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Stregg
2011-04-23, 10:04 PM
Hey everyone this is my first time posting here,:smallbiggrin: and I was wandering if any of you guys had an little tricks you did to make your games run more smoothly, or save money. Such as using coins with labels as minis or something like that.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6ewNiITJVk&feature=player_detailpage#t=264s


Thanks Guys!:smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::sm allbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggrin::smallbiggr in:

DontEatRawHagis
2011-04-23, 11:17 PM
Proxy with Dice. Works just as good as minis and even can be used to keep track of Initiative or DaMaGe. My dm use them to keep track of status affects.

Psyborg
2011-04-24, 08:36 AM
Get a dry-erase board from Wal-Mart, score straight lines across it with a sharp (Xacto is easiest) knife, one inch apart, and you have a battle map ready to have terrain sketched on it with dry-erase markers.

Obviously, while you're at Wal-Mart, don't forget to also buy dry-erase markers. (Yes, I've done this. :smallredface:)

Volos
2011-04-24, 11:27 AM
Printing out paper minis is a way to make respresentations of PCs/NPCs that can be recognized without having to break the bank. I've used them often so that certain important NPCs or baddies can be recognized by my players without me having to prompt them. I've found that many paper minis can have muliples of the same type of figure, each with slightly different artwork. It's nice as a DM to hear players declare, "I attack the goblin with the feather hat and limp arm!" rather than "I attack the monster closest to me."

Stregg
2011-04-24, 06:35 PM
Proxy with Dice. Works just as good as minis and even can be used to keep track of Initiative or DaMaGe. My dm use them to keep track of status affects.

LoL funny you said that cause I do it.

Jarawara
2011-04-25, 12:52 AM
My first DM used chess pieces to represent the monsters. They were large pieces, from a child's toybox.

It was kind of odd, facing of against a 3-inch high Queen with my 1-inch high miniature. She stood there, towering over my Barbarian. I cowered in fear before her might, then got up the courage to ask the DM just what doth this towering monstrosity be?

DM says: "It's a Kobold."

Bang!
2011-04-25, 04:35 AM
I don't want to say "tricks," but GMing patterns I've picked up that seem to make things easier and more fun:

Take notes. Lots of notes. Not on crap like your campaign world's economic patterns or a region's biodiversity, but about what works with your players. If they're interested in a particular thing, remember that. Try to work it in later. If there's a joke or a one-off comment that was memorable, but never went anywhere, work it in again. Themes are what keep things memorable. They're also funny redirects.

Short sessions are good. People lose interest, zone out if things get too long (and when one person stops having fun, group dynamics start to become problematic). If you make a habit of keeping things brief, your players will be a bit more focused. It's also easier to work a 2-3 hour session into a schedule than an all-day thing, so attendance is less of a chore. You can play videogames, cook and do other things that aren't dependent on a full group paying its full attention beforehand or afterward.

Scan/Copy of character sheets. Both because the information is useful for you to have on hand, and because somebody will lose theirs (or accidentally walk off with a copy and lose it, or go to the bathroom and lose it; those things just disappear). It's not usually a huge deal to rebuild a FATE character, but something using d20, GURPS or Unisystem can be a huge pain and eat through the better part of an hour.

Match the system to the game you want to play. It sounds basic and stupid, but if you want to play something "gritty," don't use Savage Worlds. If you don't want your players to worry about min-maxing or rutting around for rules combos, don't use D&D. This can be a quiet and subtle way to avoid distractions that you're not interested in.

Match the game to the group. If you're going to play a game with players who just want to fool around and act goofy on a rainy day, don't subject them to a tactical combat game with 30 pages of required reading. Play Baron Munchausen or Sea Dracula instead.