I am a new DM planning Curse of Strahd. I plan to have combat be grid-based, but don't know where to start in terms of tokens for NPCs and Enemies. Any suggestions for good tokens that are accurate, applicable and inexpensive?
Heck, if you don't want to spend any money (or a bunch of time printing, cutting, gluing, etc....) Do you have a chess set? Use pieces of one color for your party, pieces of the other color for your baddies. If you need more minions than that running around, a Cheez-it is approximately the same size as a 1" square. Whoever kills them gets the snacks.
My friends who taught me D&D usually used bottlecaps from beers, sodas, etc. Usually these come with distinct color and marking. If you have each player bring something to drink in a glass bottle on the first night, then they each have a token. If you buy Chessex dice, then you can use the plastic containers from those to represent large creatures.
If you have a local game shop, usually they sell rather inexpensive circular tokens that would be more that sufficient.
If you find a gift or craft shop that sells small colored glass pieces or rocks, I imagine these would also be inexpensive.
Also, just cutting up pieces of paper and either writing on them or using colored paper would work just as well. I would recommend maybe purchasing construction paper so you get some color variety and more sturdiness in this case.
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If you need more minions than that running around, a Cheez-it is approximately the same size as a 1" square. Whoever kills them gets the snacks.
Snacks are also in general a good way to go, like Maestrino said. Gummy bears/worms, M&Ms, Skittles, and more come in small sizes and have a variety of colors, and, as he mentioned, gives a reward to the player that kills it. Its something I have wanted to try for a while, but can't do because my friends and I all play online now due to distance.
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I know that this is a dedicated D&D site but let's face it, Pazio has been doing a fantastic job in the accessories department! I have The Bestiary Box 1 and a few other boxes of pawns from them, and they are working fantastically for our games. Most of the Bestiary Box 1 are monsters from the SRD/OGL since they are meant for the 3.5/OGL version of D&D, but they still apply art-wise to 5e.
I would recommend picking up the Bestiary Box 1, and maybe the Enemy Encounters pawn set. This pawn set should provide you with an excellent base set that is cheap (~$30 for the Bestiary and ~$25 for the Encounters). It's also, however, quality enough to have exciting and accurate encounters when they break out.
If you like Order of the Stick's cartoony stick-figure style, Rich Burlew has five sets of printable paper minis available. They're PDFs of front/back views you can print and cut out, fold over and tape a coin to the bottom for weight.
The latest set's page has links to the others (https://gumroad.com/l/amfesspring2). Autumn one probably has the most CoS-relevant stuff in it.
I print out sheets with a picture and name on top then cut them up and put them in an alligator clip so they stand up. Make it with the image twice so you can fold it and then both sides can see it. Easy as. You can get about 16 per A4 sheet.
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I am a new DM planning Curse of Strahd. I plan to have combat be grid-based, but don't know where to start in terms of tokens for NPCs and Enemies. Any suggestions for good tokens that are accurate, applicable and inexpensive?
Heck, if you don't want to spend any money (or a bunch of time printing, cutting, gluing, etc....) Do you have a chess set? Use pieces of one color for your party, pieces of the other color for your baddies. If you need more minions than that running around, a Cheez-it is approximately the same size as a 1" square. Whoever kills them gets the snacks.
My friends who taught me D&D usually used bottlecaps from beers, sodas, etc. Usually these come with distinct color and marking. If you have each player bring something to drink in a glass bottle on the first night, then they each have a token. If you buy Chessex dice, then you can use the plastic containers from those to represent large creatures.
If you have a local game shop, usually they sell rather inexpensive circular tokens that would be more that sufficient.
If you find a gift or craft shop that sells small colored glass pieces or rocks, I imagine these would also be inexpensive.
Also, just cutting up pieces of paper and either writing on them or using colored paper would work just as well. I would recommend maybe purchasing construction paper so you get some color variety and more sturdiness in this case.
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
Snacks are also in general a good way to go, like Maestrino said. Gummy bears/worms, M&Ms, Skittles, and more come in small sizes and have a variety of colors, and, as he mentioned, gives a reward to the player that kills it. Its something I have wanted to try for a while, but can't do because my friends and I all play online now due to distance.
Four-time Judge of the Competition of the Finest Brews! Come join us in making fun, unique homebrew and voting for your favorite entries!
I know that this is a dedicated D&D site but let's face it, Pazio has been doing a fantastic job in the accessories department! I have The Bestiary Box 1 and a few other boxes of pawns from them, and they are working fantastically for our games. Most of the Bestiary Box 1 are monsters from the SRD/OGL since they are meant for the 3.5/OGL version of D&D, but they still apply art-wise to 5e.
I would recommend picking up the Bestiary Box 1, and maybe the Enemy Encounters pawn set. This pawn set should provide you with an excellent base set that is cheap (~$30 for the Bestiary and ~$25 for the Encounters). It's also, however, quality enough to have exciting and accurate encounters when they break out.
If you like Order of the Stick's cartoony stick-figure style, Rich Burlew has five sets of printable paper minis available. They're PDFs of front/back views you can print and cut out, fold over and tape a coin to the bottom for weight.
The latest set's page has links to the others (https://gumroad.com/l/amfesspring2). Autumn one probably has the most CoS-relevant stuff in it.
I bought a few packs of plastic card stands (https://www.bgextras.co.uk/blue-rectangular-card-stand-i1317.htm). I use pawns printed on paper glued to a bit of cardboard (cut from a cereal box) to give them stiffness. They word really well.
You can also pick up pawns and meeples really cheap at toystores, $2 dollar stores, and the like. Or online of course Something like https://www.bgextras.co.uk/wooden-shapes-s19.htm or https://www.amazon.com/Hestya-Multicolor-Plastic-Tabletop-Component/dp/B07KGNWWP4.
In all seriousness, I have played D&D with little plastic army men. It was a bit silly, but it suited the game. :-)
I print out sheets with a picture and name on top then cut them up and put them in an alligator clip so they stand up. Make it with the image twice so you can fold it and then both sides can see it. Easy as. You can get about 16 per A4 sheet.