Does anyone still use Player or DM Reference or Cheat Sheets at the table?

[Coidzor]

I was just hunting down some quick reference sheets since it's kind of a pain to rifle through books unless you actually need to see the full rules text for the order of operations of a grapple or bull rush for a certainty for making a ruling or something, and also because we've got a mess of new players for whom going out and buying physical copies of the PHB would be non-trivial, so who has what book at what time is a factor.

And you don't need to have the PHB on hand when you can just look down at a sheet that boils down exactly what you need to roll and what your results would be.

I was searching around and stumbled upon what ericgrau (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?231897-3-5-Rules-Cheat-Sheets) put together back in 2012, which seems to have transcended a cheat sheet and is actually a fairly good little booklet for outlining what you can do in-game for new players.

So, anyone have any sheets or booklets that they particularly favor or, y'know, use or have tried out? Anything that's geared towards neophytes would be especially appreciated, since... explaining the rules of 3.5 piecemeal in a conversation was more difficult than I expected, since I found myself getting ahead of myself and touching upon another topic before I was really ready on several occasions.*

Also, my best friend is DMing and he's actually screenless right now, so I was hoping to potentially surprise him with some print-outs that I could make into a sort of make-shift DMing screen before next session if I can't just make at least some kind of screen out of the scrap wood or cardboard I have lying around. So any suggestions on that front as far as informational inserts/supplements for the informational side of the screen would be appreciated, though I should probably just make another thread about DIY DMing screens themselves.

*Yes, I've introduced them to www.d20srd.org for some further reading of the base mechanics. Also we're running a Warlock, a Swordsage, and a Barbarian and I'm probably going to be a Crusader. And the Barbarian may multiclass into Warblade or be rebuilt as a Warblade or Dungeoncrasher, since she mentioned wanting to base her barbarian off of a rugby player, which seems a bit bull-rushy to me, but I'm not much of a rugby fancier....

[Extra Anchovies]

Having an official WotC DM screen to share between the table means you have all the useful tables on hand; it's great to not have to flip through the PHB to find, say, penalties for being prone or the action needed to ready a shield.

[Coidzor]

Having an official WotC DM screen to share between the table means you have all the useful tables on hand; it's great to not have to flip through the PHB to find, say, penalties for being prone or the action needed to ready a shield.

Yeah, that convenience is really what I'm wanting here. Especially with new players, hunting through the sourcebooks during play can take forever at least from how it was for me when I was new and when I've played with new players in the past. Also, amusingly enough, this is a streak of about 5 times where I've played with new players who were women who rolled up Barbarians with really good rolls, she got 17, 17, 14, 14, 13, 8.

I don't think I'd be able to find a WOTC DM screen at this point though, as last I'd heard they only reprinted a few of the books and the DM screens are either destroyed, lost, or in the possession of someone currently using them, at least, by and large. And I believe the majority of the content on a DM's screen is OGL content, though has been quite a while since I've seen one of the ones that WOTC sold, so I'm hoping there's a way to reproduce one without having to go through and find a few tables and paragraphs and condense those onto something for my own personal use, but, I mean, if I can at least identify what I'd need to copy out of his DMG to make the thing, that'd be a step in the right direction, I suppose.

[Extra Anchovies]

Yeah, that convenience is really what I'm wanting here. Especially with new players, hunting through the sourcebooks during play can take forever at least from how it was for me when I was new and when I've played with new players in the past. Also, amusingly enough, this is a streak of about 5 times where I've played with new players who were women who rolled up Barbarians with really good rolls, she got 17, 17, 14, 14, 13, 8.

I don't think I'd be able to find a WOTC DM screen at this point though, as last I'd heard they only reprinted a few of the books and the DM screens are either destroyed, lost, or in the possession of someone currently using them, at least, by and large. And I believe the majority of the content on a DM's screen is OGL content, though has been quite a while since I've seen one of the ones that WOTC sold, so I'm hoping there's a way to reproduce one without having to go through and find a few tables and paragraphs and condense those onto something for my own personal use, but, I mean, if I can at least identify what I'd need to copy out of his DMG to make the thing, that'd be a step in the right direction, I suppose.

I'll admit I don't have one on hand, but will in a bit over a week after I return to my parents' house for winter break. I can let you know what it contains then.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I don't think I'd be able to find a WOTC DM screen at this point though, as last I'd heard they only reprinted a few of the books and the DM screens are either destroyed, lost, or in the possession of someone currently using them, at least, by and large. And I believe the majority of the content on a DM's screen is OGL content, though has been quite a while since I've seen one of the ones that WOTC sold, so I'm hoping there's a way to reproduce one without having to go through and find a few tables and paragraphs and condense those onto something for my own personal use, but, I mean, if I can at least identify what I'd need to copy out of his DMG to make the thing, that'd be a step in the right direction, I suppose.

I have one upstairs right now actually. PM me exactly what you need and I will type it up tomorrow and send it to you.

[Gnome Alone]

Also, my best friend is DMing and he's actually screenless right now, so I was hoping to potentially surprise him with some print-outs that I could make into a sort of make-shift DMing screen before next session


I can let you know what it contains then.


I have one upstairs right now actually. PM me exactly what you need and I will type it up tomorrow and send it to you.

Awful lot of human niceness on display here. Good alignments fer ev'rybody!

[Coidzor]

I have one upstairs right now actually. PM me exactly what you need and I will type it up tomorrow and send it to you.

Well, I wouldn't ask quite that much, no need for anything verbatim or anything, but if you've got the time to go give ericgrau's DM reference sheets I linked in the OP a gander and see if there's anything in particular that I'd need to look up in the DMG that his write-up didn't touch upon, I'd be much obliged. Otherwise, no worries, thank you. :smallsmile:

That's really the most robust of the resources I've come across. I've come across a few less than OGL ones that have things like WBL/NPC-WBL and starting wealth for the core classes, and then other things that I believe are OGL, such as quick tables for making an NPC-classed character.

[ZamielVanWeber]

I ran and grabbed it now; I even found my d20 modern DM screen.
So this is mostly just tables, but has their Player's Handbook page listed:

Fold 1:
Common Armor, Weapon, and Shield Hardness (PH 166)
Substance Hardness and Hitpoints (PH 166)
DC to Break or Burst Items (PH 166)
Items Affected by Magical Attacks (PH 177)
Size and Armor Class of Objects (PH 166)
Object Hardness and Hit Points (PH 166)
Walls (DMG 60)
Doors (DMG 61)

Fold 2:
Turning Undead (PH 159)
Increasing Weapon Damage (DMG 28)
Decreasing Weapon Damage (DMG 28)
Attack Roll Modifiers (PH 151)
Armor Class Modifiers (PH 151)
Influencing NPC Attitude (PH 72)
Missing with a Thrown Weapon (?)
Climb Check DCs (PH 69)
Listen Check DCs (78)

Fold 3:
Actions (PH 141)
Concentration Check DCs (PH 70)
Skills (PH 63)
Ability Modifiers (PH 8)

Fold 4:
Movement and Distance (PH 162)
Maximum Distance for Spot Checks (?)
Hampered Movement (PH 163)
Armored/Encumbered Speeds (?) [covers every speed from 10-90 in jumps of 10]
Detect Magic (PH 219)
Detect Evil (PH 219)
Light Sources and Illumination (PH 165)

Edit: You posted as I was listing this. Too late :smalltongue:

[Coidzor]

I ran and grabbed it now; I even found my d20 modern DM screen.
So this is mostly just tables, but has their Player's Handbook page listed:

Fold 1:
Common Armor, Weapon, and Shield Hardness (PH 166)
Substance Hardness and Hitpoints (PH 166)
DC to Break or Burst Items (PH 166)
Items Affected by Magical Attacks (PH 177)
Size and Armor Class of Objects (PH 166)
Object Hardness and Hit Points (PH 166)
Walls (DMG 60)
Doors (DMG 61)

Fold 2:
Turning Undead (PH 159)
Increasing Weapon Damage (DMG 28)
Decreasing Weapon Damage (DMG 28)
Attack Roll Modifiers (PH 151)
Armor Class Modifiers (PH 151)
Influencing NPC Attitude (PH 72)
Missing with a Thrown Weapon (?)
Climb Check DCs (PH 69)
Listen Check DCs (78)

Fold 3:
Actions (PH 141)
Concentration Check DCs (PH 70)
Skills (PH 63)
Ability Modifiers (PH 8)

Fold 4:
Movement and Distance (PH 162)
Maximum Distance for Spot Checks (?)
Hampered Movement (PH 163)
Armored/Encumbered Speeds (?) [covers every speed from 10-90 in jumps of 10]
Detect Magic (PH 219)
Detect Evil (PH 219)
Light Sources and Illumination (PH 165)

Edit: You posted as I was listing this. Too late :smalltongue:

Heh, well, thank you very much.

I have everything I need to check the sheets I've found so far against now, so that's pretty great. :smallsmile: I think the information on Fold 4 may be what I'll need to whip up and format onto paper, since I don't think I ran into that in any of the resources I have right now.

[Chronos]

I've never used rule cheat sheets, but when I played a druid, I did bring in summarized stat-sheets for all of the monsters I thought it likely that I might be summoning (plus miniatures for them, courtesy of the Giant's kickstarter). I did have to bone up on the grapple rules for that campaign, though, since so many druid summons use grapple-related tricks.

[nedz]

I have a single page sheet which lists the effects of Conditions.

I have another which shows the AoE areas.

For characters I have played:

I have one for Shadow options (Conjuration, Evocation).

And another for Alter Self (Humanoid) options.


Ed: I very rarely use them though.

[Coidzor]

I have a single page sheet which lists the effects of Conditions.

I have another which shows the AoE areas.

For characters I have played:

I have one for Shadow options (Conjuration, Evocation).

And another for Alter Self (Humanoid) options.


Ed: I very rarely use them though.

The AoE areas are something I hadn't considered and which would be very useful, as I no longer have my pipe-cleaner forms for the common AoE areas. Does anyone know of a good printout for those? I suppose I could just get some white paper and trace out the areas on top of the battle mat.

What sort of things did you have on your Shadow options sheet, though? Managed to intrigue me there, as nothing really immediately jumps out at me there, unless you mean a list of other spells you could replicate with shadow conjuration/evocation.

[nedz]

The AoE areas are something I hadn't considered and which would be very useful, as I no longer have my pipe-cleaner forms for the common AoE areas. Does anyone know of a good printout for those? I suppose I could just get some white paper and trace out the areas on top of the battle mat.

Here (http://i1287.photobucket.com/albums/a640/NedzNedz/SpelltemplatesColour_zps33602820.png) you go


What sort of things did you have on your Shadow options sheet, though? Managed to intrigue me there, as nothing really immediately jumps out at me there, unless you mean a list of other spells you could replicate with shadow conjuration/evocation.

Yes, that's all.

[Milodiah]

I don't quite know if it counts, but I've often had some pre-scribbled notes on things players usually end up making the DM pull from his/her ass. They usually want to go to a tavern, so have two or three taverns. Doesn't matter that they don't visit it when and where you expected, if you haven't used that tavern yet, then it's now there with just a few seconds' tweak. Plus players love weapons and armor stores almost as much as stealing stuff from fallen enemies, so why not put some details into its appearance and stock like one would do a dungeon's loot stack?

Something like a typical military road patrol, a traveling merchant caravan, etc. I once blew my players away by pulling out prepped materials when one of them said they'd stop and ask to stay the night at the next pleasant little cottage they passed.



It wasn't a plot hook, it wasn't a key moment in the storyline, it was just a thing I figured would come up and decided to make it sooner rather than later.

[ericgrau]

Well, I wouldn't ask quite that much, no need for anything verbatim or anything, but if you've got the time to go give ericgrau's DM reference sheets I linked in the OP a gander and see if there's anything in particular that I'd need to look up in the DMG that his write-up didn't touch upon, I'd be much obliged. Otherwise, no worries, thank you. :smallsmile:

That's really the most robust of the resources I've come across. I've come across a few less than OGL ones that have things like WBL/NPC-WBL and starting wealth for the core classes, and then other things that I believe are OGL, such as quick tables for making an NPC-classed character.

IIRC it's missing this section since it tends to be encounter specific:
http://www.d20srd.org/indexes/wildernessWeatherEnvironment.htm
Best to pull whichever section you need before the game session.
Likewise doesn't have treasure tables nor a list of all the traps.

[nedz]

Oh, I wrote an app for treasure tables.

[SiuiS]

Personally I just write the relevant notes on my character sheet, but the rules compendium sees frequent personal use as it's full of all the edge cases I want, such as visibility stuff, conditions, social skill specifics (such as duel of wills or the exact resist formula for intimidate), and the like. I find that having the new players research and shorthand their own specific relevant rules helps everyone though; the dungeon crasher fighter gets to Hel everyone else learn how bull rush works, etc