Battlemat troubles - Tracking statuses

[Qc Storm]

My game is not very heavy on the roleplay. Quests inevitably begin and end with big fights, and with big fights in-between. Thus, our battlemat and minis see a lot of use.

However, I find it difficult to keep track of Status Effects and debuffs. I have 7 players, and very often, even more monsters. When poison, blindness, prone, fear and other modifiers start being shot left and right, keeping track of them can be a nightmare. (Especially since some players are kinda lazy about it.) Which of these 14 orcs is blind? Is that tipped-over mini asleep or prone? Or is it unconscious?

How do you guys do it?

[Iskajir]

When DM'ing, I prefer to not the status effects, plus readied/delaying next to initiative on the battlemat in marker with an arcane system of color-coding.

I know another DM who works primarily from his laptop, and I believe tracks all the critters in Open Office Spreadsheet.

We are both lucky enough to have players that are pretty on top of the status effects on their PC's/familiars/companions/mounts/cohorts, etc. Also, the players are very good for tracking the status effects that they cause.

I've also seen colored paper squares placed under figs to represent status, or changing terrain conditions.

[BowStreetRunner]

Buy some markers (http://www.aleatools.com/) or make your own.

[Qc Storm]

When DM'ing, I prefer to not the status effects, plus readied/delaying next to initiative on the battlemat in marker with an arcane system of color-coding.

I'd like if you could rewrite that post, because it doesn't make much sense to me right now.



Buy some markers or make your own.

Not a fan of spending 20s for bits of plastics, but I may be able to find some poker chips somewhere.

[Diarmuid]

He was just missing the "e" from "note" in his first sentence, otherwise it's pretty clear.

What he does is similar to what my group does. We track initiative either in a spreadsheet, or on the battlemap itself, or with a small whiteboard and keep track of the statuses there so that when Monster 1's turn in initiative comes up it's easy to say "that guy's blind". Similarly, when targetting, whoever's turn it is can ask the initiative person about known statuses.

If you're fairly RP-Lite, then you can even go so far as to keep durations in the same place assuming your players wont metagame too much.

[herrhauptmann]

In my old 4E game, the DM started saving the plastic rings from soda bottles for his statuses. Red for bloodied. Blue for dazed. Green for stunned....
Bigger minis and he'd go to gatorade bottles for the rings.

Unfortunately for said DM, he never wanted to reach into the recycling bins on campus for the rings, he'd insist on buying and drinking more code red mountain dew for more bloodied markers.

[Ryulin18]

7 players? Here's an idea. Get them to keep the little ring on soda bottle necks.

All the colours, fit on or over most minis and you'd normally just throw them away.

[killem2]

Here is what I do:

I take just a simple 2x2 square sized tile, with cardstock glued to it, and printed on it is just a fancy artwork that says Poison, Blind, Dazed, whatever it may be, and the players are responsible for taking that tile, placing a dice on it and counting down the rounds.

I suppose I wouldn't mind the little circles under the minis.

[Qc Storm]

7 players? Here's an idea. Get them to keep the little ring on soda bottle necks.

All the colours, fit on or over most minis and you'd normally just throw them away.

I like this. I'll have a talk with my players to see if they can start gathering them.