March 7

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 22: Perfect Gaming Environment

For some reason this post was scheduled to appear last year but it appears to have been stuck in my queue after it missed the publishing date.

When I started gaming, I always wanted a gaming room of my own with; dice, miniatures and a library of gaming books all within easy reach of me and the players.

As technology progressed and after seeing the gaming room with an overhead LCD projector I wanted one so I could display maps and combats in much better 3d environment.

I have also done some gaming with Roll 20 and this is getting close to my idea of a perfect gaming environment.  I have my battlemaps, books and custom macros to make things run that much smoother 🙂

 

Category: Modern, RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 8

Kickstarter – DRAGONLOCK™ 28mm Scale Dungeon Gaming Terrain

Many years ago at GenConUK I remember seeing a set of dungeon furniture and scenery sets cast in resin and I fell in love with them.  What I couldn’t justify was the cost for a starter set as they were and still are very expensive items to have.

Enter Fat Dragon Games who have so far made all sorts of interesting terrain sets using print at home templates and slightly thicker paper in your printer so you can print as much as you like.

Now they have gone the extra step and are producing a Kickstarter so that you can print your own 3d terrain with a 3d printer!

I would so love to back this project but the lack of a 3d printer is what is preventing me from doing so.

 

September 27

#RPGaDAY2015 – Day 14: Favourite RPG Accessory

Over the years I’ve bought lots of gaming accessories to try out, be they; dice trays, dice, dice towers, dice cups and all sorts of dice to boot.

I remember the first accessory I wanted to get hold of  was in the pages of Dragon magazine; Dragonbone Electronic Dice .  To have something like this in your hand and be able to roll as many dice as you needed without having to lose them seemed like a marvel of the electronic age.  The problem was that by the time I got the issue of Dragon some five years had passed and I wasn’t sure if the company was still in business so I gave it a miss.

The second item I lusted after was an all purpose GM screen, something where I could determine what charts and tables were facing me and something I could use for a variety of games that lacked an official screen.

I did manage to get two or three that fulfilled the criteria for a universal screen.  The first one I bought was made by the now defunct Citizen Games, it was a quad panel affair and really did the trick, the downside was that it was a portrait orientation which means you have to stare up and over it to look at the players.  The next one I bought was the Savage Worlds screen which is only three panels but is in my preferred landscape orientation but only has three panels.   The number of panels may be seen as irrelevant but having an extra sheet of useful charts does stop me from reaching for a book to reference.  There is one more screen to consider though and that is the self proclaimed The World’s Greatest Screen from  Hammerdog Games, a four panel screen in either portrait or landscape orientation.

Category: RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 19

Kickstarter – Campaign Coins Starter Sets and Epic Treasure

We make beautiful metal coins for tabletop games. Treasure worthy of your greatest adventures!

I’ve done all sorts of things to try and grab the attention of my players with props, I even tried using in game currency to add the extra dimension to the game but I ran into a major problem with coins; you couldn’t get enough of them to represent the vast wealth that certain OGL games require.

Now this project does look cool but since the coins are metal I suspect the shipping costs of the number of coins I would need to play with would be beyond prohibitive.

Category: fantasy, RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 15

Kickstarter – BattleBards – Fantasy Audio for Tabletop Gamers Done Right!

Enhance your Campaign w/ 500+ Fantasy Audio Scores built for Tabletop RPGs. Create your own custom scores! All from the browser.

As a games-master I’m always looking for something to enhance my players experience at the tabletop, I’ve mentioned using soundtracks before to try and make things memorable. There’s nothing like the sound of rain or chatter at the local tavern playing in the background to add to the atmosphere.

So when I was contacted by BattleBards regarding their Kiskstarter I was intrigued to say the least.

 

Category: fantasy, RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 12

Kickstarter – Fantasy RPG Bookmarks for Players & Game Masters

Finally a series of bookmarks that are both beautiful and functional to enhance your tabletop gaming experience!

I’ve mentioned about using bookmarked pdfs before but never talked about a proper physical bookmark that you can stick inside your gaming books.  This Kickstarter does just that, a collection of bookmarks that you can use in your gaming books.

I like the look of them and the art is pretty good, I’m undecided whether or not to back the project since they only appear to be printed one side; I suspect it would be too much of a headache to print bookmarks containing basic class information for all the OGL games on the reverse.

 

Category: fantasy, RPG | LEAVE A COMMENT
April 3

Kickstarter – GNL Mats

Modular gaming mats that fit any size or shape table, work with any marker, and are super durable.

Like many gms when D&D 3 appeared and introduced the concept of using a battle grid I had to go and purchase a couple for use.  It was then I discovered the main drawback of the maps I bought were that they didn’t fit the gaming table and would either hang over the edge or make battles a rather intimate encounter whenever I used the smaller one.

This looks like just the ticket for me, being able to lay a few down and clean them afterwards.  The only concern I have is that the international shipping is going to be a very costly proposition and may push it outside of my price bracket.