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Post by Tesla Ranger on Oct 13, 2016 21:18:44 GMT
Thanks to some of the help I got on this board a year ago the DM Toolbox is one of my more popular items. I've been working on adding more D&D-centric listings ( Dice Cups & Binders being the biggest so far). For a long while now I've been trying to work out a packet of Markers, tokens, transparencies, and/or minis that I could add as well. I developed a few models for persistent spell effects (Bigby's Hand, Black Tentacles, etc) before finding out my little printer isn't capable of reliably turning out prints with consistent fidelity. I still have other ideas, transparencies for spell effects, tokens to mark status effects, prop coins, etc. I'm just not sure what other DMs would find valuable or interesting enough that they'd be interested in purchasing them. I'd be interested to hear opinions from the wider DM community. |
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Post by DM_tonofbricks on Oct 13, 2016 23:30:07 GMT
I think status effects would be the one I would be most interested in. It can be a bit frustrating when you have to explain to the same player for the fourth time in a combat that yes, that guy is prone; his model didn't just fall over.
For real though, status effect markers are crucial. I have my own, but they are pretty make shift. If they actually looked nice, it would add a lot to the feel of the game.
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Post by lasersniper on Oct 13, 2016 23:44:46 GMT
I would normally be interested in cool physical stuff like that, but I don't do much IRL TTRPG's at the moment.
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Post by joatmoniac on Oct 15, 2016 4:49:59 GMT
Anything with some level of persistence would be beneficial for sure. Status effects on PCs and NPCs or spells effects of some kind. Also, your other stuff is absolutely awesome, and i love every time i see the dice cup on Godsfall's social media accounts! Keep uo the awesome work!
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Oct 15, 2016 15:58:15 GMT
Thanks! That's helpful info and your kind words made my morning! ^_^  So far as status effects I've tried out a few different ideas already though none of them's been perfected. A) Stamped leather squares: A 1" square is small enough I can usually cut it from scrap and the heavy leather is thick enough that it doesn't bend or warp. For practicality's sake I'd need to stamp the design into it (rather than carve it) but then I can stain it the same as I would anything else. Takes more time and materials than the other options but it's currently the style I think I'm leaning towards. B) Bases: We just finished a campaign where we were using these bases (printed in 7 or 8 different colors) to indicate a PC's stances/auras. It worked pretty well on a purely utilitarian basis. The downsides are that they're not all that aesthetic and at a little more than 1" wide they can be cumbersome in close quarters. C) Pips: I was trying to come up with something that would fit on the mini rather than under it and pips were the best I could come up with. They're just large enough to be easy to handle but small enough that there isn't much that can be done to ornament them, or even clean them up really. Practical maybe, but not very pretty. D) Tokens: I made models for each condition but "Burning" is the only one that's been printed so far. These still wind up going under the mini but at least they're identified by more than color. The biggest difficulty I have hear is the quality of my printer. Even with everything calibrated I still have to toss every 3rd or 4th token. Doing the work to make them not obviously 3D printed would be impractical at this scale. |
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Oct 25, 2016 20:50:49 GMT
How do ya'll think these would work? 1" squares of heavy leather I can carve/stamp and paint for different status effects:  |
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Post by lasersniper on Oct 30, 2016 6:16:49 GMT
How durable are they? They most likely will be tossed in a bag (Probably with dice) and knocked around a lot. Will they hold up? And another question is how much will it take for them to warp? I can see them having problems if they warped even a bit.
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Oct 30, 2016 17:48:48 GMT
Leather this heavy is pretty durable. They might get bumps or nicks over time but nothing that's likely to alter the shape or form. As long as they're kept reasonably dry there wouldn't be any warping or deformation. Hypothetically someone might be able to crease one, but it'd be hard to do on accident with leather this thick and if it did it should be simple enough to correct (leave it under a few books for some hours). The finish will keep the colors from leeching or wearing so I don't think durability will be an issue. In fact, our group's been using similar tokens to track initiative since '12 and they're holding up pretty well.
I'm expecting the challenge to be in the aesthetics rather than the engineering. Coming up with 14-20 icon and color combinations that are easily identifiable, producible, and interesting. I've been working on prototypes for the other conditions and only a few still need some work.
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Post by lasersniper on Oct 30, 2016 20:09:53 GMT
Then the only other thing I can think of is having distinguishing colors. Symbols are cool and all, but making sure you have distinct and diverse colors will be more important because in use you won't be looking at the symbol.
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Nov 1, 2016 16:52:04 GMT
Here's what I've got so far. Colors are approximates since leather stains don't come with hex codes and I can't easily represent all the possible variations. I'm still waffling on the paralyzed icon but I think I'm reasonably settled on the rest.  I'm already printing out the tap-offs to make prototypes and I'm hoping to have the collection of conditions finished by this weekend. I'm figuring on making a little case to hold them in and/or scaled tokens for spell effects & summoned critters. Meanwhile, how would this look for a standard set: 2x Blind 6x Burning 1x Charmed 1x Deafened 2x Frightened 2x Grappled 4x Incapacitated 1x Invisible 1x Paralyzed 2x Petrified 3x Poisoned 2x Prone 2x Restrained 2x Stunned 26 seems to be about the practical max, especially if there's going to be a case but I could mix and match them differently if ya'll think another arrangement would be more useful. I imagine some of these are more likely to come up at some tables and visa versa. |
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Post by lasersniper on Nov 1, 2016 21:07:32 GMT
I feel like taking away one Burning and moving it to Charmed, just because I feel like most charm effects parties will run into will be in mass targeting, not so much single targeting. But I feel like colors and symbols are diverse and recognizable enough. That said, I feel like Deafened and Blinded might be close enough to be confused color wise. Guess you just gotta hope your DM is not evil enough to utilize both at the same time xD
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Nov 1, 2016 21:16:51 GMT
Thanks! It seemed like Charm effects were mostly single target to my recollection but you're quite right that that isn't always the case.
The Blinded tokens will be a custom mix I usually call "Wine" (sort of a dark mauve) and the Deafened is straight up Dark Brown so they'll probably be easy enough to tell apart in meatspace. Prone (Yellow), Stun (Yellow with a pearl finish), and Grappled (Light Brown) can at times all look pretty similar once they've cured. I'll be playing those by ear to make sure they're still distinctive.
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Nov 8, 2016 0:20:15 GMT
The first prototypes are close enough to finished that I can see how the staining's going to go. I'm probably going to change the color on the Stun tab (with the stars) and might add some painted borders to some of the others. We have a game this Wednesday so I'm going to playtest the prototypes then. Prolly going to play with the numbers a little too since I realized the Invis tab might double for Stealth. |
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Post by Tesla Ranger on Nov 10, 2016 22:41:52 GMT
The playtest last night went reasonably well. Most of the tokens on the field were standing in for spell effects (Bane, haste, etc) but we didn't seem to have any difficulty keeping them straight. If anything it suggests additional sets (for spell effects, mounts, summoned critters, etc) are worth considering.    Thanks for all your help, ya'll! Edit: I wrote a blog blurb with more pictures here and the shop listing for the tokens can be found here. |
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