What’s The Story, Muthur?
To the point, tabletop gaming
Say Goodbye to Expensive Minis, Universal Monster Tokens are a literal game changer
Are you fed up of shelling out a small fortune for TTRPG minis only that you’ll only use a few times?
Do you find it a challenge to safely haul fragile miniatures with you on game night?
Do you feel restricted in your encounter choices to what you've got in your mini collection?
Is it a pain trying to hide a small plastic army behind your GM screen?
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Person
Ahoy there Sailors.
Are you fed up of shelling out a small fortune for TTRPG minis only that you’ll only use a few times?
Do you find it a challenge to safely haul fragile miniatures with you on game night?
Do you feel restricted in your encounter choices to what you've got in your mini collection?
Is it a pain trying to hide a small plastic army behind your GM screen?
Yeah, not so long ago I was 100% a user of miniatures at my table and I would have answered yes to all these, (corny line incoming!) then I discovered Universal Monster Tokens (UMTs) and they changed the way I run my games for the better.
They may also have cured male pattern baldness, mid afternoon tetchiness, and a guilty desire to watch straight to DVD shark horror B-Movies. Maybe. Probably not though.
Gee Wiz Jimbo, What's a Universal Monster Token?
I’m so glad that you asked, imaginary human of culture and good taste.
I first heard about this from Sly Flourish. UMTs replace miniatures, they’re are small 1" counters with generic TTRPG symbols and letters upon them. They're easy to store and transport, robust, cheap, and if you look after them, you'll never need to buy any additional pieces.
When you lay out a combat encounter you can simply say; “these guys are orcs with axes, and these are goblins with bows.” Since each token has a unique combination of image and letter, there's never any confusion over which monster the player characters are targeting.
Best of all, when your done, toss them in your bag and don't worry about them - they practically indestructible.
Can I buy Universal Monster Tokens?
Yep, from time to time I’ll be putting up sets on my eBay account, and when I do, I’ll include a notification on that month’s issue of the Mailer of Many Things. However, you’d be mush better off going with option two, below if you can…
I have Basically functional fingers and hands, Can I make them instead?
Yessir! You could easily make them yourself over a couple of hours if you've got access to a printer.
I have a template for a full set of 25 UMTs that you can print out on one sheet of paper, which I'm making available for free to all subscribers to my monthly newsletter - the Mailer of Many Things. Sign up today for free access to this resource and more!
You’ll only need a few additional supplies, easily sourced from Amazon or at your local hardware and craft stores:
If you buy from these affiliate links, I get a small kick back from Amazon, so it's another great way to support the blog at no additional cost to you.
What’s the step by step process?
This couldn't be easier, and it only takes an hour or so.
Print out the template, make sure that you don't do anything that causes the images to stretch or change shape. They designed specifically to fit 1" or 25mm discs.
Cut out each token carefully and accurately. I like to use a special pair of snips because it's quicker and neater than using a knife.
Stick each paper disc to a 1" floor protector, making sure the image is facing up and visible.
Carefully align and stick a 1" epoxy blob to the face side.
You should end up with a sandwich of floor protector - paper - epoxy blob.
Sweet done. Now rinse and repeat another 24 times.
Conclusion
Nice and easy right? And you don't just have to limit yourself to universal monster tokens. I also use a similar solution for my players characters tokens too. Get your players to find a small image online and then cut it out in a 1" circle.
You can even make bigger token if you like for large monsters, but in these circumstances I actually do like to use a large mini, something grand and set piece. But that's just me.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.
The Easiest TTRPG Crafting System You’ll Ever Use (and Actually Enjoy)
Crafting is one of the most tragically underbaked aspects of many TTRPGs. Take 5e for example - unless I’m much mistaken, all characters get a starting proficiency with some kind of professional gear, like alchemy, leatherworking, or brewing
By JimmiWazEre
Opinionated Tabletop Gaming Person
Hey, how’d you like our new fancy author picture-ma-doodle thingies at the top of the post eh? Fancy right? Figured that since we’ve lifted Rand Al Thor away from his wilderness survival life and put him in front of a computer, we might need to differentiate our posts a bit. News sites do this all the time. If it’s good enough for The Guardian, it’s good enough for DMT.
Anyway, now that we’ve confused everyone who came here looking for fantasy news and not my feverish ramblings—let’s talk about my crafting homebrew doo-hickie, and why you should use it to increase your player engagement or some other headline grabbing fancy.
Also I have the flu, and the medication is making me peculiar.
Why don’t you see many crafting rules?
Crafting is one of the most tragically underbaked aspects of many TTRPGs. Take 5e for example - unless I’m much mistaken, all characters get a starting proficiency with some kind of professional gear, like alchemy, leatherworking, or brewing - but then there’s no supporting procedure for actually using these skills to craft things outside of things like Kibbles’ Crafting Guide.
I’d guess one of the reasons for this would be that crafting can easily become very complicated, from a simulation perspective I can see that very clearly there’s a number of hairy things to consider:
Everything would have reagents to create it
Everything has a recipe
Everything is a recipe of reagents
Reagents would come in different volumes and quantities
Some reagents would serve as a good enough proxy for another like stream water and lake water
Inventories would get out of hand
Already it’s seeming overwhelming, and though I’m quite sure that there’s a subset of you rubbing your hands together at the notion, I’m personally on the verge of a hernia thinking about this level of codified granularity.
[Editor’s note: more flu meds required.]
Why Should We Even Bother with Crafting?
So then, why even hint at crafting in a game if it’s not developed? What are the benefits of crafting? Well, actually a good crafting system supports play in a number of ways:
Questing fodder! Travel around the land to collect the necessary reagents to make a powerful weapon/potion/armour
Game economy! Weapons and armour can be damaged, so crafting can be used to repair stuff
Player creativity! I wish we had a potion of invisibility so that we could get past that giant spider, oh wait, we can make one!
Player survivability! We can cook what we hunt to give us temporary bonuses
Jimmi, Surely there Must Be a Better Way?
You darn tootin’ there is. This is how I approach crafting in my game, without making it something overly complicated on my fragile flu-ridden geriatric millennial brain.
Ingredients
To start with, I make heavy use of abstraction. In fact, all possible types of crafting components that someone might gather I’ve condensed down into d6 reagents to reduce bookkeeping and to keep it in line with the most excellent pips inventory system I talked about back in January.
As GM, if you’re ever put on the spot for how to make a given potion (damn those pesky players with their questions!), roll a few times on this table, or just pick what seems logical. The more valuable the end product is, the more reagents it requires:
d6 | Reagent| Example
1 | Stinky Herbs | Any plant material
2 | Gooey Bits | Stuff like eyes of newts, or giants fingers
3 | Mecha Widgets | Refined items like cogs and string and sheet metal
4 | Raw Chunks | Unrefined things like ore and wood
5 | Beasty Meats | Edible meat from creatures
6 | Lumpy Fluids | Blood, venom, tears, swamp water
It’s important that you’re up front with the players where they might find certain things, for example, if the recipe for a magic potion calls for Lumpy fluids and the players haven’t yet found any, you might suggest a visit to the local swamp, or going on a zombie killing spree for their gooey bits,
Gathering
Gathering reagents slots nicely into the kinds of activities players like to undertake during travel or rest - such as hunting for dinner, or gathering herbs. If Orban the Barbarian wants to hunt that deer and succeeds, his reward will be Beasty Meats.
Additionally, borrowing heavily from videogames, I like to give out these crafting items as loot too for when characters are rifling through bodies or raiding barrels and chests. Killed a beholder? You find some Gooey Bits.
When it comes to abstraction like this, you need to let go of stressing over details. Zombie blood is just as good as swamp water when it comes to Lumpy Fluids. If your players can handle the abstraction of rolling a dice to swing a sword, then this should be within reach too.
Processing
So your mighty player characters know what they want, what they need, and they’ve collected everything together. Now we need to make the thing! For me, this is again a simple solution:
If the player is trained in the skill, and has the gear and free time (such as during a rest) then they succeed in making the thing. No roll or complicated nonsense required. I mean, sure, for some things you might want to ham it up, such as brewing a potion under the light of the full moon, but for most things, it doesn’t need to be more complicated than ensuring that characters have the skill, equipment, and time.
Failing these requirements, the player can make use of artisans in town - such as blacksmiths to make them suits of armour and swords, or witches to brew potions. Maybe there’s a legendary wizard that lives somewhere in the wilds who can make magical items for the right price and ingredients?
Conclusion
Told you I like to keep it simple didn’t I? I find this hits the sweet spot of letting players do the crafty stuff that they’re itching for, without slowing down the game or creating a boat load of accounting. Win.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.
Welcome Rand Al Thor: The Domain of Painting Many Things
The tabletop hobby is broad and the mainstay of my enjoyment comes from painting the various little creatures of my imagination that have been made manifest in this golden age of the miniature hobby.
By Rand Al Thor
In-house Painting Chap
Ahoy, my name is Rand Al Thor, and I have recently joined the “Domain of Many Things” blog family.
The tabletop hobby is broad and the mainstay of my enjoyment comes from painting the various little creatures of my imagination that have been made manifest in this golden age of the miniature hobby.
My journey began as many do at a young age with my introduction to Games Workshop through the medium of Hero Quest and over the years I’ve dabbled with (lost at) various games systems.
Image Credit: Rand Al Thor
I’ve painted and played with miniatures from a range of systems and genres. Fantasy, historical, sci-fi and steampunk inspired games have all crossed my painting desk and kitchen table. I guess the term hobby butterfly could be fairly accurately applied to me.
Image Credit: Rand Al Thor
As spare time has dwindled I have found painting to increasingly be my escape from real life stress into the fantastical worlds that fill my imagination.
Image Credit: Rand Al Thor
hopefully over a not too infrequent series of posts I will impart some of my passion for miniature painting, the games I play and the occasional tip or technique to help that I’ve picked up over the years.
Image Credit: Rand Al Thor
Currently on my table are some Kings of War miniatures, a Warmachine Cygnar Warjack and some 10mm fantasy troops and terrain, keep an eye out for some uploads on these soon!
So, thanks for reading and I look forward to sharing the next things from my painting domain with you. Feel free to reach out to me on Bluesky if you have any questions about my work, or suggestions about what you'd like to see from me next!
Exploding dice: Make combat faster and more exciting with this one simple house rule
When you roll the highest number in a given dice for damage or healing, you get to roll another dice of equal value. This stacks, meaning every time you roll max damage, you roll another die, potentially indefinitely.
Word up my dice squirrels. Todays tip is short and sweet, like a caramel coated Gimli son of Gloin.
A common complaint about crunchy tactical combat games like 5e and Pathfinder is that battles can become a slog.
There are a number of things that you can do about this, such as using more interesting situations for combat encounters, lowering everyone's HP, unbalancing the encounters, and telegraphing monster attacks. But I also have a neat little house rule I use that's really simple to incorporate.
Damage dice explode, for everyone
When you roll the highest number in a given dice for damage or healing, you get to roll another dice of equal value. This stacks, meaning every time you roll max damage, you roll another die, potentially indefinitely.
This adds an element of unpredictability to combats, and it's a more satisfying critical hit than the traditional natural 20 approach. It also means that it's technically possible, though very unlikely to one shot something big and hairy, with unlimited possible exploding dice.
In fact, we also use the traditional house rule that a natural 20 equates to max damage, this compliments my rule because max damage neatly triggers the exploding dice house rule too.
Nothing beats the moment a player rolls an exploding die, then another, then another - the whole table erupts. And just when they think they've peaked, BOOM, another max roll! No one stays in their seat when that happens. But of course, the dice gods giveth and taketh away. The first time a goblin crits and it suddenly snowballs into a knock down? That’s when the real fear sets in.
There's another benefit too, it further differentiates the weapons in a satisfying way. Big weapons with bigger dice do more damage on average, but smaller weapons like a dagger are more swingy because they have more chance of an explosion, not only is this really thematic and satisfying, it also keeps these smaller weapons very relevant.
Conclusion
And that's it, I did tell you it was simple! Give it a go, I think you'll love the effect, and be sure to tell me how it went!
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.
What 'Return of the Jedi' Teaches Us About OSR Game Balance
“Master Luke, you're standing on the…”
“I will not give up my favourite decoration” Jabba interjects in booming Huttese “I like Captain Solo where he is…”
With lightning speed, the force flares through Luke’s outstretched fingers, ripping the blaster from the guards holster into his grasp.
“Master Luke, you're standing on the…”
“I will not give up my favourite decoration” Jabba interjects in booming Huttese “I like Captain Solo where he is…”
With lightning speed, the force flares through Luke’s outstretched fingers, ripping the blaster from the guards holster into his grasp.
But not quick enough to beat the wet thump of Jabba’s fist slamming down upon the booby trapped floor, sending Luke tumbling into the Rancor’s pit, whilst loosing impotent laser bolts into the ceiling with a loud pew pew!
Ahoy m’hearties, today's post is a lesson on game balance brought to us by 1983’s Return of the Jedi in the way that Luke battles and defeats Jabba’s pet Rancor (pfft, spoilers!). What’s that you say? Last weeks post was about game balance too? Well, yeah, loosely, but it’s my blog and I go where the wind takes me, damnit!
OK, let’s get this show on the road. I want to talk about two versions of the Luke vs Rancor encounter in the context of a TTRPG, in an imaginary one, the entire encounter has all been perfectly balanced. The result is that without any need to think outside his character sheet, Luke and the Rancor square up against each other, going blow for blow, taking it in turns to roll to hit and damage until Luke wins, having used all his spell slots. There's simply no requirement here for Luke to think creatively about the situation.
Let’s just admit it, shall we? We’ve all experienced this fight before at the table, and it was boring for everyone involved.
I know some of you are going to say that there’s nothing stopping players being creative and spicing it up, but the point I want to underline here is that there’s nothing forcing them too either.
Spoilers for Return of the Jedi!
In the true version however, there's no balance - Luke is in a situation that is practically hopeless… yet he triumphs.
Now, ya’ll just settle yourselves down a moment, because I'm going to skip ahead to the part just after the Rancor savagely eats the Gamorean Guard. This moment highlights the deadliness of the encounter to Luke, he knows there's no chance of a fair fight…
Luke:- I grab a large bone off the ground to defend myself with.
GM:- Confronted by this enormous slavering beast, the bone feels pathetic in your grip. The Rancor reaches down and grapples you, lifting you up with one powerful taloned hand that wraps around your waist. You can smell the stench of rotten flesh as you're elevated towards its gaping maw.
Luke:- As it brings me level to it's face, I want to force the bone into its mouth, wedging it open.
GM:- The Rancor roars in frustration, flailing, it drops you to the ground.
Luke:- Is there anywhere I can hide?
GM:- There's a crevasse in the cave wall that you can squeeze into, but you'll be trapped.
Luke:- I roll into it.
GM:- OK, and from your new vantage peering between the Rancor’s legs, you can see a metal door with an electronic lock next to it. It looks like an exit! Before you can act though, with a sickening crunch the bone in the Rancor’s mouth snaps. Bending down, it reaches a clawed hand towards you.
Luke:- Is there anything down here with me I can use to hit the hand with?
GM:- There are some hand sized rocks, and bits of rubble.
Luke:- I grab a rock and smash it down on the Rancor’s finger.
GM:- The Rancor pulls it's hand away in pain, throwing it's head back in rage and let's out a roar.
Luke:- Great, I roll out from the crevasse, and whilst the Rancor is roaring, I want to run between it's legs towards that door and punch the switch to get out.
GM:- Great plan, you sprint across the cave and hit the door release, unfortunately it opens to reveal a secondary gate, metal and grated, the jeering presence of the Rancor trainers beyond push you back. Meanwhile, the Rancor is making it’s way over, crouching beneath the portcullis as it lumbers towards you.
Luke:- How does that portcullis work? Could it crush the Rancor?
GM:- Definitely! You see it’s controls on the wall some 15’ away.
Luke:- Whilst the Rancor is under the portcullis, I grab another rock and use the Force to throw it at that switch.
GM:- Great, roll to hit with advantage…
What Should we Learn from this?
There’s lessons here for GM and player alike:
Firstly, if we accept that balanced encounters lean into being predictable (IE the players expect that they’re “meant” to win) then it’s also clear that this can reduce the interaction of the encounter to simply engaging with the base mechanics of the game. How many times have you heard a player just say “I want to hit him with my sword…” when this is the bulk of an encounter - you know that there’s magic missing.
Secondly, if your players have no expectation of balanced encounters, they will be forced to creatively engage with the situation to ensure survival. The GM should be very open to this creativity, and be prepared to bypass strict mechanisms and favour rulings over rules.
Thirdly, as a player, you should ask tonnes of questions, knowledge is king, so don't be afraid to prompt the narrative that you want to hear from the GM. This behaviour turns passive players into active proponents of the games narrative direction.
Fourthly, As GM, do your best to describe the scene honestly, but don't try to solve the problem for the players. Instead, you should be rooting for the player, give them every chance to succeed with each feasible suggestion they present.
As my fellow blogger, Arthur Brill, writes in The Fields We Know in his post on game balance with (it must be said) far more eloquence and gravitas than I could command:
“Much more important than worrying about creating "balanced" encounters is designing encounters in such a way that players have the ability to size up the difficulty of a potential fight so they know whether to engage or to find another approach. (Run away, diplomacy, stealth, surprise, etc...)
. . .
Information trumps power. Van Helsing (the book character, not the movie version) does not defeat Dracula because he is more powerful than him. He defeats Dracula because he understands both the vampire's power and weakness.”
Thanks Arthur.
This philosophy is what lays at the heart of great OSR gameplay. The thrill comes from player ingenuity, not predetermined balance.
Conclusion
OK, I can hear you screaming that you’ve got the point. I promise, I’ll stop writing about game balance for a bit, next week I’ll write about a cool homebrew I use. Honest.
Hey, thanks for reading - you’re good people. If you’ve enjoyed reading this, it’d be great if you could share it on your socials, and maybe think about subscribing to the Mailer of Many Things! Either way, catch you later.
Back in January, a mere boy with a dream, I started up Domain of Many Things with next to zero knowledge about creative writing, front end web design, back end website management, SEO, or social media. I did however have a niche in mind where I have a mega passion, and a love of the Alien films and cassette retro aesthetics.