The Dungeon Master Tools Accumulation

 The way I run my TTRPG is evolving. I suspect I am behind the times. Some of that is intentional. I have yet to dip my toes into a virtual table top even though I can imagine it will enhance and sweeten some of the things I am going to write about. I cannot imagine that having a group show up with tablets and laptops for game would be my favorite thing. I am starting to DM with digital books and tools with an eye on that future state.  I am going to take a look back at how TTRPGs have changed partly as an exercise to think through where I have been and where I am going and partly because nostalgia can be fun. 

Those High School AD&D Games

My D&D paper and pencil experiences really started in my sophomore year of high school. The game didn't contribute to my failing Mrs. Davis Biology class, but it certainly did not help. The guy I sat with and I made friends over his bag full of AD&D books. He spent most of the class running a solo game for me where I played a Lizardman fighter with a Kobold sidekick. 

When the semester ended I knew almost nothing more about biology, but I knew I wanted to play AD&D with other people. I was already an avid Magic the Gathering player. The store in the mall where I got the majority of my cards also sold TSR products. Imagine my surprise when I got my Player's Handbook which gave me all sorts of information about creating and equipping a character, but told me nothing about running the game. 

It wouldn't be too long before I got my hands on a Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual, and the supplement material including campaign setting box sets started pouring in. I probably am overstating that. I spent the rest of my high school days bugging my parents for books when I wasn't buying them myself. My money went to dates with the girlfriend, then gaming, and then books to read. I was lucky that my high school sweetheart played games with the group. 

The group evolved from semester to semester. The best in school games happened on the half days around the end of the winter semester and the school year. We even managed a couple of time to get clearance to hang out in the library for the entire day and have marathon sessions. The majority of our games took place after school. I ran some of my first sessions in empty classrooms and hallway floors. 

I brought books though some of the others had their own collections. My buddy Rusty seemed to love the supplemental books as much as I did. His characters were sourced from a stack of different handbooks and were excellently unique each time. I don't think I ran a single game where we used printed character sheets. Characters were built on notebook paper which, being students, we had plenty of at hand. 

I had a couple of sets of dice carried in a dice bag inside my backpack. Going anywhere without them and a few MtG decks felt like blasphemy. The Player's Handbook, Monster Manual, and Dungeon Master's Guide were typically in tow as well along with my dedicated D&D notebook and my sketch pad. We saw minis in the store, but didn't use them. The story was played out mostly in our heads with quick thumbnail sketches on graph paper for maps and more fancy combat placement. 

I destroyed a few backpacks from stuffing them full of D&D books, boxes of Magic cards, and school work. My one indulgence to all the stuff I carried around was to read mostly paperback books. You could typically find it stuffed on top of everything else in my backpack which was straining at the seams and likely weighed 60 pounds or more year round. 

Third Edition Era

Not long after I finished high school rumors got heavy about a third edition of D&D. We wouldn't see it for a few years. My home life changed as most do around that age. My D&D group split and reformed several times. Eventually a new group came together around the launch of third edition which would last in different iterations until I stopped playing for years. 

Now I could host a game at my place. The bookshelf stocked full of 3.0 and eventually 3.5 material grew out of control. This was around the time that I started experimenting with other games too. I had played a little Shadowrun in high school because my biology partner and first DM loved it. 

We tried out games of Werewolf and Vampire: The Masquerade. These games were different both in theme and the seriousness of the role play. When my friends started showing up in costume I had to admit I was in over my head. It is funny to think now how offended I was that one of the girls that gamed with us wanted me to wear eye liner as the single concession to dressing up. Naturally, I flipped out in massive masculine insecurity and stopped hosting the game. She got her revenge by not sleeping with me any more. That was likely a good thing as it involved entirely too many neck bites for my taste. 

We still weren't using minis. The books lived on the book shelf until I parted with quite a lot of them in frustration. My AD&D stuff was mostly stolen or traded away. The fellowship was broken. I was too involved in my angst-ridden twenties to do anything to keep a group together. I eventually even stopped playing Magic the Gathering and took solace back in video games. 

These were the dark times.

The job in a game store

Oddly enough that brings us up to 2012. I wasn't processing stress well and decided to retreat from the adult world. I got a part time job at a local game store because it gave me a good discount on comic books. It wouldn't be long before I found friends and a gaming table. 

I joined a Pathfinder game first. Then I played Savage Worlds followed by Fate. Now I was gaming with maps and minis for the first time. I started collecting game material with a fever. I bought a new set of dice for every game. I bought maps. I bought tons of minis. 

I filled my bookshelves again. I played at least weekly and sometimes more often. 

The Golden Age of 5E

Part of the excitement of Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons for me is that it released at a time in my life where my shit was together enough that I could commit to playing a game regularly, had friends to come to the table, and could afford to collect all of the official material. I was not (as) broke as I had been with the launch of 3 and 3.5. I wasn't running off my friends as much anymore (though I would still do some of that.) 

This even carried on into a few games with friends at work. Using a big meeting room at the office to get together with coworkers and roll dice after the shift was very cool. Once again, I carted around stacks of books, dice, minis, and maps. This time around I was just a player, but it was a good time. 

Now

It feels as though there is a shift in the RPG world. With it has come a change for me in the way I am running my game. When I went to my kitchen table for my last session I did not carry a single book. On my Surface I have access to the 5E Player's Hanbook, DMG, and Monster Manual. I have been buying more and more of my supplemental material in both physical copy and PDF. 

I started doing this during the height of the pandemic so that I could relax in bed and read over campaign information, lore, or monster stats without having to worry about the lighting or dropping a heavy book on my face as I was falling asleep. As it happens, table space is always at a premium. By the time you seat six players around the table, lay out maps and minis, and everyone has room for their character sheet it is cramped. 

I have been looking at what I really need and trying to minimalized my DM kit. Being able to lower or eliminate physical books is really nice. Granted the $60 I dropped on D&D Beyond isn't the favorite money I have ever spent. It has proved really useful. I have made some other nice moves that are cleaning up the table and making planning super easy. 

Maps

I love my Chessex battle mat. Traditionally, I use it and Crayola washable markers to draw out maps for my group. It is quick, cheap, and easy to maintain. When I was carting my stuff back and forth to the office every couple of weeks I stopped using my roll up battle mat, and started using a plain fold up grid I bought back in my Pathfinder (1E) days. 

This pack has held up for years of use without any sign of wear or tear. It is perfectly portable. You can buy a copy on Amazon cheaper than most alternatives. They also offer a variety of pre-printed maps for things like Forest encounters, dungeons, cities, and keeps. While you can buy maps nearly infinitely, having a few that work for multi uses is super handy. 

I also highly recommend some dungeon dressing. If you combine a few basic maps with some interchangeable map objects you end up with an immersive and highly detailed game. There are several options out there from Skinny- Mini, Role 4 Initiative, and 1985 Games.  I opted to go with the Dungeon Craft Volume 1 set. 

This compact box does require some basic ability to use scissors and maintain patience. What you get in return are a variety of trees, rocks, treasure chests, prebuilt rooms, and other handy items to flesh out your map without drawing anything. I must admit I find myself wanting a binder or box to organize it all, but for now I have limited myself to cutting out the items I should need in my session and keeping them at the top of the box. Its funny that little touches like placing the camp fire in the center of camp makes for more immersive game play. 

Minis

Between collecting minis for TTRPGs and playing Warhammer I have a ton of minis of various quality. Getting a stack of boxes full of minis crowded around the table is not ideal. Until I can build out a fully furnished game room with shelves on every wall and a huge table in the center I don't love toting around minis with few exceptions. 

Player and major NPCs need a distinctive mini. It just increases player investment. I make part of session zero having everyone dive into my collection and pull a mini. I pick up a few here and there to round things out. For example, I am ashamed to admit I didn't have any Gnomes in my collection. Worse still, I have a major shortage of Dragonborn and absolutely no dragonborn females. A quick online order helped that problem. 

For monster and enemy minis I have two thoughts and three product recommendations. The first is so far my least favorite in the form of the 5E Creature Collection. This is just a series of vinyl clings which adhere to a variety of appropriately shaped bases. Don't get me wrong. They are inexpensive, functional, and fairly compact. This is no bad thing. 

I love the pawn boxes put out by Paizo. They are made a heavy gauge cardboard which inserts into a plastic base giving your monsters a more 3D presence. That does come at the cost of more weight and space on the table. Totally worth it though when compared to box after box of minis. 

Arcknight and Skinny-Mini both offer a light weight alternative. I spent the big bucks on a starter set on ArcKnight. Depending on how using them goes I may add on some warbands from Skinny-mini along with a subscription box.

Pro-tip though, don't just pop your minis on the board. It makes you a lazy DM in a bad way. Build tension and excitement by describing less common enemies to players before they hit the board. Even for things that they know in great detail, there is nothing wrong with describing the roar of wind that accompanies the flap of giant dragon wings or even have the sun be suddenly blotted out of the sky as a raging ancient red flies overhead. This just makes the game better. 

Dice Case

I found a nice zippered dice case on Amazon. The truth is that I bring too many dice to the table. Less is more on this. As the guy running the game I want a few extra dice, but honestly I don't need all that many for a typical 5E or Pathfinder 2E game. Two 15 dice sets are pretty amazing. I have gotten a taste for Kraken and Roll 4 Initiative dice. They both have great options on sets that are easy to read and pleasant to roll. 

Realizing I had a dice problem I allowed myself to buy a new set for the game we just launched. I stocked up my Dice case. It fits four sets of my dice. It could hold 8 sets of the classic 7 dice sets. That is plenty for most games unless you need buckets of d6 or D10s. 

I feel that if I am in a situation at the table and need more dice than this I am likely in trouble. Not that I feel the need to justify, but the pink dice are 100% my favorite. The best rolling set I ever owned I gifted to a new player. They were pink. She loved them. I am a sucker. 

Some sort of magic was transacted in the exchange. In the last game where I was a player I used two sets of dice. One set was gray and the other black. They both had pale blue numbering because I always have some thematic element to my dice selection. I rolled decent. 

I bought pink dice for running this game. I roll so well I have to occasionally show mercy on my players to not kill them with crits. Moreover, Teagan is my DM assistant and does a lot of my rolls for me. I experimented with having her roll the two sets from my last game alternatively with my different pink and purple sets. She dropped all of her high rolls with these sets. 

It may be weirdly superstitious, but I keep a stock of pink dice sets. Looking at this picture I even want to replace that beautiful purple set with a different pink set. Again, I know I have a dice problem. Limiting what I allow myself to carry to the table combats that a bit. 

I have goals for what I want to be able to do when playing games at the table. Those homebrew games I ran during and after high school may have been hosted mostly in the theater of the mind, but they were a great time. I want to build on and enhance that. I want to guide a great story with intriguing NPCs, interesting exploration, and the ability to adapt to what my players are interested in doing while still keeping a narrative afloat. 

One of the most frustrating things for me as a player is to be punished by my DM for doing something they disagree with. Now, let me qualify that. A good DM should 100% respond to player cues. If the players turn into murder hobos in an orderly place like Silverymoon, which my friend Travis and I did once upon a time in a game Walt was running, then they should have the law after them. Was it satisfying for our two characters to end up in an inescapable dungeon? No. Did it pretty well end the campaign? Sadly, yes. This was the same game where my fussy ranger who did not like to get dirty was also raped to death by Orcs. Well, not true. He was being violated by orcs after failing a stealth check and one of the other players mercy killed him, but still. Not satisfying. Not fun. Too damned dark. 

An example of circumstances and repercussions being done right happened to my cleric of Tymora. I play confident characters extremely well and I made more than a few insulting moves toward the Orc deity Gruumsh. That is down playing things. I used the head of a dead Eye of Gruumsh as a hand puppet, insulted his holy symbol, tricked his champions that were sent to avenge these wrongs, and generally provoked the ever loving shit out of a very vengeful god all in the name of fun. 

When the campaign resolved the DM spanked me by presenting the entire party the choice of dying at the hands of an ancient blue dragon that we had zero means of escape or carrying out the will of Gruumsh in exchange for him rescuing us. It was a genius. I both hated it in character and respected the absolute hell out of the DM. My character is an NPC in my own worlds and that ending made him super angry. He might have spent some years making things right with his own goddess before starting a private pogrom against the followers of Gruumsh. Its hard to teach an old elf new tricks after all. 

Interestingly enough, one of the NPCs in my current game was also inspired by that story. He is chosen of Gruumsh and is out to thwart the party who is working for my old elf character. What can I say? I have trouble letting go of characters and storylines. Passing those along to a new group feels pretty neat even if they won't get the full reference of where it all started. Who knows, maybe a certain thieving barbarian (picture Conan, but bald and a total coward if a fight starts going bad) will slip out of the dungeons of Silverymoon or escape the executioners axe and find a new life as a fun NPC along the way. 

Isn't that what old character sheets are for?