The Raven's Mutterings Wherein Carl Cravens talks about geeky stuff

Tokens on the map, Part 2

A huge part of my success with tokens has been Fiery Dragon… I don't think I'd be using tokens if I hadn't discovered FD's "4th Edition" collections.

A quick summary of why I like Fiery Dragon tokens specifically:

• There is a huge variety, over 3000 tokens available.
• The art has a consistent style. All the tokens are drawn by one artist.
• They're very affordable. All the tokens up through the end of 2008 are available in a single collection for under $40.
• There is a unique token for every variation in the Monster Manual, and Monster Manual 2 tokens are in production.

In a wonderful bit of timing, FD has just posted an article detailing the history of their tokens/counters, and pointing out that Claudio Pozas has drawn over 3000 counters for them over the last nine years.

That right there has a lot to do with why I like FD tokens… the art across the entire collection is very consistent.

Some folks don't like Pozas's style, saying it's too "cartoony". And it is a little cartoony, but I think that's a feature… the art makes it easy to identify tokens from across the table, even when there are eight different kinds of kobolds on the map. The clear, uncluttered style is perfect for me. No background, no dark, detailed art that looks like a brown smudge from more than two feet away.

Fiery Dragon sells every darned token Pozas has drawn (up to its publication date) in an archive pack. Counter Collection Digital v3.0 is the current one, released December 2008, with over 3000 unique counter images, for under $40. (Note that this collection predates some of the 4E packs.)

Now here's the thing as a 4E Dungeon Master… FD's 4th Edition packs, broken up by tier and book, provide a unique token for every variation on every monster.

This is very cool. No trying to decide how to represent the six different kinds of kobolds in this encounter… they're all there, and Pozas has given some attention to the monster descriptions, because they all (as far as I've seen) carry the right weapons and so on.

I don't think I can stress enough how great this is. When I put together an encounter for my 4E game, I don't have to hunt for art, and I don't have to accept something that looks "close enough". It's a real time-saver.

When I started putting together the encounters for The Keep on the Shadowfell, the free Castle of Shadows token set contained a different token for each variety of kobold, goblin, etc. Every single type of monster I put on the table had its own unique token. Even the unique characters (Balgron the Fat, Kalarel, etc) had their own tokens. That was something I'd never enjoyed with metal minis, or even with cardboard stand-ups. Because the art is simple and relatively inexpensive, they can afford to create tons of unique tokens, and I can afford to buy them.

Turning cardstock into usable tokens

Now, a few technical details. The FD tokens as-designed are square… FD calls square a "counter" and "round" a token. I prefer round… no dinking with aligning the token to the grid (or when gluing to a wooden base), the round tokens fit in a pill bottle, and I can punch them out with a 1" craft punch, which makes it go very quickly.

This is easy to deal with. The FD tokens come in two versions, a regular PDF and a collection of individual image files. I use the individual images and an Inkscape template to arrange customized sheets of tokens. (FD provides a set of blank PDFs that let you select the counters you want to print, but my Inkscape template fits my needs for round tokens better.)

Square counters or round tokens, the nice thing about this method is you can make up a sheet of exactly the images you need… no printing a sheet full of tokens twice to get one more skeleton off of it. This is what makes the digital tokens shine… just lay out the exact tokens you need for the upcoming game on one sheet.

Concerning round versus square, I'll agree with Fiery Dragon here… if you don't have a 1" craft punch, you're going to want to go with squares. You'll go cross-eyed trying to cut out a page full of round tokens with scissors. Twelve bucks or so will get you a nice one, and it's totally worth it.

As I said in Part 1, I knew that the cardstock punch-outs would have to be glued to something. Some folks online were using flat washers, which meshed well with Alea Tools stackable magnetic status markers, but even if I found washers the right size at a reasonable price, they're too heavy to lug around very many of them. (And the Alea markers, while nifty, are just too danged expensive for my wallet.) Some folks were using wooden "craft" discs, which were cool, but oddly hard to come by at a reasonable cost and quality. Then I discovered Litko Aero… they do laser-cut acrylic game tokens and wooden mini bases. (Litko gets its own praise in Part 3.) The wooden bases are high-quality thin plywood (no warped ones like with the craft discs), and cheaper than the above solutions, but sadly the 25mm round bases are a "stock" item and 1" round are custom-order… so the 25mm are cheaper. But 25mm is a lot smaller than 1" than you think. I've never broken down and bought the 1" discs, and I've not found a 25mm punch. So my tokens have a slight cardstock "lip"… this is actually handy, as it makes them very easy to pick up.

I punch out all my tokens ahead of time, and then use a Q-Tip to apply a very thin layer of PVA ("white") glue to the disc and apply the cardstock token. The glue stays wet enough to slide the cardstock around a bit to position it, but if you keep it thin enough it won't soak through the cardstock. (You could use paper, but it's harder to work with.)

I'll talk about using and storing the tokens in Part 4, where I'll show you how all these pieces come together in my game.

Tokens on the map, Part 1

I used to like minis a lot.  Back in my early days of D&D, (Basic with Erol Otus cover,  and Advanced), I used minis... I have fond memories of painting Grenadier minis from the official boxed sets while listening to The Go-Gos.  When I started playing Champions, I switched to using cardboard stand-ups... and when the PDF stand-ups came along, I could print as many as I liked, but I found cutting/folding/gluing annoying, and storing them was really a pain.

When 4E came around and I somehow found myself running D&D again for the first time since about 1986, and I needed monsters to put on the map, and with a budget of zero, I figured I'd make do with the stand-ups I already had.  I'd heard other gamers rave about tokens, mostly made from Magic cards (bleh), but I really didn't think I'd like them.  Then Fiery Dragon published a free token set specifically aimed at The Keep on the Shadowfell, and I decided to give them a try because there was a unique token for every monster and variant in the adventure.

Knowing that cardstock counters wouldn't fly (or, specifically, that they would fly right off the table), I glued them to wooden discs and off we went.

Now I'm a Token Convert. I'm about to become a Token Evangelist.

Why I like monster tokens in general:

• Variety: If I don't have a monster I want (unlikely with the Fiery Dragon tokens), I can make a token out of just about any art.
• Portability: They're durable, and store easily. I use a pill bottle to hold all of the tokens I need for a single encounter. I can store hundreds of tokens in one little box.
• Cost: The tokens are so cheap that I can print a bajillion of them.  A one-shot monster token can have new artwork glued over the old.  I've considered double-siding them, but the official D&D cardboard tokens taught me how annoying that can be.
• Clarity: The tokens on the map are clearer than minis or stand-ups.  A little circle on the token gives me a clear place to write a number or initial to track my hordes of minions.  I can place status markers directly on top of the tokens as a clear indicator.

Now if I can just get the players to use tokens instead of minis for their characters.

Next post, why Fiery Dragon tokens are a huge factor in making tokens work, and then why Litko Aero brings an essential dash of spice.