First time running a physical game - need some advice / tips

[last_einheri]

So, as the title says, I'm on deck to run a physical game soon and would like some advice from some vets. My case is a little bizarre, however.

I've been running 5e for a good long while via Roll20, so I'm very familiar with the rules / how to run a game, etc. I'm confident in my general DMsmanship. What I'm NOT as confident about, is my ability to see potential hang-ups due to my inexperience with physical side of things.

For instance, what are some items or tools that could make life easier? An example of tips I'm looking for that I've seen would be putting folded sticky-notes on the top of the DM screen to use as an initiative tracker. stuff like that. Little DM hacks and whatnot.

Additionally, what are some issues I should look out for when running a physical game that I might not think of? Are there common time-savers I should look into or house rules that you feel are useful for keeping a game flowing?

For some additional context, the reason I'm running a physical game is that I volunteered to GM a beginner's table at a local game shop for a D&D night they have planned. I've thrown together some pregen characters and a short modular campaign that I can adjust according to which characters are picked. Since i'm dealing with beginners, I need to make sure my proverbial **** is real squared away - I don't want to give them a bad first impression of the game.

Any advice you could offer would be most welcome.

[Man_Over_Game]

So, as the title says, I'm on deck to run a physical game soon and would like some advice from some vets. My case is a little bizarre, however.

I've been running 5e for a good long while via Roll20, so I'm very familiar with the rules / how to run a game, etc. I'm confident in my general DMsmanship. What I'm NOT as confident about, is my ability to see potential hang-ups due to my inexperience with physical side of things.

For instance, what are some items or tools that could make life easier? An example of tips I'm looking for that I've seen would be putting folded sticky-notes on the top of the DM screen to use as an initiative tracker. stuff like that. Little DM hacks and whatnot.

Additionally, what are some issues I should look out for when running a physical game that I might not think of? Are there common time-savers I should look into or house rules that you feel are useful for keeping a game flowing?

For some additional context, the reason I'm running a physical game is that I volunteered to GM a beginner's table at a local game shop for a D&D night they have planned. I've thrown together some pregen characters and a short modular campaign that I can adjust according to which characters are picked. Since i'm dealing with beginners, I need to make sure my proverbial **** is real squared away - I don't want to give them a bad first impression of the game.

Any advice you could offer would be most welcome.

Are you American? If so, find yourself some wrapping paper, the stuff you use for Christmas. Turn it upside down, and you'll note it has a 1inch grid and is very easy to draw on and cut.

A good, cheap solution to not having figures is to use bottlecaps. You could easily find enough to have one for each player, and getting a few for some mobs is no more difficult than buying a case of Cokes and sharing them with the table.

For things like cone effects, spheres, radiuses, etc, find out what grid you're going to use (like my wrapping paper trick) and cut some hard paper shapes out of some regular sizes. Like how Fireball is a 20ft. radius. Now when you want to have your player cast Fireball, you just use your 20ft radius template (just write on the darn thing to mark what it's for) and now you can easily determine who is hit.

[Yora]

When a die rolls off the table, it automatically counts as a 1.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Another source of cheap tokens is a bag of the glass "rocks" used for florist vases. You get dozens, in 3-4 colors, dirt cheap.

[TyGuy]

Numbered monsters. If you're using something with stands, number the stands. Colored markers like game pieces work too. We've used d6 with a different pip number facing up for each creature. Keep tracking monsters as simple as possible.

[blackjack50]

So, as the title says, I'm on deck to run a physical game soon and would like some advice from some vets. My case is a little bizarre, however.

I've been running 5e for a good long while via Roll20, so I'm very familiar with the rules / how to run a game, etc. I'm confident in my general DMsmanship. What I'm NOT as confident about, is my ability to see potential hang-ups due to my inexperience with physical side of things.

For instance, what are some items or tools that could make life easier? An example of tips I'm looking for that I've seen would be putting folded sticky-notes on the top of the DM screen to use as an initiative tracker. stuff like that. Little DM hacks and whatnot.

Additionally, what are some issues I should look out for when running a physical game that I might not think of? Are there common time-savers I should look into or house rules that you feel are useful for keeping a game flowing?

For some additional context, the reason I'm running a physical game is that I volunteered to GM a beginner's table at a local game shop for a D&D night they have planned. I've thrown together some pregen characters and a short modular campaign that I can adjust according to which characters are picked. Since i'm dealing with beginners, I need to make sure my proverbial **** is real squared away - I don't want to give them a bad first impression of the game.

Any advice you could offer would be most welcome.

Laptop with excel or one note helps. I have a friend who uses them for quick references. He then uses index cards for stat sheets (blue for good guys, red for bad, geeen for Neutral, yellow for civilians/shopkeeper/etc). Wrapping paper is awesome. But he actually had a dry erase board with grids on it. Worked great for on the fly maps.

[blackjack50]

When a die rolls off the table, it automatically counts as a 1.

Now that’s just brutal lol. P

[PhoenixPhyre]

Now that’s just brutal lol. P

I enforce it with one group who are particularly...enthusiastic...rollers. Since I do it to myself as well, it works out.

[Ventruenox]

Quick glance notes for important NPCs: names, voices, and character traits. Random NPC name generators, or have a populous family in town with the name "Duurr..." Read your players frequently, facial expressions throughout and yawns after 10:30 pm will guide you to pick which encounters to utilize.

[Missing]

The token ideas above are excellent and cheap ways to get a lot of tokens.

A whiteboard/dry erase board and a handful of different colored markers for it is a great way to draw maps on the fly.
Using the whiteboard to track player HP, buff turns remaining, monster HP (we usually write next to each monster).

Additionally I will also say that the games I've played in person tend to be less exacting about AoEs, movement etc. We often use a marker as a 30' length and ideally use markers that join together at the ends making it easy to create a 60, 120 180 etc length

[DerficusRex]

I enforce it with one group who are particularly...enthusiastic...rollers. Since I do it to myself as well, it works out.

If you have a travel backgammon set, it makes a handily portable rolling tray that can double as dice transport.