Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Use a Small Magnetic Board as a D&D Gaming Aid - Track Status, Initiative, or More

We use a few white boards on the wall to keep track of modifications in affect to our characters.  In the image below I show our three boards.  The small board on the left is magnetic and we use some small magnetics on a piece of paper we printed and cut up to track our initiative order.  As you can imagine, this is helpful for the players to prepare their action when their turn is coming up.  Our group generally consist of 5 players, and we each play two characters to keep us from being bored all evening if one character becomes incapacitated. 



The board on the right is currently used to remind us of all the affects of the Haste spell, which we cast on the party frequently.

The big board in the middle is to keep track of the cumulative affect of other enhancements on our characters and how they stack, and to which characters they apply.

We often have a Heroes Feast, Attack and Damage bonuses from a bard singing, Saving Throw bonuses from Cleric spells, and more.

You can usually find Magnetic boards for less than $10, and plenty of magnets for $1 or less.  In this case I had a long strip of magnetic that I cut up into several small pieces.

Large white boards are a little more expensive and less portable, but I think it has been worth it for us to improve our game play.

The Best Way to Roll for Hit Points

Here is my favorite approach to rolling Hit Points, especially for 5E.   Per the 5E rules, you can roll the dice or accept the "standar...