the decision to get a hero forge mini.
A notebook is great, i also advise writing it in character (like a diary of the character) i have lots of fun reading back all the things. Also your DM put a lot of effort in, honor them with writing down stuff.
As a DM, if my players dont have a binder to keep their sheets, i keep them so we dont have to worry about people forgetting them and as a player, im known as the snack goblin
09:45 in my games my DM usually keeps our charactersheets while we keep second copies, but im usually the dude that has extra sheets for surprise joiners
Thanks Ted...this video clearly made me recognize what an enabler I am. My players don't need any of these tools, because I always have all of the pencils, notebooks, dice, trays, snacks, minis (my God the MINIS)...
I would say that have two kinds of minis: one or a cheap one that represents your character. I would say save the Hero Forged custom mini until you reach level 10 or higher.
Rules. Paper. An instrument of writing. Other players. A game master. A randomizer. A place to play. Refreshments. Some of these might not be necessary, since you can do without some of them (solo play being a big one), but they are all pretty important for the games I play. So, what are the next two for you?
5e.tools helps with a lot of that, they are coming out with a character builder but that is in closed beta rn I do believe, but it has a list of all official classes, subclasses, spells, creatures, races, backgrounds, where they all come from and anything else you could want like variant rules from different books and again it tells you what book each one is from, you can also look at thinks like ua books but you have to turn those books on, also it can roll things for you like height but it can't do rolls where your stats are involved til they add a character creator, you can also add all your spells you know to a list
D&D Beyond and my iPad have revolutionized my D&D experience. My character is right there, I take notes in a note app, I can roll dice in D&D beyond and all my other players and DM can see my rolls, and when I don't need to be doing any of those things I sketch scenes or characters in Procreate. That said, I am geeking out hardcore for the Pixels kickstarter and looking forward to connecting the D20 to Alexa and my colored lights to flash all the lights and LED strips in my house colors and play music when I roll a 20 lol.
That would be a lot of books since I play Warforged (Eborron) Evocation (PHB) who uses Jim's Magic Missle (AI) and my Backstory have me be a Palli Elf (Wildmount). So that's 4 books and yet I don't need to look through them thanks to DDB. I bring snack to live DnD but I also provoid the other players/DM access to all my book on DnD (Basically all 5e books). I also brought a set of dice for each player and the DM
About the minis: Im so happy i dedicated the past 3 years learning 3D sculpting and also bought a 3D printer, now that I’m getting full into TT roleplaying i can make any mini for any new character i want (at least until they let me be the DM, then I’ll much likely be forever in that spot)
i play on FG and i still keep up with spell cards when i played warlock. made it easier to plan my next round if i was thinking of using my spell slots or my staff of power. might use the cards also for my cleric.
25:30 Yes! I've taken to printing or copying my class, race, other key details to write notes on and keep with my character sheet, and then might or might not crack open the player handbook if needed. When it's time to level up, my packet of notes is already turned to the correct page and I don't get distracted by the PHB. This is particularly useful because my group homebrews a lot of details even though we mostly follow 5e rules. My sister's DMing our second campaign in her own universe. Our other main game is Dragon Age D&D but not with the DA TTRPG rulebook, but some details from the World of Thedas wiki. And her other ongoing campaign is Curse of Strahd, which she's been playing with some of our friends for over a year.
I'm the dm and my family provides food for 2adult and 3teen players each week. Sometimes one of the adults brings the whole family. Then we have 16 folks for dinner. This is great because our younger kids are good friends, and the non playing adults are friends as well. So everyone benefits from the players bringing extra friends.
"Hey man, I brought you some coffee." "Coffee? Sick! Thanks :D" There are some people who don't like surprise food, but many people are jazzed about it Also re: ttrpg books, check if your local library has copies. I serially checked out the PHB for our table and it was a huge help to have another copy when none of us had funds.
What are your thoughts on The Rook & The Raven's DM/GM planners and Player Diaries? I ordered one (pre built) but am thinking of getting one of the custom built diary and planner....
If I have to roll 12 d8, I'm stealing every person's d8s to roll. I do have a rolling app, but it's not about the efficiency, it's about the power trip.
Me and one other friend (in a group of 5 players) were the only ones who consistently remembered our character sheet and I had to write out out their stats (we had pictures on the wattsapp group but we put our phones away for the session) at least 5 times each
#4 - notebook. SO MUCH. And *use it*. In one campaign I'm in, even though as a player I provide a summary of our last session, we still have the occasional "oh I forgot" or "eh, didn't read it" moments. i'm going to cease doing that soon. And in the session that I'm running, I asked the others to recap what happened last time for the new player at the table, and I had to correct them so often that at some point I said "screw it, I'll give you a summary off the top of my head that's more accurate". It irks me in both roles because I take the time to prepare for our games.
A personal tip in regards to the HP/erasing on paper over and over: we use postit notes for the HP area (those little 1.5x2 inch ones) and a normal (3x3) for the inventory. Just put your max HP on the sheet, and then use the post it for combat damage adjustments, next day/session/full heal? just pull the paper off and start over.
Same with the inventory. For games where you are constantly picking up/looting stuff, and selling it, or giving it away, a disposable paper layer is great. The only downside of those plastic insert page methods as a temp dry erase surface is losing that info between sessions.
I love this idea as a DM as I hold onto the players sheets after the session. Thanks, next time they open their folders they will see them.
I never thought of that, thanks for the great tip
I always used to put down some writeable scotch tape over those blocks on my character sheets.
I write any resource that can come and go often in the game in a separate page. HP, Hit dice, spell slots, traits that are restored in a short rest/long rest. It makes it very visually clear how many resources you have left when you see these little circles crossed (or not) all together in a single page.
I keep a note in my phone where I write down anything in erasable marker on my sheet. This is usually things like spells that I have active, spell slots used, hp, or super temporary inventory like explosives that I expect to use very soon. My inventory is made up of cards for the important stuff like weapons and tools, and a list of trinkets that have boxes next to them so I can put an 'x' in the box when I get rid of it.
I like the dry-erase markers because they're super easy to use during session, and I don't mind spending 5 minutes jotting stuff down in my notes app or the back of my journal/notebook. The other one that I rather enjoy is my magnetic hp/ spell slot tracker. It has a similar issue of possibly getting jumbled when session is over, but it's so much fun to use.
not having enough dice will never be a problem at my table cause we got 2 dice addicts with 30+ sets each haha
Only 30?
@@Ambers128 they said 30+ so it can go up by time of how much they play or some other reasons it's just that 30 is the lowest number
I have 4 of those and i am one of them😂
Lol. Im a gearhead
I have £100s of dice but they’re all from kickstarter and haven’t become a physical object yet
Yes please, encourage my players to bring me snacks...it appeases me.
+
I’d be okay with players just bringing themselves let alone snacks
I am the one who brings snacks. It might be hard candy one week and chips the next. Nobody asked me, I just brought it. And we go to the sibling’s house so we get fed half way through and they bring drinks. So might as well bring something because they’re nice enough let us to play there.
Insert Waynes World "We are not worthy!!!" Gif
Something I have done since as GM I host the game is make a night of it. We all start playing and order pizza, or get take out, and rotate through who is buying dinner for the night. Nights that are my turn if my players get really lucky my wife will cook for them.
I got a cheap little laminator, and laminated character sheets. Then you can use a fine permanent felt tip marker, and then used a bit of rubbing alcohol to remove it when it needs to be cleaned.
You can also just use wet erase markers so you just need a damp paper towel to make changes.
Since me and my player use binders for notes/character sheets etc., I got binder card sleeves for trading card binders to use with spell cards. It's like the players ACTUALLY have a spellbook and it's pretty neat.
Awww, I love it!!
As DM, I have a spare copy of everyone's character sheet, both so I can see their stats easier without having to ask them constantly, or in case someone forgets or loses theirs. Realistically, if someone forgets one of their character sheets, they're probably going to forget both.
My 4E game, I used folded index cards for this ... one side with a character's name and initiative count on the side facing the players ... the other side facing me having name, initiative (top right corner), attack bonus for main & secondary (bottom left), AC, Fort, Ref, Will and MaxHP (bottom right) ... sped combat up something fierce, as I could add up the base attack + buffs + circumstance bonus/penalty rapidly and get plenty of time for descriptive flair.
I make my players leave the character sheets with me.
Ted out here with a job and kids and a successful RUclips channel and he's still laughing at 69. Some things never change.
Oh, providing the guys with food is absolutely the best feeling, ever since my college game when I was a lot freer to bake or cook, either to bring something to the table, or just pitch in in a friend's kitchen once we gathered... I love being the guy who has extra dice/pencils/minis, especially when someone new joins the table, but all that pales in comparison to showing up with homemade cookies. And in my recent in-person game, I'm one of two bakers, so I got to experience the other side as well.
do you fantasize medieval bakery ambience?
Personally, I have never been able to identify with a character until I find a mini for them. Even for online characters I will make a model on Heroforge just to look at and not even buy. It just helps so much
I like having a mini as well. It helps me to have a visual of the mini I'd like to use.
HeroForge is the Devil himself. I spend to much Time in this Creator 😄 I love and hate it at the same Time
I'd love to see a video on alternative character sheets to Wizards default ones.
Me too
Ditto.
Nerd.
My players consistently spill drinks I keep 4 extra character sheets for a reason monster and Dr pepper have the most tpks of any game I've ran or played
I really enjoyed that last part, very wholesome. It has inspired me to encourage and boost my fellow players and DMs moods, instead of nonchalantly going through the motions (sometimes it's like that), it can instead change the whole mood to excitement and a very good one, making everything and everyone enjoyable.
Yeah, I try to stick with mostly facts, but occasionally opinion/experience just seems to important to leave out
Also if anything, now is a wonderful time to play D&D. Small groups, in homes, hours of safe fun!
Plus it can be done online
Yeah, I'd say the same thing, except I played Adventurer's League playing through a long module called Call of the Deep at a game store, which has closed its gaming rooms for the next few weeks at least, probably. Wish I'd gotten contact info from my fellow players and our DM last week.
@NoBoringChars Is that like a specialized sublist on Craigslist for finding one's co-players?
My mom has always says that if your going over to someone's house you should bring something to share.
Loving your stuff I'm recovering from from brain surgery and your videos are the perfect length to keep me interested at the moment
One of the people in our party got us all Kindle Fire tablets with D and D Beyond and a mass charger unit so we are all set and ready when we get together. Best and most extravagant gift ever! I have digital AND real dice (hundreds of 'em) too. And our group are serious terrain makers and my DM has countless minis. I am mightily blessed.
My number one suggestion is Frixion erasable pens!! I hate the look of pencil on a character sheet, so these give me the finished look of a pen but the impermanence I need!
Also if you use a hair dryer to erase big chunks of text it doesn’t leave a mark like pencil
If you got access to one: dollar tree is best place for basic gaming supplies: mech pencil, erasers, paper, index cards, clip boards, pens..your all covered
22:40 rolling tray idea: a bowl (with a towel in the bottom to lessen clatter, if prone to headaches). We used a retro hand carved wood salad serving bowl for dice games when I was a kid, and I have some felt lined dice cups for Yahtzee or rolling a handful of TTRPG dice at once.
Considering the dice tray, I kind of have a table rule about it to prevent issues. If you can afford metal dice, you can afford a tray for them. That's been my rule for a while when I'm running the game.
I don't care if they have a set of plastic dice, but metal dice tend to destroy tables and damage things.
I spent about $10 on making a custom, wooden dice tray using an unfinished cigar box that I'd picked up at Walmart with replacement fittings from Hobby Lobby, engraved it at the library with the laser etcher/cutter their makerspace has, painted the etched part, stained the box, sealed the box, and lined the interior with adhesive backed felt. Mine took almost a week to get everything done with (largely waiting for layers of stain and seal to dry), and learned a lot doing it. It fits my dice bag for the metal dice and the "spellbook" I'd been given a while back for my spellcards...and it's starting to get a bit beat up due to use and transport for a while now
I have metal dice, but I have never played a tabletop game, so I will keep this tip in mind if I ever play! Thank you!
When I made the switch to all metal, I got a button up dice tray first. And use a dice tower to break the fall. The GM didn't even have to say anything but to ask his wife if he could buy a set.
Dude, number one totally makes sense.Refreshments such as snacks or drinks is very expensive, especially if you were running a game on the weekly basis, that stuff adds up. Especially if you are the one hosting and paying for everything.
#3 (additional): Lacking a Dice Try or box lid (or there is no room for their use at a small table), use a Dice Cup. While there are fancy felt-lined leather dice cups for games such as Yahtzee, Backgammon or Craps, you can use a simple plastic or paper cup to roll your dice (avoid glass cups and mugs as they can slip and brake, and the rattling is horrible). For quick results, roll damage dice along with attack die/dice. If the attack roll failed, ignore damage result.
‘I’ll be playing DnD for 3 weeks.’
Never been so accurate before.
re: snacks/drinks at the table and making memorable events. My college group was over at my house for New Years, and we decided we were gonna party hardy and play some D&D. Well, long story short we got absolutely hammered and we were playing the Tomb of Horrors and WE WON! 6 completely drunk fools played and beat the Tomb of Horrors and it's a night i will never forget
I am returning to the game after 3 decades away. Because 30 yrs ago copiers/printers weren't everywhere, your character sheet had to survive. For any areas that got erased frequently, we took regular Scotch tape & covered that area with it. It had to be the kind that was translucent, not the transparent. You can write with pencil on the tape, and then erase as much as is needed.
No tearing and no ghosting..
I got so sick of other players forgetting their character sheets in my group that I bought the master subscription on D&D beyond and made them copy their sheets onto the D&DB campaign so we'd always have a backup, even if they forgot their devices too. I personally run entirely digitally except for my mini, dice and tray. Notes are on the cloud so I can access them on any device.
Hmm... how about granting inspiration for being on time and prepared for the game?
Not a bad idea
Tried that, let players use it on death saves. People were on time pretty often.
To not pollute the in game inspiration balance system with out of game actions, you could grant them meta-inspiration points for doing IRL things (like on time or snacks or being prepared), that let them “get away with” some slight meta gaming, like knowing game mechanics things their character wouldn’t (like ways to defeat spells) or monster weaknesses listed in the MM.
@@uberfuzzy just twist the story to their benefit once or twice. a DnD story set in stone is a railroad story anyway.
You don't really need a sub to DnD beyond unless 1. You wanna create more than 6 character or 2. You wanna share your book collection with the campaign (grant only 1 person in the campaign need a master Tier to enable content Share).
Most books come in PDFs via TheTrove ... thetrove.is/Books/Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons%20%5Bmulti%5D/5th%20Edition%20%285e%29/
Great list. In regards to writing utensils I would highly recommend Pilot Frixion pens, they're like gel pens but they erase very cleanly and are not harsh on paper and don't smear. They only erase with the built in eraser on the pen. They're very popular in Japan but can be found easily online.
My group uses dice trays that one of our players made for us, but we still get off track because of dice going off the table... mostly because we don't believe in dice jails, we believe in punishing them by yeeting them across the room
As DM, I help all my players create their characters (house rules) and keep a digital copy of their sheet on my PC (which I also send them by email) that I can print again if need be.
My game, action points have four varieties: Small aka learning action point grants an extra action with +1D6 to all rolls, and a chosen power used this turn is permanently improved.
Big aka spotlight action point grants an extra action with +1D6 to D20 rolls & +2D10 to damage until the end of your next turn (use it at the start of your turn for the biggest benefit).
Interrupting aka "breaking news" action point grants you an action that interrupts whatever another player or enemy is doing (great for screwing lurker monsters and spellcasters).
Renewing aka favorite power aka "my precious" action point recharges one of your used encounter powers and gives you an action to use that encounter power immediately again.
I hand out action points like candy whenever my players roleplay well, or make me laugh, or do anything else at the table that brings out their A-game. Good times, I miss it so much.
The point of mentioning this is that one of my players lost their character sheet, which I hadn't updated from the week before (no level up), which their player gained an improvement,
but both of us forgot what that improvement was, so I just gave them their old character sheet with one extra action point. Everyone at the table agreed that's fair and game continued.
I bought the spell cards because even though I make my players' character sheets on dndbeyond, I print them out and like to keep things pencil and paper during seasons when possible. Using dndbeyond to fill that stuff in at character creation and level up is absolutely great though.
Your charater only remembering what you remember is kinda stupid, becouse your charater doesn't have breaks in their life or live another life
Often times, your character is smarter and/or wiser than you are ... sometimes much much more so than you are due to high starting stats, level ups and magic gear.
In a 4E campaign, I've played super-genius wizards with magical enhancements that pushed their INT out to 30 and their WIS to 26 ... good times, I miss it so much.
When I DM'd games, history skill checks are a character's memory ... if you as a player forgot something, history DC 15 to remember ... and then I'd fill them in properly.
PS, I often used knowledge skill checks with low DCs to let the players know something about a location they're in, an NPC they encounter, or a monster they see.
@@AvangionQ I rarely play characters smarter than myself as I have a near genius level IQ (near MENSA level -- on a good day I might pass their membership exam), but I had a stroke six years ago, so my short-term memory is horrible and getting information into long-term memory is hard -- I can learn, but it is a constant struggle. Anyway, most characters I play are likely to have better memories than me. 🤕
A question that has bothered me for far too long. What is that translucent orange thing in the background?
On a more serious note, I love your videos. Thank you for taking the time and energy to put them together. It is one of my weekly rituals, and much appreciated.
Mass Effect 3 Omniblade
@@NerdImmersion definitely putting the *Nerd* in Nerd Immersion ;)
Another tip/accessory I rarely see in videos like this: matte scotch tape (the green one, not the purple) is fantastic at preventing erasing and/or writing through character sheets. You can write on them with pencil extremely well, and you'll never erase through it.
For any character I play with for more than a couple of sessions, I tape over HP, currency, ammunition/spell slots, and XP (if applicable).
Can you link what you're talking about? This sounds like a great idea
Totally relate to escaping dice slowing things down. My group always shouted “DIRTY DICE!” Whenever a dice fell on the ground and we would reroll. For my group in the future, having a rolling tray of some kind is top priority and inexpensive for the trouble it saves.
Also, totally agree on miniatures! I love miniatures because I’m a visual, tactile person and my character doesn’t exist until I have a mini. I think having minis for NPCs that are quirky or really flavourful helps separate DND from “realistic fantasy” TV shows and stuff people watch. I always keep in mind that DND is campy, sword-and-sorcery at its heart.
If you have a phone... use digital for all tracking information resources. It's just more efficient and faster. As for the rest... well we all become dice goblins at some point in our d&d journey... By all means if you want to have everything physical, GO FOR IT. D&D is all about you and what you prefer. TTRPG is made to be played and used the way you (and the ones you play with ofc) feel comfortable and find enjoyable.
Rule 3, if you can't hit the table with a die then your character can't hit either, or fails the skill check, that one of my rules on the tabletop
HP counter, I use a tiny D6 dice for both players and monsters placed next to their minis:
6 = maxHP with temp HP ... 5 = maxHP or near it, no temp HP ... 4 = above half HP (not bloodied)
3 = below half HP (bloodied) ... 2 = below surge value (bloodied) ... 1 = below 10 HP (about to die)
Take away the dice and lay the mini down when they're dying or dead. Really helps the healer sort out their priorities.
@ 16:00 If you see this, can you tell me what dice roller app you used?
When you started discussing snacks I feel like you missed a few. When I have my players come over I like to grill up some brats, ive gotta microbrew chilling in my wetbar, and I warm up some ziti. Ask the players to bring some tripple fried pizza dough or some frozen meatballs you can warm it up in my microwave or warm it up at home and bring it over piping hot. Figure out how much lunch meat you can spare, maybe 1lb and a half of honey baked ham. Maybe a german chocolate cake. I'll tell you what will make you a big hit with the guys some key lime pie, im talking ala mode some icecream on the side. And you have got to have a bite of my home made ziti im just gonna warm her up shes been in the freeze. You know what I love are some of those hot mozzarella sticks cube em up put em in the marinara sauce have those on the side but you can't go wrong with some sour cream and onion so long as you bring ridged chips. -Tim Heidecker, King of the Sack
Dear every player
Please take a picture of your character sheet
Some people forget their sheets
Nobody ever forgets their phone!!
Love the snacks discussion, so true! Food goes a long way at the table
Currently making my own TTRPG system, one of my priorities was to make Spellcasters a lot more approachable as a player. While my first priority was to get rid of Spell Slots in favor of a Mana Point system, my second priority was to make Spell Cards as a base component of the game, so I fully support them being included on this list.
A good way to prevent a lot of confusion is to make as much of the session electronic as possible. A co-worker of mine actually bought a lot of HP laptops from eBay and put all the d&d things on each laptop including character sheets, player's handbooks, game lore, website links, spell charts, etc. As a DM, I'm seriously considering doing something similar.
As far as snacks, I personally think that everyone should be encouraged but not forced to bring anything. It's always been my general rule that whoever is hosting should provide food. I'm the one who ALWAYS provides pizza. I don't know if I can focus on the game without pizza. Lol.
I too, love coffee. I love coffee so much that I just had to comment.
I am a little snobbish though. But if anyone got me coffee, I'd still love them for it.
I actually subscribed because of the Wildemount videos; I've watched your stuff before, but binge watching them better convinced me to subscribe.
Hey Ted! You made me laugh and nearly lose my coffee when you said "A pencil, mechanical" etc. I too love my P207 Pentel 0.7 in gold with a container full of spare graphite. Awesome!
Im so glad you finally released this ive been waiting ever since the dm vid
As a warhammer player, the idea of needing a dice roll app to play DnD is pretty funny!
We're over here resolving 40 attacks from a horde of orks, WITH A MASSIVE HANDFUL OF DICE.
Because that's just the way we roll 😎
... I'll see myself out.
A portrait of your character that you can stand up in front of you so that everyone else can see a constant reminder of what your character looks like.
10. Unique minis - great tip. Love it. While you were talking I thought of my favorite paperweight!
18:55 LOL, "If you can't remember, your character can't remember" isn't how my group usually plays, especially since two of us have ADHD, another OCD, and another works early shift so can get sleepy. But even when playing with neurotypical groups, we have players recount last time's key events and loot at the start of each session - which is super fun and usually hilarious. Everyone takes notes, not just the DM.
RE: #4 - Notebook
(paraphrasing here) "If you can't remember then your character can't remember..."
Keen Mind remembers...?!?
RE: #3 - Dice Rolling Tray
Go old school, find a Yahtzee dice rolling cup; load dice, hold with one hand, cover with the other, shake dice, slam dice rolling cup upside-down on table, lift to reveal results...?
;^p
Tons of ways to get cheap dice trays. If you're not proud, the top of a box of chocolates (or similar box top) works just fine. I personally use mini dice in an Altoids tin. If you want something a little less hobo tier, go to a dollar store and buy a thick picture frame. Take the glass out of it, boom, dice tray.
A shoebox lid could work as well.
I made one out of plastic canvas and yarn. Plastic canvas is cheap about $1 or less per sheet. I always have scrap yarn around.
I completely agree with the snack/drinks/etc.! When we used to play all day long, there is nothing better than taking a break where people can take a smoke break and/or have something to munch on to keep everyone engaged and happy. We never really drank except during Ravenloft campaigns on Halloween when we figured we were all screwed lol
Your discussion of item 1 is basically talking about kindness and politeness. All social graces that are rapidly becoming extinct.
As the DM I can outfit, no exaggeration, 127 people with a dice set, not including my own personal sets.
I love collecting dice. My GM generally just suggests we give one of our spare dice to represent ourselves on the map and a few games after I made the decision to get a hero forge mini.
A notebook is great, i also advise writing it in character (like a diary of the character) i have lots of fun reading back all the things.
Also your DM put a lot of effort in, honor them with writing down stuff.
As a DM, if my players dont have a binder to keep their sheets, i keep them so we dont have to worry about people forgetting them and as a player, im known as the snack goblin
I LOVE that you said snacks! Man, I wish I wasn't the one who always has to provide drinks and snacks. 😅
09:45 in my games my DM usually keeps our charactersheets while we keep second copies, but im usually the dude that has extra sheets for surprise joiners
Thanks Ted...this video clearly made me recognize what an enabler I am. My players don't need any of these tools, because I always have all of the pencils, notebooks, dice, trays, snacks, minis (my God the MINIS)...
To get around the issue with character sheets we years ago just have the GM keep all the character sheets in a folder.
I would say that have two kinds of minis: one or a cheap one that represents your character. I would say save the Hero Forged custom mini until you reach level 10 or higher.
16:13 Nice
Nice
I'm curious, what app was that?
@@AvangionQ DnDice I believe on the Google play store. It's free so there's that
@@saylamander6365 Thanks. Found it, installed on both phones.
This pretty much amounts to: Be prepared, be mindful of others, don't be stupid :)
Like the rundown though.
Rules. Paper. An instrument of writing. Other players. A game master. A randomizer. A place to play. Refreshments. Some of these might not be necessary, since you can do without some of them (solo play being a big one), but they are all pretty important for the games I play. So, what are the next two for you?
5e.tools helps with a lot of that, they are coming out with a character builder but that is in closed beta rn I do believe, but it has a list of all official classes, subclasses, spells, creatures, races, backgrounds, where they all come from and anything else you could want like variant rules from different books and again it tells you what book each one is from, you can also look at thinks like ua books but you have to turn those books on, also it can roll things for you like height but it can't do rolls where your stats are involved til they add a character creator, you can also add all your spells you know to a list
D&D Beyond and my iPad have revolutionized my D&D experience. My character is right there, I take notes in a note app, I can roll dice in D&D beyond and all my other players and DM can see my rolls, and when I don't need to be doing any of those things I sketch scenes or characters in Procreate. That said, I am geeking out hardcore for the Pixels kickstarter and looking forward to connecting the D20 to Alexa and my colored lights to flash all the lights and LED strips in my house colors and play music when I roll a 20 lol.
show up "ready to roll" .... :) :)
I get the impression this guy doesn’t refill his mechanical pencils.
#1 for our group is Bottles of Wine!!!!
That would be a lot of books since I play Warforged (Eborron) Evocation (PHB) who uses Jim's Magic Missle (AI) and my Backstory have me be a Palli Elf (Wildmount).
So that's 4 books and yet I don't need to look through them thanks to DDB.
I bring snack to live DnD but I also provoid the other players/DM access to all my book on DnD (Basically all 5e books).
I also brought a set of dice for each player and the DM
28:21 I'm ready for 3 weeks of nonstop d&d 😈
About the minis:
Im so happy i dedicated the past 3 years learning 3D sculpting and also bought a 3D printer, now that I’m getting full into TT roleplaying i can make any mini for any new character i want (at least until they let me be the DM, then I’ll much likely be forever in that spot)
i play on FG and i still keep up with spell cards when i played warlock. made it easier to plan my next round if i was thinking of using my spell slots or my staff of power. might use the cards also for my cleric.
25:30 Yes! I've taken to printing or copying my class, race, other key details to write notes on and keep with my character sheet, and then might or might not crack open the player handbook if needed. When it's time to level up, my packet of notes is already turned to the correct page and I don't get distracted by the PHB.
This is particularly useful because my group homebrews a lot of details even though we mostly follow 5e rules. My sister's DMing our second campaign in her own universe. Our other main game is Dragon Age D&D but not with the DA TTRPG rulebook, but some details from the World of Thedas wiki. And her other ongoing campaign is Curse of Strahd, which she's been playing with some of our friends for over a year.
I'm the dm and my family provides food for 2adult and 3teen players each week. Sometimes one of the adults brings the whole family. Then we have 16 folks for dinner. This is great because our younger kids are good friends, and the non playing adults are friends as well. So everyone benefits from the players bringing extra friends.
Our DM has a tub of lego minis we're using for our current campaign PCs. It's great.
Next video: Top 10 accessories for DMs - number 10: table, number 9: room
"Hey man, I brought you some coffee."
"Coffee? Sick! Thanks :D"
There are some people who don't like surprise food, but many people are jazzed about it
Also re: ttrpg books, check if your local library has copies. I serially checked out the PHB for our table and it was a huge help to have another copy when none of us had funds.
SIR, we need an updated vr of this. Preferably before Christmas
It's on the list!
First time ever: Read the notes and gave the video a thumbs up! :P
Are you going to cover the new spells from Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount?
Yup
What are your thoughts on The Rook & The Raven's DM/GM planners and Player Diaries? I ordered one (pre built) but am thinking of getting one of the custom built diary and planner....
I'll reach out and see what I can find out
@@NerdImmersion Thanks so much!
Nice dice roll on the app.
16:00 I'm curious, what app was that?
I've been a DM for over a year and a half now, I often use miniatures for inspiration for the story aspect of the game.
My mini is a fairy garden Gnome in a Hawaiian Tshirt with a drink in his hand.
Saying IRL is the same amount of syllables as saying “in real life.”
You remind me of my high school band teacher. (That's a good thing btw).
me and my friends only use tactile pieces. i.e. books, notebooks, cards, minis, and mats.
If I have to roll 12 d8, I'm stealing every person's d8s to roll. I do have a rolling app, but it's not about the efficiency, it's about the power trip.
Me and one other friend (in a group of 5 players) were the only ones who consistently remembered our character sheet and I had to write out out their stats (we had pictures on the wattsapp group but we put our phones away for the session) at least 5 times each
#4 - notebook. SO MUCH. And *use it*.
In one campaign I'm in, even though as a player I provide a summary of our last session, we still have the occasional "oh I forgot" or "eh, didn't read it" moments. i'm going to cease doing that soon.
And in the session that I'm running, I asked the others to recap what happened last time for the new player at the table, and I had to correct them so often that at some point I said "screw it, I'll give you a summary off the top of my head that's more accurate".
It irks me in both roles because I take the time to prepare for our games.
If a die rolls off of the table, we count it as a auto crit fail
Only half way through but not great so far. I'll keep watching
Show some d12 love!
necronomicon is a dungeon master guide right?
My girl bought some druid spell cards, but multiclassed as a battle master. Now she just fights lol
good video keep them coming
I love the unearthed arcana stuff