This is a question for TTRPG GMs. What RPG books, supplements, or accessories do you find yourself using year after year? Which RPG products provide the biggest regular impact at your table?
Monster tokens are probably one of my “unsung heroes” of gaming when it comes to travel; I know people (myself included) probably always go to with minis, but if i’m going to a convention, traveling for the holidays, etc. tossing a whole pile of tokens into a bag make for great addition. No particular brand, just whatever i’ve picked up over the years.
I use blank dice in different colours and I can write on them with the wet erase markers I draw the battle map with!
It’s really convenient and allows for player expression on their dice, as well!
My favourite brand of tokens is Skittles.
Having scrap paper and pencils on hand is my go to. Even running online it’s nice to have and I find, if I don’t have it, I end up needing it.
@slyflourish My most used accessory is a Pathfinder magnetic Combat Pad I bought back in 2011. Little magnets I can write on with wet erase markers, then shuffle around to make the initiative, plus space to scribble with wet-erase to track hp and stuff.
Fantastic tool.
Shawn Tomkin’s Ironsworn series. Delve I regularly use for setting up point crawls. Ironsworn/Starforged/Sundered Isles have great collections of random tables, I use the book thematically most fitting for the situation at hand. The core tables of Action, Theme, Descriptor and Focus all get heavy use.
Kevin Crawford’s [SOMETHING] Without Number series have awesome tables as well. These however get more use when I need more detail. Prep stuff. Again most thematic book is picked first but I do have used Cites (cyberpunk) for fantasy cities.
When I want to create background for “medieval fantasy” characters I pick up Burning Wheel and burn something up. Through that I get a good selection of relevant skills to sue (for flavor)
Anything related to cosmos and mythology I say HELLO! to my growing collection of Glorantha material. From cult books to magic tomes and Atlases.
For d&d? 5e.tools’s DM screen on a laptop is excellent, it has an encounter tracker, calendar, dice roller, and I can pin whatever rules and statblocks I need this week.
Also a giant battle mat is really useful.
Historically it would be either my 2nd edition Werewolf the Apocalypse book, Paladium Fantasy Core book, or WEG’s Star Wars d6 core book.
Currently my 5e.2024 PHB.
I keep going back to the Fate core and supplement books. They just have such good GM advice.
A wet erase map probably. Though I don’t know if that’s an ‘accessory’ since it’d be like saying dice, or notebooks are accessories they are so central to the whole thing.
I think one thing I really like since about last year is ‘origami’ miniatures i.e. miniatures folded out of paper, there’s just something that speaks to me when I put down a bunch of paper frogs or a paper dragon as a miniature. They are ‘abstract’ but honestly it’s not like it needs to be super detailed. Plus I don’t have to worry about it getting damaged or lost, plus I can give it to people, which if you are running a game for kids, you’ll want to bring more than just one paper dragon miniature.
As for supplements I quite like the Book of Challenges from 3.5e and WallyDM’s Journal of Puzzle Encounters both help me with just coming up with challenges and puzzles since I can page through it a bit then make a new puzzle/challenge.
A wet erase map probably
Second this. probably the most used accessory i have. Others come and go, but that vinyl map i’ve had kicking around for 20+ years is still used almost every game.
I only things I have used multiple years are mainly for DnD 5e 2014:
- Monstrous Races - a supplement that turns everything from official Monster Manuals into playable races with a lovely commentary about how these were balanced.
- Conflux Creatures - just better creatures, this is the first thing I do is to replace monsters of premade adventures with the Conflux ones. They are just much better experience compared to sacks of HP that most 5e monsters are. There is no need to read “Monsters know what they are doing” when the stat block pretty much does it for you.
- Creature Loot by Medieval Melodies: https://medievalmelodies.blogspot.com/2017/06/creature-loot-intro.html - lootsies + crafting for all of the creatures.
- The Alexandrian: thealexandrian.net for reviews, advice and remixes of official campaigns
- Official WotC products besides the campaigns: Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons for all of the Dragon Lore
I find myself pulling in things from all over the place. Worlds Beyond Number has great generator tables to build adventures from, and Dangerous Destinations etc are great for scaffolding locations on the fly. I also use the interlinking utility of OneNote for my GM notes, which helps a lot in my sandbox games to remember who did what, where, why, etc.
I don’t put much stock into generic gaming aids.
The worst single product for it is the 5E DM guide, because it has next to no useful information in it.
I think for digital gamin,g it has to be foundry. If there is a module for your game of choice, then it’s just better then Roll20. The Fabula Ultima module is pretty great.
Roll 20 is a honorable mention because the bar of entry to it is so damn low. It is a pile of jank though.
My graphics tablet is also a great too, I sometimes just sketch things for my group in real time. The same thing can be done with a whiteboard in your gaming room for physical games.
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Can someone ping me in a bit so I can read more responses?
Ping? Pong!
No.
My most used book is my copy of Dungeon World but my most used accessory is definitely my notebook, filled with session notes, sketches, and stories. Ah the thrills of the forever GM.
Kind of neat to see you on lemmy. I’ve purchased Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master and have watched some of your youtube videos, the 1 year of shadowdark was informative as I just started a Shadowdark version of Keep on the Borderlands.
I have done online only since the pandemic so GIMP, Inkarnate, Roll20, and ZIM Desktop Wiki are pretty essential for organizing as well as digital table-top for play.
I own and frequently use the (Stars/Worlds/Cities) without numbers books often depending on the genre for procedural world-building but I was recently gifted Microscope and im sorry did you say street magic so I’m looking forward to making the shift towards collaborative world building with the players.
Also from the SWN book are the faction rules which are broadly applicable.
Finally I usually reread the Mothership Wardens Operations Manual before I do my October horror one-shots
While I haven’t yet purchased Justin Alexander’s So you want to be a game master, I have extensively read his blog, and often reread it when creating for a new campaign.
Thank you!
