I’ve been looking at how I run my games lately. I’ve been thinking about minis, paper minis, and tokens, and what I want for my game and my table. Tomb of Annihilation has a SHIT LOAD of possible random encounters. It is a hex crawl after all…a damn good one, but a hex crawl nonetheless with lots of possible fighting in that jungle. There’s no way that I’m going to get a mini for every specific encounter. And paper minis? Do I really want to cut up and print 12-15 minis for a bunch of apes, a whole goblin tribe or cannibal band? No thanks.
So I’m going to be trying something new: Color-coded numbered tokens.
First, I create 1″ colored numbered tokens in Pixelmator (a mac Photoshop-type app).
Then I create a monster token with the same color outline. Like say, albino dwarves and a baboon.
Now I suddenly have 10 albino dwarves and 5 baboon tokens! Instead of printing up 10 dwarves, I only had to print three. I wish I’d done this 10 years ago when I wrote this.
I laminate them with poor man’s laminate (read: tape), and voila. Instant army.
Since those numbers are going to be seeing use A LOT, it’s worth laminating them. Keeps the pizza grease off the cardstock.
On the other side I’ll write who they are and it makes searching for them easier once I’m looking through the ziplock bag that’ll house them.
So… Print numbered color coded tokens. Print one of each monster in those colors, and you have an instant shitload of tokens to use.
The older I get and the more I game the lazier and lazier I get. I’m not going full theater of the mind yet because I doubt I could run it well, but if I could I would.
“But what about immersion!?”, you’ll ask… and yes, this provides very little. But for me? I’ve realized that my players don’t care all that much.
This will make my game faster. Players are facing a Flaming Fist patrol?
Pick the baggie with the random encounter already sorted, and go!
TIP: Go through the random encounters and pre-sort your tokens. Keep them in a baggie, then put the monster stat blocks for each encounter on a sheet of paper and keep them in your DM Binder. be ready to go seamlessly in the event of an encounter. Don’t stop to find minis or tokens and don’t flip back and forth on a book for stat blocks.
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Dave Robinson
September 22, 2017
I use 1 inch wooden disks from the craft store. Either write the number on the disk or glue your printout to it. Much more durable than cardboard.
Matt
September 23, 2017
I run almost entirely theater of the mind, unless spacing and location is super important. It’s so fast and flexible, especially for the Jungles of Chult. I recommend giving it a try, at least once, and see how you like it. You never know…
Once I get into dungeons, I’m sure it will be more map centric, but I highly recommend just giving it a try before you get to part of ToA where maps are required.
Dmdave
October 12, 2017
Instead of printing the image of a specific creature, just print a #1 token. Now you have unlimited flexibility with that color to represent any enemy. You still can have multiple colors to represent multiple creature types. You don’t even need to even search for a type when setting up your encounter on the grid – just grab and go! If the players need a visual, show the pic from the Monster Manual or whatever. Who’s lazy now? 🙂
Jim Pacek
March 22, 2018
I’m even lazier. 🙂 I have a bag filled with Scrabble tiles and other wooden tokens. Some are larger than Scrabble, some are smaller. I have 2 colors of Scrabble too. I’ve weeded out all the duplicates. I can grab a handful or choose by size/color. Works great!
MeatBunny (@_meatbunny)
May 14, 2019
Love the guide.
I do something similar, but I print them out on 8.5×11 label sheets and stick them onto 0.65″, 1″, or 2″ aluminum punch blanks I got off of Amazon. The 1″ ones were $19 for a pack of 50.
Just as durable as using washers but they don’t have a hole in the center.
I used to use wooden tokens, but they’re never exactly 1″, requiring me to trim the excess with a exacto knife.
MeatBunny (@_meatbunny)
May 14, 2019
stamp blank, not punch blank. Can’t type today.
Spoonman
October 15, 2019
I love the idea. I just batched out a bunch of tokens tonight for this weeks game. 1 inch dowel from the hardware store and an hour at the miter saw. The thought I had was why limit the numbered tokens to just one monster type. I plan on stacking my red colored token under the monster token and instantly, all red tokens are what ever monster is stacked. On the next encounter, i can reuse the red tokens and bring in the greens as well for another creature. Thanks
jpacek
March 17, 2022
I bought these. Very durable. Symdiro Wooden Montessori Math Counting Hundred Board Toys, 1-100 Math Number Games Toy Learning & Educational Toys for Kids, Storage Bag https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08TVQ2X4T/