What kind of visual aids do you use?

[Frog Dragon]

So tell what visual aids do you use. I've been wondering how many people actually play with 3d environments and minis. I personally have printed out maps from the dungeon tile mapper along with coloured map needles to signify different characters and NPC:s/enemies

[kamuishirou]

Since early 3ed we used minituares. It was always a lot of fun to see a pile of minis in the middle of the table after the battle. Gave a sense of accomplishment. You also remembered how many you had killed and looted the bodies :).

I've used candles for the late night/Halloween games for mood lighting.

I've done the crimpled paper and burned the edges for PC handouts.

I also have my D&D playlist on my iPod with FF VII, 300 & Gladiator soundtracks. Though I'm not sure how visiaul those are :).

[bosssmiley]

Minis (GW, RP, WOTC, Grenadier, etc. scale minis)
Battlemats and dungeon tiles (GW, WOTC + generic)
Cheap plastic dinosaurs, sharks, bugs, castles and pirate ships (these scale to 25-30mm models surprisingly well)
'Parchment' handouts (actually rice paper)

[shadowfox]

My campaigns have generally been more hack-and-slash, so visual aids really only extended to maps. Hand-drawn and pre-made, on quad rule paper. Sometimes, though, I would play without a map, which, although made some problems, they were minor and everyone understood if I made a mistake (mostly of the inconsistency type, but still). However, one kind of non-battle visual aid has always been included: an overall map of the world, which I put cities, towns, and other areas of interest, major roads and highways, geographic formations and the general terrain type (mountain, plains, forest, desert, etc.), and borders of countries. However, I've always been yearning for more, so I've been encouraging more flavor-based characters that, while not sup-optimal, aren't going to be as good as they could be... Mainly, roleplaying.

My first successful attempt at roleplaying was doing my most original NPC: a Tiefling Swashbuckler named Valentine (pronounced Val-en-teen, because I thought it sounded better). Now, I really, really have a hard time roleplaying, for reasons I won't bore you with. But with Valentine, I stood up, walked around the table, and did emotions, expressions, and gentle hand movements (I tend to make large hand movements when I talk... It's a Cuban thing, according to my mother). I know this probably isn't very special, but it was a big deal to me... In the same campaign, I took Turians from Mass Effect and included them into it, using a picture of one I got from the internet, since there was a barbarian-type continent, and I thought that they would fit in with their general appearance.

In my upcoming campaign, I'm actually hoping to use a variety of visual aids, both in battle and out of battle. I'm going to toy with normal grid paper, game mats, game mats with models, and, a throwback to when I would play Warhammer 40000, just models (however, the models I use will be the very same WH40k models, since I don't really have the money to go out and buy D&D or medieval-type ones). I also want to give them physical props, such as letters or important clues, to liven things up and to make sure they don't forget they have something important (as might happen if they stick it into their Inventory table).

Tiny bit off-topic, but slightly related: Although not visual, I do hope on using music to enhance the feel of the game. A site that I was introduced to at Otakon '07, http://www.ocremix.org/, has a large amount of video game renditions, and not just anyone can contribute; a panel of judges will critique the songs and deem it worthy enough to be included or not. Even if all your PCs have played Final Fantasy VII, they won't react immediately to you playing a redone version of One-Winged Angel (and then proceed to tell stories about what happened to them in the game).

[Avor]

I have used hand drawn maps, scetches and music of my computer once.

I love doing up maps, everything from world maps all the way down to the inside of houses. I'm not to good, but I realy like to draw stuff, scenery like what the players see going to a new area, buildings to show the style of the town.

[Seffbasilisk]

I've done hand-drawn maps, graph paper, sketches, and Mage Knight figures.

[arguskos]

I jump around and wave my hands a lot. :smallbiggrin: No really, I actually do. I'm a very expressive person IRL, so I tend to use super exaggerated hand motions, lots of funny voices, and the like. For example, I like to help my players understand the battlefield by acting it out sometimes (they always laugh at me, but I think it's fun).

I also tend to use maps, white board-style. God, I couldn't play D&D anymore w/o a HUGE white board (we nick a classroom here on campus on the weekend and play in that).

[Lappy9000]

We just use the (now laminated) 1x1 battle grid from the back of the Dungeon Master's Guide. For the characters and monsters, we use LEGOs (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4908595&postcount=47), substituting in plain red pieces when there are enemies that can't really be built.

[AslanCross]

I drew a 1"x1" grid on sheets of A3 paper and had those laminated. They're really dirty now (and slightly discolored from being in a fire which burned down my office), but they work fine. I draw with a white board marker and use minis.

One time I really didn't have a mini for the creature I was about to run (Bluespawn Godslayer), so I cobbled together an appropriately-sized miniature from my brother's Zoids. It was pretty impressive and gave my players a good fright. :D

I'd really like to use some more cardboard to represent elevation, since now it's mostly just imaginary and noted down on the board. I find that the cardboard inserts used in the miniatures boxes might work well for this purpose.

I also sometimes download art from the net (either official D&D art or stuff from DeviantArt) to represent creatures I really want to show the players. Otherwise I draw my own interpretations, but that's relatively rare since it's time consuming.

[Avor]

An example of what I do

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/Avor/IMG_0042.jpg

I often don't use them, but I also do have some minitures. Here's one I made for my friend back on base,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/Avor/IMG_0021.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/Avor/IMG_0017.jpg

[Egiam]

I jump around and wave my hands a lot. :smallbiggrin: No really, I actually do. I'm a very expressive person IRL, so I tend to use super exaggerated hand motions, lots of funny voices, and the like. For example, I like to help my players understand the battlefield by acting it out sometimes (they always laugh at me, but I think it's fun).

Me too! I tend to smack the table a lot for drama and point to the left when describing monsters etc. I also raise and lower my voice and change my accent for even more excitement ("(so you are coming around the corner, and you see a BLACK CAULDRON. Then (I leap out of the chair here and drop a book on the floor) a goblin jumps out at you!

I think you get the idea.

[arguskos]

Me too! I tend to smack the table a lot for drama and point to the left when describing monsters etc. I also raise and lower my voice and change my accent for even more excitement ("(so you are coming around the corner, and you see a BLACK CAULDRON. Then (I leap out of the chair here and drop a book on the floor) a goblin jumps out at you!

I think you get the idea.
Yeah, when they were fighting an enemy that liked throwing stuff at them.... I sorta started throwing dice at them to make my point. :smallbiggrin: That wasn't such a big hit (no pun intended).

[RavKal]

I drew a 1"x1" grid on sheets of A3 paper and had those laminated. They're really dirty now (and slightly discolored from being in a fire which burned down my office), but they work fine. I draw with a white board marker and use minis.

This reminds me of a friend who accidentally started his house on fire and when sorting through the attic after found a set of 1st Ed books...just so awesomely burned, just a bit on the edges.

But as for aids, I draw maps and I typically use a homebrewed travel system to go with it. And music is essential, breaks pauses and all that.

And I work up these cool little scrolls for important plot items.

[BRC]

I'm a big fan of physically demonstrating attacks, especially finishing blows on enemies, often by having one of the players stand up to play the enemy. I have also, a few times during this campaign, handed out printouts containing encoded messages for the PC's to decipher. Other times I type up and print out (my handwriting sucks) documents containing important information that the PC's recieve.

[Froogleyboy]

An example of what I do

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/Avor/IMG_0042.jpg

I often don't use them, but I also do have some minitures. Here's one I made for my friend back on base,

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/Avor/IMG_0021.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v456/Avor/IMG_0017.jpg

You MADE those minis?

[Avor]

You MADE those minis?

Painted, reaper minitures rock. There are so many you can't help but find a match for your character. My friend played a swashbuckling elf with a pet dog Shinobi

http://www.thewarstore.com/reaperdarkheaven.html

http://www.thewarstore.com/reaperwarlord.html

[Ryver]

I went to Target and grabbed a fairly large picture frame. I then got a PDF file of one-inch graph paper to exactly match the size of my picture frame (link (http://www.incompetech.com/graphpaper/)) and got it printed out at Kinko's. The plan was to put it down on the table and draw on it with dry-erase. And it works well, in theory, but the frame I picked has hardware on the back that both holds it together and utterly destroys the surface below.

I'm now investigating the possibility of homemade dungeon tiles made out of thin cardboard or something. I could print off some textured grids on photo paper and glue them on top... that may be a better plan. More portable, easier to visualize.

The only problem is minis. I don't have any, and I have no idea where to get them, how to paint/modify them, or where to go to learn these things. Most sites that sell minis are remarkably unhelpful. At one point, I intended to use chess pieces, but minis would definitely be cooler.

[rampaging-poet]

+1 for acting, especially finishing blows, critical hits, and whatever happens when the dice don't agree with whatever stunt my players have cooked up.

I also use miniatures and a large, laminated sheet of 1*1 grid paper. However, I don't actually have very many figs, so I often end up improvising. Most commonly I take all the figs of appropriate size I can find and say "Pretend these are spiders" or whatever, but sometimes that doesn't work.
I have a pair of Oxy pad boxes for use as gelatinous cubes. I once used one of those red and yellow K'nex balls as a beholder. Oh, and I confused my players by having two dice represent a carrion crawler, leading them to believe there were twice as many monsters as there actually were.

EDIT: Also, army men. Lots and lots of army men. I've got two colours, so I can have two different types of enemy mook or use one colour for low-level NPC allies.

[Thurbane]

Mainly minis and a battle mat. Also, on occasion, dungeon furniture purloined form board games and such, as well as Play-Doh to mold out other terrain features...

[Olo Demonsbane]

I'm a big fan of physically demonstrating attacks, especially finishing blows on enemies, often by having one of the players stand up to play the enemy. I have also, a few times during this campaign, handed out printouts containing encoded messages for the PC's to decipher. Other times I type up and print out (my handwriting sucks) documents containing important information that the PC's recieve.

Ok, you go stand there, where the kobold is. Kneel down on the ground. Now where did I put my samaurai sword....

[Learnedguy]

Legoes.

Lots and lots of Legoes:smallamused:

[Cherubim]

I usually get high res versions of the maps, put them together in Photo Impact, get pictures to use for the monsters and players and make these moveable on the map.
We have a TV everyone at the table can look at, so I use a S-Vid cable to extend my desktop on it and position the map there. Works great so far :D
Mabye not as cool as miniatures, but alot cheaper :smallbiggrin:

Potential Spoiler for Rescue at Rivenroar:
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7117/visualaid.jpg

Yes, those are Smurf-Archers :P

[Yora]

I use the figures from a Risk game. It's a pretty old game, so they are just colored plastic markers that don't look like anything.
I have six colors and three shapes. And I have masses of blacks and reds. :smallamused:

We just put then on the table and estimate distance by thumb. If terrain is important, I take a sheet of paper and roughly outline any important features.

[Fifty-Eyed Fred]

Lol, we usually just use Monopoly Pieces if we need anything :P

It works surprisingly well actually, when you have a Hat, Wheelbarrow, Dog and Iron for players. :smallbiggrin:

[Crowbar]

My guys generally use hand-drawn maps, the dice we aren't currently using and, on occasion, the little metal miniatures I have.

[Thajocoth]

On the lowest layer is obviously the table. Unfortunately, it's a rectangle.

On top of that somewhere in the middle is a flat object. This object is a whiteboard on one side (irrelevant) and metal on the other.

On top of that is where we put the Tact-Tiles. (For those who don't know, these are interlocking dry-erase board grid pieces. It's 1-inch per square, 10x10 squares per tile, 12 tiles that can be interlocked. Discontinued, but they're making a not-quite-as-good version called Battlegraph now. The advantage of Tact-Tiles is cross-locking to use one tile instead of two if the players reach a choke point.)

The next layer are the magnetic circles we use for status effects. A red circle, for example, would mean bloodied. The metal under the tiles keeps the magnets from making the minis stick together.

Them, obviously, the minis.



There is no artistic prepwork. All the drawing is done by the GM with a dry-erase marker as we see it.

[Waspinator]

I've got a couple of battle mats (the Paizo dry-erase square grid ones) that are pretty useful. For minis, mine are a little homemade. I grab art from various sources (Deviant Art, Google Image Search, official D&D mini galleries, the art excerpts on the D&D site, etc...), fiddle with them a bit to get two images mirrored across a line, and then bust out the stand templates, hot glue, and coins.


http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/7606/minidemo.jpg
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/7499/minis2.jpg


They're a little crude, but can be customized to a high degree if you're willing to take the time in MS Paint.

[d13]

Uhm... A whole cardboard made a battle grid, with 2,5cm*2,5cm tiles...

And one of the players drew every character, a bunch of generic monsters and whatsoever, and made "miniatures". They're pretty awesome.

I don't have my camera now xP.

[FatherMalkav]

I a major WoD player with is light on board/minis and that carries over in many cases. Props are common though.

[Waspinator]

I've never played WoD, so I don't know how it works there, but I would never play D&D 3.5 or Star Wars Saga without minis and a grid. There's just too many things that depend on factors like "how many of these stormtroopers fit in this cone?" or "can I place my fireball to hit all of the goblins but none of us?"

[Bluebeard]

We're all about the Legos.

And graph paper. We don't know what we're supposed to do with it exactly, but a guy who used to be in our group used pretty often so we do too.
I like to draw dinosaurs on my sheets. Someone else writes funk tunes.

And those white boards all respectable lacrosse coaches are supposed to have.
The ones with the field sketched out and all.
The type of thing that can be embarassing to bring to practices the day after a session when you forget to erase.

[Yora]

Lego is cool, because you can dress them up. ^^

[Lord Loss]

Personally i enjoy using D&D Minis, find out which expansion correpsonds to your campaign idea, (example: If ur going when ZOMBIES ATTACK , go Unhallowed, If ur going bugbears, use War Drums) or buy singles.

DUNGEON TILES, Specifically:

Streets of Shadow

Ruins of the Wild

Forgotten Crypts (Or something, i dont remember the exact name)

Photocopy the mini dungeons grid at the end of the 3.5 DMG, theyre helpful, i sometimes create a video introduction to the D&D adventure which gives the players a sense of EPIC.

Ban things like gameboys and books. I once had an ULTIMATE PLOT REAVEALING EPIC MOMENT that lasted 5 minutes, only to have a player scream, in mid-epic moment: My Monferno Evolved! So, what were you saying?