I am a new DM and I'm trying to keep my purchases to a minimum until the game starts rolling. There so much cool stuff out there, its hard for me to decided if I'll actually use it. I just bought some battlemaps, but not sure if i'm going to use them. I'm looking for the right balance of clutter
Id say bare minimum is the PH, Monster Manual, DMG, and a DM screen (unless you are playing online). You could probably even get away with not having the DMG but its a good reference to have.
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One Battle mat, wet erase markers, PHB, DMG, MM, DM screen, one module (to get your feet wet), 2 sets of dice, a stack of sticky notes, a stack of 3x5 cards, a package of cheap mechanical pencils, and cookies.
The cookies are the important part, that's what gets you your players.
MM (Monster Manual) --- once you have this you can easily modify creatures inside and create your own.
DMG (Dungeon Master's Guide) -- useful but I don't really feel it's required. I don't think I refer to it much.
Have a comfortable set of dice, paper/pens and a DM screen. You can make your own screen if you want, so you don't really have to buy that.
Personally, I love using a battle mat and wet erase markers. My players also like it more as a miniatures game at time, so I also use dungeon tiles and forest tiles (but those are definitely not required).
Snacks and Beer are also important items :D
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Agree to all of the above. One thing not mentioned that I bought and never use is a dry erase initiative tracker. (The ones with the magnetic tiles.) Seemed like good idea at the time, but we just never use it. Paper and pencil works just as well. One thing i did buy and use a ton for my larger groups is a 5 and 10 minute sand timer/hourglass. If the decision making process gets jammed up, I or one of players can flip the timer and set it in the middle of the table. Helps keeps things moving by having a visible reminder to not take an hour to figure out how they are infiltrating a camp or town. Probably not too useful for a smaller group, but for 6+ players it helps.
I have all the 5e WoTC books, but only through DnD Beyond - although I don't use the modules save for the items and monsters they unlock. I should probably strip the modules for interesting NPCs, locations, and maps as well.
All my notes and cards are logged in Google Notes.
My DM Screen is my laptop.
I do have a physical notepad and pen beside my laptop, and a set of dice for my use. I should get a small dice tray as well.
I do have a large transparent dry erase sheet that I put down on the white table top we use, for sketching out abstract maps, but I don't use gridded battle mats, or miniatures ( although I'm contemplating getting a bag of colored pawns ).
DMThac0 is correct about the importance of cookies - but I'm spoiled as one of my Players is a professional baker who get ( almost literally ) tons of "take homes", so she provides the snacks.
The DM also finds a nice pint glass ofa dry oatmeal stoutto be very important for the flow of the game - but that's a matter of personal choice ( and a possible benefit of having the average group member age being over 30 ).
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
PHB and Monster manual is probably the minimum you could get away with in terms of books to check things on the spot (spells and monsters respectively), but I also have the DMG, Volos, and Xanathars at every session. While the campaign books can be good to read through and inspire you, that is a downtime activity so it will save clutter to just get them as PDFs. A DM screen is also useful.
I have a bundle of battle mats that cover a range of terrains, plus I have cut shapes out of various colours of foam sheets for buildings, ponds, etc. Then I I have a large set of dungeon tiles I can use for enclosed environments. You will then also want an assortment of tokens for smaller objects, most of mine have been home made though. If space or cost is a concern then there are places online you can buy designs for cardboard cutouts rater than minis, that sounds like a better plan for you. However a lot of this paragraph becomes superfluous if you are running full theater of the mind.
Lots of dice, rolling multiple D20s for several attacks and/or advantage/disadvantage and rolling all the damage dice together are nice little timesavers, I have even been known to improvise slightly, replacing 4d8 with 2d8, 1d6 and 1d10 because that is what I had on hand. A notebook, you want to recall at least as much detail of events as all of your players combined,I also have a larger folder for other material such as PC backstories, homemade maps, puzzle props, neatened session summaries...
But more important than any of that is drinks and/or snacks, although it is generally encouraged that the players mostly deal with that. Bribing the DM may just lower the DC of that important check, or make that NPC more cooperative...
These are all fantastic suggestions. Thank you!. Cookies and food are something I'll need to look into. (most likely gonna slow cooker some kind of dip.)
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
For each game I personally have: PHB, MM, Dice Sets. Our group makes game day (Every second Sunday) a FEASTING day.. so we have pizza, cupcakes, cookies, pinwheels, peanuts, chips.. whatever strikes us. (We have a sign up board so no one double up on a snack.) We also are together from 1pm ish until 7 or 8pm ish… I have battlemaps, a fantastic Lazy Susan with a 21" diameter "Battle Board" that one of my players made. We use the Gale Force 9 spell cards for the caster classes, which are a handy tool. They do save a lot of time vs. looking up a spell in the PHB. (Most of my players don't own a PHB so passing one around the table can be... ) Lately we have been using the Aleatools Initiative Tracker board. Each Player has 3 magnetic markers. 1 to show where they are on the order, 1 used as reference, 1 to use for marking enemies with abilities like Hex or Hunters Mark.
Of all the things we use, I think the Dice, PHB and MM are the only "Must Haves." Everything else.. completely optional.
For each game I personally have: PHB, MM, Dice Sets. Our group makes game day (Every second Sunday) a FEASTING day.. so we have pizza, cupcakes, cookies, pinwheels, peanuts, chips.. whatever strikes us. (We have a sign up board so no one double up on a snack.) We also are together from 1pm ish until 7 or 8pm ish… I have battlemaps, a fantastic Lazy Susan with a 21" diameter "Battle Board" that one of my players made. We use the Gale Force 9 spell cards for the caster classes, which are a handy tool. They do save a lot of time vs. looking up a spell in the PHB. (Most of my players don't own a PHB so passing one around the table can be... ) Lately we have been using the Aleatools Initiative Tracker board. Each Player has 3 magnetic markers. 1 to show where they are on the order, 1 used as reference, 1 to use for marking enemies with abilities like Hex or Hunters Mark.
Of all the things we use, I think the Dice, PHB and MM are the only "Must Haves." Everything else.. completely optional.
Do you play the entire thing on a yacht too?
But honestly those sound like really fun sessions
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Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews!Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I'm going to 2nd a Vedex point again :) but I also keep most of my notes digitally.
I can have multiple encounters, dungeons, and locations set up that way pretty easily by looking at my laptop. I put my version of monster blocks in to whatever I suspect the party may do. (and I have a growing list of monster blocks lol).
I also like using my DM screen as an initiative tracker. Fold up some little slivers of paper and you can put both your monsters and players in initiative order at the top. I have colored construction paper for my players to make them more distinctive. Just slide the tabs over after the respective entity has completed their turn.
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I've bought a bunch of minis I haven't had occasion to use yet. I need to go searching for certain minis that I actually do need. I've got a couple adventures I've bought but haven't used yet.
Honestly the best thing I've bought (outside the PHB, MM, and DMG) that I have used is 1" grid paper off Amazon. I usually just print off a small version of my maps and cover it in sticky notes for fog of war. But for areas that are going to actually have a battle (I DM for kids so using minis and even minimal maps helps with their immersion) I'll draw those out. (Or if I'm creating a space from scratch instead of using the areas in the published adventure I'll use the grid paper and some markers). I have a wet-erase battle mat but I've only used it once and it's stained from the colored wet-erase markers I used.
I spent a lot of time putting together a tracking sheet for tracking my PCs passive scores (before I had access to their sheets in dnd beyond) and HP and any conditions that might get imposed on them in battles. Also put together printouts of the magic items they'd have a chance to get their hands on during the adventure. Printed them all out and took them over to get laminated. They screwed up the lamination. I threw out the magic items ones. I still have the other but never use it.
I bought the dungeon tiles reincarnated dungeon set but I don't foresee actually ever getting to use it. Oh well.
I like the dungeon tiles for those moments when there isn't a map and things just bog down too much using theater of the mind. I've found that it helps my players, but it's not something that's a must. I will vouch for the dice tray. It's very nice to be able to roll and be certain one of the dice isn't going to fly off the table.
No Yacht... But yes, we do have a ton of fun. We have a couple very crafty people in group... Some of our accessories are neat. https://youtu.be/dQqhTiE7i84 -- This is a great tool one of my players made. He's working on Dungeon Tiles and other background accessories.
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I am a new DM and I'm trying to keep my purchases to a minimum until the game starts rolling. There so much cool stuff out there, its hard for me to decided if I'll actually use it. I just bought some battlemaps, but not sure if i'm going to use them. I'm looking for the right balance of clutter
I bought all the books, only used a few of the adventures (never finished one, my group is fickle).
Id say bare minimum is the PH, Monster Manual, DMG, and a DM screen (unless you are playing online). You could probably even get away with not having the DMG but its a good reference to have.
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
One Battle mat, wet erase markers, PHB, DMG, MM, DM screen, one module (to get your feet wet), 2 sets of dice, a stack of sticky notes, a stack of 3x5 cards, a package of cheap mechanical pencils, and cookies.
The cookies are the important part, that's what gets you your players.
In order of book priority I would say:
Have a comfortable set of dice, paper/pens and a DM screen. You can make your own screen if you want, so you don't really have to buy that.
Personally, I love using a battle mat and wet erase markers. My players also like it more as a miniatures game at time, so I also use dungeon tiles and forest tiles (but those are definitely not required).
Snacks and Beer are also important items :D
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
Agree to all of the above. One thing not mentioned that I bought and never use is a dry erase initiative tracker. (The ones with the magnetic tiles.) Seemed like good idea at the time, but we just never use it. Paper and pencil works just as well. One thing i did buy and use a ton for my larger groups is a 5 and 10 minute sand timer/hourglass. If the decision making process gets jammed up, I or one of players can flip the timer and set it in the middle of the table. Helps keeps things moving by having a visible reminder to not take an hour to figure out how they are infiltrating a camp or town. Probably not too useful for a smaller group, but for 6+ players it helps.
I run almost completely digital.
I have all the 5e WoTC books, but only through DnD Beyond - although I don't use the modules save for the items and monsters they unlock. I should probably strip the modules for interesting NPCs, locations, and maps as well.
All my notes and cards are logged in Google Notes.
My DM Screen is my laptop.
I do have a physical notepad and pen beside my laptop, and a set of dice for my use. I should get a small dice tray as well.
I do have a large transparent dry erase sheet that I put down on the white table top we use, for sketching out abstract maps, but I don't use gridded battle mats, or miniatures ( although I'm contemplating getting a bag of colored pawns ).
DMThac0 is correct about the importance of cookies - but I'm spoiled as one of my Players is a professional baker who get ( almost literally ) tons of "take homes", so she provides the snacks.
The DM also finds a nice pint glass of a dry oatmeal stout to be very important for the flow of the game - but that's a matter of personal choice ( and a possible benefit of having the average group member age being over 30 ).
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
PHB and Monster manual is probably the minimum you could get away with in terms of books to check things on the spot (spells and monsters respectively), but I also have the DMG, Volos, and Xanathars at every session. While the campaign books can be good to read through and inspire you, that is a downtime activity so it will save clutter to just get them as PDFs. A DM screen is also useful.
I have a bundle of battle mats that cover a range of terrains, plus I have cut shapes out of various colours of foam sheets for buildings, ponds, etc. Then I I have a large set of dungeon tiles I can use for enclosed environments. You will then also want an assortment of tokens for smaller objects, most of mine have been home made though. If space or cost is a concern then there are places online you can buy designs for cardboard cutouts rater than minis, that sounds like a better plan for you. However a lot of this paragraph becomes superfluous if you are running full theater of the mind.
Lots of dice, rolling multiple D20s for several attacks and/or advantage/disadvantage and rolling all the damage dice together are nice little timesavers, I have even been known to improvise slightly, replacing 4d8 with 2d8, 1d6 and 1d10 because that is what I had on hand. A notebook, you want to recall at least as much detail of events as all of your players combined,I also have a larger folder for other material such as PC backstories, homemade maps, puzzle props, neatened session summaries...
But more important than any of that is drinks and/or snacks, although it is generally encouraged that the players mostly deal with that. Bribing the DM may just lower the DC of that important check, or make that NPC more cooperative...
These are all fantastic suggestions. Thank you!. Cookies and food are something I'll need to look into. (most likely gonna slow cooker some kind of dip.)
Mmm... got room for another player? ;) :D
My DM Philosophy, as summed up by other people: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rN5w4-azTq3Kbn0Yvk9nfqQhwQ1R5by1/view
Disclaimer: This signature is a badge of membership in the Forum Loudmouth Club. We are all friends. We are not attacking each other. We are engaging in spirited, friendly debate with one another. We may get snarky, but these are not attacks. Thank you for not reporting us.
For each game I personally have:
PHB, MM, Dice Sets.
Our group makes game day (Every second Sunday) a FEASTING day.. so we have pizza, cupcakes, cookies, pinwheels, peanuts, chips.. whatever strikes us. (We have a sign up board so no one double up on a snack.) We also are together from 1pm ish until 7 or 8pm ish…
I have battlemaps, a fantastic Lazy Susan with a 21" diameter "Battle Board" that one of my players made. We use the Gale Force 9 spell cards for the caster classes, which are a handy tool. They do save a lot of time vs. looking up a spell in the PHB. (Most of my players don't own a PHB so passing one around the table can be... )
Lately we have been using the Aleatools Initiative Tracker board. Each Player has 3 magnetic markers. 1 to show where they are on the order, 1 used as reference, 1 to use for marking enemies with abilities like Hex or Hunters Mark.
Of all the things we use, I think the Dice, PHB and MM are the only "Must Haves."
Everything else.. completely optional.
Do you play the entire thing on a yacht too?
But honestly those sound like really fun sessions
Three-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I'm going to 2nd a Vedex point again :) but I also keep most of my notes digitally.
I can have multiple encounters, dungeons, and locations set up that way pretty easily by looking at my laptop. I put my version of monster blocks in to whatever I suspect the party may do. (and I have a growing list of monster blocks lol).
I also like using my DM screen as an initiative tracker. Fold up some little slivers of paper and you can put both your monsters and players in initiative order at the top. I have colored construction paper for my players to make them more distinctive. Just slide the tabs over after the respective entity has completed their turn.
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
I've bought a bunch of minis I haven't had occasion to use yet. I need to go searching for certain minis that I actually do need. I've got a couple adventures I've bought but haven't used yet.
Honestly the best thing I've bought (outside the PHB, MM, and DMG) that I have used is 1" grid paper off Amazon. I usually just print off a small version of my maps and cover it in sticky notes for fog of war. But for areas that are going to actually have a battle (I DM for kids so using minis and even minimal maps helps with their immersion) I'll draw those out. (Or if I'm creating a space from scratch instead of using the areas in the published adventure I'll use the grid paper and some markers). I have a wet-erase battle mat but I've only used it once and it's stained from the colored wet-erase markers I used.
I spent a lot of time putting together a tracking sheet for tracking my PCs passive scores (before I had access to their sheets in dnd beyond) and HP and any conditions that might get imposed on them in battles. Also put together printouts of the magic items they'd have a chance to get their hands on during the adventure. Printed them all out and took them over to get laminated. They screwed up the lamination. I threw out the magic items ones. I still have the other but never use it.
I bought the dungeon tiles reincarnated dungeon set but I don't foresee actually ever getting to use it. Oh well.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
I like the dungeon tiles for those moments when there isn't a map and things just bog down too much using theater of the mind. I've found that it helps my players, but it's not something that's a must. I will vouch for the dice tray. It's very nice to be able to roll and be certain one of the dice isn't going to fly off the table.
No Yacht... But yes, we do have a ton of fun.
We have a couple very crafty people in group... Some of our accessories are neat.
https://youtu.be/dQqhTiE7i84 -- This is a great tool one of my players made. He's working on Dungeon Tiles and other background accessories.