Level 30 Yinzer

So, last week we talked about monster creation, and this week we’re going to talk about tabletop layout.  Of course, there are lots of ways to run an encounter for your DnD game.  Ourselves?  We prefer to use a  battlemat coupled with copious amounts of minis for almost all of our encounters, and, unsurprisingly, it works great–except for one thing.

In 4th edition there is a wide array of status effects that can pile on a creature or player, and often tracking all these effects can be confusing, at best.  We tried using the stackable magnets, and while we love anything made of magnets as much as anyone else, prying them apart and snapping them together caused a lot of battlefield disturbance.  We also experimented with one-inch square flat cards as an inexpensive method, simply by marking the cards and sliding them under the mini.  However, as you can guess, the mini itself often obscured all of the status effects on that particular creature.

Ever the stickler for accuracy, we devised a way to track statuses for everyone to see, not just the DM with his neat little notes, a way that provides little disruption to the flow of an encounter, requires little expense and can be made mostly with materials you likely have laying around your house.  Behold, our awesome status tracker system OF DOOM!

Ok, so we also are experimenting with .pdf layout, and this is a test run of our rough draft for our layout template.

And while the instructions for creation are a bit dry, here are some pictures of the system in action: