Do you have a go-to DM toolkit? What are your essentials besides your notes and dice? If you're a traveling DM, do you bring more or less than what I show in this video? Let me know and thanks for watching!
One of the main things is actually a website xD like a digital dm-screen with initiative counter, statblocks from most 5e encounters, loot generator and so on. It's super helpful :)
My laptop since it's my GM screen, post it notes and pencil for quick drawings of hard to explain things, even more paper to make enemy minis and cookies
I bough the Game Master Companion by Dragon Shield a few months ago and am fairly impressed by the quality of it. It includes a universal 3 panel GM screen, a small phone holder, a bunch of plastic index cards that fit a slot at the top of the GM screen, and a big box with foam layers with cutouts for minis and other stuff. Only thing I miss is the option to customize the foam layers because once something doesn't fit the cutout, you have to apply pressure which I don't like. But all in all a good purchase that I can recommend. Additionally, I use transparent token holders by Greenstuff World that fit 1 inch round paper tokens, a big bag of dice for me and my players (that I should start to organize soon), the big version of the Chessex battle mat, some pens, and my trusty iPad. Since I am a mobile GM I feel a bit encumbered when I use public transport with all that stuff but when I use the car, its no deal at all. Still roughly fits one large backpack.
Travel Tokens: At one point a friend was moving and they were throwing away their round metal curtain rods. I took the decorative ends and use them as tokens. I’ve also used chess pieces as I sometimes have my travel chess set with me. I’ve had several travel chess sets so I’ve kept some of those pieces as well for the different sizes, styles and shapes. I also have various sized cardboard bases with small round magnets. Some of my chess pieces have magnets and this makes a medium creature token large or larger by taking up more squares. Side note: arcade tokens make great inspiration coins. Grab your ketchup and crunch away my friends.
Little tip.... Always roll your maps/ plans , image side out. That way they don't curl on the tabletop when rolled out. I learned that lesson hard my first week working for a civil engineering firm. nice video
@@remakethestars2683 yeah, but then you may have to put paperweights down. If you place minis, stones, or whatever that's too light on the edge then they'll likely get lifted up and moved by the paper curling up.
On the contrary, I roll my battle mat with the hexes on the outside, squares on the inside (I use squares pretty much exclusively) because it protects the square side from damage
1) I never burn sheets, because I don't do permanent death. I do Winchester death. Characters can be brought back, but almost always at a terrible price. 2) That dice box in your minimalist kit is badass and I'm totally going to make one at some point.
I love that you have a minimalist kit for after school and outdoor education I'm a high school teacher and this is exactly why my bag always has a bag of dice, assorted paper, and a massive pencil case of coloured pens. We're very lucky have a little lawn and when the weather is right I take them outside to feel the grass, breathe the air, smell the plants. These are usually our creative writing days and we use dice to help us make decisions when the choice paralysis starts setting in. DnD felt like a natural thing to introduce after that and they LOVE it, and especially because we're outside they get up, walk around, grab leaves off the ground to 'track' or point to distant points on the horizon. The importance of play in the life of a highschooler, who society has decided must outgrow it, cannot be overstated.
I prefer the minimalist kit, I find it increases immersion to have the most abstract representation possible so you can fill the void in with your descriptions
@@Sanguivore Depends on preferences. Minimalist kit is good due to it being small. 3d miniatures take up a lot of space. 3d built terrain - even more maybe Plus, 32 mm scale nowadaya popular in wargames and dnd doesn't help the space use. Pawns and 2d minis are a nice compromise. 2d tokens with images or just tokens are minimalist and most efficient if you want tactical combat. More minimalist i going theatre of the mind
I like your kit! Another pro tip: buy a cigar box (find one with a latch!) from a tobacco store, you can get some nice ones for like $2-$5! I personally use spray adhesive or craft glue to attach the felt, but hot glue would definitely work. I also use 2 layers of felt for that little bit extra cushion. Anyway, now you have a rolling tray that you can pack stuff into and close up! I used one that I made like this for a long time, and it's honestly still dope and all my players are jealous of it! Plus, I added a divider that's half the height so I have a spot to set my dice in it when I'm not rolling them!
Thats a sick idea! Those old cigar boxes are so beautiful too. I bet I could find a dope one and do some wood burning art on it. Thanks for the recommendation, Ill keep an eye out.
@@HouseDM oh man that sounds super dope! I have this one where the lid lifts straight up, I think it's Amazon Basin? That could make a really nice one too haha But yeah I'm always looking for ways to make neat DND tools haha
I use exactly this for my dice storage. I even glued some dowel rods into the lid and use those as dice shelves. Make sure to weight the bottom down a bit if you do that, though, as sometimes the dice can outweigh the box itself and it will tip. I used a bit of leather for a rolling surface and some coins to weight it.
Crazy coincidence for me here! I just did this earlier today with an old cigar box I found in my garage! This works great and my dice now have a nice place to roll around :)
There are really great ideas in here. Wet-erase backgammon pieces, generic dungeon corner-pieces and doors, coins to use as meta currency, colored stones for treasures/monsters/etc, fire markers, keys to represent keys, IT ALL MAKES SENSE. I need to try some of this.
A portable chess and d20 kits. Chess is great, simple and versatile. You can use the diferent pieces to sign as pc/npcs/scenario. You have the squared grid. Or can flip the board to use as a dice case (I prefer it because normally play using theater of mind).
I don't know if this counts as a minimalist kit item, but it's something I add to all my terrain builds now. Get some magnet tape and stick it to the bottom of your terrain pieces. You can get it in a pretty slim profile so it doesn't take up much space. Then you can lay down a magnetic white board and your pieces hold in place way better!
I used to feel I needed so many things and books with me. Learned over time that all I really do need is something similar to your own kit, along with just my Kindle.
@@HouseDM One thing I am happy I did, was I bought a some bases for minis. I bought a set of each size, and just put a single drop of paint on each that was a different color. Same idea you have with your pieces, just using the bases instead.
I’m a bit old at 58. Recently was diagnosed with a chronic illness and become disabled. Wanted to get back into RPGs. You’re video was helpful and impressive. Back when I was starting to learn DND, and before there were any specialized items you could buy, the minimalist kit I had was graph paper, dice, pencil, eraser, rule book, and book bag. So yeh, really all you need is imagination.
Hehehe... back in the day, my minimalist bag was my school backpack. At 51, can confirm getting old sucks and don't recommend people do it. Nobody ever takes my advice.
Wow, I didn’t know so many people use so many items to play dnd. I use a dm screen (if I remember to bring it), paper, a pencil and dice. Theater of the kind has always been favorite for me. Maybe I’ll have to try using miniatures some day 😁
I'm the same way. In the online game I ran, I had a picture to display of the setting, but I never used battlemaps or minis. I've always preferred TotM play, as it lets my players be more immersed in their imagination, vs looking minis. That being said, one of the listeners of the podcast made minis of all my player's pcs, and I adore having them on my bookshelf.
Having done both Theater of the Mind and the physical stuff, I can appreciate both. But working with minis/tokens/markers/etc. It's much easier to communicate what's happening and who's where.
The thing with minis is that the upfront cost is money and time, but during play you save a fair bit because you’re not constantly trying to remember where everything is
I gm for Call of Cthulhu (or sometimes Indie games) but I love finding inspiration in other systems. My travel kit contains a gm screen, basic rules, flowcharts and Character creation overview (in transparent covers), character sheets, pencil and eraser, my favorite set of dice, my notebook + whatever scenario I plan to run. Most of the time I also bring a small Bluetooth speaker for background music. Love to see how people get creative!
Loved this video. It took me a lot to go minimalistic in an agile way and now my entire kit finally fits an A5 format: - No rulebooks (got a custom made OSR system that fits 1 page, still couldn't bother to flip even when playing 5e, Vampire, etc) - Folding GM screen = 4x A5 pages (PCs, NPCs, Campaign Fronts, Rand tables and names) - 4x A5 battle mat (paizo cut) - A5 GM binder divided in sections (Current quest max 4xA5 pages each, campaign ideas, filed quests, development/work in progress) - Flat basic tokens - Stack of 3x5 - 12-15 high contrast dice - pencil, whiteboard markers, eraser, microfiber sheet All fits in the binder and doesn't need a dedicated bag
I'm a traveling DM and it's not easy. At all. Everything I bring fits into a large box. 1- binder for notes/side quests/oneshots 2-folder with monster statblocks for the session. 3- Tomb of annihilation book 4- 3 large see through tackleboxes for minis 5- crown royal bag of dice. 6- small note pad On top of that I also bring a large case that fits the bigger minis that do not fit into the tackleboxes. Dragons/tomb tappers/froghemoth etc. The place i play has a VTT so all the terrain I built stays there as well to avoid carrying it back and forth. Once you've played with a vtt/terrain and minis you'll never want to go back to Theater of the mind.
Sounds challenging to be a traveling DM with all of that! I don’t own a printer so I just use my laptop and take notes on monster stat blocks in a google doc and what not. Thanks for sharing!
@@ifohancroft a virtual tabletop. We have a large table with a 43' tv in it for battle maps and video. We put 3d terrain on top of it for trees, houses, walls, etc. Its a really fun set up.
I just started DM'ing about 1 month ago and came across this today, I'm soooo glad I did, I love all the kits because my players have been wanting visuals for gauging distances between them and the creatures they are fighting and you have just given me TONS of inspiration!!!! Thank you sooo much!!!!
I was camping with some friends and we spontaneously decided we wanted to play around the campfire. All we had were a few d20s. I just asked everyone what class they wanted to play and started DMing. We all had a good time!
My D&D CLAN plays at my home so I don't have kits like you do, but I do use the, "educator" approach when I run my Campaign. I stand up and walk around while my players sit. I'm the second generation of Dungeons&Dragons players in my family so I have access to lead figures and I have a battle grid similar to yours. Great Job, I love seeing other Dungeon Master tools.
I’ve never played dnd but I’ve always been curious about the game. Have you thought of recording a super introductory video explaining the game mechanics in very simple terms? I.e. character creation, movement, what’s gameplay point in having a compass, how players are expected to respond to the GM’s story and so on
i’ll chip in to try and answer your questions and give you an idea of what to look for on youtube to expand further;; D&D is an improvisation based tabletop RPG that allows you to create whatever character that you want, that can do whatever you want within in the loose rules of the Player’s Handbook. Character creation starts with an idea for someone you’d like to play through a story as. It’s important to talk about this with your DM, (check out some videos about a session 0!) as it’s much easier to have a satisfying story if your character fits into their world. You’ll pick a class, roll out their stats, figure out your dice roll modifiers based on those stats, and choose your gear. It’s a lot more crunchy than that, but there’s plenty of videos that make it easy. Once you’ve got a party, your DM will typically give a brief background on the world and current events, and describe a scenario in which your characters all meet. It is a game, so there should be an expectation that everyone wants to go on the adventure that the DM has outlined. The edgy lone wolf is a terrible character. This is basic table etiquette, and i’d recommend checking out Brennan Lee Mulligan’s series ‘adventuring academy’, which elaborates on pretty much every aspect of this in an amazing way. For most things, there’s no expectation or proper way to respond to a DM’s prompts. You ‘should’ act in a way that you think that your character would, based on the ideals and PC traits that you came up with during character creation. If it’s your first time playing, I’d recommend creating a PC that represents yourself, be it an idealized version of yourself, or an aspect that you’ve always wanted to explore. This can help get you out of the “its what my character would do” conundrum that new players often struggle with when getting into the role playing aspect of the game. Movement depends on what’s happening in the game. Typically as a DM i’ll describe areas that are available to the party, and they’ll agree on where they’d like to proceed, after which i’ll describe that area, etc etc. In the “open world”, it’s a bit like a text-based video game. In a dungeon crawl, each DM i’ve played with does it differently. I use dwarven forge terrain to map out dungeon rooms, describing each as the party enters. If a combat encounter breaks out, we’ll throw down some miniatures and track movement that way. This is what a compass would be useful for, as each person sitting around a table can have difficulty tracking which side is up a lot of the time. Other than spatial awareness, there’s not much practical use for having a real compass. Cheers if you read the whole thing, hopefully you were able to get some answers and/ or direction towards the right youtube videos.
@@AAAAA-jm3xn im so late to this but this helped me personally so much! im gonna be dming for a few of my friends and its my first time ever really playing dnd, so knowing even the barebones basics as youve laid them out helps a LOT
Very nice kits I like using minis and terrain I once DMed a game on the hiking trip. No dice no books no character sheets. More or less they told me what they wanted to do and I would nerrate what happened.
As someone who may be starting a D&D club for teens at the library (And does NOT have much money), I think that first kit may be perfect for me, thanks for the tips and the vid!
This is super cool. As a long time player and also teacher who's thinking of introducing kids I teach to this kind of stuff I love the idea of a minimalist set that I can just pack up and carry with me. So cool.
Hey first time here. This is awesome! I have been a player for years and beginning to take some interest in DMing. I love seeing how you package things and have great universal terrain options. I think this may have been the video that has finally inspired me to get started.
Hey Lumautis! I’m stoked for you! Being a DM can be a lot of work but hopefully my videos inspire you and help it not feel that way. Cheers and thanks for watching!
I really dig the minimalist kit. I see a lot of TH-cam D&D with super fancy over the top stuff, which can be cool - but sometimes I think it sends the message to people that you need lots of "stuff" to play D&D. When I DM'd the most back in college (late 90s/early 00s), I had a bunch of dice and a DM screen, and my books (and notebooks full of stuff). When we played, the *only* thing I used was a graph paper notepad and some pencils. And we would go for super long sessions and campaigns and never feel like we were missing anything without the miniatures etc.
Totally agree. The "stuff" can be fun to enhance the game, but totally not necessary. More often than not lately, I find myself gravitating back towards simplicity.
@@HouseDM You're welcome :) I always love to create support system for my campaign, maps, tokens, but I tend to overdo and accumulate overspecific accessories and projects, and it's not feasible. This is a very smart way to level up your campaign or single-session experience without losing the freedom to create different scenarios. I'm gonna search the shops for this generic trinkets, and probably buy the vynil map for infinite possibilities :)
Glad I found the channel. I DM for a school club. My backpack with 1 DMG, 3 PHB, MM, and now the Multi verse book. My dice. I give all my kids their own set. For minis we use wooded boardgame tokens from craft store.
Awesome video! Love the outdoor Ed kit! Man, what a role model you must have been from the kids. As someone who has just finished highschool (now a DM myself) I'm super greatful to the teach that introduced me. Made me acknowledge a creative side that I didn't before.
Outdoor afterschool dnd with an instructor you look up to sounds like an absolute dream for some kids, I would have been absolutely floored haha Not to be critical in any way, but you should look into a low cut for your microphone! Some mics have a physical switch you can turn on that knocks down those lower, boomier frequencies, but you can also put a low-cut/high pass on in your editing software. I would just reduce below 100ish hz. On phone speakers it sounds perfectly fine, but with speakers or headphones/airpods, some of the noises on the table were just a bit distracting. Excellent video though, I really enjoyed it and subscribed!
As a new (and very broke DM) I use the back of a large keyboard mat I've had laying around for combat, bottlecaps with everybody's character names (and a few with skulls for enemies) and cut out pieces of cardboard for buildings, tents etc. Very, VERY low cost and it works well enough, I'm definitely going to have to snag that idea of writing down monster stat blocks on index cards to keep in my binder because that would be super helpful.
Wait a minute, you are telling me I am not supposed to carry around my entire kit to everyones house? lol My current kit, is definitely not minimalist. I built a wooden DM screen with enough space that when closed has storage for 10 full sets of dice (probably more), my homemade dice roller, and a second screen for my laptop (it is a small 14" LCD mounted inside. I also have LED strips on the inside of the box for changeable ambient lighting. Great video! Love seeing what other DM's carry along!
I squeeze a lot of stuff into my minimalist DM's kit - and it all fits into a small messenger bag. - I've got one of those corner-pinch folding dice boxes - A custom mini DM's screen with 3x A5 panels I can swap out with new content when I want. - An A5 card folder from MagicTG I believe, it holds 112 monster cards & is less than 1 inch thick, also has a sick dragon on the cover. - A deck of 52 custom playing cards I designed, which are 2x6 dungeon tiles, double-sided plastic with walls, door, treasure, traps, etc. - My coup-de-gras is a small tackle box (4.5 x 7.5 x 1in) where I have a bunch of dice and a lot of small Lego monsters and 72 Lego microfig mini's of various human-type folk, monsters and misc. - I also have a small pencil case with various pencils/pens - And lastly an A5 binder organizer which I put a lot of campaign notes into, but also have a couple of plastic sleeves filled with a bunch of 2D hand-drawn terrain. - The newest addition to my DM's kit is a scroll case I made from a strip of chessex mat rolled over a small cardboard tube, the awesome thing is I have plugs for the tube so I can store other rolled up paper, scrolls or spare pens inside this as well. Also while technically not part of my DM's kit, these are also in my bag; a small med kit and a swiss army knife.
Those dungeon cards you are referring to sound awesome! What a great low key idea for building a dungeon on the fly. And you designed them yourself? Brilliant. Thanks for sharing!
Bulk green and red d6s are a lifesaver. Especially if you get different sizes. I love big combats and seeing what size, type(num facing up) and quickly whether its a friend or foe is SO sick
I just drew a bunch of rooms on some spare pieces of paper. This weekend I'm continuing the campaign, and going to do my first real dungeon. I made a bunch of really basic room outlines in gimp (basically free photoshop) and am going to print them up. I drew some icons for various objects that I'm going to print up and cut out, so I can put them in rooms and in battle spaces as I like. I'm also getting a better and better idea of what sort of maps you actually need to run a campaign (you only need enough visual information to tell players where they are in a battle space, you can describe the rest) Since I'm still pretty new. Over all though, I'm really happy with what I'm putting together, and excited to watch it go completely to plan. 😁👍 (ok but my dad is super cooperative, I literally told him "there's a cross in the roads and a sign that says : nothing this way, something this way but check it out later, and 'Far Reach'. And HE WENT TO FAR REACH) I plan on trying to suggest multiple places he could go with rough ideas of what might happen there so that it'll be much less scripted from here on out, and I'm excited to see how that goes.
It's going to be my first time being a DM/ever playing (other than on tiny story oneshot with 2 of my players) with 3 players and these types of videos are helpful for me to be prepared for this like I planned on just bringing dice my journal I have for what I have planned for the intro to the story and lil index cards with my players stats on them I'm glad to know that should be all I need
As someone who loves to run impromptu oneshots and is going to run a campaign on the road in a few months-- I needed this😂 thank you! I love your kits❤
Minimal kit: a sheet of paper, a pen and one set of dice. Works fine. If you have a combat coming up and play a system that works with positioning a lot, like D&D, then also: hex or grid map, white board marker black&blue and a handful of coins or glass pebbles as markers. I have some old Dutch coins (before we got the Euro) I use as in game currency or markers sometimes. Has a nice feel to it. (-:
I got a small chest from hobby lobby that turned out the be exactly the right size. I 3d printed a spacer to section it off into 3 parts, a thin section to put 3 small booklets where I keep all my dm notes, a section my all my dice, and a section to keep minis in. The lid of the heat is just deep enough to slip my dice tray in and have a few pens/pencils slotted into my spacer. The lid works well for a staging ground for minis I’m going to use soon when open
I’ve only just started really getting into DnD. I bought a huge bag of dice and have sort of thrown together everything else from what I have. I’m planning on printing out movement cards the size of playing cards and slipping them into card sleeves for players to use. I also have magnet bookmarks I was thinking of using for initiative tracking. I might also rummage through my Pokémon TCG stuff to see if I can use any of those things, like the old damage markers that used to be made of glass. I’m also using Lego pieces for various aspects of the game, like minis, etc.
Hah! Love the glass damage counters from Pokémon TCG. I use them as enemies, mark treasure, dropped weapons or items, or “points of interest” such as levers, hatches, and holes. Good luck and welcome to the community!
For my one and only campaign my DM kit has been: -Sets of dices for me and my PCs' -A stack of loose paper sheets divided between notes and blank pages (that I use to take more notes or draw battlefields, messages and whatever's needed) -Pencil -Eraser -Big bottle of water Veeeery low budget, but enough to have fun. If we ever manage to play again, I plan on using a binder for notes, get a nice dm screen and probably that grid map with some sharpies. Upgrades!
Hell yes! gotta stay hydrated. Ever run a game without your DM screen? I find it to be too "othering". I prefer no GM screen and just have my notes out on the table for my players. Helps me feel like a part of the group and not this "big bad overlord who's trying to kill everyone off" lol.
My minimalist kit fits in a sandwich container. 3 11-piece sets, plus two pairs of percentiles and 8d6. I do d20, Shadowrun, GURPS and occasionally WOD, so that gives me everything I need. Directional dice, compass and relative ("You crited your perception check in the middle of nowhere. You hear shrieking, like someone is being skinned alive. Where? Roll the die for me... And that screaming is under you. Under the grass. Or maybe it is the grass.") 8 standee bases cut from wine corks, and a packet of blanks. A half roll of pennies for markers. Pen, pencil, eraser, and markers (Shortie dry erase and sharpie in red and black, shorty highlighter, and black wet erase). Sewing tape measure, to measure movement and range w/ mapless play. A pad of small postits. A few rubber bands hold a notepad to the top along with several pieces of salvaged clamshell packaging cut to size- you can write on them with any of the pens, and even Sharpie comes off with the white eraser. Microminimalist, altoids tin. 1 set of dice, plus 3d6. 2 corks, a bundle of blanks. Little nub of eraser. Always carry a pen, sharpie and pencil. One lives in my car, another in the overnight bag which lives in my closet prepacked. Big kit.... The minimalist kit, box and all, goes in an ammo can. Water tight, nigh on indestructible. More dice and markers and standees are already pack in there. Figures as applicable. Supplemented with a clipboard for character sheets, and the operational information for every weapon, spell, vehicle, etc for that character so I don't need to drag around books for reference. Everything goes in sheet protectors so I can use all the markers. If I'm playing, not running, this is what I bring if I don't have space or mass premium Full kit.... Is a tool box with wheels. 20 sets of polyhedrons, half a dozen lose d20s, 2 10d10 sets, and about 100 12mm d6s. Folding dice tower, a couple of wooden blocks that turn clipboards into a GM screen. Sharpies, wet and dry erase markers, each in red, green, blue and two blacks. Highlighters. Erasers. Pens and pencils and spare leads and a telescoping pointer. Tape measure. Index cards and posits. Clipboards with notes, reference binders, note books, core books, and I have photo albums of 4x6 cards for generic NPCs and critters, and to hold standees both NPC and terrain. Corks for the standees. Tokens of various types. Lego minifigures and their props, any small documents and maps I've printed. A roll of tape plus thumb tacks and wall putty. I strap PVC tubes the top that hold dry erase sheets (laminated 17x22 sheets), game mats and larger drawings, along with a folding tripod as needed. It gets reconfigured for specific games I'm running. If I'm going to a con, I'll stack another locking box or two on top of the first. Weather proof and impact resistant and it lets me find anything in under 30 seconds. Full kit means full kit.
I'll say one godsend to have as a dm is some sort of tablet with a pen, an Ipad or samsung tablet. Its so incredibly useful for writing down notes, keeping things organized, even having digital copies of books is incredibly nice. Plus, keeping a bluetooth speaker with you so you can play music through it all in one go. Plus its something I almost always have on me when I go to hang out with friends, so if they have company over and wanna try a short one shot, I have almost every resource just on that alone.
So here I am trying to make terrain and what not to start playing...and still no knowledge how to play as of yet. I'm an art teacher and I want to learn to play with my little boys because there is so much creativity in play with dnd. Thanks for uploading your vids.
Yeah of course! I have some “new to dnd” videos in the works but happy to answer any questions on how to play if you need. I’ve taught kids D&D before, it’s very rewarding 👍🏼
@@HouseDM I think the hardest part is the "tokens" or characters. As an illustrator, I want to be able to "create" their specific characters but still researching how best to do it. I've been wanting to do it for a custom chess board I made to look like dungeon tiles as well. Any ideas what I can use for "characters" for kids in the game? Also, what is the easiest way to teach kids of 5-7 ages (they both read past second grade levels and comprehend pretty complex ideas).
My in person kit is currently a vinyl mat, a handful of markers, an eraser, a spray bottle (so I don't need to spit on the eraser to wet it), my laptop and a big pile of dice. I've only used it once because it didn't come in time for the other in person session but most of my players have ADHD and it really helped them focus
I started DMing like 10 years ago, with only 2 dice sets for the whole group, some paper an the Dnd sheets, it was a mess, bua we had a great time! Then after some time, I started playing only online, and now i'm returning to a presencial one shot, and i'm making my maps on dungeon alchemist, and printing them, I hope it will work well! Nice video, and thanks for the ideas
Love your simple tokens! My D&D group always used dice for miniatures - whichever die was least likely to get used by a player (normally d12) would represent their character to make it easier to keep track of who was where and enemies were from a big set of single color dice our DM had.
Pencil, paper, dice, phone (obviously), minis, index cards, a simple grid map (at least 20 in x 20 in seems to work for me), and a hard flat surface of some sort. That’s my go-to list at least. Personally, I also like throwing in speakers, minimum one binder of notes (preferably the one associated with the campaign), something to use as a dice tray, water or soda (bottled to minimize spills), and some comfort items. (warm blankets, a stuffed companion, a stress ball or toy, or a couple of pillows to lie against - helps the anxiety sometimes.)
Great breakdown here! :D I've a few modular parts for a toolkit, influenced by the fact I mostly run games in pubs and at conventions: ¬ pencil case with several spare pencils, a sharpener and eraser, and folded character sheets and index cards ¬ repurposed cuff-link box housing around ten dice, selected for which we'll need depending on ruleset ¬ Hive Pocket in a honey jar if I'll be needing tokens ¬ hardback notebook for SECRETS
@@HouseDM Do you know the boardgame Hive? It's the pocket version of that where each piece is about half an inch instead of a full inch. Around thirty pieces of bakelite total
@@seanfsmith just looked it up. Those are sick! Very similar to backgammon pieces but with bug symbols. Super cool. I wish somebody would make tokens like that for D&D. Thanks for sharing!
Most of my sessions are in my own home, but I don't like accidently losing stuff, so I just keep some basic dice, beginner D&D books (I'm relatively new to D&D), my laptop + charger, a sketchbook, and a printed map of the general world. I'm trying to see if I can get some minis started, so this video was a good motivation.
My DM travel set: Dice bag, some tokens and the like, dm screen, tablet/pad, a bunch of different color pencils and a block of flip over paper. The flip over paper has a blank side and a side with inch squares. It's stored in a cylinder with a shoulder strap, so it's easy to take with me. I'm looking into making a smaller cylinder to go inside the rolled paper and use that for the pencils, dice, tokens and maybe a small bluetooth speaker. And since you don't really need a DM screen I'll just have to bring the cylinder and my phone to have all I need.
I have two bags of stuff and I love it. I can't imagine going minimalist unless its because im going somewhere and playing dnd. I have my laptop, my tablet, fold-able battle map, dry erase markers, dice box, flash card box of prepared magic items to give. I have two bags because sometimes I use props! Like a plague doctors mask to to establish well, a plague doctor XD
I bought some 2minutetabletop assets with trees, plants, rocks, walls, tents, etc. I print them in color, glue them on thin cardboard and cut them out. I carry them in an envelope. I throw these tokens on the pathfinder flip mat and voila. The whole map setup, with many many tokens to choose from, has the size of a small notebook and the resulting maps look very good. Definitely way better than anything that I could draw on the spot with a marker. There are two downsides: 1. The tokens are not very durable. However, they are pretty cheap to make and once you get the hang of it, also pretty fast. 2. They don't stick to the mat, so you have to be a bit careful around the map after you set it. It's not an issue for my group, but it may be different for yours.
I have an extremely simple kit, mostly because I am working on a student budget and my players have a great imagination. I use a small zip-up laptop bag (one of those freebie ones you get from work or conventions) to hold everything in place. I bought a 4 pack of those collapsible dice trays with the snap buttons to assemble them and my players like them a lot. I have a small laminated grid dry erase sheet that fits in my folder with my extra player sheets and quick reference rulebook. I have a basic cardboard screen, notebook, and writing utensils, plus my bag of dice with extras in case anyone forgot theirs. The last thing I have are those cards you get in the D&D 5th ed starter kit with conditions and initiative order. I thought those would be kind of a throw away item, but my party and I love using them. My whole kit as of right now fits in that small bag and only weighs a couple pounds. I may have to find some of those marbles you had in the vid, they are a great idea as budget minis.
i dungeon mastered once for me and my wife as i really wanted to paly dnd and the campaign we play in was on holiday for a few weeks. we used crafting cardboard and bluetac to make minis, drew some goblins and drew some characters. for the map, a big drawing pad we had in the cupboard, drew some outlines, i had a warhammer messuring stick to guage movement. for when i go to play dnd in real life (we online based most of the time as live far apart) i take my tablet, i have made a stand for it out of plywood. i also have a 4meter long usb charging cable, so i could walk about the room with it on charge . end of the day you dont need much to play the game. i am hoping to have my own garage/workshop in near future, i have seen some of the cool ideas wyrmwood have made like their dm screen with magnets in it to join it, i reckon i can make my own not to there quality standards but something i can be proud of and get a wow factor from.
I love both your kits. My forever DM kit consists of my laptop, a ton of index cards, 2x4' dry erase board. Full set dry erase makers. Monster manual, players handbook. Pencils and notebooks. Old game tokes and colored stones. Other then the dry erase board, books, laptop. All stuff from the dollar store. I could dm a whole series from the boards, index cards and books.
My friend group's current DnD setup is aseprite for the board, character sheets made in excel, a discord bot that generates us dice rolls, and a lot of troubleshooting. We're all broke students in different towns and such, so this way we can all still play. and it's been a blast so far!
I don't have a minimalist kit, but I will use a Huion GT-191 drawing tablet as a portable display. Easy to carry and super fast to set up, great for using digital battle maps and sharing things with my players.
I once ran a game with just my laptop and a single set of dice. I had eight players at the table XD but we used theatre of the mind. I also once played with skittles on a cutting mat with a centimeter grid.
LOL. Nice video. My traveling kit: A GM screen with core/essential rules. I use the one that came out of the Starter Set. For other game systems, I make my own. A note book with session relevant info, maybe a random event table or two and to track progress. Index Cards for treasure, clues, follower or any other player aid/hand out. Post-Its have been used too. Pencil w/eraser 3 sets of standard RPG dice. Some flat pack minis for games that need them for combat. The DnD starter set box to hold it all. Bottom is a dungeon grid for mini based combats. Top is the dice tray.
You popped into my feed, and I always get excited when I find a fellow small DnD TH-camr. (pssst, we should talk about a collab in the future). Also, I wish I had this video when I was a travelling DM years ago lol
I had one GM who made battle maps by: cutting gift wrapper with gridded backside into four A4's size and plastic laminated it. its very convenient if we have a small table (we used to play in coffee shops). no curly maps!
I am now going to make a video showing my minimalist kit, just so I can collaborate. Really enjoyed your kit, and I have the character coins you have, they are awesome
You could shrink your dice set to just 2 if you get yourself a 24-sided die. A d24 is capable of making rolls for every type of die except the d20, using division to extrapolate the dice you need. It's honestly a good decision, makes keeping track of all your dice way easier and it looks cool to do :D
I got a set of wooden tokens from Etsy, they have monster categories and are all inch sized. They have class tokens as well so the whole kit is, tokens, vinyl mat, wet erase markers, dice, notebooks, pens, pencils, speaker, and index cards. I love seeing people just gather random knick knacks for tokens. Seeing players receive a physical thing is always super fun. Hard to forget the key to the boss room when you're holding it 😂
We used to use chess pieces, quarter machine toys, and these Minecraft blind-box things for minis, whatever worked really. Used to put that all in an old tupperware too, now we use some actual minis but we still store it in a dome shaped cake cover :D We've departed a bit from a lot of the lower cost solutions (still use a dry-erase battle map tho) but I still remember it all so fondly. I still use minimalist/low budget options like using the plastic tops of glasses cleaner to show height, and Model Magic + craft wire to make minis. Probably my favorite mini I've got is a purple worm I made from toilet paper rolls and that clay lol
I also volunteer with the Boy's and Girls Club at my kids Highschool running a D&D campaign twice a week. And I also used to DM for another group and I would have to bring all my supplies with me. I like the minimalist kit. I wished I had thought of that before I started doing mobile games. I bought a rolling tool chest that I wheel around with me. So I have minis, several sets of dice, terrain scatter, dry erase battlemaps, the core rule set, along with whatever campaign we are playing, pencils and dry erase markers. I also have a extension cord for any of the kids computers and a Bluetooth speaker. So I know you pain.
A little tip for GMs both on the go and at home: invest in 3x5 cars and manila envelopes. What I do is I take a bunch of 3x5 cards, and on them I'll write out all the stat blocks, the map layout, loot table, notes, pre-rolled initiative, and all the other extraneous info I need for said encounter. Then I'll place them inside of a little manila envelope along with whatever minis I'm using for said encounter. I'll make a bunch, and then stick them in a collapsible folder along with a bunch of maps I drew. All of the maps are number and color coded, so I can easily jot down which map to use for which encounter on a 3x5 card, and the maps are modular enough to be used as a small map, or put together for a bigger map, or strung out in order to make a big dungeon. So when an encounter breaks out, wither a room in a dungeon, a random encounter on the trail or even a spontaneous bar fight, all I do is grab the envelope, lay the cards out behind my screen, grab the map and layout the minis. I'm usually done before the players are even finished rolling intuitive. It's fast, it's hassle free, it's easy to carry around, and best of all, it's cheap.
I would recommend, if you have 3D printer access, printing modular tiles! Preferably ones that don't need magnets, but those are fine as well. If you want what I use, look into the Z-Axis Optimizes Domain (abbreviated as ZOD), or the OpenLOCK series of tiles. I personally like ZOD, but both are nice.
minimalist dungeon master kit is 2 sets of mini dice. some paper miniatures I made, printed off 8.5x11 paper maps a Sharpe and a pencil and pen kit. It's smaller and does more then both these kit's so i'm kinda proud of that.
That was an awesome video. I see many parallels in how my own tools (or my DMs) look like. I played with my kids (5,3) and used to play with my godchild and siblings (10,7,4). As a minimal set I used 1 dice (d4) and the kids got a random dice they like (d20, d6). For hitpoints, spell slots and special powers I gave them 5 marbles each. The small kids character sheets are visuals of powers, such as a panda 🐼 (companion), lightning arrows and bow, a magically glowing key or similar. Each has about 3 special powers or spells. They love it. We do theatre of the mind obviously but I also have a hand drawn map which I spontaneously created one evening. It contains a micture of faerun and examdria places as well as homebrew. Pretty versatile.
Thanks JF! And nice, that character sheet sounds super useful! I've tried my hand at drawing maps but they just look so bad compared to ones I can find online lol. I like that you simplified abilities for your youngins. Makes for quickly jumping into the adventure instead of fiddling with all the 5e rules. Cheers!
Running a session with kids at the school I work at as well. We started using chess pieces, as a lot of my kiddos have developmental disorders and its easy in the heat of the moment to get over excited and a piece gets lost! I like the Backgammon idea though, and will give it a shot! Thank you!
I like to use mini bulldog clips as miniatures. I put a small piece of paper in the clip, take the little handles off, lay them on their back and let players either write their character names or draw their character on them. They hold up pretty well.
that's interesting to see your analog stuff! I find it much easier and cheaper to go digital with all but my dice, but i really admire how cool all of this looks!
I still prefer theater of the mind, so my DM kit is dice campaign notes, and maybe a DM screen. Some scratch paper if I need to draw something quick for clarification.
Do you have a go-to DM toolkit? What are your essentials besides your notes and dice? If you're a traveling DM, do you bring more or less than what I show in this video? Let me know and thanks for watching!
Battle grid or small white board, dice, tokens by Sidequest TTM, pencils, whiteboard markers, index cards, eraser and phone with game content.
One of the main things is actually a website xD like a digital dm-screen with initiative counter, statblocks from most 5e encounters, loot generator and so on. It's super helpful :)
My laptop since it's my GM screen, post it notes and pencil for quick drawings of hard to explain things, even more paper to make enemy minis and cookies
I bough the Game Master Companion by Dragon Shield a few months ago and am fairly impressed by the quality of it. It includes a universal 3 panel GM screen, a small phone holder, a bunch of plastic index cards that fit a slot at the top of the GM screen, and a big box with foam layers with cutouts for minis and other stuff. Only thing I miss is the option to customize the foam layers because once something doesn't fit the cutout, you have to apply pressure which I don't like. But all in all a good purchase that I can recommend.
Additionally, I use transparent token holders by Greenstuff World that fit 1 inch round paper tokens, a big bag of dice for me and my players (that I should start to organize soon), the big version of the Chessex battle mat, some pens, and my trusty iPad.
Since I am a mobile GM I feel a bit encumbered when I use public transport with all that stuff but when I use the car, its no deal at all. Still roughly fits one large backpack.
Travel Tokens:
At one point a friend was moving and they were throwing away their round metal curtain rods. I took the decorative ends and use them as tokens. I’ve also used chess pieces as I sometimes have my travel chess set with me. I’ve had several travel chess sets so I’ve kept some of those pieces as well for the different sizes, styles and shapes. I also have various sized cardboard bases with small round magnets. Some of my chess pieces have magnets and this makes a medium creature token large or larger by taking up more squares.
Side note: arcade tokens make great inspiration coins.
Grab your ketchup and crunch away my friends.
Little tip.... Always roll your maps/ plans , image side out. That way they don't curl on the tabletop when rolled out. I learned that lesson hard my first week working for a civil engineering firm. nice video
Looks cooler when you roll it out and it curls, tho
@@remakethestars2683 yeah, but then you may have to put paperweights down. If you place minis, stones, or whatever that's too light on the edge then they'll likely get lifted up and moved by the paper curling up.
the one he showed was double-sided. the other side was a hex grid. so no matter which side you roll it you will always have a side that rolls up xD
On the contrary, I roll my battle mat with the hexes on the outside, squares on the inside (I use squares pretty much exclusively) because it protects the square side from damage
Or always roll them image side in so you don't mess up the image... and take the 2 seconds to base the corners.
Hand on heart I just clicked to see if that was really a Zippo lighter 😆
Hahaha it really is lol.
But why burn the character sheet?
@@NoalFarstrider "because it's a dramatic way to send off PCs" as he said
Ditto. And niiiice.
Me too
1) I never burn sheets, because I don't do permanent death. I do Winchester death. Characters can be brought back, but almost always at a terrible price.
2) That dice box in your minimalist kit is badass and I'm totally going to make one at some point.
I love that you have a minimalist kit for after school and outdoor education
I'm a high school teacher and this is exactly why my bag always has a bag of dice, assorted paper, and a massive pencil case of coloured pens. We're very lucky have a little lawn and when the weather is right I take them outside to feel the grass, breathe the air, smell the plants. These are usually our creative writing days and we use dice to help us make decisions when the choice paralysis starts setting in.
DnD felt like a natural thing to introduce after that and they LOVE it, and especially because we're outside they get up, walk around, grab leaves off the ground to 'track' or point to distant points on the horizon.
The importance of play in the life of a highschooler, who society has decided must outgrow it, cannot be overstated.
Kudos to you for making it ok for teens to play. Adults can loose touch with their inner child.
This is sooo important
I prefer the minimalist kit, I find it increases immersion to have the most abstract representation possible so you can fill the void in with your descriptions
I certainly agree! The more advanced and detailed your terrain/minis, the less people imagine things I find. The more abstract, the better!
@@Sanguivore my preferred kit is chess pieces with character appropriate faces drawn on in sharpie
@@michaelmoran9020 That is amazing! you have pics on imgur or similar? I would love to see that.
@@Sanguivore Depends on preferences. Minimalist kit is good due to it being small.
3d miniatures take up a lot of space. 3d built terrain - even more maybe
Plus, 32 mm scale nowadaya popular in wargames and dnd doesn't help the space use.
Pawns and 2d minis are a nice compromise.
2d tokens with images or just tokens are minimalist and most efficient if you want tactical combat.
More minimalist i going theatre of the mind
@@Alex-cq1zrI love the 2d tokens but God are they a bitch to find I might just have to make my own 😂
I like your kit!
Another pro tip: buy a cigar box (find one with a latch!) from a tobacco store, you can get some nice ones for like $2-$5! I personally use spray adhesive or craft glue to attach the felt, but hot glue would definitely work. I also use 2 layers of felt for that little bit extra cushion. Anyway, now you have a rolling tray that you can pack stuff into and close up!
I used one that I made like this for a long time, and it's honestly still dope and all my players are jealous of it! Plus, I added a divider that's half the height so I have a spot to set my dice in it when I'm not rolling them!
Thats a sick idea! Those old cigar boxes are so beautiful too. I bet I could find a dope one and do some wood burning art on it. Thanks for the recommendation, Ill keep an eye out.
@@HouseDM oh man that sounds super dope! I have this one where the lid lifts straight up, I think it's Amazon Basin? That could make a really nice one too haha
But yeah I'm always looking for ways to make neat DND tools haha
Dude, that is genius! Thanks so much for the idea! :D
I use exactly this for my dice storage. I even glued some dowel rods into the lid and use those as dice shelves. Make sure to weight the bottom down a bit if you do that, though, as sometimes the dice can outweigh the box itself and it will tip. I used a bit of leather for a rolling surface and some coins to weight it.
Crazy coincidence for me here! I just did this earlier today with an old cigar box I found in my garage! This works great and my dice now have a nice place to roll around :)
There are really great ideas in here. Wet-erase backgammon pieces, generic dungeon corner-pieces and doors, coins to use as meta currency, colored stones for treasures/monsters/etc, fire markers, keys to represent keys, IT ALL MAKES SENSE. I need to try some of this.
I'm still scratching my head at needing actual fire, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
@@fyr3st0rm35 Fair. Maybe they play Ten Candles or Mork Borg? Or maybe they simply like candles for ambiance like some of my D&D friends.
A portable chess and d20 kits.
Chess is great, simple and versatile.
You can use the diferent pieces to sign as pc/npcs/scenario. You have the squared grid. Or can flip the board to use as a dice case (I prefer it because normally play using theater of mind).
Hell yeah! And if you got a custom chess board with cool minis like the Lotr one, they probably look amazing too huh? Thanks for sharing Rafael!
I don't know if this counts as a minimalist kit item, but it's something I add to all my terrain builds now. Get some magnet tape and stick it to the bottom of your terrain pieces. You can get it in a pretty slim profile so it doesn't take up much space. Then you can lay down a magnetic white board and your pieces hold in place way better!
That's definitely not minimalist, but it's a very cool idea.
Outdoor educator team for the win! My summer camp kit is soooo heavy and I love seeing how folks slim down to the essentials
Ayyyyyye summer camp. Yea, minimalist is the way. And then you can bust out your heavy kit for the epic finale.
I used to feel I needed so many things and books with me. Learned over time that all I really do need is something similar to your own kit, along with just my Kindle.
Yeah! Going minimalist is just so much better.
@@HouseDM One thing I am happy I did, was I bought a some bases for minis. I bought a set of each size, and just put a single drop of paint on each that was a different color. Same idea you have with your pieces, just using the bases instead.
I’m a bit old at 58. Recently was diagnosed with a chronic illness and become disabled. Wanted to get back into RPGs. You’re video was helpful and impressive.
Back when I was starting to learn DND, and before there were any specialized items you could buy, the minimalist kit I had was graph paper, dice, pencil, eraser, rule book, and book bag. So yeh, really all you need is imagination.
Hehehe... back in the day, my minimalist bag was my school backpack. At 51, can confirm getting old sucks and don't recommend people do it. Nobody ever takes my advice.
i appreciate the advice, ill make sure to not get old (:@@jackielinde7568
As a 22 year young chronically ill first time DM I just wanted to say: We've got this!! Lots of love❤
I love how much you love DMing. It makes me smile.
Thanks Daniel! Collaborative story telling through playing games really is a passion of mine.
Wow, I didn’t know so many people use so many items to play dnd. I use a dm screen (if I remember to bring it), paper, a pencil and dice. Theater of the kind has always been favorite for me. Maybe I’ll have to try using miniatures some day 😁
I'm the same way. In the online game I ran, I had a picture to display of the setting, but I never used battlemaps or minis. I've always preferred TotM play, as it lets my players be more immersed in their imagination, vs looking minis. That being said, one of the listeners of the podcast made minis of all my player's pcs, and I adore having them on my bookshelf.
Having done both Theater of the Mind and the physical stuff, I can appreciate both. But working with minis/tokens/markers/etc. It's much easier to communicate what's happening and who's where.
The thing with minis is that the upfront cost is money and time, but during play you save a fair bit because you’re not constantly trying to remember where everything is
I gm for Call of Cthulhu (or sometimes Indie games) but I love finding inspiration in other systems. My travel kit contains a gm screen, basic rules, flowcharts and Character creation overview (in transparent covers), character sheets, pencil and eraser, my favorite set of dice, my notebook + whatever scenario I plan to run. Most of the time I also bring a small Bluetooth speaker for background music. Love to see how people get creative!
my minimalist GM kit:
1 - spiral bound note book
2 - pencil and eraser
3 - (truly minimalist) 2D6
or
3 - 1 set of dice ( 3D6, D4, D8, 2D10, D12 and 5D20)
that's it, done, ready to play!
Your vid popped up as a recommended. Always happy to see how other DMs run their kit, especially minimalist!
Hey Phoenix! Glad to have you onboard!
Loved this video.
It took me a lot to go minimalistic in an agile way and now my entire kit finally fits an A5 format:
- No rulebooks (got a custom made OSR system that fits 1 page, still couldn't bother to flip even when playing 5e, Vampire, etc)
- Folding GM screen = 4x A5 pages (PCs, NPCs, Campaign Fronts, Rand tables and names)
- 4x A5 battle mat (paizo cut)
- A5 GM binder divided in sections (Current quest max 4xA5 pages each, campaign ideas, filed quests, development/work in progress)
- Flat basic tokens
- Stack of 3x5
- 12-15 high contrast dice
- pencil, whiteboard markers, eraser, microfiber sheet
All fits in the binder and doesn't need a dedicated bag
Awesome! And yeah, who needs rulebooks anyways?
hey don't spose there's a way I could take a look at that one page OSR system eh
I'm a traveling DM and it's not easy. At all.
Everything I bring fits into a large box.
1- binder for notes/side quests/oneshots
2-folder with monster statblocks for the session.
3- Tomb of annihilation book
4- 3 large see through tackleboxes for minis
5- crown royal bag of dice.
6- small note pad
On top of that I also bring a large case that fits the bigger minis that do not fit into the tackleboxes. Dragons/tomb tappers/froghemoth etc.
The place i play has a VTT so all the terrain I built stays there as well to avoid carrying it back and forth.
Once you've played with a vtt/terrain and minis you'll never want to go back to Theater of the mind.
Sounds challenging to be a traveling DM with all of that! I don’t own a printer so I just use my laptop and take notes on monster stat blocks in a google doc and what not. Thanks for sharing!
What's a VTT?
@@ifohancroft a virtual tabletop. We have a large table with a 43' tv in it for battle maps and video. We put 3d terrain on top of it for trees, houses, walls, etc. Its a really fun set up.
@@laughingpanda4395 Oh, that's awesome! Thanks for taking the time to clarify.
Yes! I’m using flat marbles for enemies too! Glad to see someone else using non-fancy stuff.
I just started DM'ing about 1 month ago and came across this today, I'm soooo glad I did, I love all the kits because my players have been wanting visuals for gauging distances between them and the creatures they are fighting and you have just given me TONS of inspiration!!!! Thank you sooo much!!!!
I was camping with some friends and we spontaneously decided we wanted to play around the campfire. All we had were a few d20s. I just asked everyone what class they wanted to play and started DMing. We all had a good time!
I love watching this video again and again. Brilliant.
Thanks Professor. I love that you enjoy this video 🍻
My D&D CLAN plays at my home so I don't have kits like you do, but I do use the, "educator" approach when I run my Campaign. I stand up and walk around while my players sit. I'm the second generation of Dungeons&Dragons players in my family so I have access to lead figures and I have a battle grid similar to yours. Great Job, I love seeing other Dungeon Master tools.
I was interested in this video already but then you really closed the deal with being an outdoor educator, birds are indeed tight
I’ve never played dnd but I’ve always been curious about the game. Have you thought of recording a super introductory video explaining the game mechanics in very simple terms? I.e. character creation, movement, what’s gameplay point in having a compass, how players are expected to respond to the GM’s story and so on
i’ll chip in to try and answer your questions and give you an idea of what to look for on youtube to expand further;;
D&D is an improvisation based tabletop RPG that allows you to create whatever character that you want, that can do whatever you want within in the loose rules of the Player’s Handbook.
Character creation starts with an idea for someone you’d like to play through a story as. It’s important to talk about this with your DM, (check out some videos about a session 0!) as it’s much easier to have a satisfying story if your character fits into their world. You’ll pick a class, roll out their stats, figure out your dice roll modifiers based on those stats, and choose your gear. It’s a lot more crunchy than that, but there’s plenty of videos that make it easy.
Once you’ve got a party, your DM will typically give a brief background on the world and current events, and describe a scenario in which your characters all meet. It is a game, so there should be an expectation that everyone wants to go on the adventure that the DM has outlined. The edgy lone wolf is a terrible character. This is basic table etiquette, and i’d recommend checking out Brennan Lee Mulligan’s series ‘adventuring academy’, which elaborates on pretty much every aspect of this in an amazing way. For most things, there’s no expectation or proper way to respond to a DM’s prompts. You ‘should’ act in a way that you think that your character would, based on the ideals and PC traits that you came up with during character creation. If it’s your first time playing, I’d recommend creating a PC that represents yourself, be it an idealized version of yourself, or an aspect that you’ve always wanted to explore. This can help get you out of the “its what my character would do” conundrum that new players often struggle with when getting into the role playing aspect of the game.
Movement depends on what’s happening in the game. Typically as a DM i’ll describe areas that are available to the party, and they’ll agree on where they’d like to proceed, after which i’ll describe that area, etc etc. In the “open world”, it’s a bit like a text-based video game. In a dungeon crawl, each DM i’ve played with does it differently. I use dwarven forge terrain to map out dungeon rooms, describing each as the party enters. If a combat encounter breaks out, we’ll throw down some miniatures and track movement that way. This is what a compass would be useful for, as each person sitting around a table can have difficulty tracking which side is up a lot of the time. Other than spatial awareness, there’s not much practical use for having a real compass.
Cheers if you read the whole thing, hopefully you were able to get some answers and/ or direction towards the right youtube videos.
@@AAAAA-jm3xn im so late to this but this helped me personally so much! im gonna be dming for a few of my friends and its my first time ever really playing dnd, so knowing even the barebones basics as youve laid them out helps a LOT
@@astronomyanticheers glad i could help! wishing you luck on your DM journey 🔮
Very nice kits
I like using minis and terrain
I once DMed a game on the hiking trip. No dice no books no character sheets. More or less they told me what they wanted to do and I would nerrate what happened.
This is the first video of yours that I've watched. Dude, I love how you have built a little set behind you. Thats awesome.
Hey thanks! It changes from video to video depending on which crafts I am working on/finishing. Welcome to the channel! Glad to have you!
As someone who may be starting a D&D club for teens at the library (And does NOT have much money), I think that first kit may be perfect for me, thanks for the tips and the vid!
This is super cool. As a long time player and also teacher who's thinking of introducing kids I teach to this kind of stuff I love the idea of a minimalist set that I can just pack up and carry with me. So cool.
This is the way. Glad this video helped you!
Hey first time here. This is awesome! I have been a player for years and beginning to take some interest in DMing. I love seeing how you package things and have great universal terrain options. I think this may have been the video that has finally inspired me to get started.
Hey Lumautis! I’m stoked for you! Being a DM can be a lot of work but hopefully my videos inspire you and help it not feel that way. Cheers and thanks for watching!
I really dig the minimalist kit. I see a lot of TH-cam D&D with super fancy over the top stuff, which can be cool - but sometimes I think it sends the message to people that you need lots of "stuff" to play D&D. When I DM'd the most back in college (late 90s/early 00s), I had a bunch of dice and a DM screen, and my books (and notebooks full of stuff).
When we played, the *only* thing I used was a graph paper notepad and some pencils. And we would go for super long sessions and campaigns and never feel like we were missing anything without the miniatures etc.
Totally agree. The "stuff" can be fun to enhance the game, but totally not necessary. More often than not lately, I find myself gravitating back towards simplicity.
This brought back memories of my childhood. The white tokens in your minimalist kit are a brilliant idea!
Thank you Addis! Glad you think so.
This is the most helpful D&D related video i've seen so far
Thank you! Glad to hear it.
@@HouseDM You're welcome :) I always love to create support system for my campaign, maps, tokens, but I tend to overdo and accumulate overspecific accessories and projects, and it's not feasible.
This is a very smart way to level up your campaign or single-session experience without losing the freedom to create different scenarios. I'm gonna search the shops for this generic trinkets, and probably buy the vynil map for infinite possibilities :)
0:30 He said that birds are *TIGHT!* I hope that making this reference pointing that one out will be super easy, barely an inconvenience.
Glad I found the channel. I DM for a school club. My backpack with 1 DMG, 3 PHB, MM, and now the Multi verse book. My dice. I give all my kids their own set. For minis we use wooded boardgame tokens from craft store.
Awesome video! Love the outdoor Ed kit! Man, what a role model you must have been from the kids. As someone who has just finished highschool (now a DM myself) I'm super greatful to the teach that introduced me. Made me acknowledge a creative side that I didn't before.
Outdoor afterschool dnd with an instructor you look up to sounds like an absolute dream for some kids, I would have been absolutely floored haha
Not to be critical in any way, but you should look into a low cut for your microphone! Some mics have a physical switch you can turn on that knocks down those lower, boomier frequencies, but you can also put a low-cut/high pass on in your editing software. I would just reduce below 100ish hz.
On phone speakers it sounds perfectly fine, but with speakers or headphones/airpods, some of the noises on the table were just a bit distracting. Excellent video though, I really enjoyed it and subscribed!
I love how kitbashed everything is. Perfect D&D vibes!
Haha thanks! The kit evolves on the regular too. Things I find myself not using get removed for things I do use 🤘🏼
This is so very helpful, I've been playing for years, and finally getting into DMing thank you!
Love the compass idea! So simple but adds so much info for players!
As a new (and very broke DM) I use the back of a large keyboard mat I've had laying around for combat, bottlecaps with everybody's character names (and a few with skulls for enemies) and cut out pieces of cardboard for buildings, tents etc. Very, VERY low cost and it works well enough, I'm definitely going to have to snag that idea of writing down monster stat blocks on index cards to keep in my binder because that would be super helpful.
The inclusion of the Zippo honestly cracked me up! lol :-D That is hysterical!
Glad you enjoyed that piece.
Wait a minute, you are telling me I am not supposed to carry around my entire kit to everyones house? lol
My current kit, is definitely not minimalist. I built a wooden DM screen with enough space that when closed has storage for 10 full sets of dice (probably more), my homemade dice roller, and a second screen for my laptop (it is a small 14" LCD mounted inside. I also have LED strips on the inside of the box for changeable ambient lighting.
Great video! Love seeing what other DM's carry along!
I squeeze a lot of stuff into my minimalist DM's kit - and it all fits into a small messenger bag.
- I've got one of those corner-pinch folding dice boxes
- A custom mini DM's screen with 3x A5 panels I can swap out with new content when I want.
- An A5 card folder from MagicTG I believe, it holds 112 monster cards & is less than 1 inch thick, also has a sick dragon on the cover.
- A deck of 52 custom playing cards I designed, which are 2x6 dungeon tiles, double-sided plastic with walls, door, treasure, traps, etc.
- My coup-de-gras is a small tackle box (4.5 x 7.5 x 1in) where I have a bunch of dice and a lot of small Lego monsters and 72 Lego microfig mini's of various human-type folk, monsters and misc.
- I also have a small pencil case with various pencils/pens
- And lastly an A5 binder organizer which I put a lot of campaign notes into, but also have a couple of plastic sleeves filled with a bunch of 2D hand-drawn terrain.
- The newest addition to my DM's kit is a scroll case I made from a strip of chessex mat rolled over a small cardboard tube, the awesome thing is I have plugs for the tube so I can store other rolled up paper, scrolls or spare pens inside this as well.
Also while technically not part of my DM's kit, these are also in my bag; a small med kit and a swiss army knife.
Those dungeon cards you are referring to sound awesome! What a great low key idea for building a dungeon on the fly. And you designed them yourself? Brilliant. Thanks for sharing!
Bulk green and red d6s are a lifesaver. Especially if you get different sizes. I love big combats and seeing what size, type(num facing up) and quickly whether its a friend or foe is SO sick
I just drew a bunch of rooms on some spare pieces of paper.
This weekend I'm continuing the campaign, and going to do my first real dungeon. I made a bunch of really basic room outlines in gimp (basically free photoshop) and am going to print them up.
I drew some icons for various objects that I'm going to print up and cut out, so I can put them in rooms and in battle spaces as I like.
I'm also getting a better and better idea of what sort of maps you actually need to run a campaign (you only need enough visual information to tell players where they are in a battle space, you can describe the rest) Since I'm still pretty new.
Over all though, I'm really happy with what I'm putting together, and excited to watch it go completely to plan. 😁👍
(ok but my dad is super cooperative, I literally told him "there's a cross in the roads and a sign that says : nothing this way, something this way but check it out later, and 'Far Reach'. And HE WENT TO FAR REACH)
I plan on trying to suggest multiple places he could go with rough ideas of what might happen there so that it'll be much less scripted from here on out, and I'm excited to see how that goes.
It's going to be my first time being a DM/ever playing (other than on tiny story oneshot with 2 of my players) with 3 players and these types of videos are helpful for me to be prepared for this like I planned on just bringing dice my journal I have for what I have planned for the intro to the story and lil index cards with my players stats on them I'm glad to know that should be all I need
As someone who loves to run impromptu oneshots and is going to run a campaign on the road in a few months-- I needed this😂 thank you! I love your kits❤
Awesome! That’s so great and I love traveling GM’s. Best of luck in your quest!
I’m looking to pare down my setup quite a bit, so the idea of minimalist kits gets me really excited. Thanks for the inspiration! :D
Minimal kit: a sheet of paper, a pen and one set of dice. Works fine.
If you have a combat coming up and play a system that works with positioning a lot, like D&D, then also: hex or grid map, white board marker black&blue and a handful of coins or glass pebbles as markers.
I have some old Dutch coins (before we got the Euro) I use as in game currency or markers sometimes. Has a nice feel to it. (-:
I’m glad this popped up on my feed. I’m going on vacation with some friends new to TRRPGs & I want to run EZD6.
Do it!! Can’t wait to give EZD6 a try. It’s on the list!
I'm about to use the UDT or ultimate dungeon terrain by Dungeon Craft. Seems like a great way to travel and DM
Awesome! It’s super nice to use that board when traveling. Hope your session goes well with it!
Using a test-equipment bag (your second kit)! I have dozens of these floating around at work and never realised, but they are a perfect size!
im actually gonna dm my first campaign next year, so im just preparing for that
I got a small chest from hobby lobby that turned out the be exactly the right size. I 3d printed a spacer to section it off into 3 parts, a thin section to put 3 small booklets where I keep all my dm notes, a section my all my dice, and a section to keep minis in. The lid of the heat is just deep enough to slip my dice tray in and have a few pens/pencils slotted into my spacer. The lid works well for a staging ground for minis I’m going to use soon when open
I’ve only just started really getting into DnD. I bought a huge bag of dice and have sort of thrown together everything else from what I have. I’m planning on printing out movement cards the size of playing cards and slipping them into card sleeves for players to use. I also have magnet bookmarks I was thinking of using for initiative tracking. I might also rummage through my Pokémon TCG stuff to see if I can use any of those things, like the old damage markers that used to be made of glass. I’m also using Lego pieces for various aspects of the game, like minis, etc.
Hah! Love the glass damage counters from Pokémon TCG. I use them as enemies, mark treasure, dropped weapons or items, or “points of interest” such as levers, hatches, and holes. Good luck and welcome to the community!
For my one and only campaign my DM kit has been:
-Sets of dices for me and my PCs'
-A stack of loose paper sheets divided between notes and blank pages (that I use to take more notes or draw battlefields, messages and whatever's needed)
-Pencil
-Eraser
-Big bottle of water
Veeeery low budget, but enough to have fun.
If we ever manage to play again, I plan on using a binder for notes, get a nice dm screen and probably that grid map with some sharpies. Upgrades!
Hell yes! gotta stay hydrated. Ever run a game without your DM screen? I find it to be too "othering". I prefer no GM screen and just have my notes out on the table for my players. Helps me feel like a part of the group and not this "big bad overlord who's trying to kill everyone off" lol.
@@HouseDM oh yup, only ever played without a screen! Right now I just wanna try it for that æsthetic✨✨ and see if it feels good
My minimalist kit fits in a sandwich container. 3 11-piece sets, plus two pairs of percentiles and 8d6. I do d20, Shadowrun, GURPS and occasionally WOD, so that gives me everything I need. Directional dice, compass and relative ("You crited your perception check in the middle of nowhere. You hear shrieking, like someone is being skinned alive. Where? Roll the die for me... And that screaming is under you. Under the grass. Or maybe it is the grass.") 8 standee bases cut from wine corks, and a packet of blanks. A half roll of pennies for markers. Pen, pencil, eraser, and markers (Shortie dry erase and sharpie in red and black, shorty highlighter, and black wet erase). Sewing tape measure, to measure movement and range w/ mapless play. A pad of small postits. A few rubber bands hold a notepad to the top along with several pieces of salvaged clamshell packaging cut to size- you can write on them with any of the pens, and even Sharpie comes off with the white eraser.
Microminimalist, altoids tin. 1 set of dice, plus 3d6. 2 corks, a bundle of blanks. Little nub of eraser. Always carry a pen, sharpie and pencil. One lives in my car, another in the overnight bag which lives in my closet prepacked.
Big kit.... The minimalist kit, box and all, goes in an ammo can. Water tight, nigh on indestructible. More dice and markers and standees are already pack in there. Figures as applicable. Supplemented with a clipboard for character sheets, and the operational information for every weapon, spell, vehicle, etc for that character so I don't need to drag around books for reference. Everything goes in sheet protectors so I can use all the markers. If I'm playing, not running, this is what I bring if I don't have space or mass premium
Full kit.... Is a tool box with wheels. 20 sets of polyhedrons, half a dozen lose d20s, 2 10d10 sets, and about 100 12mm d6s. Folding dice tower, a couple of wooden blocks that turn clipboards into a GM screen. Sharpies, wet and dry erase markers, each in red, green, blue and two blacks. Highlighters. Erasers. Pens and pencils and spare leads and a telescoping pointer. Tape measure. Index cards and posits. Clipboards with notes, reference binders, note books, core books, and I have photo albums of 4x6 cards for generic NPCs and critters, and to hold standees both NPC and terrain. Corks for the standees. Tokens of various types. Lego minifigures and their props, any small documents and maps I've printed. A roll of tape plus thumb tacks and wall putty. I strap PVC tubes the top that hold dry erase sheets (laminated 17x22 sheets), game mats and larger drawings, along with a folding tripod as needed. It gets reconfigured for specific games I'm running. If I'm going to a con, I'll stack another locking box or two on top of the first. Weather proof and impact resistant and it lets me find anything in under 30 seconds.
Full kit means full kit.
I'll say one godsend to have as a dm is some sort of tablet with a pen, an Ipad or samsung tablet. Its so incredibly useful for writing down notes, keeping things organized, even having digital copies of books is incredibly nice. Plus, keeping a bluetooth speaker with you so you can play music through it all in one go. Plus its something I almost always have on me when I go to hang out with friends, so if they have company over and wanna try a short one shot, I have almost every resource just on that alone.
Both those sets were fantastic I'm new to d&d so I learned a lot just watching this right now so thank you from the inspiration
Of course! I’m glad this video was helpful to you and best of luck with running your own games!
As a TTRPG fan and and EDC enthusiast, this was the perfect intersection of those two interests.
This makes me so happy to hear! I’m also a big EDC enthusiast/exgearhead so that’s kinda what I was going for. Cheers!
So here I am trying to make terrain and what not to start playing...and still no knowledge how to play as of yet. I'm an art teacher and I want to learn to play with my little boys because there is so much creativity in play with dnd. Thanks for uploading your vids.
Yeah of course! I have some “new to dnd” videos in the works but happy to answer any questions on how to play if you need. I’ve taught kids D&D before, it’s very rewarding 👍🏼
@@HouseDM I think the hardest part is the "tokens" or characters. As an illustrator, I want to be able to "create" their specific characters but still researching how best to do it. I've been wanting to do it for a custom chess board I made to look like dungeon tiles as well. Any ideas what I can use for "characters" for kids in the game? Also, what is the easiest way to teach kids of 5-7 ages (they both read past second grade levels and comprehend pretty complex ideas).
My in person kit is currently a vinyl mat, a handful of markers, an eraser, a spray bottle (so I don't need to spit on the eraser to wet it), my laptop and a big pile of dice. I've only used it once because it didn't come in time for the other in person session but most of my players have ADHD and it really helped them focus
I started DMing like 10 years ago, with only 2 dice sets for the whole group, some paper an the Dnd sheets, it was a mess, bua we had a great time! Then after some time, I started playing only online, and now i'm returning to a presencial one shot, and i'm making my maps on dungeon alchemist, and printing them, I hope it will work well! Nice video, and thanks for the ideas
Love your simple tokens! My D&D group always used dice for miniatures - whichever die was least likely to get used by a player (normally d12) would represent their character to make it easier to keep track of who was where and enemies were from a big set of single color dice our DM had.
hey so like you just popped up in my recommended videos. first impression. love you bro. subscribed.
Jeremy is the man! Love his videos and this video too.
Tyty
Pencil, paper, dice, phone (obviously), minis, index cards, a simple grid map (at least 20 in x 20 in seems to work for me), and a hard flat surface of some sort. That’s my go-to list at least.
Personally, I also like throwing in speakers, minimum one binder of notes (preferably the one associated with the campaign), something to use as a dice tray, water or soda (bottled to minimize spills), and some comfort items. (warm blankets, a stuffed companion, a stress ball or toy, or a couple of pillows to lie against - helps the anxiety sometimes.)
Great breakdown here! :D
I've a few modular parts for a toolkit, influenced by the fact I mostly run games in pubs and at conventions:
¬ pencil case with several spare pencils, a sharpener and eraser, and folded character sheets and index cards
¬ repurposed cuff-link box housing around ten dice, selected for which we'll need depending on ruleset
¬ Hive Pocket in a honey jar if I'll be needing tokens
¬ hardback notebook for SECRETS
Thanks Sean! Also, what is a Hive Pocket? Does it involve bees and honey?
@@HouseDM Do you know the boardgame Hive? It's the pocket version of that where each piece is about half an inch instead of a full inch. Around thirty pieces of bakelite total
@@seanfsmith just looked it up. Those are sick! Very similar to backgammon pieces but with bug symbols. Super cool. I wish somebody would make tokens like that for D&D. Thanks for sharing!
Most of my sessions are in my own home, but I don't like accidently losing stuff, so I just keep some basic dice, beginner D&D books (I'm relatively new to D&D), my laptop + charger, a sketchbook, and a printed map of the general world. I'm trying to see if I can get some minis started, so this video was a good motivation.
My DM travel set: Dice bag, some tokens and the like, dm screen, tablet/pad, a bunch of different color pencils and a block of flip over paper.
The flip over paper has a blank side and a side with inch squares. It's stored in a cylinder with a shoulder strap, so it's easy to take with me.
I'm looking into making a smaller cylinder to go inside the rolled paper and use that for the pencils, dice, tokens and maybe a small bluetooth speaker. And since you don't really need a DM screen I'll just have to bring the cylinder and my phone to have all I need.
I have two bags of stuff and I love it. I can't imagine going minimalist unless its because im going somewhere and playing dnd. I have my laptop, my tablet, fold-able battle map, dry erase markers, dice box, flash card box of prepared magic items to give. I have two bags because sometimes I use props! Like a plague doctors mask to to establish well, a plague doctor XD
I bought some 2minutetabletop assets with trees, plants, rocks, walls, tents, etc. I print them in color, glue them on thin cardboard and cut them out. I carry them in an envelope. I throw these tokens on the pathfinder flip mat and voila. The whole map setup, with many many tokens to choose from, has the size of a small notebook and the resulting maps look very good. Definitely way better than anything that I could draw on the spot with a marker.
There are two downsides:
1. The tokens are not very durable. However, they are pretty cheap to make and once you get the hang of it, also pretty fast.
2. They don't stick to the mat, so you have to be a bit careful around the map after you set it. It's not an issue for my group, but it may be different for yours.
I have an extremely simple kit, mostly because I am working on a student budget and my players have a great imagination. I use a small zip-up laptop bag (one of those freebie ones you get from work or conventions) to hold everything in place. I bought a 4 pack of those collapsible dice trays with the snap buttons to assemble them and my players like them a lot. I have a small laminated grid dry erase sheet that fits in my folder with my extra player sheets and quick reference rulebook. I have a basic cardboard screen, notebook, and writing utensils, plus my bag of dice with extras in case anyone forgot theirs. The last thing I have are those cards you get in the D&D 5th ed starter kit with conditions and initiative order. I thought those would be kind of a throw away item, but my party and I love using them. My whole kit as of right now fits in that small bag and only weighs a couple pounds. I may have to find some of those marbles you had in the vid, they are a great idea as budget minis.
Your chaos looks like Mechanicus compared to my mess of a collection. Really impressive stuff!
Awww thank you! It’s changed quite a bit since this video first came out. Might be time for an update 🤔
i dungeon mastered once for me and my wife as i really wanted to paly dnd and the campaign we play in was on holiday for a few weeks. we used crafting cardboard and bluetac to make minis, drew some goblins and drew some characters. for the map, a big drawing pad we had in the cupboard, drew some outlines, i had a warhammer messuring stick to guage movement.
for when i go to play dnd in real life (we online based most of the time as live far apart) i take my tablet, i have made a stand for it out of plywood. i also have a 4meter long usb charging cable, so i could walk about the room with it on charge .
end of the day you dont need much to play the game. i am hoping to have my own garage/workshop in near future, i have seen some of the cool ideas wyrmwood have made like their dm screen with magnets in it to join it, i reckon i can make my own not to there quality standards but something i can be proud of and get a wow factor from.
I love both your kits. My forever DM kit consists of my laptop, a ton of index cards, 2x4' dry erase board. Full set dry erase makers. Monster manual, players handbook. Pencils and notebooks. Old game tokes and colored stones. Other then the dry erase board, books, laptop. All stuff from the dollar store.
I could dm a whole series from the boards, index cards and books.
My friend group's current DnD setup is aseprite for the board, character sheets made in excel, a discord bot that generates us dice rolls, and a lot of troubleshooting. We're all broke students in different towns and such, so this way we can all still play. and it's been a blast so far!
I don't have a minimalist kit, but I will use a Huion GT-191 drawing tablet as a portable display. Easy to carry and super fast to set up, great for using digital battle maps and sharing things with my players.
I once ran a game with just my laptop and a single set of dice. I had eight players at the table XD but we used theatre of the mind. I also once played with skittles on a cutting mat with a centimeter grid.
LOL. Nice video.
My traveling kit:
A GM screen with core/essential rules. I use the one that came out of the Starter Set. For other game systems, I make my own.
A note book with session relevant info, maybe a random event table or two and to track progress.
Index Cards for treasure, clues, follower or any other player aid/hand out. Post-Its have been used too.
Pencil w/eraser
3 sets of standard RPG dice.
Some flat pack minis for games that need them for combat.
The DnD starter set box to hold it all. Bottom is a dungeon grid for mini based combats. Top is the dice tray.
Hey thanks for that! Glad you enjoyed the vid! Sounds like all of your DM kit fits in that one box.
You popped into my feed, and I always get excited when I find a fellow small DnD TH-camr. (pssst, we should talk about a collab in the future). Also, I wish I had this video when I was a travelling DM years ago lol
Yo! Glad this was helpful. And yeah same, always enjoy hearing what other dnd creators are working on. Happy to colab in the future, just email me!
I had one GM who made battle maps by: cutting gift wrapper with gridded backside into four A4's size and plastic laminated it.
its very convenient if we have a small table (we used to play in coffee shops). no curly maps!
I am now going to make a video showing my minimalist kit, just so I can collaborate. Really enjoyed your kit, and I have the character coins you have, they are awesome
Nice! They’re my favorite hero coins to pass around.
@@HouseDM I uploaded a video of my
Kit. Nothing special if you want to see it though
You could shrink your dice set to just 2 if you get yourself a 24-sided die. A d24 is capable of making rolls for every type of die except the d20, using division to extrapolate the dice you need. It's honestly a good decision, makes keeping track of all your dice way easier and it looks cool to do :D
Ew! More math in my math game!?
I got a set of wooden tokens from Etsy, they have monster categories and are all inch sized. They have class tokens as well so the whole kit is, tokens, vinyl mat, wet erase markers, dice, notebooks, pens, pencils, speaker, and index cards. I love seeing people just gather random knick knacks for tokens. Seeing players receive a physical thing is always super fun. Hard to forget the key to the boss room when you're holding it 😂
We used to use chess pieces, quarter machine toys, and these Minecraft blind-box things for minis, whatever worked really. Used to put that all in an old tupperware too, now we use some actual minis but we still store it in a dome shaped cake cover :D
We've departed a bit from a lot of the lower cost solutions (still use a dry-erase battle map tho) but I still remember it all so fondly. I still use minimalist/low budget options like using the plastic tops of glasses cleaner to show height, and Model Magic + craft wire to make minis. Probably my favorite mini I've got is a purple worm I made from toilet paper rolls and that clay lol
I also volunteer with the Boy's and Girls Club at my kids Highschool running a D&D campaign twice a week. And I also used to DM for another group and I would have to bring all my supplies with me. I like the minimalist kit. I wished I had thought of that before I started doing mobile games. I bought a rolling tool chest that I wheel around with me. So I have minis, several sets of dice, terrain scatter, dry erase battlemaps, the core rule set, along with whatever campaign we are playing, pencils and dry erase markers. I also have a extension cord for any of the kids computers and a Bluetooth speaker. So I know you pain.
A little tip for GMs both on the go and at home: invest in 3x5 cars and manila envelopes. What I do is I take a bunch of 3x5 cards, and on them I'll write out all the stat blocks, the map layout, loot table, notes, pre-rolled initiative, and all the other extraneous info I need for said encounter. Then I'll place them inside of a little manila envelope along with whatever minis I'm using for said encounter. I'll make a bunch, and then stick them in a collapsible folder along with a bunch of maps I drew. All of the maps are number and color coded, so I can easily jot down which map to use for which encounter on a 3x5 card, and the maps are modular enough to be used as a small map, or put together for a bigger map, or strung out in order to make a big dungeon.
So when an encounter breaks out, wither a room in a dungeon, a random encounter on the trail or even a spontaneous bar fight, all I do is grab the envelope, lay the cards out behind my screen, grab the map and layout the minis. I'm usually done before the players are even finished rolling intuitive. It's fast, it's hassle free, it's easy to carry around, and best of all, it's cheap.
I would recommend, if you have 3D printer access, printing modular tiles! Preferably ones that don't need magnets, but those are fine as well.
If you want what I use, look into the Z-Axis Optimizes Domain (abbreviated as ZOD), or the OpenLOCK series of tiles. I personally like ZOD, but both are nice.
minimalist dungeon master kit is 2 sets of mini dice. some paper miniatures I made, printed off 8.5x11 paper maps a Sharpe and a pencil and pen kit. It's smaller and does more then both these kit's so i'm kinda proud of that.
That was an awesome video. I see many parallels in how my own tools (or my DMs) look like.
I played with my kids (5,3) and used to play with my godchild and siblings (10,7,4). As a minimal set I used 1 dice (d4) and the kids got a random dice they like (d20, d6). For hitpoints, spell slots and special powers I gave them 5 marbles each. The small kids character sheets are visuals of powers, such as a panda 🐼 (companion), lightning arrows and bow, a magically glowing key or similar. Each has about 3 special powers or spells. They love it.
We do theatre of the mind obviously but I also have a hand drawn map which I spontaneously created one evening. It contains a micture of faerun and examdria places as well as homebrew. Pretty versatile.
Thanks JF!
And nice, that character sheet sounds super useful! I've tried my hand at drawing maps but they just look so bad compared to ones I can find online lol. I like that you simplified abilities for your youngins. Makes for quickly jumping into the adventure instead of fiddling with all the 5e rules. Cheers!
Dude, your kits seems like a treasure chest! Awesome!
Hah, I think so too! Every time I open that little black zipper hard shell, it feels like uncovering some epic loot 💎
Running a session with kids at the school I work at as well. We started using chess pieces, as a lot of my kiddos have developmental disorders and its easy in the heat of the moment to get over excited and a piece gets lost! I like the Backgammon idea though, and will give it a shot! Thank you!
I like to use mini bulldog clips as miniatures. I put a small piece of paper in the clip, take the little handles off, lay them on their back and let players either write their character names or draw their character on them. They hold up pretty well.
that's interesting to see your analog stuff! I find it much easier and cheaper to go digital with all but my dice, but i really admire how cool all of this looks!
I still prefer theater of the mind, so my DM kit is dice campaign notes, and maybe a DM screen. Some scratch paper if I need to draw something quick for clarification.
Theater of the mind is such a great tool and a wonderful exercise on collaboration with your players. You have a “true minimalist” kit.
@@HouseDM 🤣 cheap and old school. Our (my?) First group had one set of rules and one set of dice, all owned by the DM.
Love the idea of having 2 different kits, I do something similar.