DM Tools of the Trade

Something I'm using for my new campaign, I build models of some locations with Legos. Not sized for Lego people, but much smaller, just buildings, streets, etc. Players think it's totally awesome!

we keep our character sheets in plastic sheet protectors. the main benefit is that you can use dry erase markers on them. for stats that are constantly in flux, like hp, it is a life saver.

See a Dream Theater poster, a psyduck figure, a lightsaber, and this guy is talking tabletop? Instant subscribe. I like your stuff.

Post-it notes for treasure items, magic jewels, weapons, and other special items, it gives the player a description and who ever has the post-it has the item.

One thing that I always do to help in my games is that I make folders for each player, and in it I include the following.  Character Sheet, Blank Graph Paper, Blank Ruled Paper, Blank sketch paper, Printouts of there class/race descriptions/abilities, copies of any handouts that I have already given out(notes from NPC's, Maps, etc), a full list of there magic items, with a brief description and book/page reference, and for spell casters a spell book with a brief description and book/page reference.  I usually will work on creating this at the time of character creation with the player and it helps them not only remember everything that has previously happened, but offers a very quick lookup of there characters abilities without interrupting the game.

Could you make an updated version of this video? Awesome content!

another good set of tools to use is a bunch of color coded rings to put around peoples miniatures to keep track of their conditions. got that from matt mercer lol

These are awesome tips. I'm going to send this video to my DM. Our whole group of players and our DM were all first timers to DnD. He did a great job for having zero experience. However, I think he could benefit a lot from your videos to make his life a little easier and ultimately allow him to have more fun. Also, we were playing 4e and my god that was some seriously clunky battle sequences so hopefully we can transition over to 5e very soon.

I also use Spotify playlists for atmospheric music for D&D. There is some great classical/medieval music that is appropriate, as well as using film soundtracks.

I've been having kind of a GM low, and I had lost a bit of the hype, and starting to get it back, I decided to rewatch your videos, and watch some of the new ones, and I want to really thank you Matt. Your vids get me hyped and inspired to snap out of it, and once more be the GM I used to be. So thanks man, I appreciate you doing these videos.

I've never ran a tabletop game in real life, all my sessions have been online. We use Fantasy Grounds 2 as our virtual tabletop, it's quite good, easier to manage than roll20 in my opinion. Keeping well organized is insanely useful, I use a local wiki style document with interlinking for my notes, keeping pages for items, races, characters, locations etc that link to eachother like a regular wiki, so if I'm on my "Village XIV" page, read the notes, remember that there's a blacksmith, I can click the Blacksmith link and see who the shop keeper is there, if I wrote down any other details about the Blacksmith like what he offers or any rumors etc.

I'm a big fan of Syrinscape for my in game sound needs. I only just started using index cards, and they are amazing. I also use Pathfinder pawns, no more carrying a massive backpack to the game, I can keep everything in a A4 sized thick plastic box/folder/etc;

Man, it really is enough that your videos on D&D are insightful and genuinely helpful, but it doesn't hurt that I always see something Dream Theater-related in the background. I applaud your good taste, sir.

I'm very old school. I play first edition D&D and AD&D. What I did was photocopy every single chart and table that's actually used in game from the DM Guide and Player's Handbook, as well as the charts that would be used directly during play from the Metzer Basic rulebook, the Expert Rulebook, the Companion Rulebook, the Master Rulebook, and the Immortals rulebook. I then cut all these charts up, arranged them together logically where they would fit together with each other for actual play and easy look up and taped them to pages, organizing them. I then photocopied those pages and stuck them in plastic page holders. So now I have two binders. One with the AD&D charts and one with the charts from the Basic rules line charts, all organized in page holders, tabbed for easy look up, that I stick on the table and use as my DM screen. It's the best DM screen I've ever had and is WAY more useful than anything TSR ever produced. I rarely have to refer to the books to find information when I run a game. Most information for accomplishing tasks is somewhere in that DM screen. If not, there's an index in there that tells me specifically what page or in the Basic Rules binder, what book and what page, to find the information. These two binder/GM screens took some work to make, but they're the most useful thing that I own when it comes to running a game.

I like to be self customized. By drawing and making almost everything like the map and dungeon master's note board. The only thing i didn't make would be the dice and figures.

Hey Matt. I just wanted to say you have helped me tons with learning about how to use what I have to create a generally amazing gaming experience. And as a brand new player (were talking weeks here) I probably couldn't have made my campaigns as epic without your videos. Keep it up man, and thanks for doing this for everyone as it is a pretty steep learning curve for a new guy especially someone who's teaching themselves. I rolled a 20 when I found your channel

I'm a big fan of herolab. It's a character creation program for various RPGs including 3.5, pathfinder, and 4th ed. It's for PC and Mac as well as iPad. It organizes character sheets where I feel they are easier to read. Many of times one of my players has forgotten their character sheet and I can just print them off a copy, so it's a good way to back up character sheets. Also between sessions I can review everyone's stats and sneak in any items they may have acquired between games. The only downfall is that it costs money, around 20-30$ but I feel it was well worth the investment.

I have only DM'd a few times but one of my biggest praises is use of props. I had a dungeon with multiple levers that would activate traps if used in the wrong way, so I had a cardboard box with 3 dowels stuck into it with some wiggle room to act as levers. The players liked the interaction and all wanted to use it as people fell prey to sleeping gas when they failed. 

I've quickly grown to love having Story Dice at my side, thanks to Mike Shea's  The Lazy DM video.  I use them all too often to create NPCs on the fly while the PCs are in a town, stumble upon a caravan or whatever else.   Just toss a couple dice, and whatever bit description you come up with becomes a bit of your NPCs personality. 

I make custom Minecraft Maps for every dungeon. During the session, we use a combination of paper-maps, Minecraft maps (for simulation) displayed on either a TV or a laptop, and the classic dice system of DnD 3.5 with a ton of house rules. I've added using my phone to store story details, which another players helps me write, and my friends laptop to add custom music.