Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 RobertCoxLV Jan 12, 2015 13:34:58	Hey everyone,  New to posting so hopefuly i'm in the right area for asking for this info and it's not too repeated.   So I recently started playing DND about 3-4 months ago at a local community group in town where they teach the basics of tabletop RPGS.  We started with DND 5e and Hoard of the dragon queen set and made characters.  Its great and i have a blast playing with it.  But a few people in our group are a bit frustrated with the growing size and constant rotation of people coming in and out and just the lack of consistency making it harder to roleplay and feel personal with getting to know not just our characters but eachothers characters especially since theres a new combined group every week.   With that said I feel like I enjoy doing my own bit of roleplay and after reading the PHB consistently I have a decent grasp on rules and players are often coming to me for help with questions when the regular DM is tied up with the 9 or so other players.  So I'm proposing to meet locally at one of our houses and play there vs at the community group to bring some regularity and consistency and enhance the experience.   My concern is that while i'll buy the books and read over the DMG and MM no problem, the other accesories that i think make the game easier to visualize.  Are there any accessories I can pick up that give great tips for DMs to make my life easier?  My local wizards shop has DND items available but i'd have to custom order and get things shipped to the store and i'm not sure what to ask for.  So Is there a well known site to find accesories?  DM screen, Maps for combat, NPC figurines i can shop for?  Or i'm aware of roll20.net but i've always envisioned that as something people use for long distance gaming.  My players want to use a tabletop and their own lucky dice they picked out.  Are their setups that people have used roll20 as like a map maker and user?   Would love any advice!
#2 Imaculata Jan 12, 2015 17:07:24	Well none of these are really needed. But what I sometimes use is a magnetic initiative tracker. It has magnetic labels, that can be filled in with a marker, and you can easily switch them around to indicate a change in initiative. This makes it easier for the players to see whose turn it is too.   Maptiles are always a great way to go (you can even use maptiles from other systems), but if you accumulate a lot of them, it becomes difficult to store them, and sort them. Maptiles are great for illustrating dungeons quickly, without having to draw anything yourself.   Miniatures are then of course also a great addition. However, they sometimes come packaged in randomized boxes, where you don't know which one you'll get, which sucks. Its basically just a big rip off to get you to buy double figurines you don't need. If possible, I'd only buy miniatures when I know what I'm getting.   I also saw the ultimate DM screen online, which allows you to stick your own pictures in your DM screen, and customize it completely. However, as we soon found out, A4 paper doesn't quite fit into the envelopes like was advertized, so you'll need to trim the top. And the screen is also not magnetic, unlike what was advertized. So that got us a bit grumpy.
#3 DM_HEEGZ Jan 12, 2015 23:09:19	The 5ed DM screen comes out on the 20th of this month. I suggest waiting and buying that one instead of some other DM screen.   If you guys are not planning to do theatre of the mind for combat, I can suggest to you what I do for my groups. We use primarily Chessex dice and Pathfinder/Gamemastery accessories. The dice are straightforward purchases. I use the Flip Mats for my battle grid, and they work really well wth dry erase markers. I also use Pathfinder Pawns for my monsters and NPCs and PCs and they are the best thing going in my opinion. By the Bestiary 1 and the NPC Codex. After that, get as many other adventure path pawn sets as you can afford. On a final note, I also recently purchased the Gamemastery Plot Twist cards (there are two sets) and they have been really fun, but not essential.   I usually buy things on amazon because that is the cheapest place. However if you can afford to buy at your local gamestore I would strongly recommend doing so. I've made it a point to buy most of my 5ed books and things from my FLGS instead of on amazon. I got them a bit sooner, and I was supporting their business. Good luck!
#4 Ninja_Ferret Jan 13, 2015 0:57:24	I get a lot of my playing stuff from Miniture market. It has a handfuls of maps and minis and various other things that might come in handy. Make sure something is for 5th edition. Though some things from other editions and pathfinder might come in handy especially the maps.
(Reply to #3) AaronOfBarbaria	DM_HEEGZ wrote:
#6 RasmusNord Jan 13, 2015 8:09:40	For one of our campaigns we use LEGO Lotr he bought used online. Works fine when we need minis and you can make terrain as well.
#7 ThreeofSwords Jan 13, 2015 8:44:24	Since no one else has commented on roll20, I will offer some input on it.   Roll20 is something my group tried and fell in love with.   Things we've done with it: Used a 37" flat-screen as a battlemap.  We still used figures, it allowed me  as DM, could set up maps in advance and quickly display them. All NPCs are in the Journal.  I enable the PCs to see them and read about them once they've met them.  It allows them easy access to previous information rather than having to rely solely on memory. Also, there is a DM section for information on anything.  That way you can include information only you can see on the same pop-out that your players can read.  Maps as well!  I put notes on my maps to remind me of traps, situational rules, hidden objects, etc. Roll20 is my DM screen.  I set up Handouts with chuncks of the rules, tables, equipment lists, etc.  Then added tags and now I can easily access them by typing a few characters to have it search. We do not use the built-in character sheet, but there is one available.  We find it is 'too cluttered'.  It's very advanced, and has a lot of options, but since you can't hide options you don't use, it's bigger and more cluttered than we like. If you pay for a subscription, it gets even better.  Dynamic lighting is awesome.  (If you use physical figures, assign one player to move on-screen tokens under PC figures so they know what they can see). Later, if you decide you like it, your group can decide to convert to it (almost) fully.  We now use all electronic figures.  It makes setting up and tracking initiative a breeze.  Upgrading to the Mentor level allows use of the API, and you can really make things easy then.   Even though we now use electronic figures, we still do some things like before: Physically roll dice. Talk to each other directly. Make bad jokes and puns Hope this is useful.
#8 gregsc Jan 13, 2015 16:34:46	My favorite new DM tool is a bunch of Google Documents that I can access on my phone. There's one titled Bless, one titled Paralyzed, Potion of Healing, and so on. Whatever I need to see the rule for, I type into the search box and that document pops up. Quite a bit of work to set up, but a LOT better than flipping through books at the table.