Tokens on the Map, Part 3
Now that we've got those great Fiery Dragon monster tokens on the map, let's talk about all the nasty stuff we can do to them, and how Litko Aero spices it up.
Their web pages are a little disorganized and if you don't know what's available, it's easy to overlook important parts of their catalog. Their catalog as grown organically, and newer items have somewhat overshadowed their core products. So be sure to explore the site thoroughly.
Let's look at "Tokens and Markers" in the left-hand menu.
Now, the first thing that catches your eye may be the link to "4E Tokens". In my opinion, you can give these a pass… I think a different selection of shapes would work better, and to get enough tokens for all the effects and conditions is pretty expensive. And those tokens were developed before the "Custom 20" customizable selection, which will let you make your own custom set. So take a look at 'em, but don't give up on me yet if they aren't interesting… those aren't why we're here.
Here's what I'm using, and a bit of what's on my wish-list for the next time I order.
"Mini Skulls". They're about half-an-inch tall and a set of fifteen is just five bucks, which makes them a good value for the number of markers. (Note that these are MINI-skulls… Litko makes larger skulls that are about an inch tall, but they're slightly more expensive.)
I use red mini-skulls for "bloodied" markers, and fluorescent green mini-skulls for "poison" or other on-going damage.
I have found that the important thing with the on-going damage isn't to indicate the exact type of damage, but to create a visual reminder that, "Hey, this guy has some kind of on-going damage." So I just need one color for that. If that's not flexible enough for you, you can get skulls in white, black, and translucent gray as well.
I like these better than the "Acid Splatter" and "Blood Splatter" shown here (and standard "Skull" tokens)… they're smaller, so they don't cover the entire character token (a good thing), and they're quite a bit cheaper.
After that, I picked up a set of "Blast Area Effect" tokens… they're more expensive because they're big, and I didn't really need ten of them, but who doesn't love a big, spiky amber token? These get used for the wizard's Flaming Sphere, and generally to indicate single-square zones of denial like Cloud of Daggers. I've sometimes used them to indicate other statuses, like "this monster is the one your daily power grants a bonus against until the end of the encounter". They're cool, but I'd rather they had been available in a set like the "Area Effect Token Set"… maybe with the "Shock Effect" and… "Energy" and "Acid Splatter" tokens? I'll have to suggest a set like that.
If you look around a bit, you'll find what they call Markers… 3-D markers made by inserting a stand-up bit into a slot in a base token. It was difficult decision between the "Blast Area" tokens and the "Mini Blast Markers". But what I did get was the "Mini Smoke Screen" set… they're just under three inches long and work fairly well for outlining Stinking Cloud and other sustained area-effects without displacing the character tokens much. (Unfortunately, if the zone is really crowded, placing them can be a tad difficult because the base is about 3/8" wide.) Five bucks for four of them, but I think they were worth it… they come out in just about every session.
Wander around a little more and you'll come across the "Nuke Blast Marker, Large". It's out of my price range, but if you'd like to send me one, I'll give you my mailing address. :)
Alright, by now you've probably noticed the links I've been putting off… they're the most interesting: custom tokens and markers, which will round out both my purchases and wish-list.
At the heart of Litko Aero are laser cutting machines. The sweetness of a laser is that there is no tooling cost… you just draw up a design in your CAD program, slap some acrylic (or plywood, or magnetic base material) onto the cutting bed, and push "Go". Bang, instant tokens.
This is where Litko Aero really shines… they've made the process of custom-ordering a large (and growing) variety of tokens automatic. No filling out a "request for quote" or anything like that. You just enter all your parameters, click "Sell me that stuff, laser-man!", and (someday; see expectation-setting below) your custom tokens show up on your doorstep. Sweet. Let me break 'em down for you.
When I ordered my (only, so far) custom set of tokens, the only thing available was Custom Tokens series 1… if "Custom 20" had been available, that's what I'd have gone with.
The basic Custom Tokens series 1 & series 2:
- 11 colors of acrylic; six transparent/translucent, five opaque
- 14 different shapes
- Up to 12 characters of text
Now that's pretty cool… except you have to choose one color, one shape, one text, and buy ten of them for $7. All well and good if you need ten of them… but I wanted a "Marked" token. I didn't want ten of them… I only needed about five, and I wanted each one in a different color. Alas, I bought ten "clear" and used a different color of crayon to highlight the text of each. (Yeah, I'll explain the crayons in a bit.) That works, but it doesn't work as well as I'd like… the colored text can be hard to tell apart from a distance. But if the player forgets, it's easy enough to pick up the token to see what color it is. (In retrospect, these would have been better in a light opaque color.)
I also bought ten amber hex-shaped tokens that say "Grants CA" planning to use them to indicate statuses that grant Combat Advantage. Surprisingly, I don't use them as often as I expected to. I probably use them for Prone characters the most.
Now hop on over to "Custom 20".
- 16 colors of acrylic; ten transparent/translucent, six opaque
- 15 different shapes
- Up to 12 characters of text
I don't know there are 16 colors here, but only 11 above. Even stranger, "MarkerMaker" offers 22 different colors. I half wonder if they simply haven't gotten around to updating their order forms to reflect a new selection of colors and shapes.
Anyway, this is probably where you want to be. Quite a bit more expensive per-token… $20 for a set of 20 tokens compared to ten tokens for $7. But you get to choose the color, shape and text of every individual token. You're not buying ten "Marked" tokens when you wanted only five, and you can get every one of them in a different color and even shape. So unless you actually want ten identical tokens, this is a sweet deal.
The newest in the custom lineup is the "MarkerMaker"… custom two-part stand-up markers
- 22 colors of acrylic; 12 transparent, 10 opaque
- 24 upper shapes (plus the 10 digits), 12 base shapes
- Up to 12 characters of text
These are kind of neat, but I'm not sure what I'd use them for considering the expense… $20 for 10 of them, but like "Custom 20", each one can be completely different from the others. You could do a stand-up Flaming Sphere and whatnot, and those are a little easier to move around the map, but for me, that's getting into extra expense for no added benefit.
What I'm missing:
- "Marked" markers in a true variety of colors.
- "Quarry" and "Cursed" markers for the ranger and warlock.
- "AC Bonus" and "To-Hit Bonus" markers for when one character buffs another.
- A few markers for the most common statuses… those that grant Combat Advantage would be a unique shape or color to set them apart.
Now, the more I've played, and having changed character lineups a couple times, I find that what tokens I need varies heavily based on the PC classes in play. If you don't have a warlock, you don't need a "Cursed" token. But if you do have a warlock, you might need five or more of them.
So I decided that for specialized but not-always-needed functions, considering that I'm not made of money, the best bang for my buck was a couple more sets of generic tokens with no text on them, which I can redefine as needed. In the game with the warlock, the "Mini Targeting Reticle" is a Curse token. If there's no warlock in the party, then I can use it to indicate stunned characters. Toss in the green Energy Tokens with the Blast Tokens I already have, and that gives me three generic tokens in my bag to use as needed by the moment.
Alright, last but not least… go to "Jim's Product Lab". Here you'll find experimental stuff that may or may not make it into the regular catalog. You never know what you're going to find in there, but new stuff shows up regularly. Some of it's rather clever, some of it's "boy, that's interesting, but I'd never have a use for it."
Final notes:
About those crayons. Do listen to Litko when they say to rub over the text with a contrasting crayon. It's a pain in the butt to do on thirty tokens at once… rubbing off the excess crayon takes a lot of work. But you must do this… it makes an incredible difference in clarity, and you are not getting your full value if you don't.
Wooden bases. As I mentioned in an earlier installment, I glue all my cardstock tokens to Litko wooden bases. Being plywood, they're perfectly flat and all consistently sized. 100 25mm, 3mm thick laser-cut plywood "miniature bases"… $12. If you really want an exact inch, which isn't a stock item, $17. (Bug them to stock 1" rounds if you want them!) I even bought some 50mm rounds for Large beasties. And if you prefer square, they've got squares, too.
And finally, A mild warning of expectations: Don't get all excited about placing an order and getting these for the game coming up this weekend. Litko's work is great, but apparently they keep little in stock… both orders I have placed that contained only stock items took over two weeks to arrive. The order I placed with custom-cut tokens took over three. So don't get discouraged when they don't have service like Amazon.com… these are great products and worth the wait.
Next article, we'll tie it all together and show you how all of this looks on the map in play.
Thoughts on wandering player attention
Over on his "GM tips" blog, Sly Flourish, Mike Shea has posted an article about How to Get Back Your Players' Attention. I commented, because I found one piece of that advice a little counter-productive.. and I will share that comment with you here.
Much of Mike's advice works for me, I like the idea of keeping the initiative order in view… I might have to try the cards on the top of the screen. (I normally use a Paizo Combat Pad and I've experimented with a spreadsheet combat manager on my laptop.) Not so thrilled with the buddy system... if you're having that much trouble keeping their attention, I'm afraid that this would be a Band-Aid and not a cure for the real problem.
But the one thing I think it's going to work is having players pre-roll attacks and damage before their turn comes up. On one level, I have a player that I suspect would re-roll or declare that he used an at-will and not his daily if he thinks I wasn’t looking… he’s not my typical player, but he’s a friend and generally fun to play with, despite his competitive view of the game.
But on a more important level, a lot of the fun of such a tactical game is watching it unfold as it happens… the dice are what create the tension of combat, and pre-rolling the dice removes the tension out of the moment. It’s the difference between the whole group looking on, waiting to see if you’re going to hit the big bad at that critical moment (”A 20… 18 points of damage, eat cold steel, dragon!”) and phoning in your results… (”Yeah, wait until his turn’s over. I’m about to crit the dragon for 18 points of damage… it’ll be cool.”) By the time you declare your results, the energy has been drained out of it.
It’s almost like knowing if the batter is going to hit the ball before he steps up to the plate… if you already know the result, there’s no anticipation, no elation or let-down when he hits or misses.
What little roleplaying that happens during a combat comes from everyone paying attention and being in the moment… having players pre-roll is asking them to stop paying attention to what’s happening right now and think about what’s coming up. And that's the opposite of what we're trying to do here... get the players to be in the moment and pay attention to what's happening at the table right now.
My thoughts are, if you’re having this much trouble with players’ attention wandering, you probably have too many players at the table, or the DM is running with too many monsters (or, if you’re me, you’re taking too long to make up your mind about what to do).
My solution is to ban the iPhones and Blackberries if they’re causing trouble (if they can’t distract themselves, they might actually get interested in what other people are doing), cut down to a manageable number of players, cut all monster hit-points by 1/3rd so that the “it’s all over, but the fat lady still has 23 hit points” tail end of combat is minimized. Keep things moving fast and keep them interesting, so that the players find what’s going on at the table more interesting than texting their girlfriends or checking the latest sports scores.
The player’s side of the game is not so complex that he needs a computer to keep track of his character. I’d rather players use pencil and paper, and avoid the distraction of a computer interface just to keep track of hit points and the minimal resources of 4E. As a DM, I’m reluctant to use a computer on my end… the interface itself can become distracting, when it takes longer to find the right tab/window and position in my document to make a note than it does to scribble something down on my notepad. I’ve experimented a bit, but I haven’t found/developed the solution that doesn’t “take me away from the table” when I interact with it.