Opinions On physical items like cards, battlefields w/figurines, dice, and battle-gaming (life sized equipment).

I tend to use all cards, dice, battlefields w/figurines all the time. battle-gaming not as often.

What about you people in the community?

I generally use paper, dice, pencils, and words.

In really complex combat situations, i might break out one of my giant poster sheets and quickly scribble a layout and then drop markers (which may include the custom figurines I print for folks), but that's still rare -- we've tried VTT stuff and it slows us down too much.

But...

I started playing in 1979, started DMing in 1980, so I might be a bit resistant to all the newfangled things the thar kids is usin' these days....

Terrain, Mini's, Battle maps, props, books, dice. EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Dice all the time. Cards often. Battle mat and figs when I feel position is important.

I also give my players tokens, letters, notes, maps, and other assorted props.

I play online using my laptop and headset. I also play in person using miniature figurines and battlemaps. We also have a game in person using laptop Roll20 for maps, tokens and diceroller.

NPC and Monster Cards are just so much lighter and more conveinent to pack into a DM kit for travelling to a game than Monster Manual or yet another book. It also makes improvising such a great experience for a DM. 

Need an encounter in a hurry? Great, draw a random card...now you've got a random encounter. The decrease in DM workload is so worth the small outlay for those cards.

Spell cards in practice are stupidly helpful for exactly the same reason. For prepared casters, there's no more flicking through the books...all their possible spells are in the deck. For other casters, they can simply have just the spells they need out in front of them. Again cuts down on what you have to take to a session, and it reduces the workload all around.

Got a Druid who loves wildshape in the party? Great stuff. Hand them the beast cards and there's no more troublesome searching for stat blocks. They just set the card of their wildshape in front of them. 


In all seriousness I genuinely fail to understand why more DMs haven't cottoned onto the benefits of the spell and creature cards.

Quote from martintheactor >>

NPC and Monster Cards are just so much lighter and more conveinent to pack into a DM kit for travelling to a game than Monster Manual or yet another book. It also makes improvising such a great experience for a DM. 

Need an encounter in a hurry? Great, draw a random card...now you've got a random encounter. The decrease in DM workload is so worth the small outlay for those cards.

Spell cards in practice are stupidly helpful for exactly the same reason. For prepared casters, there's no more flicking through the books...all their possible spells are in the deck. For other casters, they can simply have just the spells they need out in front of them. Again cuts down on what you have to take to a session, and it reduces the workload all around.

Got a Druid who loves wildshape in the party? Great stuff. Hand them the beast cards and there's no more troublesome searching for stat blocks. They just set the card of their wildshape in front of them. 


In all seriousness I genuinely fail to understand why more DMs haven't cottoned onto the benefits of the spell and creature cards.

 
I like the for all the reasons you cited. But we now do our games through Zoom.

When the original Monster Cards came out, I would use them -- often because they had the image of the monster so I could show everyone -- during the open game sessions.

These days I just put the image up on one of the other screens so suddenly one of the "players" is one of the monsters, lol.

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from martintheactor >>

NPC and Monster Cards are just so much lighter and more conveinent to pack into a DM kit for travelling to a game than Monster Manual or yet another book. It also makes improvising such a great experience for a DM. 

Need an encounter in a hurry? Great, draw a random card...now you've got a random encounter. The decrease in DM workload is so worth the small outlay for those cards.

Spell cards in practice are stupidly helpful for exactly the same reason. For prepared casters, there's no more flicking through the books...all their possible spells are in the deck. For other casters, they can simply have just the spells they need out in front of them. Again cuts down on what you have to take to a session, and it reduces the workload all around.

Got a Druid who loves wildshape in the party? Great stuff. Hand them the beast cards and there's no more troublesome searching for stat blocks. They just set the card of their wildshape in front of them. 


In all seriousness I genuinely fail to understand why more DMs haven't cottoned onto the benefits of the spell and creature cards.

 
I like the for all the reasons you cited. But we now do our games through Zoom.

When the original Monster Cards came out, I would use them -- often because they had the image of the monster so I could show everyone -- during the open game sessions.

These days I just put the image up on one of the other screens so suddenly one of the "players" is one of the monsters, lol.

 What does Zoom have to do with using the cards?

I am not a fan of playing remotely, but fail to see why it would exclude the use of the cards couldn't you just show the card to the camera and read the description?

 As for handing them the card couldn't the player just open a browser window to the ddb item/monster et al?

Ma at home group uses DDB for tracking PCs and Monsters so we don’t use physical dice or books, and we’re all TotM, so we don’t use figurines or maps or any of that stuff. All we need are our tablets/phones/laptops.

Quote from kayakingpoodle >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from martintheactor >>

NPC and Monster Cards are just so much lighter and more conveinent to pack into a DM kit for travelling to a game than Monster Manual or yet another book. It also makes improvising such a great experience for a DM. 

Need an encounter in a hurry? Great, draw a random card...now you've got a random encounter. The decrease in DM workload is so worth the small outlay for those cards.

Spell cards in practice are stupidly helpful for exactly the same reason. For prepared casters, there's no more flicking through the books...all their possible spells are in the deck. For other casters, they can simply have just the spells they need out in front of them. Again cuts down on what you have to take to a session, and it reduces the workload all around.

Got a Druid who loves wildshape in the party? Great stuff. Hand them the beast cards and there's no more troublesome searching for stat blocks. They just set the card of their wildshape in front of them. 


In all seriousness I genuinely fail to understand why more DMs haven't cottoned onto the benefits of the spell and creature cards.

 
I like the for all the reasons you cited. But we now do our games through Zoom.

When the original Monster Cards came out, I would use them -- often because they had the image of the monster so I could show everyone -- during the open game sessions.

These days I just put the image up on one of the other screens so suddenly one of the "players" is one of the monsters, lol.

 What does Zoom have to do with using the cards?

I am not a fan of playing remotely, but fail to see why it would exclude the use of the cards couldn't you just show the card to the camera and read the description?

 As for handing them the card couldn't the player just open a browser window to the ddb item/monster et al?

 
Well, for one, these cards are from 1e. They are the original ones.

For two, they are much harder to see in a zoom window. 

Then, by pulling from my folder of images for monsters and putting that up, I can use monsters that are more like the current versions i want them to see (which don't match always with the official ones).

And yes, they could just use the DDB stuff -- and *truly, they could*. Except that I don't use any of the monsters on DDB as they are written, because the goal is for them not to know everything about the monster when they encounter it. So if the stats are useless and the image is wrong (which it isn't always, just some of the time) that kinda messes with things. THe only reason I would build a monster into DDB that I use in my campaigns is to share it with others.

Thanks for the information 👍 

Quote from kayakingpoodle >>

Quote from AEDorsay >>

Quote from martintheactor >>

NPC and Monster Cards are just so much lighter and more conveinent to pack into a DM kit for travelling to a game than Monster Manual or yet another book. It also makes improvising such a great experience for a DM. 

Need an encounter in a hurry? Great, draw a random card...now you've got a random encounter. The decrease in DM workload is so worth the small outlay for those cards.

Spell cards in practice are stupidly helpful for exactly the same reason. For prepared casters, there's no more flicking through the books...all their possible spells are in the deck. For other casters, they can simply have just the spells they need out in front of them. Again cuts down on what you have to take to a session, and it reduces the workload all around.

Got a Druid who loves wildshape in the party? Great stuff. Hand them the beast cards and there's no more troublesome searching for stat blocks. They just set the card of their wildshape in front of them. 


In all seriousness I genuinely fail to understand why more DMs haven't cottoned onto the benefits of the spell and creature cards.

 
I like the for all the reasons you cited. But we now do our games through Zoom.

When the original Monster Cards came out, I would use them -- often because they had the image of the monster so I could show everyone -- during the open game sessions.

These days I just put the image up on one of the other screens so suddenly one of the "players" is one of the monsters, lol.

 What does Zoom have to do with using the cards?

I am not a fan of playing remotely, but fail to see why it would exclude the use of the cards couldn't you just show the card to the camera and read the description?

 As for handing them the card couldn't the player just open a browser window to the ddb item/monster et al?

I GM a mix of online and in person games. Online...frankly it's usually the done thing to have battlemaps and such...some do go full theatre of the mind, but not all. If you're using a battlemap and a VTT like Owlbear Rodeo, then it's a lot easier to just create a token and have that as an image instead.

Further to this, online the dice roll thing gets...sticky. I've had two players (out of twenty in the last two years) who have lost the trust of other players. I basically always start from the position of 'I trust you all to roll honestly, and roll in the way you most prefer.' However, the first player in question was always rolling so high that the other players began to complain to me that they felt he must be cheating. This meant that his own party didn't trust him, so we had to move everyone over to an online solution that meant at the very least I could see everyone's dice rolls. It really sucked. So, there are downsides to trying to mix the physical with the online. 

I entirely get where AEDorsay is coming from though cards are great in person, but online...it's just as simply to do a quick search, or pull from my catalogue of tokens on my VTT. 

Paper and pencils, dice, regular playing cards, poker chips, and sometimes maps/grids and markers. Unless they are absolutely necessary for us all to keep track of some complex action scene, we have found that maps and markers slow down the play significantly, over Theater of the Mind.

I have tried playing online, over several months, and have decided that I do not enjoy the experience. I'm still alone, staring at a screen. For me, that is not an adequate form of social interaction.

Quote from first_rolled_a_die_in_1976 >

 

Quote from first_rolled_a_die_in_1976 >>

Paper and pencils, dice, regular playing cards, poker chips, and sometimes maps/grids and markers. Unless they are absolutely necessary for us all to keep track of some complex action scene, we have found that maps and markers slow down the play significantly, over Theater of the Mind.

I have tried playing online, over several months, and have decided that I do not enjoy the experience. I'm still alone, staring at a screen. For me, that is not an adequate form of social interaction.

 
Playing online I'd suggest it's a personal preference thing here. I've met many people who simply wouldn't engage in the hobby physically and in person (either because of location, or personal history, or even anxiety about social interaction). There are a ton of reasons that online does work for some people. I currently run a couple of online groups and I would love to have some of those personalities around a physical table. The fact that collectively my players are scattered across ten different countries makes that unlikely. One of my previous groups had to switch online after an incident at our local game shop which meant that one of my players didn't feel safe being their geeky self in public places. And I'll honestly say I've met a lot of people over the last three or four years who I know more about than friends I've spent time with in the physical space. Wouldn't trade that for anything.

Likewise, while I personally prefer theatre of the mind, expectation among newer players has altered somewhat since I first started playing. If you ever run games for people with whom you're not familiar, there is a kind of expectation I've seen develop that theatre of the mind is for the 'less good' GMs. I don't necessarily agree, but in one case a player simply stated to me 'just because we can use theatre of the mind, doesn't mean we have to. If there are tools to aid imagination why shouldn't we use them...they still require the imagination to plug the gaps after all, a battlemap just helps us plan our combat more tactically'. I have to say it's the most persuasive argument I heard and I kind of agree. They're an aid to the imagination and do stop the slow down that comes when people have to constantly check in and ask for clarifications. 

It's pretty much what will work for each table I guess. Each group, and each table will have it's own dynamic.

Quote from martintheactor >>

Quote from first_rolled_a_die_in_1976 >

 

Quote from first_rolled_a_die_in_1976 >>

Paper and pencils, dice, regular playing cards, poker chips, and sometimes maps/grids and markers. Unless they are absolutely necessary for us all to keep track of some complex action scene, we have found that maps and markers slow down the play significantly, over Theater of the Mind.

I have tried playing online, over several months, and have decided that I do not enjoy the experience. I'm still alone, staring at a screen. For me, that is not an adequate form of social interaction.

 
Playing online I'd suggest it's a personal preference thing here. I've met many people who simply wouldn't engage in the hobby physically and in person (either because of location, or personal history, or even anxiety about social interaction). There are a ton of reasons that online does work for some people. I currently run a couple of online groups and I would love to have some of those personalities around a physical table. The fact that collectively my players are scattered across ten different countries makes that unlikely. One of my previous groups had to switch online after an incident at our local game shop which meant that one of my players didn't feel safe being their geeky self in public places. And I'll honestly say I've met a lot of people over the last three or four years who I know more about than friends I've spent time with in the physical space. Wouldn't trade that for anything.

. . .

Agreed. I hold nothing against others participating in online gaming; most everyone I know who does this stuff also happily do it online. I just know that it does not work for someone like me, as for me the effort simply outweighs the enjoyment factor; I tried online play for six months before calling it quits. Some of those online folks seemed genuinely sorry to see me go.

I also understand fully that my available play options are significantly reduced by this personal choice, of mine.

Quote from martintheactor >>

Quote from first_rolled_a_die_in_1976 >>

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. . .

Likewise, while I personally prefer theatre of the mind, expectation among newer players has altered somewhat since I first started playing. If you ever run games for people with whom you're not familiar, there is a kind of expectation I've seen develop that theatre of the mind is for the 'less good' GMs. I don't necessarily agree, but in one case a player simply stated to me 'just because we can use theatre of the mind, doesn't mean we have to. If there are tools to aid imagination why shouldn't we use them...they still require the imagination to plug the gaps after all, a battlemap just helps us plan our combat more tactically'. I have to say it's the most persuasive argument I heard and I kind of agree. They're an aid to the imagination and do stop the slow down that comes when people have to constantly check in and ask for clarifications. 

It's pretty much what will work for each table I guess. Each group, and each table will have it's own dynamic.

Again, I agree with your statements. Sometimes a map or grid is necessary, and not using such tools would negatively affect the gaming experience. Maps do come into play at my table; just not always, and not for everything.

I suppose that I am simply finding that playing styles, and players, have changed significantly since I came back from my 20+ year hiatus from RP gaming. All of my prior experience at gaming was done outside of the online world.

There ain't no wrong way to play, so long as all involved are enjoying themselves. That much I have understood for decades.

We play in person, using dice (lots of dice... we're all dice goblins bar one person, who has really fancy dice and is basically an upper-class dice goblin). I am currently sorting out a gaming table which is going to be a battle grid across the whole table, sowe can do combats without worry of distances!

I use and make models and scenery, everyone has a figurine for their characters, and most have one for their steeds. I don't always have the right one for monsters, so it's often a bit of proxying, and I have no flight stands (yet!) so we use bottles and whatnot to balance minis on!