Before I get into this, do not mistake me, I am not bemoaning the modern technology that we are enjoying. I am very much busy enjoying my 3d printer (currently down for maintenance, but most recently working on modular bar pieces) and the use of such technology as Discord and Roll20 to play online during the COVID isolate in place orders, Google Drive and Docs to share files with the group as well as gather files for the campaign, and all the various free bits of software, both from WotC and 3rd party designers. However, some of these technologies can become very expensive - the 3d printer addiction will likely outstrip the rest, only because my video gaming addiction meant I already have an expensive gaming rig for that addiction and not necessarily for tabletop RPGs - both in software and hardware and may not be for every party. The free and paid character creators and sheets from D&D Beyond, for example, work very well, but unless you are able to spend quite a bit of money on a tablet, the sheet is way too slow at accessing information for comfort at a gaming table. Plus, you lose something in muscle memory when you create something digitally versus writing it onto paper. As such, these tips and tricks are not for every group (they may not even be for my own group, we will find out soon), but have worked well for me in the past.
The following is for my D&D 5e campaign, but I have used many of these in other tabletop RPGs, and most of these are for the players as well as the DM. For everything that I purchased for this week's presentation to my players, I went to WalMart and priced everything there, as I wanted to try and get the most common prices across the US, though you may find these cheaper elsewhere, like at Staples or Office Depot, or even online at Amazon.
The first and probably most relevant to modern technology is fine tip dry erase markers (found at WalMart for $4.74 for 5 in a variety of colors). I say that these are the most relevant to modern technology as dry/wet erase boards are far more available and prevalent than they were 20 years ago. In fact, back when 3rd edition first came out and I first ran into this idea, we did not have dry erase markers, they were called overhead projector markers (still are) as there were not any dry erase boards but schools had been using overhead projectors for decades. Dry erase markers are fantastic for both the party and the DM, as the DM can create a map board with some plexiglass (which can get a bit expensive for the larger sheets, but cost can be offset by having your players chip in to a party fund) and poster boards. You tape the poster boards to the back of the plexiglass after you mark out your 1 inch (or whatever, I am considering a 1/2 inch grid and utilize 15mm minis instead of 28/32mm heroics to get more room for maneuver in my battles) with a simple yard stick and a permanent marker on the poster boards. In the picture below, you can see some of my 3d printed walls and terrain bits on my own 1 inch grid board.
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| these have all been painted by now, and look fantastic |
The dry erase markers are great to quickly mark out any terrain or pertinent information that I do not have a model or miniature or marker for. Note that I use regular chisel tip markers on my battle map, just to cover more area quickly, but the fine tips work well for certain applications and should be your first purchase over the chisel tips. The other use of the dry erase markers, more pertinent to the players and why I said that fine tips should be your first purchase is character sheets. Now, I am not saying your players should use the dry erase markers directly on their character sheets, but in addition to the markers, they need to invest in some sheet protectors. I found, on my little WalMart expedition, a pack of 20 economy sheet protectors for $0.88. Since each player is only going to need a few each, this pack is enough for my party, at least for their current characters. Once the players have their regular character sheets filled out (the stock ones direct from WotC are good looking enough, and if no one in your group has a computer and printer to print them off, someone can do it from work, or the party can pitch in and have a bunch printed up at your local Staples or Office Depot, or even most public libraries offer print for pay services) with pencils, they slip them into the sheet protectors and use the dry erase markers on the outside of the sheet protectors to record temporary information - current and max HP, Death Saves, any temporary buffs or debuffs to skills or stats or any other characteristic, XP gains, and even keep track of spells cast and material components consumed. Once you get to the end of the game session, the players simply pull out their sheets and write down anything they need to know for the next game session. I am kicking myself for forgetting this one, as my players' sheets look atrocious, with notes and markings and even eraser rub holes, to the point that I have printed up pristine new sheets for everyone and part of next session will be them transferring their characters to the new sheets. And I have a ton of dry erase markers floating around that I have been using specifically with this campaign, so not doing this before now is doubly frustrating for me.
Speaking of pencils, I provide to my players BIC Matic Grip Mechanical Pencils that I get in bulk from the local Sam's Club. This could be something your group pitches in for, as they are used by the whole group. You do not have to buy that specific brand, but I have been using them for multiple decades with great success, and if you do have a bulk store account, can be had for not a lot of money per pencil. I suggest a mechanical pencil, as you do not have to worry about providing sharpeners, but if you want to go with something more reusable than the BICs I shared above, you can find nice ones and refills for both the leads and the erasers easily enough. I find the BICs write well, erase well, and last quite a long time, but when they run out of lead or eraser, I do not feel I wasted my money throwing it away and grabbing a new one.
Next up is something to keep said sheet protectors in. Currently I keep all of the character sheets at my house so that if any of the players do not make a game, we can pass off their character to someone else to keep the game going. To that end, I had a mess of manila folders leftover from other uses at my house and gave one to each player to hold their sheets, and even stapled in the crit/fumble charts and the initiative chart we use in the game. However, I really should have listened to Seth Skorkowsky and started the campaign with each player having their own 3-ring binders that I had prefilled with paper and sheet protectors and other info. During my trip to WalMart, I found the cheapest option which has no inside or outside pockets, merely some plastic front and back covers and the requisite 3 rings to hold onto punched items. These run $0.88 and will suffice for the very economically-minded gamers out there, and they do not take up a bunch of room. However, even going up to a half inch binder with cardboard covers and extra pockets inside and out will only run you $2.64 apiece. You do not need much more than about half an inch ring size, as anything more than that and you will want to clean out old, unneeded information. I am upgrading my players this next session, but this could easily be another group purchase to further defray the costs for each of the individuals.
Of course, if you have a 3 ring binder, just holding some character sheets in it seems a bit of a waste of space. That is why I am also recommending that, as a player or a DM, you put in some filler paper, preferably college ruled, which I found 150 page packs for $0.82. Why regular notebook paper? Easy, you take notes on notebook paper. After the basic rulebook for whatever system you are playing and your character sheet for that game, having something to take and keep notes on is probably the most important item in your inventory. And yes, I am including dice in that equation, you can always borrow dice from someone else at the table, or I have even played in games where the group could afford exactly one set of dice and so the game master rolled for everybody. Yet having somewhere other than merely the back of your character sheets to write notes will mean you are better prepared to play the game - what is the name of the NPC quest giver? the local ruler? the big bad? what is the name of the city/kingdom/area you are in? what was that rumor(s) we heard in the tavern again? how much gold are we getting to save the son/daughter of the local important person? what was that cryptic poem carved into the front door of this dungeon? Note paper is there to take notes, and you should definitely be taking notes in any RPG, even in one shot adventures. A couple of years back, before I joined the group that morphed into the group I am running games for, I was jones'ing for a game bad enough that I went and played a game at my friendly local gaming store's (FLGS) Adventurers League night. I do not have anything against the Adventurers League, in fact I think it is a fantastic idea and if I had more time in my life, would probably offer to run AL night at my FLGS. Anyway, I show up, having taken a gaming hiatus pretty much from the introduction of 3.5 through 4th edition D&D, and run a one shot with a pregenerated character they handed me that night. I ran across that character sheet a week or so back, and the back of the character sheet, the blank part of it, is full of notes, little drawings of maps, a puzzle we ran into in the dungeon, and that was from a gaming session that lasted 3 hours. Plus, writing something down manually means you retain it better than if you just type it into your phone, tablet, or computer (and far better than just trying to remember whatever). Notes, while not often discussed when people talk about tabletop RPGs, turn out to be very important.
Speaking of notes, the next thing you should add to your brand spanky new 3-ring binder is some graph paper (which I found also at WalMart, 80 pages for $1.76). Very much old school, but I think graph paper is very useful for dungeon-crawl type medieval fantasy RPGs. Now, not every player at the table needs to map out the dungeon to the exact dimensions, but it would behoove at least one player to be the party cartographer and do so. Have you been to every room on this level, cannot locate the way forward, and is there an odd empty space between a couple of the rooms? Chances are there is a secret door in one of those rooms that you have not located, but you only notice that if you really pay attention to the dungeon cartography. Is it 100% required in any game? No, but having the tools available, and especially for under $2, makes this a good addition to any player's toolkit. All of you game masters out there, should definitely be practicing their map creation skills. You do not have to be Dyson Logos, but if you want good tactical combat, you should at least learn by messing around with graph paper. Yes, there are plenty of good graphing programs for free on the internet, but there is something about physically drawing out a dungeon (or an abandoned warehouse in the combat zone, if you are playing Cyberpunk 2020) that ties you to it and makes it your own.
The next bit of old school trickery I am passing along is to suggest you pick up some 3x5 index cards (sorry, cannot locate a link, but a 300 count of ruled ones I got at Wally World for a mere $1.44) and a box to keep them in (also a WalMart purchase, for $1.88). This trick comes from the days before products like The Deck of Many's many products, there just was no company two decades ago offering anything like their monster, spell, or weapon decks. And I am not saying that, if you find them affordable, you should not use their products, but for many a player who is trying to game on a budget or as inexpensively as possible, a stack of 3x5 index cards and a box to hold them in (for less than $3.50) is the way to go. Even if you do purchase any of The Deck of Many's products, or any of their competitor's products for that matter, there are many things you can (and should) do with index cards. The new edition of D&D, 5e, is far simpler than previous editions, but there are still many powers and abilities each character earns as they play the game. Let us take probably the simplest class, the one almost every player tries at the beginning, the fighter. Level one they have a Fighting Style and the Second Wind ability. Level two, they get Action Surge. Level three they choose a Martial Archetype, which gives them an ability at 3rd, 7th, 10th, 15th, and 18th levels, which could simply be an ability at the named levels or spells and an ability or different maneuvers, three to start with, plus the aforementioned abilities. They get an Extra Attack at 5th, 11th, and 20th. And finally, they get the Indomitable ability at 9th level, which improves at 13th and again at 17th. That is a lot of things to keep track of, and while writing them all down on the character sheet (front and back, let us be honest) is one thing, but if you write each ability, each maneuver, each spell down on a card of its own, by hand, not only will the muscle memory help you remember each of those things. Plus you have the reference for each of those to hand and you do not have to go digging in the Player's Handbook each time you want to do something. Not only do index cards allow you quick reference, but having the physical cards allows you to keep track of your abilities and whatnot. This ability refreshes after a short rest - after you use it, flip it over and, since you have written "Refreshes after short or long rest" on the back, you know that after the party has a short rest, you flip it back over to the front and you can use it again, because that reminder is right there. For the game masters out there, and I am as guilty of not doing this (before now) as anyone else, use your 3x5 cards to track your NPCs, your side quest rumors, your treasure hoards (if you prepare those for your big bads beforehand), your big bads, your scratch built monsters, and you can even find 3x5 cards with grid lines on them to do pieces of maps or even geomorphs. I think Jim Murphy has some of the best ideas for index cards and their use by game masters, you should watch it here. I may even get a fancy wooden box for my index cards if I do them up correctly.
My last suggestion for players and game masters alike are Post-It Flags (found at WalMart for $2.88). Everyone should have at least the basic rulebook for whatever game they are playing - the PHB for D&D, the core rulebook for Cyberpunk 2020 - and a good way to reference your books is to use these little plastic flags to mark sections in the book. Here is my own PHB, all flagged up.
This has been marked for what I, as the DM, need for my game, so this may not be the markings you need for your game. Maybe you are a player that is playing a dwarven cleric, so you would mark the dwarf race entry, the cleric class entry, the equipment entry, and then each of your often used spells. You may be a fighter or some other character who uses the movement rules a lot and so you mark those sections specifically. You can mark your books however you want to. And yes, I know I spent the last section talking about using 3x5 index cards instead of referencing the books, but it never hurts to have the source material to hand. Especially if you are a DM, you will need these little beauties, all of the sections and tables in odd places in the Dungeon Master's Guide, all the different sources and bits of information from the published adventure you are either running or stealing from, and all the bits from Xanathar's Guide you are allowing your players to use (but not the ones they dare not touch, or face your wrath).
There you go, for roughly $10 ($15 if you go fancy on some of the items) you can improve your game. Adopt some of them, or none of them, but thinking about how you can improve your game from either side of the screen is always a good thing. Remember, if you and everyone else is having fun, then you are doing something right.
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