I’ve only DM’d for ~3 times so far, and only once in person (this past weekend). I was introducing two friends to the game, and we’re all excited to continue.
Originally planned for a one-off (we’re doing Mines of Phandelver. I aimed for it to be more introductory but the PCs are interested in continuing with what we have!)
So, with the second session booked, I’d like to scale up my setup to help be more immersive. I have a lot of work ahead (reading, notes) so I’m in a better position. I’ve discussed with a DM friend of mine with decades of experience, and I’d love to hear what people suggest.
Currently, I am aiming to purchase:
- “wet” battle map (dry-erase)
- tokens for characters/creatures (hoping to find dry-erase ones here, too)
- basic ‘tiles’ set for when the the scenery is more generic (optional)
- figurines for the PCs (optional)
I was thinking the figurines would be unpainted, and I’d love to find a company that sells them individual, with generic designs for race/class, that I can go back to again and again as my campaigns diversify.
Am I heading down the right path? Any other suggestions?
I think your instincts are good, I’ve been playing D&D and other RPGs since I was a kid, and that’s pretty close to my setup. Here’s a couple more things you might want to consider:
DM Screen
A cardboard partition between you and your players. It’s useful to keep your notes and dice rolls hidden from the party. There’s a lot of variety out there in how people customize their screens. There’s official versions which have reference rules printed directly on the DM-side of the screen, and if you’re still learning the game you might find that very handy. You can also feel free to stick your notes directly onto the screen with sticky notes or paperclips or what-have-you. You can absolutely make your own out of posterboard and some printouts if you’re looking to save some money
Initiative Tracking
I’ve found it’s helpful to have some kind of visual for the party to see when their turn is coming up in initiative. YMMV since you only have two players, but generally speaking the larger your group is, or the more dynamic the encounter is, the more important this becomes. In my experience, it helps my players be prepared for their turn when they can see that it’s coming up soon.
There’s plenty of ways you could implement this, and they range from high-tech apps to just simply writing it out on the battlemat. What I’ve done is glued cardstock labels to clothespins and then pinned them to the DM screen. This is also pretty handy for me, because on the Player side it shows whose turn it is, and on the DM side I’ve had my players record things like their Passive Perception or AC so I can reference them and speed up play. You can look up “initiative flags” or “initiative tents” for more inspiration
Condition Indicators
These are little rings that you can place under your miniatures or tokens to show that they are suffering from some sort of condition (grappled, invisible, stunned, etc). I find them really helpful because I run for a large table, and love large encounters, and all of that becomes hard to keep track of otherwise. You can buy condition rings that come with a large set of every possible condition, but you could also just slip a piece of paper with the condition written on it under the affected token.
Good luck on session two!